7.62x39 ammo, just for the hell of it...

greencobra

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is there really anything wrong with either brand, tulammo or red army standard? me, i don't think so, not for what i do with it, just pound targets and steel no farther away than 75 yds. and for the amount of tulammo i've lobbed downrange, never ran into any of that defective stuff you hear about due to their quality control...or lack of it. i still have a nice quantity of each brand i pull from when i head to the range. so, just wondering about other opinions of these 2 brands.
 
Red Army Standard is just the name Century imports ammo under, it can come from a variety of places.

I've just found Tulammo to be quite inaccurate and dirty, but functional.

Golden Tiger manufactured at Vympel is probably my overall favorite.
 
I've never used Red Army Standard ammo.

I have used Tulammo and its probably the most inconsistent brand of factory, non-remanufactured ammo that's regularly on the market. Because its inconsistent, I wouldn't recommend stockpiling a ton of it unless you get a great deal on it and you realize that the ammo is crap. It works fine for plinking purposes, I would just be mindful of potential issues like squibs - again, its inconsistent. I wouldn't take it to a class or match or rely on it for hunting or self-defense.

I have also used PPU FMJ and PSP 7.62x39. PPU ammo is relatively lower in recoil because its loaded weakly. Seems consistent but weak. I'd be curious about chronographing it versus more typical 7.62x39 like Barnaul, Wolf, Tulammo, Brown Bear, Golden Tiger, etc. I experienced a squib in factory PPU PSP that didn't cause any harm to myself or my gun.

Most of the 7.62x39 I've shot is Barnaul. It works fine.
 
Sometimes I think Tula criticism is more internet lore than reality. I’ve put thousands, maybe tens of thousands, of Tula rounds through various AKs without issue. I’m not a good enough shot to see any grouping size difference at 100m.

My preference is Golden Tiger, if nothing else because I prefer lacquered cases for storage. But concerns about any Russian 7.62 brand is probably much ado about nothing.




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I'm not much of a shot, so I don't notice much deviation among brands. Say, maybe I can use this as an excuse from here on out.
I do know that I was looking through my x39mm reloads for berdan-primed cases (that I won't object to leaving behind at a match) and came across some "97 ZI" brass cased reloads. I popped one off to verify primer type. Yes, berdan. Head stamp must be Zimbabwe, as there is no record of an "IZ", that I can find. Imagine that!

All I know is that the zinc-coated cases (Silver Bear) tend to oxidize rather soon while stored.
 
As for Barnaul (I don't think it was an ammo issue, but who knows?), I know a fella that was loading magazines with their .45 Auto ammo with an ETS mag loader and a round lit off! Ouch! Bullet hit the ceiling and fell to the floor. Minor cuts on his hand, but nothing serious, fortunately. I don't think it went off inside the magazine, else he would have sent a pic, too...?

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Sometimes I think Tula criticism is more internet lore than reality. I’ve put thousands, maybe tens of thousands, of Tula rounds through various AKs without issue.

RobSki on AKOU has a 7.62x39 ammo evaluation series where he tested ammo consistency, which is indicative of ammo reliability and accuracy. Tulammo was near the bottom. There's like four or five videos, I'm sure you can find them and see what you think of his results.

I've personally never had a function issue with Tula, I just have no reason to buy it over Barnaul or Brown Bear or whatever.
 
I can’t find a difference between them. I’ve got Tula wolf red army and golden tiger at the moment. The purple primer and bullet sealant with GT gets all over the internals and top of the magazine/follower but maybe that’s because it’s purple not black so it stands out.

Can’t remember but either Tula or Wolf seems to be flashier than the other. I don’t give a shit though.

All brands work fine for me which is consistently hitting an 8" steel plate at 120 yards.
 
I've tried almost all 7.62x39 I could find, I have red army too not shown (old pic). Haven't bought any brown bear yet. I have some belom I haven't tried yet too

Hornady and ppu were the best, but for European I'd say Golden bear -> wolf HP -> wolf 124 sp -> other wolf / tulammo/red army.


