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Does any one have any idea if ammo made out of the USA canbe used inthe chl test.
Thanks ET-ret

As long as no animals were hurt in its manufacturing and it doesn't turn people into socialists or communists, I think you're fine.

Shouldn't be a problem, as long as you're shooting .32 caliber or bigger. I requalified with S&B .45 ACP last June. Heck, you could probably shoot reloads if you want. I don't think anybody cares, as long as the ammo is legal and safe.

As TAM said, caliber is the only requirement as far as CHL requirements go. That you can shoot specific brands/reloads is entirely up to your instructor/range, check with them. I can't imagine anyone would refuse S&B. For my classes, if it goes bang and makes a hole in the target I don't care where it comes from. If it doesn't it's your test fail, not mine :-)

I used S&B in my G17 to qualify at a class in Bass Pro. No one even looked at the ammo.

What? There isn't anything wrong with S&B.

Quote: "Heck, you could probably shoot reloads if you want."

Not on my watch. We have no prohibition on reloads if someone wants to shoot them independently, but they have not been allowed during CHL qualifications at our place for years. Too many problems with malfunctions - and there are enough of those already with factory ammo.

Mostly good experinces with S&B ammo, altho it does sometimes seem to have harder primers than many.

No prohibitions from a legal perspective. Some ranges may not allow certain types of ammo, but it's a range by range and instructor by instructor guideline.

Personally, I'm OK with whatever is usable at the range I'm qualifying at. If you trust your reloads to function correctly, I'm OK with it.

Range prohibitions often disallow steel and aluminum cases (on indoor ranges,) and some won't allow cast lead bullets (air quality concerns,) yet others won't allow "hardball" due to concerns about their backstops (none in this area that I know of--but I've seen it).

Outdoor ranges tend to be more liberal in the ammo you shoot.

The only place there's any restriction on the ammo, CHL-wise is for instructors: When we qualified at the DPS range we had to select from a pretty narrow list of factory ammo. Luckily it is stuff that's fairly common (Winchester White Box, Federal, and Remington for sure, a couple of others if memory serves.)

Your S&B should be fine, and in my experience it's fine ammo.

S&B are good stuff.

As hard as it has been for students to get ammo for the proficiency test, we say, if it works, use it.

My last test I used a mix of Wolf, S&B, WWB, and a bunch of handloads of unknown vintage. Maybe that's why I dropped those two points.

The only list of approved ammo I know of is for Instructor Class use at Florence. I personally will allow any brand of ammunition as long as it's not hand loaded. I have no problem with hand loads that I make but not knowing the QC procedures of a stranger's hand loads makes me leary. So I require factory ammo.

You guys are tough on reloads :-). I understand that you may get some folks who are not experienced but some of us shoot many thousands of rounds a year in practice and competition and have our reload quality as good as or better than factory. Might want to give a variance on reloads to folks like that, it just kills me to go buy factory ammo when I can load it for so much less money for my 45.

On the S&B, I have not shot any factory ammo of theirs but one of the other SOs at PSC uses it regularly at our IDPA matches and has no issues. I have seen some of their 9mm brass turn out to be steel with a thin brass plating on it. That was only with the 9mm (not any of the 45 that I have collected over the past 4 years) and it only shows up about once a year or so. If I notice that it takes more effort to resize a piece of brass, I check it with a magnet. If it is magnetic, I check everything from the batch that I picked up after the match and cull the steel ones. The cases made of brass work well, I use a lot of those for ammo loaded for the club matches.

I have shot 2" groups with the AK with open sights using S&B. More accurate than anything else I"ve tried.

Quote: "Might want to give a variance on reloads to folks like that"

And where does one draw the line for "experience", especially with strangers ? Some of which, as you probably know, can be blowhards. Heck, many NRA-endorsed insurance policies have EXCLUSIONS of coverage if reloads are involved. That should give "a clue".