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Finally Tried ZQI 5.56 from Walmart

SubieGuy4

SubieGuy4

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(Blah) I'm guessing I'm not the only one who's seen the new ZQI ammo in white boxes at Walmart and has sort of avoided it. Well I was on the way to the range to re-check my AR zero and only had 15 rounds of 5.56 with me, so I stopped to get some more. I didn't want to pay much and they had a 30-round box of ZQI 5.56 for $9.98 on rollback. Hard to beat $0.33/round unless you're buying in bulk, so I figured I'd try it out (I refuse to pay over $0.40/round even in a pinch and everything else is more than that).

(Blah Blah) I didn't test for velocity or anything. I just stuck the gun on sandbags and was zeroing for 50 yards with my Aimpoint PRO. A red dot isn't the most precise optic type for reporting accuracy, but that made the results that much more impressive.

(Blah Blah Blah) My barrel is a Daniel Defense 16" CHF, chrome lined, 1:7 with gov't profile and mid-length gas system. MK262 Mod1 will shoot .7MOA from my barrel. In my experience XM193 and XM855 both do about 3.0MOA or there-abouts. One this particular range trip, my 15 rounds of XM193 was coming in around 1.5" at 50 yards.

(Is It Good or Not?!) I was shocked when I opened up the ZQI and shot a 5-round group. I wasn't measuring with a ruler, but was using a rife target with the 1" squares so it's easy to see approximate group size. The first group was ~0.75" @50yds. The second and third were tighter, coming in somewhere around .6". Bear in mind my dot size is 1" at 50 yards, so I'm betting it had more to offer with a magnified optic to help this shooter. Still, I'm pretty thrilled with near-MOA accuracy for bulk .223 cost.

(Bottom Line?) Going forward, ZQI will be my first choice when I'm at Walmart, if I don't specifically need 55gr (ZQI 5.56 is 62gr). I prefer to buy American, but Winchester and Federal be damned, charging nearly twice as much for half the accuracy. If I want real accuracy I'll still buy Black Hills 77gr, and if I'm buying in bulk I'll still buy Federal .223 or 5.56, but I'll happily send my Walmart-ammo money to the Turks as long as the keep sending their ammo to Walmart at that price. I'll be trying the 9mm next.

It also fed and ejected the same as my XM193..
 
Great now everyone's gonna buy it.....
Great stuff at a great price, I've been buying the .308 too my m1a eats it up
 
CMEBoston said:
Great now everyone's gonna buy it.....
Great stuff at a great price, I've been buying the .308 too my m1a eats it up
Click to expand...

Well no one at my Walmart has been buying it so I'm the only one with something to lose. And with plenty of bulk .223 on hand for the range, I don't need much additional 5.56. That said... now I'm wondering if I'll regret posting, haha.
 
SubieGuy4 said:
Well no one at my Walmart has been buying it so I'm the only one with something to lose. And with plenty of bulk .223 on hand for the range, I don't need much additional 5.56. That said... now I'm wondering if I'll regret posting, haha.
Click to expand...

I was just kidding. $.33 per round and reloadable annealed cases..... Who cares if it's made in turkey it's shoots it's clean and it's reloadable.
 
Good to hear.

I'm glad to hear back good reviews on it. I tend to shy away from NATO sized ammo made outside of the Cold War era NATO countries. Perhaps an unfair stereotype but in my experience, it's always hotter and dirtier that I'd like.
 
is this ammo actual surplus Nato? be nice if this ammo is consistant. I would like to see somein expensive brass cased ammo that at least is consistant even if its 2moa! sadly the mil specs for accuracy are on the loose side. Over on milsurps.com you can read about it.loosely translated its 4moa or better.

I had good luck with the IMI stuff few years back. fed M855 has been hit or miss.
All of it has been minute of hit on target which is the Nato/ milspec standard.

so run back and clean out the shelf next lot might be so good.
 
mac1911 said:
is this ammo actual surplus Nato? be nice if this ammo is consistant. I would like to see somein expensive brass cased ammo that at least is consistant even if its 2moa! sadly the mil specs for accuracy are on the loose side. Over on milsurps.com you can read about it.loosely translated its 4moa or better.

