Dirtiest ammo you've ever shot?

[Garufa]

Often people comment on how dirty a certain brand of ammo is. It's all dirty AFAIK but sometime after using a certain brand, type or vintage you are left wondering "what did they put in this?"

So what's the dirtiest, filthiest, most bore-fouling ammo you've ever used? Black powder doesnt' count.

I'll start. About a year ago Palmetto had a deal on cases of Yugo 7.62x39. Case of 1260 rounds shipped for something like $199. I jumped at the opportunity to feed my Yugo SKS.

Received said bewlitts several days later and anxiously opened the beat up crate. Inside was not a hermetically sealed can of Iron Curtain ammo packaged to last for generations but 84 flimsy white boxes with about 15 rounds apiece of brass cased, lead core, mildly corrosive Yugo ammo. Supposed to be some of the best (and it is). Looks like they were all picked up of some warehouse or cave floor and packed in those cheap boxes. Hands are filthy after loading up a stripper clip, finger black from grime. Each box of 15 has at least 3 or 4 years worth of headstamps, but that's ok as it all comes from the same factory, Prvi Partisan.

When shooting the ammo it's like a musket going off. Smoke everywhere. I think they scooped up powder off the ground, mixed in some dirt, maybe sawdust and Serbian sweat for good measure. It is accurate and sure firing but dang, the clean up is a chore. Patch after patch of black.

[Mike.357]

about 15 rounds apiece

LOL,some had more some had less. I got a crate of it too. Filtheist ammo to handle I have ever had. Still have some! Maybe I need to shoot it more.

I will second this nomination as the dirtiest ever.

[Caster]

Turk 7,92x57 was a tough clean up job. The old Wolf ammo in the white boxes caked up residue too.

But by far was some Carcano ammo I had on the stripper clips. I think they greased the dang things with axle grease. You couldn't read the writing on the box for the saturation.

[kieefer]

Wolf, Brown Bear and some Swiss brand metal casings called Geco. Tula too.

[Guest coldblackwind]

Some sort of russian .22 training ammo surplus. Cases had all been greased with some sort of heavy grease. We ended up running it through 3 10/22's as fast as we could just to get rid of it. Shot something like 3000 rounds up in 3 days between the 3 of us, we weren't even aiming by the end. Of course by the end it was fire a round, work the action by hand, fire a round, work the action by hand. Afterword we had to just about hammer the rifles apart they were so gummed up, and spent a VERY long time cleaning them. Tried it one time in a revolver thinking that might work better, turned out you couldn't get them back out of the cylinder once you fired them! Truly horrible ammo.

Edited May 30, 2011 by coldblackwind

[Caster]

Some sort of russian .22 training ammo surplus. Cases had all be greased with some sort of heavy grease. We ended up running it through 3 10/22's as fast as we could just to get rid of it. Shot something like 3000 rounds up in 3 days between the 3 of us, we weren't even aiming by the end. Of course by the end it was fire a round, work the action by hand, fire a round, work the action by hand. Afterword we had to just about hammer the rifles apart they were so gummed up, and spent a VERY long time cleaning them. Tried it one time in a revolver thinking that might work better, turned out you couldn't get them back out of the cylinder once you fired them! Truly horrible ammo.

They probably worked great in some poorly machined commie trainer junk rifle they were designed for.

[DaveTN]

Wolf, and I'll never do it again. I wouldn’t shoot it in your guns let alone mine.

No matter how cheap it is.

[dou44]

yugo 7.62x39 and 50's yugo 8mm also

[Guest Scramasax]

Some french .45acp I was given in SA. It fouled like bp.

Cheers,

tad

[Caster]

Some french .45acp I was given in SA. It fouled like bp.

Cheers,

tad

Can they get anything right?

[I_Like_Pie]

22 LR ammo...Remington thunderbolt in particular, is filthy ammo.

[mikegideon]

Wolf is the nastiest thing I've shot, but it cleans right up.

[Caster]

Wolf is the nastiest thing I've shot, but it cleans right up.

