I am enrolled in a defensive rifle course next month and I am trying to decide which type ammo to use. I expect to shoot 1k of ammo. Should I use my regular plinking ammo (military surplus) or use my SHTF ammo (Lake City)?

I've been through many a class or competition using South African Surpluss ammo. Have had a couple duds, but very few compared to how much I've used. The unexpected dud also gave me an unexpected opportunity to practice malfunction drills.

However, when I wanted to be sure I never, ever had a problem, like maybe in the finals of a CQB competiton or something, I try to use Winchester Q3131 or Q3131a or Lake City M193.

Because I cant find South African surplus anymore, I just bought a new case of Winchester Q3131a and am going to rotate it into my stored ammo, and shoot the oldest of my stored ammo. If you sont want to be burdened by the possibility of a failure during the class, thats what I would suggest. Buy a new case of M193 and shoot you oldest stored case.

If you dont mind the increased possibility of a dud, then just shoot the surpluss. Truth be told, you probably wont have a problem with either, but new ammo (provided its been stored correctly) is always less likely to be problematic than old surplussed ammo.

Both.

Surplus/cheap when just doing regular safety stuff, but when shooting at targets for 100 yards or more, the Q3131a will do.  =)

Last month I was in a similar course (600 rounds required) and I used South Africna M1A3, another used Q3131A, somebody used the Walmart value-pack Winchester .223, and another used Wolf 55gr.

Since most (99%) of the shooting was at 50 yards or less it really didn't matter.  There were two malfuctions that MAY ahve been ammo issues (one with the value pack, and one with the Wolf) that I recall.  However, that just gave them an unexpected opportunity to practice their immediate action and drive on.

Next month I'll be taking the level 2 carbine course and I'll be shooting mostly Black Hills.  This is because most of the course will be held at night and between my Q3131A and Black Hills the BH has MUCH less flash out of my post ban carbine.  I'd take the South African but I've burned it all up.

Thanks for the replies, since this is just training, I'll just use my surplus training ammo as it has always been dependable.