Ammo Review: Aguila Ammo

“Guns are hungry. Feed your firearm.”

That’s Aguila’s tagline. And any commensurate shooter will know this to be the case. For us shooters, you fly through a box of 50, but buying quality ammo in bulk isn’t cheap. I myself have fed some of my Glocks the cheap Tula or steel cased stuff, thinking “eh, no big deal. It’s dirty, but for IDPA or practice it’s not a problem.”

Just some background on Aguila: They’ve been around since 1961, and are the largest rimfire manufacturer in the world. They’re located in the old Remington factory in Cuernavaca, Mexico, and is one of the few manufacturers that still have a lead shot tower.

I first became familiar with Aguila from two of their products: their mini shot shells, and their basically silent .22s, which won’t cycle in semi-autos, but is basically silent since it’s not much more than a primer charge. Pretty outside the box munitions. But then I got my hands on some of their brass cased plinking/target ammo – mainly in 9mm and 5.56.

I can tell you that I was pleasantly surprised.

I tested it against a few different manufacturers. Namely Tula Ammo, Federal brass cased, and Winchester white box – all of them 115 grain. I sent a couple hundred rounds downrange from a Glock 19 and Glock 26 Gen 4, and I have to say, the Aguila is right up there Federal and Winchester, of which I see the most of at competitive matches.

I sent several hundred rounds downrange, and the difference between the Tula and this stuff was noticeable – greatly. The steel cased Russian ammo was servicable, but dirty, and spit fire like an angry dragon straight out of a King Arthur tale. But not this stuff. And it literally was in a couple fps when you put it up against a chronograph. (Advertised at 1150 fps, I was clocking 1148 to 1153 fps). But enough ballistics and geeking out on the numbers

Let’s talk groups.

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With a Glock 19, what I usually shoot in competition and am most comfortable with, I was hitting 1″ groups at 7 yds with a quick and steady fire.

Mind you, I was already warmed up, and I tried it with the dirty stuff – the Tula. My group opened up to about 2 inches. (Don’t mind the flyers) Blame it on the surplus ammo, blame it on the dragon breath coming out of the muzzle and jacking up my sight picture, but I don’t think it was user error. Am I a fantastic shot, no, but I can hold a group, and this ammo helped keep it tight.

The muzzle rise was barely noticeable. I even loaded up some mags with alternating Federal, Winchester, and Tula, and couldn’t tell the difference between the Aguila and the first two manufacturers.In the picture to the right I did relatively quick fire with a 26 aiming at a 1 inch target at 5 yards. While I don’t find a 26 terribly accurate, you can see I’m either in the circle, or close to it with the Aguila. Tula, not so much.

Many people shoot Winchester white box for economy in matches. I suggest you buy a few boxes of of Aguila ammo. I know for a fact many Academy Sports stores sell them, and I’m sure you can find a bargain online at Brownells.com.

Now to 5.56 – one of the most popular calibers, and the  food of the hungry black rifle – the AR15. I tested out some 5.56 with my PSA carbine, 16″ barrel, mil-spec everything, and MOE furniture. Nothing too fancy, no whizz-bang triggers or gadgets, simply for the purpose of testing something easily replicated. I used irons for all of these, but have a bunch of optics we’ll be reviewing here shortly.

As you can see from the groups – the Federal and Aguila all performed relatively the same.

These were quick double or triple taps at 25 yds with no rest. The Tula, as you can see, the groups were ugly. Now while I’ll admit this could be shooter error, I’m fairly certain that the ammo was a factor.

When I opened it up to 50, it was clear that Aguila can hang with the other 5.56 manufacturers. It put a nice double tap on paper at 50 yards with irons. A 62 grain is much more stable in longer ranges, especially with a 1:7 barrel on a 16 inch carbine, and the American Eagle was 55 gr boat tail.

Even the chronograph clocked the Aguila at well over 3,000 fps, and as you can see, it seemed to have a much flatter trajectory. I usually zero my rifle to 25m, but in this case point of aim was point of impact with the Aguila, I didn’t have to use any significant hold overs (Note: While it’s preferred to have a 100m zero, 25m indoor ranges are easily accessible by me to rezero a rifle if I change out sights or optics). It’s very flat shooting, and very clean, both the 9mm, and the 5.56.

Overall, I found the ammo for both calibers to be clean, accurate, and very, very close to the specs provided on the box. I am looking forward to trying this out in a 3-gun match to see how it fares when shooting fast and on the move. That being said, check out your nearest sporting goods store and score a box, see for yourself. Guns are hungry, feed yours some Aguila and let us know what you think. If you want to see other calibers or brands reviewed, please post up in the comments and we’ll see what we can do.

Train hard. Train smart.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Alex Castiglione lives in Atlanta, and is an avid outdoorsman and competitive shooter.

Where-abouts include getting after it in his garage gym, practicing martial arts, hitting the trails, or running CrossFit and Strongman competitions for his non-profit, Barbells for Bullies, which holds fundraiser fitness competitions dedicated to aiding Bully breed rescues, dog rescues, or other non-profits with similar missions.
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