40 S&W - 180 gr FMJ-FP - PMC - 1000 Rounds

Video Transcript:

Precision Made Cartridges, or PMC for short, is a branch of the South Korean Poongson Munitions. They started up in the 1960s and currently produce almost all the ammunition used by the South Korean military, including small arms ammo, as well as heavy artillery.

Under the PMC division, they use the same high standards set for their military ammo to produce quality pistol and rifle ammo sold to civilians all over the globe.

The load we used for this review is part of the PMC Bronze line, which is their value-priced target and range ammo. We tried out their 180 grain 40 Smith and Wesson load. It has a lead core, copper full metal jacket bullet, a reloadable brass case and a non-corrosive primer.

Despite the name, there's no actual bronze metal used in the ammo. It's all the normal lead, brass and copper that you're used to shooting. We went through a couple of boxes of this ammo at the range to see how it would perform in six different handguns. There were no feeding problems or ignition issues, and every round we fired functioned just as expected.

We did notice that recoil was relatively soft for a 40 caliber. The difference is not dramatic, but if a normal 40 Smith and Wesson load has a little too much kick for you, you might want to try out the PMC load.

To check accuracy, we set up a bench rest at 15 yards and shot a 10-round group with a SIG P226. The group was not quite as good as what we were able to achieve with PMC's 165 grain 40 caliber, but still not bad for a practice load.

Low cost brass case ammo is tough to come by these days, and in that category PMC might be one of the best kept secrets in the industry. It performs right on pace with any of the more established manufacturers, and it's an excellent choice for practice and training on the range.