Ive had 0 issues with any of it though


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I was pleasantly surprised at Red Army ammo. I picked up a couple of boxes at the LGS about a year ago because I wanted to test it in my AR. I usually shoot Golden Tiger but the primers are very hard and with the nice trigger I have in the AR, the hammer doesn't hit the primer hard enough to set it off most of the time. Gotta go twice which is a show stopper, so I wanted to see if I could find something else that was as accurate but would function in the AR. The Red Army ammo fit that bill! Every round went off first time and accuracy was great so I went back and bought a case to shoot with the AR and kept the GT to use with the AK & SKS.
 
Have you found hollow-points to be more accurate than FMJ?
It seems to be a little better, but with my rifle it really hasnt been too much a difference so far. I still need to do a more official ranking of each type sometime this summer
 
Have you found hollow-points to be more accurate than FMJ?
highly dependent of what you call accurate for most 7.62x39 platforms
I have a bunch of Norinco hollow points that will actually group well out of my Norinco AK and russian sks
After that the only 7.62x39 ammo I have shot in 30 plus years that I call accurate is the 90s yugo /ppu corrosive surplus and some and this stuff
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I only have (3) SKS that use 7.62x39 so it's a round I'm always looking for. I got some Golden Tiger, two cases from Four Seasons about ten years ago. The clerk, Matt DeVito, introduced me to the only other guy in the store with a hand truck, LenS. I had lurked for a year and finally went Green, so meeting LenS after reading so many of his posts, I was star struck.
Anyway, I've also fired some Brown Bear, Tula, Wolf, Red Army and maybe some Herters.
I like Golden Tiger the best, but I haven't seen it in years. The Brown Bear and Wolf were okay, the Tula just seems to be dirty. I got a broken box of Red Army from Target as a Mystery Can gift. It was only 20 Rounds but it seemed okay. I can't remember if I had any Herters or not. I know I had it in .223 & 308 Win, in those two caliber's it was dirty.
 
I have a bunch of Norinco hollow points that will actually group well out of my Norinco AK and russian sks
I got a hold of several thousand rounds of norinco 5.56 a long time ago...some of the best ammo out of my ar. and I found out later my manager in work shot military hi power matches using norinco 5.56 exclusively. not surprised the 7.62x39 worked well for you. the 5.56 norinco was brass cased also, something I wouldn't have expected. i've never seen another round of norinco since...is all their ammo brass cased or steel?
 
I got a hold of several thousand rounds of norinco 5.56 a long time ago...some of the best ammo out of my ar. and I found out later my manager in work shot military hi power matches using norinco 5.56 exclusively. not surprised the 7.62x39 worked well for you. the 5.56 norinco was brass cased also, something I wouldn't have expected. i've never seen another round of norinco since...is all their ammo brass cased or steel?
I have never seen brass Norinco always copper washed steel
 
"Give me the cheapest shit you have in 7.62x39!" I can't recall ever having a misfire in any brand I've shot through my AKs. Not sure about accuracy as I'm shooting steel plates for fun...
I have had “miss fires” but did not give a shit. Especially when the AK and SKS where the only center fire guns I had. Tou could pick up the corrosive shit for $100 or less per 1000 rounds and the “hunting” ammo was about $30 more and supposed to be none corrosive.
Miss fire, rack it , let it fly and keep on shooting
 
I have had “miss fires” but did not give a shit. Especially when the AK and SKS where the only center fire guns I had. Tou could pick up the corrosive shit for $100 or less per 1000 rounds and the “hunting” ammo was about $30 more and supposed to be none corrosive.
Miss fire, rack it , let it fly and keep on shooting
price now seems to be down to 27.5cpr on most steel x39 - still a bit high, but, some time ago a cci .22lr was at that level.
 
"Give me the cheapest shit you have in 7.62x39!" I can't recall ever having a misfire in any brand I've shot through my AKs. Not sure about accuracy as I'm shooting steel plates for fun...

This.

Received wisdom back when I was getting into x39 was that the "animal brands" (Wolf, Brown Bear) were somehow better or more reliable, but to be honest I've always just bought whatever was cheapest and every single round has gone bang at my end and DING at the gong.

My standards are fairly low for accuracy but high for reliability, which makes x39 my ideal round.
 
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