By Marvin Barnes
If you haven’t heard of Staccato Arms by now, it’s the company formerly known as STI, the Texas-based gunmaker whose custom-quality double stack 9mm 1911s are all the rave for everything from competition to law enforcement right now. If anything, Staccato has just picked up where STI left off and expanded. Recently I learned it’s now offering match-grade ammo, and after thinking about it, it just makes sense: Just as no Formula One owner would put 87 octane ethanol in their machine, why would anyone pay $3,500 for a hand-tuned handgun only to feed it crap ammo? So my next questions were: How much more accurate is it than the cheapest target ammo, really? And two, how much more expensive is it? The answers surprised me.
Testing side-by-side, I found Staccato’s Match Ammo to be slightly more accurate, but on par with the ultra-premium defensive loads. It seems to be more consistent through various handguns, probably due to its modest and consistent velocity of 1050 fps. Against the cheapest bulk 9mm ammo, my accuracy results weren’t even close.
Staccato uses only the highest-quality brass and Hornady Action Pistol bullets that feature a sloping hollow point bullet to facilitate feeding. (That said, I did experience systematic failures to feed in my Hellcat carry gun, and I’m not sure why. In four other 9mm guns I tested, it fed flawlessly.) The bullet was modeled after Horndady’s proven XTP defensive bullet, except that the serrations were removed because expansion is unneeded on the target range.
Few of us would shoot ultra-premium defensive loads on the target range because those often cost upward of $30 per box of 20, or $1.50 per round, and because they often have more recoil due to higher velocities. I found Staccato’s 125-grain, 1050 FPS Match 9mm ammo is, on average, twice as accurate than standard FMJ practice/range ammo, yet costs 50 cents per round, or 45 cents per round if bought per 1,000 rather than 50. To put it another way, it’s good shit, and cheaper than I imagined, coming from Staccato.
(BTW, if it’s straight range/practice FMJ ammo you want where accuracy doesn’t matter, Staccato offers that too for 35 cents per round if you buy in bulk packs of 1,000 rounds.)
On the website, Staccato goes on to say that it’s always available. But I have lived through several ammo shortages, so I dug into the fine print and found something interesting. If you subscribe, the company will automatically send you more ammo every 30, 60, 90 or 180 days. At first this seemed a little gimmicky, but then I thought about it. Of all the ridiculous subscriptions I have for everything from Adobe Acrobat Reader Mobile to Youtube Music, getting ammo shipped to my house on a routine schedule might be the only one that actually makes sense.
Cost: $24 per box of 50
Pros: very accurate ammo for the range or competition, reasonably priced, mild recoil
Cons: what’s not to like?
