As my fellow firearms enthusiasts are all too well aware, ammo is expensive. Gone are the good old days when you could go into Wally World and purchase a Winchester Value Pack 100-round box of 9x19mm 115-grain full metal jacket (FMJ; aka “hardball” or just plain “ball”) practice ammo for roughly $10 (which equates to 10 cents per round); nowadays that same product will cost you around $28.50.

A large part of this is due to inflation, though ammo prices started spiraling since the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. So then, that leaves gun hobbyists with this question: are we going to have to continue to bite the bullet, or are there alternatives? Luckily, there are, thanks to imports from non-Western ammunition manufacturers. Today, we’ll look at two such examples, namely BPS of Turkey and MaxxTech of Bosnia.

BPS Ammo Basics

As per the manufacturer’s official website:

“BPS Balıkesir Patlayıcı Maddeler Sanayi ve Ticaret A.Ş. [Balıkesir Explosives Industry and Trade Inc] established in 2014 to produce small arms ammunitions and shotgun cartridges in Türkiye at international standards, works with all its might to offer reliable, effective and innovative products with the production capabilities, capacities and technologies it has developed over the years.”

The Balıkesir portion of the name is in homage to the city where the company is headquartered. BPS was founded by Mehmet Akif Yavaşca and Müşteba Yavaşc. According to Ammo, BPS products have the pluses of not only being inexpensive—I’m guessing part of this is due to the exchange rate of the Turkish lira (TRY) to the U.S. dollar (USD)—but also “High quality brass [which] is great for reloading.” The minuses are the potential for hard primers and the fact that the brand’s only offerings are 9mm Parabellum and 12-gauge shotgun shells.

I obtained my BPS 9x19mm 124-grain hardball ammo from Royal Tiger Imports (RTI) (from whom, on a separate note, I also obtained really good deals on a 6.5mm Carcano rifle and ammo), headquartered in Melbourne, Florida. Currently, RTI has individual fifty-round boxes of the stuff for $12,99 and 1,000-round cases at $229.99.

MaxxTech Ammo Basics

MaxxTech by GH Ammunition was launched in 2002 and is made by Pobjeda Technology in the city of Gorazde, Bosnia and Herzegovina. According to Ammo, this company’s products have a good reputation for accuracy and reliability in addition to being affordable; like with the TRY-USD exchange rate, I imagine the favorable exchange rate of the Bosnian convertible mark (BAM) to the USD is a big help. The downside is the relative lack of variety of calibers (though they’re better than BPS in that regard), the lack of more self-defense-appropriate bullet configurations such as jacketed hollowpoints (JHPs), and complaints from some shooters of MaxxTech ammo being too dirty.

I bought my boxes of MaxxTech 9x18mm Makarov 92-grain FMJ at The Nations’ Gun Show in Dulles, Virginia. Truth be told, I don’t remember exactly what I paid for the stuff, but I do remember being quite pleasantly surprised with the price. For what it’s worth, GunMag Warehouse is currently advertising fifty-round boxes at $19.99, whilst Ammo To Go is selling 1,000-round bulk rate cases for $339.95 (averaging out to 34 cents per round).

Range Report and Shooting Impressions

I’m quite happy with the performance of both of these ammo brands through my personally owned handguns: in the case of the MaxxTech 9x18mm, we’re talking about my Bulgarian-made Pistolet Makarova (PM; Makarov Pistol), and in the case of the BPS 9x19mm (AKA 9mm Luger, 9mm Parabellum), I test-fired the round through my beloved Beretta 92FS, CZ-75B, Glock 26, and P-35 Browning Hi-Power (BHP).

All gave me sufficient accuracy for headshots at 25 yards and torso shots at 50 yards. The only hiccups from a reliability standpoint were one stovepipe (it felt and sounded like a squib load) and one extraction failure with the BHP; but then again, my BHP (which is of 1967 vintage) has been acting rather quirky as of late, so maybe I need to have a gunsmith look her over.

About the Author: Christian D. Orr

Christian D. Orr is a former Air Force Security Forces officer, Federal law enforcement officer, and private military contractor (with assignments worked in Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kosovo, Japan, Germany, and the Pentagon). Chris holds a B.A. in International Relations from the University of Southern California (USC) and an M.A. in Intelligence Studies (concentration in Terrorism Studies) from American Military University (AMU). He has also been published in The Daily Torch, The Journal of Intelligence and Cyber Security, and Simple Flying. Last but not least, he is a Companion of the Order of the Naval Order of the United States (NOUS). If you’d like to pick his brain further, you can ofttimes find him at the Old Virginia Tobacco Company (OVTC) lounge in Manassas, Virginia, partaking of fine stogies and good quality human camaraderie.

Image: Shutterstock.