Russian 223 ammo?

[Guest hawkeye10]

Got a new to me AR15 yesterday and I have heard that Russian ammo does not cycle in AR's very good. I have a friend that shoots Wolf in his AR with no problem. What say you guys? I need more than one opinion. My AR is a S&W M&P15. It's the first AR I have owned. Don

[Mike]

If your rifle won't run with steel cased ammunition there is something wrong with it...

Mike

[MacGyver]

Wolf has a bad reputation from the days when their cases were lacquered. They were rumored to cause a lot of problems, though I expect in reality, it was one of those "I know a guy" things. So long as you don't plan to reload, shooting steel cased ammo shouldn't cause any problems other than maybe some accelerated extractor wear.

[Guest Ceolas]

Shot steel cased Tula ammo through a cheap DPMS AR last week with no issues...

[1gewehr]

Back when Wolf sold Lacquered steel case ammo, I had extraction problems with my AR-15 and 1911 using it. Since they started using the polymer coating, I've never had a problem. I've also never heard of an extractor being pre-maturely worn. The steel case is much softer than the steel of the extractor.

[Troutburger]

I've never had an issue with any Wolf ammo.

Had a Sig 556 that did not like to feed it...sold the sig problem solved. Works great in my AR's.

[JReedEsq]

If your rifle won't run with steel cased ammunition there is something wrong with it...

Mike

+1; I've had no problems at all shooting Wal-mart TULA in .223 and 9mm. I do have a problem with guns that are finicky about ammo.

[Guest bkelm18]

If your rifle won't run with steel cased ammunition there is something wrong with it...

Mike

Ditto. Back when I had an AR, I shot maybe a couple thousand rounds of Wolf through it with no issues.

[G27]

My AR eats the stuff like candy. I've gone through a few thousand rounds of Silver bear on several occasions without cleaning. Buy it cheap...

[Oh Shoot]

Monarch .223 from Academy is still lacquer coated, the only currently manufactured Russian stuff I still see that is. But my Mini14s like it fine. 'Bout same price as the polymer coated Tula from Wally's though. Just that they generally always have it in stock unlike Wally, which may be hit or miss.

- OS

[mikegideon]

Wolf works fine in my rifles.

[broylz]

wolf works fine in my rifles too. make sure you get the grey poly stuff and not the green laquer stuff and you should be fine. i buy mine from AIMsurplus.com for 185/k.

[mikegideon]

There's only one thing I've heard. So far, I haven't had a chance to check for myself. They say that because the steel doesn't expand quite as well as brass, it doesn't seal quite as well against the chamber wall. So, you develop a layer of powder residue on the chamber wall. No biggie as long as you're shooting steel. You MAY have a problem with brass casings sticking to the chamber wall after shooting a bunch of steel if you don't clean the chamber first.

[TN Outlaw]

i have used wolf, silver bear and Tula without a problem

[Guest hawkeye10]

There's only one thing I've heard. So far, I haven't had a chance to check for myself. They say that because the steel doesn't expand quite as well as brass, it doesn't seal quite as well against the chamber wall. So, you develop a layer of powder residue on the chamber wall. No biggie as long as you're shooting steel. You MAY have a problem with brass casings sticking to the chamber wall after shooting a bunch of steel if you don't clean the chamber first.

I have heard the same thing Mike. If you think about it that makes a lot of sense. Don

[gregintenn]

I've heard all this bad stuff said about Russian ammo, but I've found that it shoots great in any gun I've fired it in. Bad rumors travel very fast. Most of the people I've heard this stuff from have never actually fired any.

I've fired steel cased commercial Russian ammo in 7.62x39, 7.62x54R, 223, and 45 ACP with satisfactoy results.

[Raoul]

No problem in my AR. It eats it just fine.

[sigrug17]

Wolf runs fine in my spikes AR ( it eats anything ). I've ripped a few lips off the end of the cartridge with my SR-556....don't matter to me though..I feed brass thru it anyways = no probs whatsoever.

[MiddTennTaco]

I ran about 100 rounds of Walmart Tula .223 combined with a couple hundred PMC .223 through my Colt AR-15 with no problems at all. My gun was just as dirty as it usually is.

However, I figured the amount of money saved buying steel case VS buying cheap PMC or AE was negligible. At least with the brass stuff you can reload/sell. Also, just the fact that the steel is harder than regular brass... running it through my gun kind of worries me.

[oldogy]

Mine likes the Brown Bear just fine. About a hundred flawless rounds through it just yesterday

oldogy

[vballdust]

My AR likes Wolf too. If I shoot more that 250 rounds in one trip to the range, it starts to hiccup though. The Wolf stuff is a little dirtier than Lake City and reloads. As long as your keeping your rifle clean, it should shoot it fine.

Good luck

[broylz]

i think many people over worry about the hardness of steel cases. ive heard some claim that it would tear up a chammber etc... but steel comes it all types of alloys and im almost certain that steel cased ammo isnt as hard as barrrel steel so it should not do any damage.

[mikegideon]

i think many people over worry about the hardness of steel cases. ive heard some claim that it would tear up a chammber etc... but steel comes it all types of alloys and im almost certain that steel cased ammo isnt as hard as barrrel steel so it should not do any damage.

I wouldn't shoot it in my varmint AR, but there's no point in doing that anyway. My chrome lined carbines love it. Fact is, even if it DOES shorten barrel life some, I'm money ahead.

[Oh Shoot]

AR/AK/Mini/SKS owners who don't shoot foreign steel cased ammo obviously have pockets deep enough to do it, but I'd say without the steady supply of the steel cased stuff, there would be a helluva lot fewer of them sold.

- OS

Edited November 3, 2011 by OhShoot

[mikegideon]

AR/AK/Mini/SKS owners who don't shoot foreign steel cased ammo obviously have pockets deep enough to do it, but I'd say without the steady supply of the steel cased stuff, there would be a helluva lot fewer of them sold.

- OS

You can probably reload them that cheap. I've been loading .223 lately, but wouldn't want to load noise makers with my gear. If I was worried about my rifles, I would probably get a progressive and go to it.