A lot of ammunition is pretentious. Forgive me if I’m sharing an opinion that upsets you, but it is true. “Firearms enthusiasts,” as I hear people like me called from time to time, are not immune to marketing and hype. Blazer range ammo, though? Completely unpretentious.
In the last two decades, much of which I’ve spent writing reviews and working professionally in the industry, I’ve had occasion to shoot just about every flavor of 9mm. I’ve developed a healthy respect for the humble side of the ammo industry. There’s nothing wrong with most bog-standard versions of range ammo. It works surprisingly well.
Blazer
Blazer makes 9mm in multiple grain weights and case materials. While it isn’t my first choice for carry ammo, I can’t say a lick of bad about it. In fact, I’ve probably shot 100 rounds of Blazer for every single round of hopped-up bougie carry ammo, mainly because Blazer is affordable.
What makes Blazer different?
Blazer is owned by Vista. For those not tracking the portfolios of the larger outdoor industry parent companies, Vista Outdoors may not be a household name. They owned Savage, until Savage bought Savage from Vista a couple of years back. And Vista makes great ammo. They own the Remington ammo brand, and Cascade Cartridges, Inc (better known as CCI), and Speer, and Federal.
That’s a serious portfolio.
CCI is the important one in this equation. Most of us have put in some quality trigger time with CCI rimfire rounds. The brand is known to make some of the most reliable and consistently accurate .22 LR available.
Blazer has, as long as I can remember, been pitched as economical range ammo. Every big ammo maker out there has something like this, but few can advertise that they’re produced with CCI components.
Blazer’s 9mm comes in two case types. The brass cases are reloadable. Don’t reload the aluminum ones. Not a good idea.
The primers, though, are made by CCI. Their primers are widely sought after by reloaders. During the pandemic, they were worth more than their weight in gold. As Blazer is made in the states, under the watchful eye of CCI, this may be one of the most reputable bulk ammo brands available.
Performance of the Blazer 9mm Types
Muzzle velocity is a solid point of reference for the performance of range ammo. If you are wanting to shoot something suppressed, having a heavy round — even for a 9mm — is a bonus.
The 115-grain Blazer 9mm is advertised at 1145 fps. Bumping up the weight to 124 grains adds enough mass to slow a round down a bit, to 1090 fps. The fat 147-grain rounds are advertised at 1000 fps. For something truly subsonic, I’d like to see a velocity under 980 fps, so that’s really close.
I didn’t run these 115-grain rounds through a chronograph. I could, and I assume many have, but life’s too short to clock range ammo in this category. Load the mags and go.
For me, velocity is an afterthought with most factory ammo. There will be variances, true, but there’s little consequence when you are on the range.
Accuracy
There are two other factors that I do measure. The first is accuracy. When moving between two guns, you may notice that the same ammo acts differently. With range ammo, I like to shoot on paper first, if only to get a really solid read on performance.
If I’m shooting steel, which I almost always do when running drills, I like to paint the plate so I can track the first three or four shots. Past that point, I’m not going to worry about group size — I’m just listening for the hit.
The last element that I tend to check is ejection. Ammunition that performs consistently will eject in a regular pattern from most semiautomatics. With the Blazer, the brass-cased ammo will eject consistently. The aluminum cased 9mm tends to have a more erratic pattern as the aluminum has a different coefficient of friction and drags more coming out of a chamber, especially a dirty one.
Off the Range?
For EDC, I keep hollow points in my mags. The terminal ballistics of 9mm ball leave much to be desired. These lead bullets are well protected by their copper jackets. I’ve seen many of them sift out of dirt berms and some of them have kept their shape so well that I’d swear they could be reloaded.
Holding their shape is fine on the range, but not for defensive use. FMJs tend to punch through. Hardly optimal.
The exception here, for me, is a PCC mag. I’ve hunted hogs with 9mms, and the FMJs can be a benefit (as long as you have a lot of them on tap).
Stocking Up on the Bulk Ammo
Blazer 115 grain 9mm is selling for $14.99 for a box of 50. That’s a hair over $.29 a shot. The 100-round box knocks the price up a penny to $29.99.
The 115-grain aluminum cased 9mm sells for $17.99 when it is in stock. I’m not sure why it is more than the brass.
The real deal is the full 1,000-round case, which cuts the price down to about $.26 a round.
