7.62X39 Ammo Question

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hawkeye10

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I am looking for some 7.62X39 ammo. I was told that Wolf, Brown Bear, Silver Bear, Tula, and Golden Tiger were made in the same factory and the quality was the same. I was really looking for Golden Bear because it has a boat tail bullet. Is what I was told true or are they blowing smoke? Don
 
I doubt they are all made in the same factory.
They are all made in former Russian government arsenals though.

There is no driving need for a boat-tail bullet in a 7.62x39.

The velocity and range limitations of the round, and accuracy of the weapons chambered for it make using a boat-tail bullet for better long range trajectory a non-issue.

There is some thought that the boat-tail destabilizes the bullet and promotes tumbling and increases the would potential.
But the Wolf and Golden Tiger use a modified M67 bullet with an airspace in the nose which improve fragmentation and/or tumbling tendencies.

I'd say get what works in your rifle, and is cheapest.
In the long run, it probably won't matter.

rc
 
Golden Tiger is made by Vympel.
Brown Bear, Silver Bear, and Golden Bear is made by Barnaul.
Wolf is made by Tula.
Wolf Military Classic (in tan camo packaging) is made by Ulyanovsk.
 
I believe that the best bang for the buck is one of the Bear ammos. As far as the boat tail bullets go, I wouldn't lose too much sleep on that one. Neither the platform nor the ammo is capable of anything that would make the shape of the bullet an issue.
 
Perhaps buying a selection of all you can find and comparing it is in order.

What launcher are you using for this ammo? Will it really make a difference if you have a boat-tail bullet?
 
Hey Dave! I bought a Yugo SKS 59/66A1. I saw a test on You Tube between Wolf and Golden Tiger. They tested for accuracy and FPS and Golden Tiger came out on top. They tested 223 and 7.62X39. Of coarse the 223 was more accurate and faster than the 7.62. Don
 
Unless they ran that test using a dozen different rifles, the accuracy portion is inconclusive.
 
hawkeye10, you'll be better off getting a good selection of ammo from various makers and seeing what works best. I have the same gun, and it does just fine with Wolf MC, Brown Bear, Silver Bear, and the white/black box stuff that showed up at WalMart around when Tula did.

You'll see more practical improvement in accuracy by adding an aperture at the rear of the receiver than the fanciest ammo will give you, I swapped out the rear assembly pin for a Tech Sight on mine and it made a huge difference.

A bit of advice on that SKS ... if you haven't, soak the bolt in a bath of solvent and make sure the firing pin is free to rattle about in there ... if it sticks forward things get ... ... interesting. I got mine unfired in Cosmoline, and the amount of Cosmoline that soaked out of the weapon was amazing, and it still bleeds Cosmoline from the wood when the stock gets hot.

And on the note of ... ... interesting malfunctions, I've read that softer primers will increase the likelihood of those interesting events, as the gun was designed to operate with hard commie military primers, so I don't even bother with the brass-cased stuff, more expensive and possibly more likely to slam-fire? I'll pass.
Because of that, I don't load live ammo unless the muzzle is pointed in a safe direction, get some snap-caps if you want to do drills at home, they're cheaper than a new <insert property or body part here>.
Someday I might bother to get my bolt re-worked to include the FP return spring Simonov intended to include, as I do get a very light FP mark on the rounds when chambered sometimes, even though I've never had one slam-fire on me, all it needs is an overly sensitive primer and some bad luck.

===

I'm rambling ... back to the subject, you're not going to outshoot that rifle without putting it on a bench and clamping it down ... don't worry about match-grade ammo until the rifle is limiting you.
Also keep in mind that your Yugo SKS was designed to eat cheap junky steel-case ammo and be fed and fed & cared for by an illiterate peasant ... you're giving it better treatment than it should have ever expected, another reason not to worry about buying the perfect ammo just yet.
 
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Academy Sports had a panic sale on Monarch x39 in October '08, because somebody at the General Offices allegedly ordered ten times the planned amount of ammo, when a decimal point was mistakenly displaced one space.

Luckily I read about this right before we flew to San Antonio to take the eldrely in-laws' car away from them, and sell it in the Memphis area. Wish I had bought more than 1,200 rds.

