I’m in CA so my options are limited unless I want to jump through hoops, which I don’t want to do.
To 500 rd options have presented themselves—Winchester Target & Practice versus Federal Independence.
I don’t know if Winchester Target & Practice is the same as WWB, which has coated me and my 1911 with unusually hard to clean off soot. I mean really hard to clean off.
Does anyone here have experience with Winchester Target & Practice?
Is it invincibly dirty like WWB?
I have only used Federal or Sig ammo and have not ever used any other brand. It’s just my preference.
I don’t know anything specific about those ammo brands. But most indoor range’s don’t allow any steel ammo, if that is a factor with these (or your range). My range scans all my ammo with a magnet before approval.
Winchester Target & Practice IS WWB (Winchester White Box)
https://www.basspro.com/p/winchester-usa-white-box-target-ammo
Edit:
How long do you wait wait to clean after a range session? It is markedly dirtier than Sig, but 90% of my cleaning is just a brush with a toothbrush and wipe off with a rag with no solvents within a day of
after shooting. Alcohol is my favorite solvent on the rare occassion I need any.
I’ve never tried Federal Independence.
I’ve used White Box stuff a lot. No problem feeding and firing. I will say I’ve got a fair amount of 223/556 stuff that smells like ammonia when fired.
This hasn’t been my experience as I clean after every range day, although I’ve noticed a difference between the 50 cartridge boxes and the 100 cartridge WWB value packs----the 50 count boxes were much easier to clean and the WWB 50 count JHP didn’t create any problems for me at all.
I’m burning through all my value packs of WWB and plan to replace them with either a case of Target & Practice or Federal Independence to see me through training for the rest of the year.
I put about 200 rounds of blazer brass through my suppressed FNX tactical.45
It was a mess!
90+% of all that came off with just a cotton T-shirt rag with some hoppes solvent…. Just to be certain I got it all I also dropped the slide and grip into my sonic cleaner…. Just because I have one available.
Ive never much paid attention to how dirty centerfire ammo is vs rimfire ammo.
I can’t speak to WWB vs blazer being cleaner shooting….
However I’ve never shot 1000+ rounds without cleaning my guns….
So YMMV
So I’m not alone in that observation.
Makes me wonder what they put in there.
I have noticed some ammo burns much cleaner the others… price does seem to matter a bit…
cheaper ammo often burns dirty???
As a rule of thumb, I don’t use any Winchester handgun ammo. Too many problems, too many times.
My thoughts are that the big w loads their cheapest stuff to price point
Whatever checks that box works
I buy whatever practice/ball ammo is cheapest or on sale at the time. What gets used up gets replenished. On range days I dump 3-4 boxes in the range ammo box. Doesn’t matter brand as in many years of doing this I have only found one dud with center-fire ammo.
Some are obviously dirtier than others but the firearms will be cleaned the same way regardless of how dirty afterwards.
The only handgun I’ve had issues with Winchester white box is my G36, which is notoriously easy to limp wrist causing a stovepipe.
Friends don’t let friends buy winchester white box (not any more, 20 years ago maybe…but not today)
Federal and Speer. 
Back when we could still get pistol calibers at Walmart, the WWB was the least expensive thing you could get in 9mm, somewhere in the area of .23 a round. Yeah, it was a little dirty, but I never had any problems cleaning up after shooting. Never had one fail to go bang when I hit the switch.
The only quality control issue I ever had was the number of rounds in the box. I usually bought the 200 count, and most times there were 200. sometimes 199, sometimes 201. I even got a box one day that had 202.
That used to be the standard, back in the day, when I started buying 9mm, CA 2005, it was $10-$11 for a 100 round box of WWB loose backed at Walmart. Too bad they don’t carry that any more, the prices are way up, and the WWB reliability is way down.
Online order a case at a time of Speer Lawman or Federal American Eagle is my jam now, though Academy Sports with aluminum case Blazer can sometimes be a good deal
Federal American Eagle is a very common range ammo for me. Reliable, clean and cheap.
Dirty ammo? The better you learn to clean!
Malfunctioning ammo? The better you learn to recover! Just say thank you and put your ammo money where it is the most important.
the man has a point… wait the PERSON has a point??? stupid pronoun stuff!!!
