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Do you have any comments about that last batch of commercial ammo that you shot? Please share your observations and comments. If you have comments about a caliber that is not listed, we will add a category for it. Please send to: ammo@aaconsult.com |
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3D "Coyote Duster" SPBT 55gr: Black Hills 50Gn HP: Black Hills 52Gn "Match": Black Hills 68 grn Moly: Canadian C77: Federal American Eagle 50GN HP or 55GN FMJ: The American Eagle 55gr. "white box" ammo is probably the most accurate of the commercially available M193 clones. If you INSIST on shooting M193 clones (55gr. FMJ exposed lead base bullets), this is the best of the bunch. In AR's of 16-20" barrel length, it chronographs a bit slower than Winchester Q3131 (approx. 50-55 fps), but has a slight accuracy advantage. It is slightly more expensive than Win. Q3131. Submitted by: FeralDude@aol.com Federal 40 gn "blitz" HP: Georgia Arms 55gn: HawksView Custom Ammo Hirtenberger 55gr Hirtenberger SS109, Green Tip, Brass marked 83 5.56 .223. Beautiful bright, shiny brass, boxer primed. The primer is crimped with green coloured seal. Fired 120 rds. The first 110 rds fired without incident, but during the last 10 rds, I had 2 blown primers that ended up in my chamber. Each time I had to break down the rifle and remove the obstruction (primer). Fired the last 10 at a 1.5' x 2' half inch steel plate at 300 yards. Penetration was a little more than half way through or about twice as far as 55 gr ball. Submitted by: Kendall A. Payne kendallp@eastford.com Hornady 75gr. MATCH HOT SHOT, Bosnian 62gr. Green-Tip IMI M855: Lake City M855: Lake City M193: Lake City SS109: Lapua 55GN: Malaysian 55Gn: I have shot hundreds of rounds of the Malaysian mil-surp ammo through both an AR and a Mini-14. It functions flawlessly through both types, including a 180 series Mini that was rusted shut when I bought it. Can't say what the accuracy was, as I was plinking, but I didn't have a single hiccup. No problems with the brass, either. It does, however, STINK. I think it's from guanadine nitrate in the powder, but I'm not sure. It is also dirty; after 60 rounds at very rapid fire through a new SS Mini, the slip-on flash suppressor had bubbling brown goo where it met the barrel. Powder residue of some sort, I suppose. Other than that, I highly recommend it. Submitted by: Conard Le leconard@netscape.net Olympic 62gr & 55gn: Also, in regard to Olympic Ammo... i have fired about 2000 rounds of it now with only one FTE and a brief incident of short-stroking which was cleared by adding some CLP. No complaints and tell the gent i will take his 'land fill' rounds and put some holes in paper with them. Submitted by: Domenic DomatUNR@aol.com Olympic 62 Gr. SS109, Fired 100 rounds through a Colt MTHBAR. 70 to 80 of these failed to eject. I would get extraction, but no ejection. Bolt would stop halfway over the magazine. This was a reliably bad ammo. Submitted by: Jim Dillus, jimdillus@yahoo.com Gaged 400 rounds, of randomly picked 50 round boxes using Dillon gage. All of it speced perfectly. Fired 300 rnds of it today, with no failures to fire, no failures to feed, no failures to eject, and no blown primers. Fired this out of three different uppers, 1 11.5 inch w/5 inch flash hider, and 2 20 inch uppers, one of which was a 1:7 twist. Its a bit dirty, but no worse than UMC or some of the other target ammo. Accuracy was decent. Able to hit a 4 inch metal post consistanly, rapid fire(1 rnd per second) at 100 yds from bench using A1 sights with all three uppers. I'll also take some of the landfill ammo if he's giving it away. Submitted by: Tom, tommygun2000@attbi.com 4/6/03 I "tried" to use 90 rounds of Olympic SS109 head stamped NPA 01 at the top and 5.56X45 at the bottom, this stuff is junk! I had a Bushmaster shorty AK, which I've put all kinds of different stuff through just fine, like wolf 55 grn, federal M193, Winchester (the israeli kind), South African 55 grn. just to name afew, and I never had a problem. I would like to agree with the other comments about the Olympic SS109, it is by far the worst ammo I have ever used ever, and I don't mean just in the AR, I mean ammo for every