This Monarch-in contrast to the previous type-has a polymer coating.
Is it from the Wolf plants?:scrutiny:

By the way, I've told several people from Russia (living in the US) that lots of us enjoy the prices and value of their homelands' ammo, along with their older rifles.
They appear not to have heard this before...
 
hawkeye10, I keep putting off the Murray's FP because I don't have slam-fire issues and my bolt is pristine thanks to the miracle of Cosmoline ... I have a brand-new 50-year-old gun, essentially.

Last time I looked into it, Murray didn't have video up (or I failed to find it) ... and this video surely wasn't up, as I was looking for SKS bolt disassembly video.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2jCxPoNVxI

I'll have to get that Murray's FP on order if it is that easy, anyone who's had a Yugo SKS bolt apart see any differences?
If that guy can do it on his kitchen table with a claw hammer, I should be able to get through somehow with either brute strength or cleverness (you never know which you'll need, it is always one or the other!)

Well, it seems I convinced myself ... Murray's FP is on order, I'll have to do a before-and-after shoot to test it fully, so it might be a while, I'm pretty much limited to the indoor range by my schedule for the next few months, the SKS isn't getting taken out of the cabinet much, I can hear it crying to itself and muttering in some slavic dialect about how I neglect it.
 
As mentioned, your best choice is to try as many different types of ammo brands as possible... but if the majority of them are going to be from 'over there' I would be prepared to do a lot of cleaning... my experience is that most of this commie ammo is the dirtiest stuff on the planet.... I wonder if they intentionally make the ammo they send over here that way.

Georgia Arms has brass cased 7.62 x 39 for about $90 bucks for 300 in bulk and you get a free ammo can. You might find that they have a booth at your local gun show. If so, call ahead and order some and they will bring it to the show and keep it under the table for you... save on the shipping.
 
GA has it listed at $99.95 ... or 33.3¢ / round
that may be offset a bit by a "free" ammo can and "free" shipping, but it isn't a screaming deal, unless you intend to recover and reload the brass. I'll accept some inflation, but it wasn't that long ago that I was buying 500 rounds of Wolf MC for $90 ... 18¢ / round ... for a hollow-point in top of a fairly reliable charge and a reliable primer, all on a case that I didn't have to feel bad about failing to recover when the guy who mows the range is a month or two behind.

I'll just clean the gun, as I said, it was designed to eat steel and oppression, it will be fine.
I wouldn't go to corrosive ammo, because I don't always clean immediately ... but cheap Russki steelcase isn't that bad, it is still leaps and bounds ahead of what the SKS was designed for in the first place, even junkier steel case corrosive ammo.
 
:)They are not all made in the same factory, but some brands like say Wolf or Tula may be made in the same one. Barnul and the "Bear's" are from the same factory I believe. Now Golden Tiger if I am not mistaken was origionally slated to focus on manufactuing 5.45x39mm for the Soviet AK-74 series rifles, and since the fall of the Soviet Union has had to span out to the commercial sales and begin making 7.62x39 and so forth. I mostly see Wolf down here where I am in South Texas and I have never had an issue with them. The Bear series, and Golden Tiger series I don't run into very often so I can't give an honest opinion about them. My cousin though a few years back got his hands on some 5,000 rounds of Barnul 7.62x39mm never had one issue, so...
 
You can still buy brass cased 7.62 x 39 ball ammo, in full cases of 1,120 rounds, for .21 per round DELIVERED from ammoman. This is the best price I've seen around. This is brass cased, copper jacket, lead core, packed on SKS stripper clips. It's corrosive but you do clean after shooting anyway, right?

http://www.ammoman.com/index.htm
 
Sometimes I wonder if the ammo is so dirty it actually lubes the BCG with carbon??!!

Sneaky if that is the case?
 
:( I heard some bad reports on Ammoman. One guy started off with a bad post on Ammoman and several others chimed in. They all had really bad stuff to say about him. I don't know if this is true or not but until I find out different I will buy some where else. Don
 
I recently sold my AK and have 400 rds (20 boxes ) of Golden Tiger FMJ 7.62x39 if anyone is interested. I just have not advertised it yet. If so feel free to pm or email me for details.
 
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