Winchester’s New 3 Gun Ammunition Misses the Point

According to their press release this week, Winchester are bringing out a line of ammo specifically for the sport of 3-Gun, Which begs the question, have any of their staff actually competed in a 3 gun match, as opposed to just watching one on TV? Let's dissect the latest from their marketing dept.

“All pistol cartridges (9mm, 40 S&W and 45 ACP) in the Win3Gun line use lead-free primers and heel-encapsulated bullets. This makes the pistol offerings incredibly clean firing, which in turn keeps the compensator ports of popular competition pistols clean and free of vaporized lead.”  This is all well and good, but in order to actually work a comp, 9mm needs a lot more gas than the 147gr load on offer produces. If you were to take advantage of the softer push the 147gr bullet could deliver in an uncompensated pistol, it would need to be loaded to around 130 power factor, rather than the 140PF on offer. 40 S&W and 45ACP are so rarely seen that I assume that they're only offered to round out the lineup.

“The Win3Gun line also includes a centerfire rifle round in 5.56mm with a 55-grain bullet and two 12-gauge shotgun loads with 7 ½ shot and 00 buckshot. All offerings are ideal for 3-Gun competition.”

I can count the number of stages requiring buckshot on one hand, but there's a real need for a low recoil slug, such as the now-discontinued Winlite. And given that Winchester already partner with Nosler, how about a 77gr .223 bullet for observable hits on long range steel?

Good effort from a good company. Please resubmit with corrections.