weapon and every caliber I have ever fired! I have never seen anything like it. Over half the rounds didn't eject, sometimes because of a short stroke sometimes because they got stuck in the boltface which caused nasty double feeds. To top it all off, the rifle was filthy after firing the first mag. I put a whole battle pack of south African through with out that much filth, probably the cleanest ammo I have used next to some M855 made by Olin. Cleaning the rifle after using the Olympic ammo was similar to cleaning a black powder rifle. If I hadn't have put 20 rounds of the Olin brand M855 through after using the Olympic, cleaning the gun might have took hours. I knew the Olin M855 was very clean, it comes in a white box on stripper clips. It says M855 PENETRATOR I highly recomend it. Olin has factories in Israel and the US, they also supply winchester the 193 copies, the "white box" stuff. The M855 have the NATO cross. To say the least, the problem with the Olympic SS109 dwells in the powder. I also noted when I was loading some stripper clips with Olympic SS109 that it slid a bit harder into the clip than M855 NATO or M193 NATO. I tried the same stripper clips with each kind and the Olympic slid on harder every time. Plus it would bind up when trying to charge a magazine. Where NATO type loaded perfectly, I never got out the micrometer but I think the stripper clip experience was enough to lend notion that case size might play a part in the rounds getting stuck on the bolt face. Submitted by: Rob ss109grntp@westelcom.com 4/11/03 I just bought a Colt Target Match M-4 Carbine with a 1:7. It was suggested that I use 62gr ammo only for this barrel twist. So I bought the cheapest. Olympic SS109 in 62gr made in Greece. Well when I got to the range (all excitied to shoot) I loaded up my 30 round mags with this stuff. Slapped it into my new M-4 and charged a round into the chamber. Fired 5 shots and on the sixth shot nothing. Pulled the charging handle back and no round was in the chamber. Let it slam to home. Fired one shot and JAM. Cleared the jam and fired again. Jam. This next jam was bad. A primer was lodged into the chamber with a live round jammed in there also. I cleared the jam and when I ejected the mag a few primers fell out!!! I went to look for the spent casings and found a few with the primers blown off! Well I continued to load up a 20 rd mag. Fired once, JAM. Cleared and fired again, JAM. I was getting so frustrated because this rifle is BRAND NEW. Cleared the jam and tried again. This time when I tried to fire the hammer failed to drop! Pulled the charging handle and ejected a live round and a fresh round went into the chamber. Pressed the trigger and nothing. Hammer won't drop. I made safe and opened her up. What I saw was beyond me. The trigger group was covered in primers. They were lodged in everywhere. It took me an hour to clear all the primers out of the trigger group so that it could function. Finally I told myself, this ammo is bad stuff. I looked through my spotting scope and the accuracy was TERRIBLE at 100 yards. I was upset. I did bring a long a box of Winchester Q3131A in 55gr. Loaded 25 rounds in a mag and fired. Not a single jam. Bolt held open after last shot (unlike the Olympic junk). This is a conclusion that the Olympic SS109 in 62gr ammo is defective. At least the batch I got. It is not safe ammo. Please be aware of this stuff. At one point when I ejected a mag the first round on top had a loose bullet! I touched it and the bullet came off and the powder just came right out. The bullet was not seated correctly or it came loose from .223 recoil. Take it for what its worth. I will NEVER use this stuff. Beware of Olympic ammo from Greece. Submitted by: p7wu@sbcglobal.net 5/12/03 PMC 55GN: The test ammo was all 55 gr, the test barrel was a Bushmaster M4 (14.5", 1:9 twist, chrome lined) w/AK brake (post ban) . The test ammo included Winchester White Box Q3131A(made in Israel!) Georgia Arms remanufactured, S&B steel cased, and PMC. The Winchester ( a M193 Clone ) had the least amount of flash. A tiny bit to either side of the brake (smaller than a golf ball) and a 'corscrew' flash from the muzzle about 3-6" long (it varied). The next in line were the Georgia Arms and the