Back in the day when you purchased ammunition the colors of the round reflected the metals used to form and produce the actual projectile. Copper jacketed rounds are copper colored, steel rounds are gray, etc. Well times have changed, and colored ammunition is growing in popularity.
Producing colored ammunition is a simple concept. You apply a coat of material that allows you to customize your ammo. The coatings used are typically done in one of two ways. The first is powder coating. The second more modern method is a polymer coating, which takes the place of a copper jacket on a round of ammunition.

Back in the day when you purchased ammunition the colors of the round reflected the metals used to form and produce the actual projectile. Copper jacketed rounds are copper colored, steel rounds are gray, etc. Well times have changed, and colored ammunition is growing in popularity.

Producing colored ammunition is a simple concept. You apply a coat of material that allows you to customize your ammo. The coatings used are typically done in one of two ways. The first is powder coating. The second more modern method is a polymer coating, which takes the place of a copper jacket on a round of ammunition.

Why is it becoming Popular?

First and foremost, it looks cool. There are more gun owners now than ever before and the idea that guns should be either, black, stainless, or camouflage is quickly disappearing. People customize almost every aspect of their firearms, including the color of the gun, its magazine, and yes, it’s ammunition.

There are also some unique advantages colored ammo provides. When it comes to brightly colored ammo, like red, blue, and pink, you get a slight tactical advantage in some firearms. The high visibility ammunition is easier to see in translucent or windowed magazines and allows the shooter better gauge their remaining ammo.

Windowed and translucent magazines are becoming more popular as of late. Companies like Magpul and ETS produce them for a variety of different guns, including Glocks and AR 15s. Companies like CZ and SIG use translucent magazines in the Scorpion and MPX carbines and pistols. Like colored ammo, translucent magazines are trending upwards.

Plus, you can always go back to the cool factor when it comes to using translucent magazines. A mag full of red 9mm rounds looks slick in a CZ Scorpion outfitted with red controls.

Going Polymer or Powder

I don’t want to bad mouth powder coated bullets too much, so I'm really going to try not to. When they became popular they were really the only option to create cool custom colored ammo. However, polymer ammunition offers some serious advantages over powder coated ammo. So, instead of bad mouthing powder coated ammo, I’ll just talk about the benefits of polymer coated rounds. Polymer rounds like the Polymaxx projectiles from Shooter’s Ammunition are quite possibly the future of ammunition.

Benefits of Colorful Polymer Coated Ammunition

Besides looking cool, because even powder coated ammo can look cool, there are three main advantages to using polymer coated Polymaxx ammunition.

Reduced Barrel Wear

The biggest advantage you are going to get with a polymer case over powder coating, or even standard copper plated ammunition, is reduced barrel wear. The use of a polymer coating reduces friction, which reduces heat. These reduced levels of heat and friction lead to less barrel wear. If you are a serious shooter who puts a ton of ammo downrange preserving barrel life is a noble goal. Your barrel will last significantly longer when loaded with polymer coated ammo over powder coated, or copper jacketed ammo.

Reduced Copper or Lead fouling

Copper and lead fouling doesn’t just look bad, it affects your firearm's overall accuracy. Ammunition manufacturers are aware of this and attempt to produce low fouling ammo lines, but why worry about fouling at all? You won’t have to worry about copper fouling when you are using polymer case projectiles. I almost feel bad for the gun cleaning industry, since polymer case ammunition makes some of their products kind of useless. Powder coating simply can’t prevent fouling.

Less Mess

This one is third because it's the least important, but worth mentioning. Powder coating can and will flake, and if the powder is poorly applied the uncured powder will make a real mess. These flakes and loose powder will gum up a gun when mixed with gun oil, make a mess of your magazines, and of course get all over your hands. Polymer jacketed ammo simply doesn’t do that.

So Where Do I Get Polymer Coated Ammo?

This is where we get to the meat and potatoes of polymer coated ammo. Where do I get some? As far as I know, there are only two ammunition manufacturers producing polymer coated ammo, Shooter’s Ammunition and Federal Premium.

Federal Premium produces one line of ammunition called the Premium American Eagle Syntech. It only comes in one color though. That’s not to say it's not great ammo, but we are more partial to Shooter’s Ammunition.

BulkAmmoStore.com’s Shooter’s Ammunition is a premium choice in polymer-coated ammunition that comes in 5 different colors. This allows you to mix and match ammunition colors to match your gun to your ammo. My personal favorite is to use ETS translucent Glock magazines and alternating red and black rounds to match my Glock that rocks a black frame and red cerakoted slide.

Also, if you want to try out Shooter’s Ammunition Polymaxx line keep in mind any order over $99 dollars ships free. If you want to take the leap into the future of ammunition give us a try.