Brown Bear Ammo????

[admiral]

Is anyone familiar with BROWN BEAR ammo. It is made in russia and there is a good deal at a local shop on their 9mm stuff. 50 rnds of 145 gr JHP for $4.99. My P95 prefers the larger bullet as they shoot higher. IÕve been reloading for it because heavy bullet factory loads are harder to find and considerably higher in price than the cheap 115 fmj. Is it Wolf ammo in a different box? Will it go bang and cycle properly?
Thanks

 

[megatronrules]

It is similar to Wolf ammo. It is steel cased. I have used Wolf and while dirty it was ok ammo for its price. If you check Walmart the have a 100 round box of 9mm Winchester 115gr FMJ for 10.97!
That being said, a lot of people use Wolf and other steel cased ammo. Some say it will mess up your extractor. I havent had a problem with it. I would hope a quality gun, Glock,Beretta,Sig,HK etc would use a steel for their extractors that harder than the case on these types of ammo. I have picked up Wolf ammo cases i have shot. They seemed to be deformed as in being soft metal. I dont think you have to worry about any problems. Give it a try and see how it is in your gun. Try it before you buy a lot of it.
Wolf is very dirty, this Brown Bear ammo is the same I would bet.
I dont think you will hurt a Ruger P95 they are built like tanks!
If you have any ComBloc guns, AK,SKS, Makarov etc, they seem to love this ammo! It is after all what they shoot over there
Hope this helps.

 

[MCNETT]

I tried it just to try it. The 115 FMJ went 1150 from my Beretta 92FS, and the 145 JHP went 977 from the same gun.
-Mike

 

[Gusgus]

Brown Bear (lacquered steel case), as well as Silver Bear (nickel plated case), are both made in Russian, by the Russian Cartridge Plants Association. This association is made up of The Barnaul Machine Tool Building Plant, Klimovsk Stamping Plant, Novosibirsk Low Voltage Plant, and Ulyanovsk Machine Tool Plant.

Novosibrisk LVP, is the plant that makes the popular green box Makarov ammo. I know nothing of the other 3 plants.

Wolf is manufactured at the Tula Cartridge Works, a plant not associated with the RCPA. Therefore, Bear is NOT Wolf, but it could be Novosibrisk LVP. There is also a very good chance that the batch you get is made at one of the other three unknown plants.

Personally, I wouldn't have any problem trying Bear in my Mak or AK, as they where designed for this type of ammo, but wouldn't allow it anywhere near the rest of my firearms. There have been too many reports of the case laquer melting in hot chambers, causing a horrible, sticky mess. Not to mention the reports of steel casings having to be beat out of guns, and accelerated chamber wear due to the harder, steel cases.

With so many other quality, brass cased, value priced ammo out there, I don't think this stuff is worth the risks.