S&B. Both of these flashed about the same. Flashes to the sides were just a bit larger than a golf ball and the muzzle flash was more tear drop shaped with the larger end at the muzzle (a little smaller than the size of a base ball). The PMC was the worst flashing. It also had the most variance. The best rounds were similar to the S&B. However usually it produced a much larger flash, the base of the 'teardrop' from the muzzle approaching softball size and the side blasts were fist sized. Submitted by: Platt, Forest E. forestplatt@hotmail.com I have fired several hundred rounds of this through by Bushmaster 16" Shorty AK without any mech failures. At 100 yards this ammo has maintained consistent 2" groups. It does have a larger flash than most and the cartridge is clean, neat and easily reloadable. I put this one at the top of my "budget ammo" list. Submitted by: EchoEcho2001@aol.com Russian 55Gn: I recently purchase 1000 rounds of this stuff and have had severe problems with blown primers. My AR-15 bolt actually filled up with primer caps and jammed during rapid fire. A Remington 700 and Ruger Ranch rifle also fell
victim to this round with jammed firing pins. I have about 600 rounds for sale cheap if interested. I took my new colt 20" h-bar match target competition to shot it for the first time. The Wolf .223 never cycled a round, it would shoot, throw the case, and the action would close with no new round in the cahmber. I tried this 85 times with the same result, sometimes the action would pick up anew round but it would not close all the way. I borrowed five rounds of Winchester white box from a buddy, and all of it functioned properly at the range. I plan on going back next weekend and trying some UMC Remington. I have heard it's good. Submitted by: Al johnson al.johnson@ggusd.net There are two different Russian factories supplying ammo to the US: Wolf (Tula) and Barnaul. Wolf advertises no steel in their ammo. My experience is with the Barnaul that comes in a red, white & blue box. This is Berdan primed, steel cased with a green lacquer coating that hides in the grass. The bullet is steel jacketed (FMJ) with a copper plating. This is my "plinking ammo". It's been 100% surefire with no failures to feed, chamber or extract and no split cases. The flash seems to vary from a 2" ball to a 12" ball, though the sound and felt recoil are consistent (subjective, not instrumented). I've let a number of people fire this in my 20" HBAR kit gun (Wilson barrel chambered by Model 1 Sales), accuracy seems to be 3" to 4" from an elbow support, sitting at a bench with iron A2 sights. Cleanliness is similar to other ammo I've fired. Bore or throat wear from steel jackets, I have no way of measuring. Recovered bullets show rifling engraving similar to copper jacketed from this rifle. No exposed steel under 25x magnification. I'm happy with this ammo for plinking. Bought it from ammoman.com. Excellent delivery, next day as part of the ammo price. Submitted by: Norm Glitz norman.t.glitz@lmco.com I have put over 1000 rounds of 55 grain .223 Wolf ammunition through my Armalite M-15A4 without 1 single failure due to a poor round. I had a few problems originally because i was using a crappy magazine with a weak spring. But, when i replaced my magazines with GI Issue mags, the ammo fired flawlessly. It is somewhat dirty, but the cheap price is worth the extra cleaning time and supplies to get your chamber and barrel shining again. I have heard a few stories about Wolf ammo gunking the barrel up enough to have a blocked barrel and then a destroyed forend, but i have never experienced any of the problems myself and am quite pleased with the ammo. However, because of these stories, i would recommend not to fire more than 500 rounds through in a row without running a patch and bore brash in and out a few times. Submitted by: Adam Richards a1richar@ucsd.edu Just thought I would tell you of my recent experiance with 5.56x45 Russian JSC Barnaul Machine-Tool Building Plant ammunition. A friend and I both purchased 1000 rounds of this ammunition from Midway USA (part number 510343)
to use as plinking ammo. On the first weekend we both had free, we packed up the ammo and some rifles to do some plinking at the local range.
