Ammo Testing - Winchester Train and Defense

The fine folks at Wideners Reloading and Shooting Supply  sent me some ammo to test, compare, and contrast and I now have something to report. I got Winchester Train and Defend, .40 cal. FMJ 180 grain Training ammo, and .40 cal JHP 180 grain Defense version. Both claim reduced recoil.

I tested each one with the Chrony in both my Gen 3 Glock 22, and my Hi Point Carbine on the premise that if the powder was of the slower type, I'd see a big jump in muzzle velocity. As to the recoil I can say that they both had lower recoil than either the Blazer or Tul ammo I had on hand with similar bullet weights but more than the hand loads I normally use in competition. In all fairness, my hand loads are powder puff loads with 165 gr bullets and minimum powder so comparing anything to them would be unfair. Still, the Winchester stuff wasn't all that much worse, so yes, reduced recoil.

The training ammo delivered an average of 956 fps through the Glock with no problems at all. Through the 16” barrel of the Hi Point it went up to 1062. I normally get 250 fps increase from the carbine and this modest increase suggests to me that the powder being used here is quite fast and doesn't take full advantage of the longer carbine barrel.

The Defensive stuff came in at 922 fps through the Glock and 1024 fps in the carbine. Again the powder seems to be quite fast to not take advantage of the longer carbine barrel. No problems were encountered of any kind during this testing.

Of note was the spent brass with the Defense brass looking about like you would expect but the Training brass looking like it just came off the stamping die. No fooling, this stuff is so clean you could probably reload it right off the ground. I wouldn't, but it was amazingly clean. Whatever they're using for powder, I hope it hits the reloading market soon. The use of 2 slightly different powders would explain the speed differences.