Wolf 7.62x39 Ammo

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BruiseLee

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I'm thinking of buying some 7.62x39 ammo for my Chinese SKS. I say thinking because as everyone knows ammo prices are just ridiculous now.

Anyway, I was looking online at Midway, and noticed they had 4 choices of "cheap" Wolf ammo: 1) 122 gr. FMJ, 2) 122 gr. JHP, 3) 124 gr. FMJ, 4) 124 gr. JHP.

Personally, I can't see why a company would make a round in the same caliber with the same type of bullet with only only 2 gr. of difference in weight. I mean, what kind of difference is that going to make ballistically, 1 or 2 ft. per second?

I'm guessing the FMJ would be more reliable in terms of feeding. But, the JHP would be the choice for ranges that don't allow you to shoot FMJ bullets.

I'm going to be using the ammo for target practice, so I'm mainly concerned with reliable feeding, accuracy, and low cost.

I know Wolf ammo ain't the best. It shoots kinda dirty, and I've experienced hard primers in the past. Plus, I've heard that that lacquer coating can "melt off" in your gun's chamber, leading to extraction problems.

Anyone have experience in what worked best for their SKS's or AK's? Also, anyone know of any reliable places that sells 7.62 Russian for less than $4.59 for 20 rounds?
 
I've probably shot about 4000 rounds of Wolf from my Norinco Mak-90. Never had any feed or firing problems of any type, even going through 1000 rounds in one day without cleaning. All I ever buy is the JHP.

Same with my Yugo SKS, although I've only put about 250 rounds of Wolf through it. I did have a partial extraction one time with my Yugo SKS and S&B ammo, out of the 200 rounds of S&B I bought for it.

I had the Mak-90 out over Memorial Day weekend, we were shooting golf balls at about 100 feet with Wolf.

A difference of 2 grains doesn't seem like it would make a big difference to me.
 
Wolf 7.62 x 39 JHP is fine and the gr doesn't really matter. You should have zero feeding problems with it in an AK. I've put 2,500 plus through my SAR-1 without a single jam, including burp firing.

Wolf was made for AKs and SKS rifles. ;)
 
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Bullet difference

The difference is not 1 or 2 grains, but different construction. The 124 JHP is supposedly much better for self defense, as it yaws faster and fragments. I have not had feeding problems with either, although I have seen SKSs that will not feed the heavier 154 gr. soft points.
 
I've never has an ak or sks that wouldn't happily shoot whatever cheap ammo it was fed. I believe that in addition to the couple of grains difference in weight, one is the laquer coated and one the polymer coated? I Imay be wrong on that. In theory the polymer is more reliable I believe, but I've put plenty of the laquer'd through commie guns with no problems--I think it's more AR's where it's likely to make a difference. I did have a laquered one stick in an AR once, never had that happen with the polymer or whatever.
 
Is there still laquered Wolf out there? I haven't seen anything but polymer coated in a long time.

IIRC the lighter bullet is the black box Wolf which, for whatever reason, seems to be a little easier to find than the 124 gr. Military Classic. My SKS with a Kivaari trigger and a Murray FP spring would not fire Wolf at all, but my other SKS and my AK eat it right up.
 
WOLF is made at the same place and in the same factories that made the Cold War era 7.62Combloc stocks of ammo. It is the best stuff for AK type stuff.

My Romanian has had about 1,000 rounds of WOLF fmj down the barrel, and I've only had one ftf. And I think that had more to do with teething issues in a brand new gun (at the time) than any other factor.

You'll find many such responses. Do the WOLF, but beware that some places won't allow you to use it in their ranges. (btw, it'll cut through chunks of metal alot of rounds I've tried won't, cool :evil:)
 
Personally, I can't see why a company would make a round in the same caliber with the same type of bullet with only only 2 gr. of difference in weight. I mean, what kind of difference is that going to make ballistically, 1 or 2 ft. per second?
Click to expand...

WOLF is made at the same place and in the same factories that made the Cold War era 7.62Combloc stocks of ammo. It is the best stuff for AK type stuff.
Click to expand...

Actually, Wolf doesn't make their own ammo, they just export it. It's subcontracted out to one of the ex-state ammo factories (Except for Wolf Gold which is made in the nation formally known as Yugoslavia). Wolf sells enough now that they get their own headstamp (most of the time), but it could be made in any of a number of factories, some with slight differences.

I can't remember which made what, but the black box Wolf is made by a different factory than the camo box Wolf Classic for example, and they have different headstamps.

Here's an interesting, but dated article showing some of the Russian 7.62x39 that's been imported over the years and the different factories it came from:
http://www.ak-47.us/Article_Detail.php?g=content1146681053
 
I just put some Golden Tiger ammo through my Yugo SKS, and it fed just fine. Was kind of smelly, but no problems whatsoever. You can get a box of 20 rounds for around $4, at least around here. I saw some at a gun show for $3.70/box. Good deal, as far as I'm concerned.
 
BruiseLee said:
Plus, I've heard that that lacquer coating can "melt off" in your gun's chamber, leading to extraction problems.
Click to expand...

If you can manage to get the lacquer or polymer coating to melt, I'll be amazed. The Russians (and others) have made gobs of lacquered cases over the years and fired them in vast quantities. If it were an issue, they wouldn't make them for their military and for export.

I saw some site where a person took a spent Wolf case and held it with tongs in the flame of a torch. He kept the case in the flame for several minutes, then attempted to wipe the lacquered coating off with a cloth. No success at all.

I've shot thousands of Wolf rounds, both lacquered and poly-coated, and have found no such melting or residue other than easily-cleaned red sealant residue from around the primer, and the normal powder residue.

I'm getting to the point where I'd recommend getting brass-cased 7.62x39mm ammo (or at least the cases themselves) and reloading it. Sure, the steel-cased ammo is affordable, but you can only use it once. According to Ammoman's current pricing, Federal American Eagle brass-cased 7.62x39mm is only 2.5x more expensive than Wolf ammo. Taking into account primers, powder, and bullets, you'll be saving money after about 3-4 loadings.

That said, Wolf's pretty decent ammo. I've shot it regularly in 9mm, .45 ACP, .223, .308, and 7.62x39mm without issues. It handles well in Browning 1919 belt-feds, full-auto M16s, semi-auto ARs, and AK and SKS rifles that I've used.
 
Wolf black box is made at Tula cartridge works
Wolf military classic is made at Ulyanovsk (the 124-gr stuff), as is Saspan, and I think Golden Tiger. Wolf MC USED to be laquer coated, but is polymer coated now like the rest of the Wolf Line.

The Bears are made at Barnaul.

AKs/SKSs were made with laquer-coated steel-cased ammo as the default type, they don't have a problem with it.

Some have had problems with the Wolf military classic in SKSs: Pierced primers, bent firing pins, etc.
 
After about 3K rounds of Wolf through my various SKSs, I've had one pierced primer (ruining a firing pin) and about a dozen failures to fire (most of which went bang on the second try). The real issue is accuracy. Neither the SKS or AK is a "precision" rifle, but Wolf is far from precision ammo. The combination results in iffy groups. If you just accept that as part of the price of admission on Wolf ammo (and it's about as cheap a new-production round as you can find), then it's great stuff. I have about 4K rounds of it stored up, so you can see what camp I'm in. (But as for my ARs, I don't use Wolf!)
 
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