My friend brought his Colt AR-15/A2 HBAR and I brought my Ruger mini-14 (classic, not ranch). As we loaded up our magazines we imediately noticed thay our hands were yellow from the lacquer finish that is applied to the steel cartridge cases. We then proceeded to shoot this new ammo to see how it performed. My friend shot less than 40 rounds before his Colt started having problems with case extractions. The bolt would retract, but leave the spent cartridge stuck in the chamber. We removed the bolt carrier to examine the extractor hook, and it was fine. I then used my cleaning rod to remove the empty round from the chamber, and had to "tap" it quite hard. We then inspected the chamber and found it to be covered with a white powder, especially in the neck area. I beleive that lacquer was building up in the chamber area until it actually glued the fired casing to the chamber wall. Giving the chamber area a good brushing with solvent and a M16 chamber brush allowed another 40-50 rounds to be fired until the same problem occured.
In my Bushmaster AR-15, I used to shoot Remington manufactured "UMC" rounds which I purchased at Wal-Mart for, I think, $3.95 for 20 rounds? For some as of yet unknown reason, the ammo would jam usually at least once for every 10 to 20 rounds shot. I would have two rounds in the receiver at once and have to pry them out. I ordered 1000 rounds of Wolf .223 FMJ 55g. from Ammoman.com. After firing around 600 rounds, I have had no misfires and have not had the weapon jam even once. 600 rounds may be a statistically small and insignificant sample but I believe what I see. Also the Wolf ammo was only $115 for 1000 rounds. You do the math. It's the cheapest I've found so far. I'm sticking with Wolf. Submitted by: Angus McTavish angus@redriverok.com Wolf Ammo.....I had heard all the stories about wolf, some positive and a lot negetive. I bought 5 boxes and fired it through my MAK-90 and it fired flawlessly. I have since bought my second case and have to yet have any problems. My gun has remained pretty clean considering the amount of ammo i have shot thru it. This ammo isnt the most accurate stuff in the world but it is cheap when you just want to plink. Try J&Gsales.com out of Arizona to get this stuff at $100 per case. They have the 55gr-62gr, and hollow point stuff. also if you write WOLF.com they will send you some press clippings from gun world mag and a sticker just for asking. Submitted by: LS738@aol.com I own A bushmaster 16" A1 .I ran at least 1500 rnds through it. I had 1 failure. my bolt was stuck open with a rnd stuck in the lower grove .I just pulled back my handle and it went in . i kept shooting and no more failures ( may be it was i did not clean it for 400 rnds) .so far I only used wolf 55g . out of about 20 shots I hit a basket ball sized rock at 200 yards on one knee 4 times (the other guy won he hit it 12 times with his armorlite same ammo). I recommend wolf highly .just keep a round out of a hot chamber unless you shoot (to Keep the coating from softening and sticking in your chamber) .I cant tell you about chamber wear .Submitted by: Richard Herman richardherman@msn.com (read next post) I thought wolf ammo was the way to go but its not. I shot at least 2000 rounds and now I am sending my upper back to bushmaster to get the goo out of my chamber you cant get it out with any solvents with out hurting the chrome lining .they have to use a chamber reamer.my advice is spend the extra money to buy brass ammo it will pay off in the long run. Submitted by: Richard Herman richardherman@msn.com I have shot several thousand rounds of Wofl through a Mini 14, Mini 30, SKS, Mosin Nagant, Colt 45ACP, Glock and Ruger 9mm, and of course my AR15 (Oly PCR3). The stuff works just fine if the weapon is in good condition and CLEAN. Will you shoot sub-MOA with Wolf .223?....no, I don't think so. That said, it is just fine for plinking. I think all the bad press is nothing more than a urban myth. Keep it clean and use good mags and you will do just fine. My AR15 loves the stuff! Submitted by: Bryan WeberBryan_Weber@madscape.com I bought a quantity of tcw ammo when I first got my mini, thinking I could shoot cheap.. Not so at all. This stuff caused the breakage on two firing pins within about 200 rounds. I cant understand how they can sell this stuff for use in a mini. Maybe a