Magtech Ammo

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TPAW

New member
I'm looking to buy some handgun ammo and saw a good deal on Magtech. Is this ammo any good? On a scale of 1 to 10, where would you rate it?
Thanks.
 
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Casimer

New member
They're probably going to move this thread, seeing as it's about pistol ammo in the rifle forum.

To answer your question - yes, magtech is good. I'd rate it an 8 overall. It's not match ammo, but it's very good for its price point. And they use quality brass, if you reload.
 
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RockyMtnTactical

New member
I tested out some Magtech ammo the other day. I am going to post this article on my blog soon but I might as well post it here in response to this.

9mm 124gr Magtech Guardian Gold

My brother got a hold of some of this and we decided to do some testing with it on our own to determine how good it might be as self defense ammo. I have heard very little about this ammo and had no experience with it prior to these informal tests, so I was a little skeptical about it. What I had heard was not especially positive either.

Because of this, I was also eager to do some testing of my own.

Test gun used was a Sig P226 (4.4” barrel). We shot twice into bare gallon jugs filled with water. The first penetrated all the way through 3 jugs and punctured the 4th. The second stopped in the 3rd jug without puncturing the 4th.

Expansion was good, although there was some jacket separation with the second bullet, leaving fragments in the 2nd jug. The first retained its jacket.

I would like to test out some more another time as I didn’t feel like the results from these two test rounds were consistent enough for me to feel like I had a good idea of what to expect from this load in a self defense scenario. That said, most other reviews of this ammo I was able to dig up showed that the Magtech bullets failed to expand well, if at all. Granted, none of the tests I found information on were this exact loading.

I don’t know what to make of the results compared to these others I had seen. On the one hand, my tests showed the Magtech Guardian Gold expanded fairly well (despite the jacket separation). On the other hand, is this simply another reason to believe that these bullets are inconsistent? I can’t say.

I have simply discovered another piece of the puzzle that may help form a better picture of what to expect from this bullet and this loading. Maybe I can discover another piece of the puzzle in the future. As for now, this loading remains suspect, but in my opinion, in this particular case, you could do worse than the Magtech 124gr Guardian Gold, but you could certainly do better.
Click to expand...
 
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ranburr

New member
well,

I had to shoot a raccoon one day, didn't have a rifle with me that day so i figgered my 9mm would do the job......at the end of five shots with the magtech, I had an angry racoon but not mortally wounded......so, i changed clips to ranger+p fmj and one shot did it.

i think the animal was too small for the ammo to work as designed......i replaced the magtech with a well known brand of jacketed hollow point just to be on the safe side.
Click to expand...

That is simply poor shot placement on your part. Even ball ammo in 9mm will put down a coon if you hit him right.
 
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Kreyzhorse

New member
I'd give Magtech a 7. It's good range ammo and frankly does every thing you need it to do. So, why a 7? It's dirty. Not a big deal, you have to clean the gun any way, but either way, it's just a dirty ammo.
 
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jon_in_wv

New member
But the point is that it was poor shot placement that resulted in your failure to kill the raccoon. Whether the bullet expanded or not on well placed shot in the brain, spaine, heart, etc... would have killed it. The fact you used ball ammo after that proves that point. Also its hard to say the ball round "did the trick" when it already had four other bullet wounds in it. What we are trying to say is that your anecdote really doesn't have much to teach us. Four poorly placed shots on a small animal aren't going to tell us much. Even if the first round had blown a hole through it and killed it on the spot it wouldn't tell us anything about its effectiveness on a larger animal or man.

Also, Magtech 9mm is usually pretty warm stuff. If it didn't expand it probably zinged right through the little sucker. Probably more a case of over power than under powered. How did you figure it was underpowered?
 
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jon_in_wv

New member
For those who are claiming the Magtech ammo is underpowered, here are the ballistics on the Magtechs Guardian Gold 9mm rounds.


Weight Velocity at the muzzle Energy ft/lbs
115+p 1246 397
124 1096 331

They also list about 10 other 9mm loads form JSP, FMJS, and JHPs. All them are on the warm side. Their 9H 115+P+ is well over 1300 fps. I would compare the 9mm defensive ammo to Corbon with high velocity and relatively fragile HPs. They seem to expand well and penetrate a little less than bonded HPs like the Gold Dots.
 
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Old Grump

Member in memoriam
Comparable in price to American Eagle at my toy store. I can afford either, I buy whatever they have the most of, it goes bang, works satisfactorily in my gun and hits the target from 8 yards to 100 yards, I'm happy with it.
 
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PetahW

New member
[They're probably going to move this thread, seeing as it's about pistol ammo in the rifle forum.]

You've been to Wal-Mart too many times. :p

I usually buy MagTech .44Mag ammo for hunting use in my .44 Mag Ruger Carbine, because it's:

1) Readily available locally
2) The least expensive locally
3) It's functions perfectly/accurately in my rifle
4) Been responsible for about 10 Whitetail Deer, over the years.

.
 
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