7.62 X 39 Which brand of ammo to get or avoid?

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Boris bush said:
Barnaul has been best for me followed by Ulyanovsk. "wolf" is an importer that mostly imports Tula. Tula is the worst Russian ammo and in the days before wolf and when all Rusian ammo came in plain cardboard boxes I avoided it.

The wolf 'military classic' is Ulyanovsk and is good ammo.

I am still shooting my stock of 7.62x39mm from the late 90s and early 00s. Back when it was $70.00 a case of 1000 and we always got bulk discounts (only way to buy it) 10 cases for $600.00. Not bad, I am still shooting cheap ammo and will be for a minute. I bought ALOT!! I have plenty of Ulyanovsk ball and hollowpoint.

If you can find some old Klimovsk it is also very good, but it has not been made since 01 and that last year it was made it was copper washed cases........
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Why is Tula the worst?
 
The wolf 'military classic' is Ulyanovsk and is good ammo
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Is Wolf MC still Ulyanovsk or only old stuff is? I heard new MC HP does not have 8M3 bullet anymore.
 
I would avoid Egyptian surplus ammo.Too many duds and some would go bang while other would go BOOM.Not currently available as far as I can tell.
 
Why is Tula the worst?
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Compared to Ulyanovsk, Barnaul, (and the no longer made Klimovsk) it was and still is the dirtiest. It is also the most inconsistant. I had some 9x18mm Tula that one round sounded normal for 4 or 5 weak and almost squib like rounds.

The military classic Ulyanovsk uses the yugo M67 style projectile. Barnaul also uses the M67 style projectile. The M67 style projectile has always been more accurate for me in any 7.62x39 weapon I owned or fired.

The 8M3, the hollowpoint version of the M67 is on all the Barnaul and Ulyanovsk HP ammo I still have from the late 90s and early 00s. I havent bought any new in a while so I do not know if it uses a M43 style HP like Tula uses and Klimovsk used to use for hollowpoint loads.

I still have a few battle packs of Klimovsk hollowpoint I use. It is the best HP of any of them. They use a plastic 'filler' at the rear of the projectile to take space up in the M43 jacket that used steel for a core. Lead is a bit more dense and the same weight lead leaves alot of air space forward. The plastic rear portion of the core shifts weight forward and for some reason is more accurate for me..
 
Were I advising someone who was trying to stock up for PAW right now - I would recomend you buy Yugo surplus ball. I have quite a bit and it's good shooting ammo. It's sealed in tins, packed 2 tins to a crate.... the stuff will be ready to fire long after I am gone. It requires a bit of extra cleaning precaution because of the corrosive primers but no biggie IMO.

Of the commercial packaged ammo I would recommend Golden Tiger, Brown Bear, Barnhaul, Wolf, Ulyanovsk FMJ first. I'd buy whatever was cheapest and most availiable. Last year that was Golden Tiger and I bought a case to try out. It's good to go as far as my weapons are concerned. I've shot various amounts of it all over the years and never had any problems.

I still got a case of the blue box "Hunting" Barnhaul with the 8M3 "effect" JHP. That 8M3 JHP is a great bullet - if will feed in your gun. It's been putting Pigs and white tails down like a death ray.
Will
 
"I have heard of issues with the Wolf Military Classic concerning unreliable ignition"

I've shot 7000K+ rounds of Wolf ammo without a single issue. Don't worry about Wolf its reliable and cheap.
 
rklessdriver said:
Were I advising someone who was trying to stock up for PAW right now - I would recomend you buy Yugo surplus ball. I have quite a bit and it's good shooting ammo. It's sealed in tins, packed 2 tins to a crate.... the stuff will be ready to fire long after I am gone. It requires a bit of extra cleaning precaution because of the corrosive primers but no biggie IMO.

Of the commercial packaged ammo I would recommend Golden Tiger, Brown Bear, Barnhaul, Wolf, Ulyanovsk FMJ first. I'd buy whatever was cheapest and most availiable. Last year that was Golden Tiger and I bought a case to try out. It's good to go as far as my weapons are concerned. I've shot various amounts of it all over the years and never had any problems.

