Golani Ammo

[Storm]

Yesterday I fired my Golani for the first time. I was fairly confident that it would be fine being a newer produced gun, but being a Century build....

I put a bit over 150 rounds through it being mostly PMC and American Eagle using the two supplied original Galil 35 round mags. The function was flawless. While I was only testing for function and was only shooting at a thick stick 85 yards away on the hillside backdrop, the gun was hitting where I aimed. I was shooting it along side an MSAR 556 and while the recoil with the Golani was more noticeable it great shows promise in terms of accuracy. Happy with the gun I was putting it back in the case when I noticed a box of Remington UMC that I had picked up at Wally World on an impulse. I thought to myself "what the heck, I'll shoot twenty more".

As soon as I started shooting the Remington everything went to the dogs. After the initial shot the rounds wouldn't even chamber. The rim of the case was getting hung up well before the feed tamp which was actually crumpling the round at the neck. I had seen photographs of this but had never had it happen to a rifle that I was shooting. This went on for about ten rounds none of them even being chambered, all crumpled. So, I took the remaining eight or nine rounds and passed them throught the MSAR with no problems at all. I was bummed. Fortunately the problem was obvious. The Golani didn't like Remington. The truth is that I don't like Remington either. I went back to the other ammo and I was back to perfect functioning. I can live with that.

Remington aside, it's a very nice rifle that will require me to at least avoid certain ammos.

 

[Maverick223]

Eh, at least it likes the cheaper, better stuff.

I would be willing to bet that you could seat the bullet a little deeper and get it to function just fine with the Remington loads as well (if you have handloading equip. for .223Rem.).

 

[Storm]

Hey Maverick, I would bet that you are correct.

Also, I'm not saying that Remington UMC ammo is bad, it's just that it isn't a match for this gun. In this case it was 55 gr. MC L223R3. I'm still grumbling over a Remington squib load twenty years ago that lodged a bullet in the barrel of my 4506. In fairness, that can happen with any ammo. I do occasionally shoot Remington in a number of calibers.

Yesterday while I was shooting the Golani I was teaching a friend to shoot and I had been explaining to him my outlook that shooting is a system with three major components/variables: shooter, gun, and ammo. It was actually a perfect demonstration that sometimes one or more of the components has to be tweaked.

 

[Maverick223]

I'm not saying that Remington UMC ammo is bad

...well I will; while Remington may not be the worst, it is very close to the worst value IMO (shotshells excluded), but I will say that the UMC line typically offers me slightly better performance for the money.

 

[Storm]

Yep, Remington is not a great value. Certainly not my first choice, but the way that ammo has been you take what you can get.

On the Golani, it looks like it may be a keeper. That's a big relief. if it ends up a bit ammo picky I can live with that, especially with .223. I wish I would have kept a round of the Remington to get a LOA measurement.

 

[Maverick223]

I wouldn't mind seeing that measurement either. I have .223Rem. from a few different manufacturer's, but none is Rem./UMC. It could also be the bullet shape (not as sharp of a spitzer?) or style, but I would bet on OAL.

 

[Storm]

I agree that it's probably the OAL. That was my impression when I looked into the chamber and saw it hung up. I passed all of the remaining rounds through my MSAR and anything else was so crumpled that it had to be disposed of.

BTW, while I was futzing with the Remington and Golani I looked back at my buddy, brand new to shooting, who had a horrified look on his face and later told me that there was a very high pucker factor on his part watching me figure out the situation clearing jams and inspecting. He asked me how I was comfortable doing that and I told him that 35 years with guns has it's rewards. What I didn't tell him, and will tell him next time, is that when I'm in that situation I am always extremely cautious and that anything less than maximum care can be disastrous. Still, a round that crumpled was discomforting, but at least it wasn't the sparkin' end.

 

[Maverick223]

Still, a round that crumpled was discomforting, but at least it wasn't the sparkin' end.

Yep, I have had it happen a few times too, and while I kept my cool about the situation, I was very conscious and deliberate with my next actions. Others may have found my process paranoid...but I have all ten fingers to type with, two eyes to stay up late browsing THR, and last I checked my face was intact...I like to keep it that way. Mistakes happen, no way around that, and if handle it properly the mistake usually doesn't become an accident.

 

[FenderTK421]

My C93 certainly doesn't like it. very similar problems to what you describe... 250 rounds of xm193 = No problem. The only bulk ammo I could find was UMC 45 grain hp .223. Probably bolt gun/varmint fodder but the price was right and I wanted to put about 500 rounds thru the new gun and my AR's have cycled it just fine. I literally ripped the slugs out of 2 rounds attempting to extract what should have been live rounds. one slug was all the way in and luckily the bolt wouldn't close on the new cartridge, alerting me to the problem. Both our rifles were originally chambered in 5.56. And while most new guns don't seem to mind 5.56 vs .223, maybe there is a significant difference w/ the UMC in OAL?

 

[Maverick223]

Fender, if your rifle has a 5.56NATO spec'd chamber it should be fine with .223Rem (WRT chambering...not necessarily feeding, et cetera). The 5.56x45mm throat (or leade) is longer than the throat of the typical .223Rem. chamber (hybrid chambers excluded) and should easily accommodate any .223Rem. cartridge. I believe the problem with the Golani is the feed angle isn't optimized for the longer cartridge OAL (which doesn't necessarily have a longer OAL to the ogive, the important dimension for chambering the round), which in turn leads to crushed cartridges. Could be a multitude of other problems but this is my best guess. OTOH, your problem sounds like a batch of out of spec. cartridges or a dirty chamber (caused by those dirty UMC rounds) resulting in cases sticking enough to deform before being fully inserted into the chamber.

 

[FenderTK421]

Chamber was definitely clean, but a bad batch wouldn't surprise me. In all honesty the OAL of the .45 gr UMC HP's is substantially shorter than the XM193 I had on hand. Had the bolt gap and head space checked - just to be sure; after all it was built by Century. Think I will just stick to buying what it likes. By far the easiest fix. Thanks Maverick