russian gun would handle it. I cant return it, the dealer says he doesn't carry it anymore, so I pulled the bullets , reserved the powder and loaded it inro brass cases. No problem with firing pins now, but a negetion of any perceived savings, for sure. Even the bullet weights are so far out, 2 grains from lightest to heaviest out of about three hundred, that it is like throwing rocks if you don't weigh and sort it. This stuff is garbage and should be taken off the market. Submitted by: Lynn Judd lynn.judd@worldnet.att.net My fellow shooters, I recently became the proud owner of a new Armalite AR180-B. I purchased 500 rounds of Russian ammo to get me started, "season the barrel, etc.," I come to find our from "collectors" (I shoot with every Sunday) that the Russian stuff with scratch your chamber and the Lacquer will coat your chamber. I followed up on this warning by contacting Armalite and also an engineer from Colt's, they both said this is true. If you have a chrome lined barrel, then knock yourself out with the Russian stuff. I have used Winchester white box and Remington/UMC with good results. No data yet on accuracy, putting a new scope on. LOC N' LOAD. Submitted by: BEN B45berg@aol.com I have shot 500 rounds 250 clean and oil then 250 again. Knot to accurate but no feed or extract problems. Submitted by: mware_1@msn.com 4/19/03 Russian 62Gn: Here are my experiences with the Russian 62gr ammo I purchased recently from Ammoman: Its comparable to the IMI (62 gr silver tip) I was also shooting. The cases ejected WAY off to the right though and I did run into a couple hard primers which didnt go 'bang' the first time around. One case split about half way down on one side (from the neck). This was the only one though (I policed all of the cases to see if others turned up). I dont think it was an over pressure problem because the primer nor the case head showed any of the classic signs of over pressure. It was as accurate out of a 16" barrel as the IMI. Amazingly this ammo is pretty clean. In fact its cleaner than the IMI. The only 'problem' is that it looks like the ejecting cases (steel) are harder on the finish than brass. For the money though I think its a good deal. Submitted by: JimG thegoddards@mediaone.net Russian 62 gr steel jacket ammo. Beautiful ammo, bright copper coated projectile, berdan primed, steel cased, it is much like Russian hollow point in the look of the case. Comes in a 500 rd box that fits nicely in a .50 can. Inside is a plastic wrapper and 20 rd individual boxes. The cartridges are sealed at the projectile and primer with a red seal. Took nine rds to zero. Shot 590 rds Russian 62 gr. out of 3 rifles without incident. It is accurate out to 300 yards, with iron sights or my Tasco 3x9x40 rubber armoured scope mounted on A.R.M.S. #2. Fired at a 1.5' x 2' half inch steel plate at 300 yards. The penetration is only slightly more than 55 gr ball, about 1/8 of an inch. Submitted by: Kendall A. Payne kendallp@eastford.com I have fired approximately 750 rounds of the 1000 rounds that I ordered from Eric the Ammoman http://www.ammoman.com About 500 rounds through a 20" bbl, and 250 through a 16" bbl. The ammo is clean and reliable, and accurate enough for me to use it in a Service Rifle Leg match out to 600yds. Submitted by: Clark, Andrew 2ND LT clarka@HAITI-EMH1.army.mil Just read Al Johnson's submission to the .223 Ammo review, about the Wolf brand (Russian), and I wondered what bullet weight that ammo was. Not that it should matter, probably, because if the ammo is underpowdered - which I believe is the problem - then the bullet weight would not matter. I got a 1000 round case of Wolf in 62 grain at a gun show in Aurora, CO, a few weeks ago and today I shot it for the first time (had to zero in my new BushMaster, 20" barrel). I actually zeroed the rifle using 10 rounds of Federal .223 in 62 grain, then loaded up with Wolf, just for plinking - and had the same problem Al described. The very first round fired, but the case swelled up so much the extractor could not eject it - took a bite out of the rim, but the case would not come out. Good thing I had my cleaning rod, so I could tap the case out of the chamber going in thru the muzzle. The rest of the 30-round mag was terrible - every other round would fire, the bolt would fly back about 75% of the way, the spent case would