Thoughts on Doubletap, Buffalo Bore, or other high performance 10mm hunting / SD

[Kenk]

Evening, any thoughts on Doubletap, Buffalo Bore...or others in comparison to Underwood? As with many, I am a huge fan of Underwood's 10mm ammo. (never would have guessed that huh : ), If Underwood was not an option, and you wanted hot, accurate, and reliable factory 10mm ammo, what would be your next choice?
Thanks

Ken

[Spudmeister]

Buffalo Bore IME.  Doubt Tap is good ammo but not loaded as hot.

[rkswyo]

Underwood has several good offerings

[Kenk]

Absolutely 😀

[woods_walker]

Ken,

Here's my view of the high performance 10mm ammo you mentioned. I normally load all of the ammo that I shoot but occasionally a situation arises that I do not have access to my ammo. Of course, at these times we are at the mercy of what we can get our hands on.

I really don't have a good opinion of Double Tap Ammo any longer. I met Mike McNett of Double Tap in 2002, and learned much about high-end 10mm loads from him. Back in the day his products were awesome and innovative. These days I feel that his attention is not on the quality or consistency of his products and, for the price, there are much better options.

Buffalo Bore makes good consistent ammo. I don't prefer it because I believe that their ammo runs beyond prudent pressure levels. Anybody can make a bullet go fast, but I will only use ammo that does it safely.

Underwood Ammo is at the top of the food chain for high-end performance ammo. High quality, consistency, repeatable performance, available and helpful customer service... these are just a few of the reasons Underwood Ammunition is is so in demand. At tyhe Sportsman's Warehouse in my community, Underwood Ammo flies off the shelves as soon as it comes in to the store- the manager can't keep it in stock! That says a lot about a product.

But, if I couldn't get Underwood and I couldn't get my own ammo, there is one other manufacturer who I would turn to- Reed's Ammunition and Research.

I learned of Reed's in 2004. Since then I have bought ammo, a couple guns, magazines, brass, and much more from Ron Reed. One of the best things about Reed's is their ability to make custom ammo to order. Need a hunting load? They'll make it. A bowling pin load? They'll make it. Need 200 rounds of 6mm PPC with an SD of 4 for an upcoming club shoot? They're the people for the job. Oh yeah, their standard off-the-shelf ammo is high quality too.

But I'll warn you: Reed's Ammo is not about winning the velocity race with any cartridge. Their objective is efficient, consistent ammo that does what you need it to do, regardless of the speed rating. They are knowledgeable. They design the ammo to meet exact, specific standards and they test their products to prove they deliver.

Call them. You will find them to be wonderful folks to deal with!

[Kenk]

Thanks Woods_Walker, I really like Underwood's ammo, and buy much more of it than I probably should be buying : ) I load lots of midrange 10mm target Ammo, E.g 10.4gr BD under 180gr XTP, or HAP, but have not ventured much into the nuclear realm, hence my frequent orders with UW. My hope is to start loading up hotter stuff in the near future, as I really enjoy shooting that stuff. It's not that I'm afraid that I'm going to blow something up, as I am very meticulous / anal in my reloading habits, but just haven't gone there yet. As for Reed's ammo, I will give them a call next week.

Ken

[woods_walker]

Ken, this is where I get to have a little fun at your expense. LOL!

Do you realize what you are doing to yourself? Every time you buy a box from Underwood- when you have reloading gear at your house- you delay the purchase of your next gun even longer. Life is too short to wait on new guns!

[Kenk]

Yep, I  have actually thought the exact same thing many times, and yes, with the size of my future list, I best fix it : )
Thanks man!

[Bluebird5000]

@woods_walker

I'm glad you mentioned Reid's ammunition, I was not aware they existed. Their soft point 200gr at 1100fps looks like a pretty good hunting option to me.

@Kenk another option IMO for a good bullet would be Hornady's 180 or 200gr XTP, it will not be as hot as Underwood and would probably penetrate more based on the tests I've seen, since it would expand more slowly.

Also another good round from what I've seen in tests is 180gr Federal Trophy Bonded, it uses the bear claw bonding technology that was used to make the famous 62gr 5.56 bear claw ammunition.

[Kenk]

Thanks Bluebird!

Ken

[woods_walker]

@woods_walker

I'm glad you mentioned Reid's ammunition, I was not aware they existed. Their soft point 200gr at 1100fps looks like a pretty good hunting option to me.

@Kenk another option IMO for a good bullet would be Hornady's 180 or 200gr XTP, it will not be as hot as Underwood and would probably penetrate more based on the tests I've seen, since it would expand more slowly.

Also another good round from what I've seen in tests is 180gr Federal Trophy Bonded, it uses the bear claw bonding technology that was used to make the famous 62gr 5.56 bear claw ammunition.

Bluebird,

I am very selective when it comes to a recommendation, and it's no different for ammo, restaurants or lawnmowers. I never read that Reed's Ammo was good- I learned it by dealing with them. I pleased to be able to help them gain new interest here.
As far as Hornady is concerned, I love their bullets, never used their ammo in a handgun or rifle- but I am curious! Their bullets though... they are my #1 choice for my jacketed handgun loads.
But Federal Ammo for the 10mm? In my opinion, Federal failed the 10mm crowd long ago with poor quality brass and sub-standard velocity. MAYBE they got better- I had enough of their misrepresentations of their products that I won't give them another chance. There are too many GOOD manufacturers of 10mm ammo out there to waste time with Federal.

[Graybeard]

@woods_walker

I'm glad you mentioned Reid's ammunition, I was not aware they existed. Their soft point 200gr at 1100fps looks like a pretty good hunting option to me.

@Kenk another option IMO for a good bullet would be Hornady's 180 or 200gr XTP, it will not be as hot as Underwood and would probably penetrate more based on the tests I've seen, since it would expand more slowly.

Also another good round from what I've seen in tests is 180gr Federal Trophy Bonded, it uses the bear claw bonding technology that was used to make the famous 62gr 5.56 bear claw ammunition.

Take a look at Lucky Gunner Labs 10mm ammo ballistics tests. In the basic 4 layers of denim/clear ballistics gel test all of the Federal TB 180s failed to expand at all. They used a G20 for testing and it chronographed at 1224fps, IIRC. The XTPs and HydraShocks actually looked pretty good for 2 legged problems, although slower.

[Kenk]

Thanks Graybeard, I have a bunch of UW's 180 gr XTP, and 165 Grain Gold Dots on hand. They will certainly do the trick for the two legged variety of critters...if that isn't enough, Theres always the UW 135gr Nosler loads at 1600 fps 😄
Thanks

Ken

[Rojo27]

Take a look at Lucky Gunner Labs 10mm ammo ballistics tests. In the basic 4 layers of denim/clear ballistics gel test all of the Federal TB 180s failed to expand at all. They used a G20 for testing and it chronographed at 1224fps, IIRC. The XTPs and HydraShocks actually looked pretty good for 2 legged problems, although slower.

I wouldn't worry about the 10mm Trophy Bond SP.  I've used it to hunt wild hogs, it works.
I did see the Lucky Gunner results in Clear Ballistics.  There are other test easy to find with similar results for the TB in Clear Ballistics.  It has something to do with the properties of Clear Ballistics vs. actual Ordence Gel (condense pig flesh).  Our old friend Raggedy Man (Andrew) did a video about 9 months ago illustrating the phenomenon.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vRywrqRBfP4   

The 10mm Federal Trophy Bond is a good choice for hunting.  Wouldn't recommed for self defense in urban environment but for woods defense or hunting, it's good to go. 

[Kenk]

Thanks man!, also a great video by Raggedy Man  / Andrew