Something strange I always noticed with Wolf. The poo that it deposits sure is slick. Almost has a slight lubricant value to it....almost. AND, yes, it does clean up pretty easy as long you have plenty of patches and shop rags.

[Guest brandon_pitt]

I'm going to say wolf as well. My ar doesn't agree with that steel cased messiness!

[Volzfan]

I shot some Mag Tech that was the worst.

[mikegideon]

I'm going to say wolf as well. My ar doesn't agree with that steel cased messiness!

Mine don't seem to mind it at all

[turkeydad]

I will have to agree with the yugo m67. . I love the stuff. . but when I shoot it left handed even my face gets nasty

[johnnychimpo]

Pakistani 9mm. This stuff is made by 10yr olds who measure the charge with a coffee scoop.

[peejman]

Some really old Lake City .45acp ammo that was beginning to corrode. Minor corrosion on the cases, bullet noses turning green, etc. About 400 rounds were given to a friend when some family cleaned out an uncle's stash after he passed away. It ran fine through my Taurus and his Glock, but both guns were filthy. After about 150 rds, my SS slide was nearly black along with my hands.

[1gewehr]

Early WWII .50 BMG. We shot some of that a few years ago and each round looked like it was shooting black powder. Huge brown powder smoke clouds! After a 5rd burst from Ma Deuce, we had to wait for the smoke to clear so we could see downrange. But it all fired reliably, and seemed accurate enough.

The good thing about recoil-operated firearms is the powder residue doesn't get in the action as much as with gas-operated weapons. It still took forever to get that M2 clean.

[Caster]

I remember when the market was flooded by that cheap Indian .308 It was pretty cruddy too.

[Guest chimpinator]

Dirtiest I've ever used was Remington Gold hollowpoint .22 ammo. It didn't fowl up the barrel too much but it got my fingers really dirty. Aside from using the ammunition for shooting I also use it to make signs by placing the rounds up on end and writing words out of them. The Rem Gold coated my fingers with a lot of crap. I'd get a little coating on my fingers from other ammo types but nowhere near as much as the Gold.

[dlm37015]

tzz 45 acp used to get lots of that shot very good but very dirty

[bajabuc]

you would have to disqualify black powder because I have a story about some 44 40 rounds my kid found in an old ranch he tore down...and the 44 40 colt single action with a 12xx serial number he found with it.

[Guest 6.8 AR]

Often people comment on how dirty a certain brand of ammo is. It's all dirty AFAIK but sometime after using a certain brand, type or vintage you are left wondering "what did they put in this?"

So what's the dirtiest, filthiest, most bore-fouling ammo you've ever used? Black powder doesnt' count.

I'll start. About a year ago Palmetto had a deal on cases of Yugo 7.62x39. Case of 1260 rounds shipped for something like $199. I jumped at the opportunity to feed my Yugo SKS.

Received said bewlitts several days later and anxiously opened the beat up crate. Inside was not a hermetically sealed can of Iron Curtain ammo packaged to last for generations but 84 flimsy white boxes with about 15 rounds apiece of brass cased, lead core, mildly corrosive Yugo ammo. Supposed to be some of the best (and it is). Looks like they were all picked up of some warehouse or cave floor and packed in those cheap boxes. Hands are filthy after loading up a stripper clip, finger black from grime. Each box of 15 has at least 3 or 4 years worth of headstamps, but that's ok as it all comes from the same factory, Prvi Partisan.

When shooting the ammo it's like a musket going off. Smoke everywhere. I think they scooped up powder off the ground, mixed in some dirt, maybe sawdust and Serbian sweat for good measure. It is accurate and sure firing but dang, the clean up is a chore. Patch after patch of black.

I got lucky with the Yugo 7.62x39, but I guess it could have just been from a good batch. Mine was from Classic Arms,

this year. Relatively clean.

My worst stuff, so far, is Remington 6.8SPC open tip. That stuff stinks and fouls the barrel fast.