eject feebly, and the next round would not be stripped from the top of the mag and chambered. Quite clearly, the ammo is loaded very unevenly (some rounds would cycle the action adequately), so it's hard even to assess its accuracy potential when most of the time you cringe with every pull of the trigger, not knowing if you'll have to manually feed the rounds into the chamber. I suppose this batch would work quite well in a bolt-action .223 rifle, but in a semi-auto weapon it is simply too unreliable... Submitted by: freemark@uswest.net I ordered 1000 rounds from ammoman .com of this steel cased, non reloadable FMJ ammunition. Having shot almost all of it now through my early model ar-15 A2 it has performed flawlessly.... ALL the time! I had to smooth out the feed ramps on my gun, as they were scratching the cases and sometimes jamming in the ramps. However, this had nothing at all to do with the wolf ammo! There was a small amount of casting or machining flashing on the ramps edges which was causing the problem. This ammo is cheap, fairly clean shooting and I will, for sure, buy another case when this one is gone. Great price....good plinking ammo. Submitted by: Dale Hunter charger@tctwest.net Bought a case of Wolf .223 FMJ ammo with the 62-grain bullets. Fired about 180 rounds thru a Colt AR6520 with no problems. Perfect extraction and ejection. Accuracy was okay. Then fired the same ammo thru a Robinson M96 rifle. Lots of problems. The bolt was locked in battery every 15 rounds or so. Had to pound on the bolt handle to free up the bolt and eject the stuck case. Tried different magazines (GI Aluminum, Thermolds, Israeli Orlites, and Beta C-Mag) with the M96 but the problem persisted. By the sixth time it occurred, I left the range in disgust. On the other hand, I've put a couple of cases of Wolf 7.62x39mm FMJ ammo thru a Hungarian FEG AK and Norinco SKS with no problems. Having read the other comments surrounding Wolf ammo, it seems that the problem lies with the lacquer coating on the steel cases. If you fire Wolf ammo thru a firearm with "mil-spec" or "generous" chamber tolerances, it functions fine. However, fire the same ammo in a firearm with tight chamber tolerances, then you're in trouble. The slight accuracy advantage that the M96 rifle had over a rack-grade AR lies in its tighter chamber tolerances. However, if you feed it ammo with lacquer coated cases, it becomes totally unreliable. I suspect if alot of Wolf ammo is fired thru any AR-15, enough of that lacquer coating would build up on the chamber walls to cause the same extraction problems experience with the M96 or any other .223 weapon (ie. Mini-14). Also tried firing the Wolf .223 thru my Thompson Contender single-shot pistol with 10" barrel. The round went in the chamber easily. The action closed up perfectly. The round fired perfectly. However, no matter how hard I yanked on the Thompson's trigger guard to open the action, it would not open to extract the empty case. Had to remove the handguard in order to detach the barrel action from the pistol frame. Then it required a cleaning rod thru the muzzle to push out the stuck Wolf case. Never had such a malfunction with my Thompson Contender .223 pistol using brass cased ammo. Any questions, contact me at akung@ptd.net. S&B SS109: I've shot the S&B steel case though 14.5", 16" and 20" barrels, it patterns well in all 3, I've regularly shot dime sizes groups at 30m with all 3 barrels. Submitted by: Frank Severino Kensai9@webtv.net Have shot about 3k rds of 55g. S&B steel case with 100% "go-bang" rate. But, last outing I had 2 rds. that did not fire. The primer had a nice pin indent but the primer was falling about half way out, then later had another primer that fired and fell out of the case. Neither bullet left the case. Submitted by: Mark T. mwt109@hotmail.com The test ammo was all 55 gr, the test barrel was a Bushmaster M4 (14.5", 1:9 twist, chrome lined) w/AK brake (post ban) . The test ammo included Winchester White Box Q3131A(made in Israel!) Georgia Arms remanufactured, S&B steel cased, and PMC. The Winchester ( a M193 Clone ) had the least amount of flash. A tiny bit to either side of the brake (smaller than a golf ball) and a 'corscrew' flash from the muzzle about 3-6" long (it varied). The next in line were the Georgia Arms and the S&B. Both of these flashed about the