The guys at Sim-X, a relatively new ammo company, were kind enough to send me some to try out. I have been shooting the 9mm practice ammo as well as the 9mm defensive ammo. They are pretty interesting, but know up front that they won’t be the least expensive practice ammo you can find.
The bullets weigh around 45 grains and are said to move out at 2250 fps. I have not chrono’d them but they certainly are light and flat shooting. At 100 yards I don’t have to hold high and they still hit where I am aiming. At 25 yards offhand, they shoot about as well as most stuff available today, as you can see from the picture below. That group was shot out of my P30, which is zero’d for 135 grain Hornady. The zero change is too much for real precision work, but its nice that I can do practical stuff with it and not have to rezero when I switch ammo.
The light weight of the ammo means that you can carry more ammo per pound, which can be useful for meeting airline weight restrictions or shipping costs for remote training. The company claims a 50% reduction in recoil and I can definitely tell that it recoils less than my normal ammo. A newer shooter may notice the difference even more and that could be useful in some circumstances. I have some of their .45 acp ammo to test as well, and that may be a bigger difference still.
The picture at the top of the page was shot at about 12 yards, a normally safe distance to shoot steel from. My steel is rifle rated so I wasn’t worried about the higher than normal velocity hurting it. The thing you see on my finger came back and hit me in the chest after one of the shots. I think it is the filler they use inside tha ammo to help control expansion. It didn’t hurt me in any way, but it did stick to my shirt. You can also see two of the projectiles smashed on the steel, along with the usual signs of bullets impacting hardened steel.
I will continue to shoot the Sim-X ammo and report back as I gain more experience with it. So far, it looks like a well made, unique option.
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