Was there surplus 9mm Makarov ammo in the past?

[peacebutready]

On another thread I noted surplus 7.62X54R ammo going up in price recently. Was there ever surplus 9mm Makarov available? If it was, was it corrosive?

Are there piles of it out there now that we can't get either because it's armor piercing or in China?

This isn't to be confused with the recent production Bear, Tula, Wolf, etc.

 

[ulflyer]

Not aware of any surplus 9X18, but some years ago there was plenty of Russian, Chinese, Bulgarian, avail for $7 box or less. I still have some and it all shoots good. Even ran across a box of Hornady which I used back when I used to CC a Mak.

 

[justin22885]

9x18 makarov isnt in nearly as bad of shape as 7.62x54R is for the simple fact reloadable 7.62x54R brass is rare and expensive and cant be made from anything else, 9x18 makarov on the other hand can be made from some of the cheapest most common brass on the market, 9x19mm brass

and the price of 9x18 .365" bullets is about the same as .355" bullets, so you will always be able to hand load 9x18 makarov cheaper than 9x19mm.. so dont worry about prices going up if youre considering a 9x18 pistol

 

[AABEN]

Yes there was some. There was some that was from UK it was hot it was for there G gun

 

[RON in PA]

In the early 1990s when the Maks first became available there was some milsurp ammo, but not very much.

 

[North Bender]

Yes, early on there were imports of Chinese, East German, and Russian military 9x18 and each had corrosive primers. Each country packaged the ammo in 16-round cardboard boxes - the Chinese (pictured) and Russian boxes were unmarked:



The East German were marked as pictured here:



You can look up ammo specs in this thread:

http://forums.gunboards.com/showthread.php?299-9x18-Ammunition-Data

 

[Apple a Day]

The old surplus stuff I used to get for $84/1000 rounds back in the 90's. Those were the days. It was 107 grains or so and loaded hot.

 

[North Bender]

No, the 109-gr (not 107-gr) wasn't military, it had a commercial headstamp.

 

[North Bender]

Apple a Day, if you mean the TCW - that was a great load!



109-gr averaging 1013 fps. Yes; hot.

 

[Apple a Day]

North Bender, when the Soviet Union collapsed scads of Russian milsurp ammo came in loaded in unmarked cheapo cardboard boxes. Later they started putting commercial markings on them. I remember the first time I saw Russian 9x18mm in the old red and blue Wolf boxes (wish I'd kept a couple) and remarked to my wife, "hey, look, the Russians finally discovered marketing!"
I miss that snappy old stuff.
At one point I bought several hundred rounds of surplus Chinese 9x18 that had steel penetrators in them. They were considered 'enhanced penetration' rather than true AP but I still couldn't use them indoors. It wasn't marked on the packaging but when the range owner checked them (he'd already had some damage done to his backstop) with a magnet they stuck to the nose as well as the case. We even pulled the bullet because I didn't believe him at first. For giggles I cut one when I went home. Sure enough it had a kind of mushroom-shaped chunk of iron inside. I had to use it up outdoors. Again, should have kept a few. IIRC they were in simple blue boxes with white markings. There were some stories popping up later about the Chinese not being particularly careful about what they packaged or how they packaged it. Some odd stuff got mixed in, so I found out

 

[North Bender]

Apple a Day - I showed a picture and mentioned those carboard Russian military unmarked boxes in my first post.

The ammo you describe as "Wolf" I am going to guess was the very early Barnaul that I've pictured here. When the Russians started packaging for commercial export they changed the headstamps from the military markings - the headstamp on the pictured box is "9mm MAK" with a small Barnaul trademark. As the OP asked about "surplus" 9x18 I take that to mean "military surplus", not the stuff made for the commercial market.