same. Flashes to the sides were just a bit larger than a golf ball and the muzzle flash was more tear drop shaped with the larger end at the muzzle (a little smaller than the size of a base ball). The PMC was the worst flashing. It also had the most variance. The best rounds were similar to the S&B. However usually it produced a much larger flash, the base of the 'teardrop' from the muzzle approaching softball size and the side blasts were fist sized. Submitted by: Platt, Forest E. forest_e_platt@md.northgrum.com I have found the Sellier & Bellot to be one of the best "Budget"(under $4.00) rounds available for my AR15. I have fired over 1000 rounds with only one FTF. At 95 yards it will consistently maintain a 3" group from a Bushmaster AR 16" AK. Submitted by: EchoEcho2001@aol.com I work for a sheriffs office and on the swat team and use m4 my personal weapon is a m4 bushmaster 14.5 barrel i shoot s&b 55gr 3,000 plus with no mailfunctions how ever the win stuff my dept bought lot pn22 jammed
in all the m4s winshester asked for the ammo back so they could test it and they have been very helpfull in trying to solve this I own a New England Arms single shot 223 with a heavy barrel. I invested in the 55 gr. S&B simple for the cost aspect of the round. This round is excellent out to 100 yards. I am a ex-USMC scout sniper so I enjoy putting my weapon to the test at greater distances. I have held 3-5 shot groups inside a nickel out to ranges of 300 yards. The problem I had with this ammo was the inconsistency. I would shoot a outstanding 3 round group and the very next group would all be fliers. I know my sight picture and everything was the same each time. Submitted by: Cameron D. Harp cameron_harp@merck.com South African 55GN: Shot 90 rounds yesterday (3/27/99) through a Bushmaster shorty post-ban. No failures, no hangups, or jams. About 2.5" at 200 yards, semi-rested hold, w/6x scope. Good ammo for social purposes, accurate enough for my 16". I plan on buying more. Submitted by: Henry henryj@cybersol.com The South African I have ('83) did not eject reliably from a factory full-auto Steyr AUG. Functioned fine in M16 and AC556. When commenting on ammo, it might be helpful to have complete information in the remarks. The SA, for example, comes in a brown paper box labelled "30 RD 5,56 x 45mm BALL M1A2 672 A 83" and is headstamped 83 at 12 o'clock and 12 at 6 o'clock. The year and/or lot # may be very useful in identifying especially good or especially bad ammo. 5.56 rounds bearing the headstamps "SS109 95" (12 & 6 o'clock); nato circle/cross 93 TZZ (12, 4, 8 o'clock); TZZ 8 96 1 (12, 3, 6, 9 o'clock) were found among the Burns Bros "IMI" bulk loose ammo that blew up my friends AR15 [http://www.flash.net/~ptrhls/]. Some rounds had 223 REM in ink on the side of the case. Submitted by: PeterAZ FFLC3 tucson@snakebite.com I recently shot about 130 rounds of this from a 16" postban Bushmaster (no brake). It may be military - its packed in wedge-shaped brown cardboard boxes, 30 rounds/box labeled as follows: 30 CART. Manufactured in South Africa By Denel (Pty) Ltd. WARNING: ..... 230 Hawks View (large flash) My rifle was pretty dirty after this, but I would expect it to be dirty after that many rounds of any ammo. The only failure was one failure to feed on the Wolf ammo. I don't know if this is the same S. African that Eric (Ammoman) is selling, but I would buy it again. Apparently Coles' still has it available at $189 + UPS (as of 9/99). Submitted by: Dave Smith dcsmith@mindspring.com Shot 990 rounds out of a 20" A-2 and 16" AK-47. Brass bright and clean with a sorta dull look to it. I noticed that it started to discolor a couple days after taking a couple out of the box. The rim has some (sealant)? white gritty powder residue or something on it. I did not notice to much build up on my extractor. The Headstamp reads DNL 223 REM. Comes in 30 rd wedge shaped boxes. Mine was Lot No. 003. Out of the 990 rounds I had ten get stuck in the chamber that would not extract out with the bolt. I think this was a combo of a new tight chamber and the fact that the brass has a dull texture to it.. making it hang up. Ammo burns very clean, My rifle did not look like it had seen 990 rounds through it when I was done. I would bought another case just because of this feature. I noticed no flash at all on the 20" AR or