Are any 7.62*39 steel case ammo brands “better” than others?

You might want to expand on what your think is "better".

Are you looking for accuracy at distance? Low cost? Reliability?

I don't know if accurate could always be a good description. Some is better than others. I usually just get what is available. Sometimes it is just plain hard to find specifically what you want.

I asked this question the other day.

https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?threads/steel-cased-7-62x39-whose-do-you-like.872125/

I'm going to give the Golden Tiger a try.

I've never had any issues with "cheap" 7.62x39. My question is what are you shooting it out of? If it's an AK or SKS literally anything will work and be reliable. The cheap Russian ammo runs very well IMO. The only issue I've had was with an AR chambered in 7.62 in which I had to switch out to a stronger hammer spring because it wouldn't ignite the harder Russian primers.

Wolf has always been very reliable for me...also bought some ammo from a co-worker who sold his AK, he had about 750 rds of 'Red Army Standard' I guess Cabela's sells it. Anyway that particular brand groups surprisingly well in my X39 AR upper, better than any of the Wolf variations. Both seem about equal in either of the SKSs

On of my sons bought a case of TulAmmo for his Norinco SKS and just about every magazine we would notice one or two rounds had a somewhat different sounding report. There were also a few that failed to fire, maybe 4 or 5 out of 70-80 rds but more than I'm used to with any factory CF ammo. And with at least two of the dud rounds the bullet stayed in the throat when the case was manually extracted, spilling powder all in the chamber and magazine. Wasn't hard to tap out but still a PITA. Maybe he just got a bad lot but based on that one experience Tula would not be my first choice. But these days sometimes you have to buy what's available. He bought that case from an online vendor during a previous ammo shortage - which shouldn't matter but I'm positive that stuff gets to the market during those times that maybe wouldn't under normal circumstances.

Assuming you’re shooting out of an AK or SKS...

“Comblock,” ammo is basically divided into two categories, “animal brand”- brown bear, wolf, monarch, barnaul, golden tiger, etc. and “Cold War nostalgia” - Red Army, TulAmmo, Romanian Arms.

It all shoots and feeds the same. The only ammo I noticed that is “different,” is Silver Bear. It smells different than the rest, but it shoots the same.

Go with whatever is cheapest, unless you have an affinity for a particular animal, Soviet satellite state, or smell.

Is Russian ammo. Ammo is fine. Is Russian gun. Gun also fine. Go shoot gun.

I think its all pretty much the same cheap ammo, designed to be shot from the same cheap guns (SKS/AK) with the same results.

I like Golden Tiger.

TheWarhammer said:

Is Russian ammo. Ammo is fine. Is Russian gun. Gun also fine. Go shoot gun.

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Totally said this is a FPSRussian voice in my head

The cheapest ones are best in my SKS.

Golden tiger is supposed to be good.

Barnaul has the smallest std deviation of all the Russian brands, twice as good as Wolf or Bear, and three times as good as the others. Pretty sure Wolf and Bear are made by Barnaul, I think the Barnaul branded stuff is their best. There are Youtube vids where they used doppler radar setup on all of them, and Barnaul is the only one with a std deviation in single digits. I've never had any issues with Barnaul or Wolf, but knowing that someone else did the legwork to test them and Barnaul was demonstrably better at the same price, I always buy Barnaul when available.

Golden Tiger

Buy a few different brands and try them out. Guns are like people no two are the same. What works great for mine might not work great in yours. Personal I use Wolf almost exclusively in my ak. I bought a few thousand rounds last year. It works dor my needs. Just punching paper. And God forbid the poop hits the fan.

.455_Hunter said:

I like Golden Tiger.

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To add info, Golden Tiger is loaded in my three AK "ready use" magazines, plus what is in the "go can" with 120 rounds and four empty magazines.

FL-NC said:

I think its all pretty much the same cheap ammo, designed to be shot from the same cheap guns (SKS/AK) with the same results.

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......... That sums it up well, IMHO. At least with my experiences with 7.62x39 in a couple SKS's. I've even chronographed several different brands ( Russian and some older Chinese from the 1990's) and they all are close in velocity which leads me to believe they are all loaded to whatever levels are considered standard for SKS's, AK-47's, etc. Never noticed much of a difference in accuracy, either. Only had one fail to fire in over 25 years and that was a bad primer. It was a Russian one and IIRC was made by Tula.

There is a difference.
In my suppressed Ruger American:

Tula is good for 200 yds.
Wolf is about as good.

Golden tiger is a good 300 yd bet.

Barnaul and anything chinese runs the gamut from lazer beam to, scattered to the winds so I couldn't see the impact at 300 yds in my 7x scope.

Golden Tiger has not always worked well for me. I have a friend with an SKS it his rifle refuses to cycle it reliably. I had the same results with an old WASR. My current Zastava AK's all work fine with anything that I have every tried in them. For me, Wolf has always worked best. Tula is okay but seems to be a bit underpowered compared to other brands.

Honestly the best accuracy I've had is from the 154 grain Tula soft points (also sold under the Herters brand at Cabelas). As a plus, they have decent terminal performance in the hunting role for which they are made. I have heard of some people running into feeding issues with them in SKS with detachable mags. No issues so far in standard mag chinese and yugo sks, the 3 AKs we've used recently.

Buzznrose: This might confuse the subject a bit.
Some of the people (not here) on various gun forums state "Russian ammo" when their main, actual concern is with >> jacketed steel Bullets<<, not the cases.... But quite often they are Not specific. They only say "steel-cased ammo", or "Russian---".

My Czechpoint VZ-58 ( bought nib) is now up to approx. 1,200 total: I keep a piece of each ammo box in a labeled bag.

With limited exceptions all of the ammo is modern, post-2012 Tula (Russian).

Buzznrose:——You never told us which rifle you use in this chambering...?

My Norinco SKS works fine with all of them, so I normally go with Wolf because that's available locally and is the cheapest.

Tula Red Army makes a "range friendly" copper/lead bullet load with steel case, so it's OK in indoor ranges. Most steel ammo has copper plated steel bullets.

Speedo66 said:

Most steel ammo has copper plated steel bullets.

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um, no.

They generally use copper plated steel jacketed ammo, which is why most ranges don't allow it for fear of a spark from the steel starting a fire in unburned powder.

I'd be happy to learn something if you feel that's incorrect.