I still got a case of the blue box "Hunting" Barnhaul with the 8M3 "effect" JHP. That 8M3 JHP is a great bullet - if will feed in your gun. It's been putting Pigs and white tails down like a death ray.
Will
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MFS is made in Hungary and it's real brass casings.
 
Eh. If it's an old Soviet gun, you could probably get a piece of cardboard, put a primer in the center of it, pour some power down the barrel, cap it off with a rock, and it would still probably fire.

No, but really, just about any ammo would do... just make sure everything's okay... no loose bullets, misseated primers, cracked cases, etc. Otherwise it's just what works best in your particular rifle.
 
Boris bush said:
The M67 style projectile has always been more accurate for me in any 7.62x39 weapon I owned or fired.
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Then rklessdriver said:
Were I advising someone who was trying to stock up for PAW right now - I would recomend you buy Yugo surplus ball. I have quite a bit and it's good shooting ammo. It's sealed in tins, packed 2 tins to a crate.... the stuff will be ready to fire long after I am gone. It requires a bit of extra cleaning precaution because of the corrosive primers but no biggie IMO.
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I just spent a couple days trying to determine what ammo to stock up on and discovered that the Yugo surplus is also the cheapest available right now. <$0.20/rnd in quantity from Centerfire Systems, $250/1260 rounds and free shipping. This ammo uses the M67 pellet which if the info available on teh interwebz is correct is designed to yaw quickly in tissue thereby enhancing it's effectiveness. I bought a couple cases to go with my new AK.
 
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I got last year the Yugo FMJs . They are sooty and dirty but accurate in all my commie guns. If given the chance i ll buy again but the Golden Tigers and Brown Bears are hard to beat bec they are clean.

On the other hand, tHe 8M 3 bullet is one heck of a bomb . My son shot a big hog in the neck and the exit wound was like a fist sized hole.
 
My vz. works fine with BNX ( Czechoslovakian surplus) East German and Hungarian surplus but i advice you to stay away of KOPP ammunition, it literally baked itself to chamber - twice out of 60 rounds.
 
porterdog said:
Boris bush said:

Then rklessdriver said:

I just spent a couple days trying to determine what ammo to stock up on and discovered that the Yugo surplus is also the cheapest available right now. <$0.20/rnd in quantity from Centerfire Systems, $250/1260 rounds and free shipping. This ammo uses the M67 pellet which if the info available on teh interwebz is correct is designed to yaw quickly in tissue thereby enhancing it's effectiveness. I bought a couple cases to go with my new AK.
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Never heard of this company Centerfire systems?
Free shipping is good.
 
Good pricing on the Golden Tiger. I pay $225 plus shipping and tax per 1,120 rounds. It is Czech bxn and quite consistent and accurate.
 
Wolf and Brown Bear have gotten bad raps (from AR guys as their finicky rifles won't shoot it very well), but the ammo always goes bang.

I have used Wolf .223 in my Mini-14 and whatever in my SKSs and WASR. Guess what it all goes bang, every time.
 
stchman said:
Wolf and Brown Bear have gotten bad raps (from AR guys as their finicky rifles won't shoot it very well), but the ammo always goes bang.

I have used Wolf .223 in my Mini-14 and whatever in my SKSs and WASR. Guess what it all goes bang, every time.
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I was told that those .223 Russian bullets would void the Ruger warranty on the Mini-14.
 
The company is Marstar. I think they have this ammunition is stock. It is the 7.62x54R and the 7.62x25mm that are bought up quickly. At the range I go to they sell ammunition and they have plenty of the x39 bxn. I have 3k or so rounds of this I shoot out of my vz-58 folder. The bxn was made for this rifle so at 200y the groupings are good out of the short barrelled carbine.
 
Teapot said:
The company is Marstar. I think they have this ammunition is stock. It is the 7.62x54R and the 7.62x25mm that are bought up quickly. At the range I go to they sell ammunition and they have plenty of the x39 bxn. I have 3k or so rounds of this I shoot out of my vz-58 folder. The bxn was made for this rifle so at 200y the groupings are good out of the short barrelled carbine.
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I also see Yugo ammo and other brands for sale that were produced in the 70's. Old ammo is this old stuff reliable?
 
Mil-spec Russian and Com-Bloc ammo with potassium chlorate priming (corrosive) is the most reliable and designed to go bang in sub-zero weather for the next 100 years.
 
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