the 16" AK. Usually I get a big ball of flash off the 16" AK because of an AK-74 type muzzle break. Not with this ammo.Accuracy seemed to be like normal with mil surplus m-193 ammo. I got right under 1.5 "groups with the AR and under 2.5" with the AK. For some reason the AK really liked it, I normally can't get it to group that well. Also shot at a 1" thick steel plate at 100 yards. Sometimes it would put craters in the plate, other times it just made marks, which I found strange. Submitted by: Jesse L / AKMAN MisterJesse@aol.com I have shot over 2000 rounds of this ammo and have not had one problem. It is very clean burning, hardly any muzzle flash and no misfires. the ammo I have is labeled from Lot 10. It is fairly cheap near me so I buy it whenever I get the chance. I highly recommend this ammo to everyone. I have to give it an A+. Submitted by: Erin352119@aol.com Concerning South African ammo. I got stuck with some 300 round battle packs that were marked , "5.56 X 45 mm, BALL M1A3 – 378 A86. Head stamp "86" at 12 o-clock, and "13" at 6 o-clock. I would be afraid to give them away because of the potential liability. Very dirty, with many recessed primers that would not fire. I would like to see someone report on the groups of IMI 855s, as they seem hot and quality controlled. Submitted by: wyork@ec.rr.com. South African M856: Spanish SS109: I have just bought a used but like new Colt match target HBAR, 20" barrel, RH 1 turn in 7", this rife shoots 55 or 62 gr ammo just fine, the rifle twist is made for 62 gr. I bought the ammo below from the
"AmmoMan", it works great, less than 1/2 " group at 70 yard Swiss GP90: Ultramax .223: Winchester USA: Personaly, I have had very good luck with lots dated 1988-1993, though it isnt especialy accirate in 1/7" barrels. Some later lots seem to give other people problems with excess pressure and blown primers. Submitted by: Tom Simpson bullet45@usit.net I just fired about 600 rounds through my Bushmaster AK Shorty, I had about 15 blown primers, and 1 case failed to eject. I will no longer allow this ammo in my AR! The flash was alot larger than the PMP I usually shoot. ( Sunny conditions) Submitted by: jamie tidwell jleight@airmail.net Winchester (IMI) M193: GREAT! Shot VERY tight groups (5 shot 1/2 inch was the best) on average 1 to 1 1/2 inch groups with a Bushmaster Dissipator. NO FAILURES! was very consistent. Has waterproofing on slug and primer. REAL M193 slugs with thicker jacketing then US Q3131. Q3131A is sold under Winchester but made by I. M. I. My choice for SHTF... Submitted by: Wolflair01@aol.com Winchester 55gn PSP: Winchester 64GN PowerPoint: WCC M193: Recently, there seems to have been a lot of complaints regarding Winchester Q3131 (55 gr fmj). The complaints seem to be limited to the Q3131 made in the US, not the Q3131A made in Israel. I have gone through +2000 rounds of Q3131 without a single malfunction of any kind. I has been as accurate as any of the other commercial M193 type loads and it seems to have less of a muzzle flash than most. It can be found for $189 at www.ammoman.com. This is now the ammo that I stock up on, since I have confirmed that it functions great in all of my AR-15's, a Mini-14 and a Daewood DR200. I recently purchased a case of Q3131A, that seems to shoot just about the same as the Q3131. Submitted by: Echell echell@earthlink.net WCC M855: Comprehensive Tests * * * I did a .223 cal. ammo test on 02/18/00. I tested 7 different domestic
commercial loads (new and remanufactured). My gun is a box stock Colt Accurized Rifle CAR-A3 with 24" stainless 1 in 9" barrel. Wind was 15 to 20 mph head wind. All groups were 100 yd. 5 shot from bench with cleaning (2 solvent 1 dry patch) between groups. Here are the results in order best to last.
* * * I ran several lots of ammo thru my M4 Carbine today and the instrument velocities (4 yards) are listed below.
Rifle is a Bushmaster M4 Carbine, magazines are USGI 20 rounders, 1200' ASL, 30°F, no wind, 30%RH. At this temperature I'd discard anything under 2900fps (from the M4 bbl) and consider it "Plinking" ammo only. SD/Avg under 1 is considered "target" ammo. Under 1.5 is OK. No one has published terminal ballistics on anything but M193 and
* * * I have run a factory ammo test; here are the results. * * * Dear Editor- * * *
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