I had good luck with the IMI stuff few years back. fed M855 has been hit or miss.
All of it has been minute of hit on target which is the Nato/ milspec standard.

so run back and clean out the shelf next lot might be so good.
Click to expand...

It's not marked with the ball and cross, but it does have annealed necks, crimped primer pocket and a thick base. Read some stories online about loose primer pockets se we will see when I go to reload some. But I got a few thousand LC cases to go through first. Maybe I'll do a test batch next week.
 
The 123gr., brass cased, 9mm, ZQ1 that I picked up works fine, is as accurate as any other hard ball that I use and is $4.25 less than the cheapest Blazer Brass 9mm that I've seen. When you buy 30 boxes at crack, that $ 4.25 per box savings adds up. I wish that they made .45 acp.
 
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I've been using their 5.56 for a while and it's good ammo. Better then it should be for the price. Also, you can find it in both 62gr and 55gr. Great range ammo if you want an inexpensive alternative to steel cased stuff.
 
I bought two boxes of 7.62 NATO made by ZQ1 for my FAL but I haven't shot it yet. It seems to be good quality ammo.

I bought a few boxes of 9mm which ran fine in my G19, and also in the MP38 I got to shoot at the PBVI. I will probably buy more of this stuff.
 
45collector said:
I bought two boxes of 7.62 NATO made by ZQ1 for my FAL but I haven't shot it yet. It seems to be good quality ammo.

I bought a few boxes of 9mm which ran fine in my G19, and also in the MP38 I got to shoot at the PBVI. I will probably buy more of this stuff.
Click to expand...

7.62 runs in my M1A just fine, but ive yet to try and get an idea of grouping.
 
I have found the ZQ 9mm seems to have a harder primer than most. I get light primer strikes with my p938 that I hadn't gotten with any other brand of ammo. It runs great in my berretta 92 and cx4
 
Tried the 9mm once and won't try it again. 5 rounds (10% of the box) had really hard primers and didn't fire in spite of substantial dents in the primer. They did light off the second time. I am convinced 1 round had a double powder charge based on the blast. It was considerably louder with more flash than the others. I'm glad it's working for others but I won't use it again.
 
Had 3 FTFs due to hard primers, out of an 8 rnd mag of their 9mm. That was in my RIA Tac9 compact. Gave the rest of it to my son, and he loves it in his S&W Shield. He's run about 5 boxes thru two of his S&Ws with no issues.
 
Kisspik002 said:
I have shot the ZQI 9mm and it shot great out of my Glock
Click to expand...

Just tried the 9mm and it seemed EXTREMELY hot. I tried running it over my chrono but I had iffy light so I'm thinking (hoping?) it was reading wrong. I was getting over 1400fps and its 123gr ammo. If that's right that would be like +P+. I must say the recoil felt like it could be that hot. It felt snappier than a .40.
 
SubieGuy4 said:
Just tried the 9mm and it seemed EXTREMELY hot. I tried running it over my chrono but I had iffy light so I'm thinking (hoping?) it was reading wrong. I was getting over 1400fps and its 123gr ammo. If that's right that would be like +P+. I must say the recoil felt like it could be that hot. It felt snappier than a .40.
Click to expand...
It did seem slightly hotter than normal range 9mm.
 
If i owned a budget pistol like Hi-point or Kel-tec i would be wary of feeding it too much of the ZQI NATO 9mm, i should try some in the VP9 and see how it likes it for food. Some walmarts are absolutely stuffed with boxes of the stuff and it is the next most thrifty of 9mm after the federal aluminum stuff.
 
Supposedly it's l NATO spec ammunition, I know 5.56 runs higher pressures than 223, is it the same case with 9 mm?
 
from the ruger sr series owners manual:

"No 9mm parrabellum, .40 s&w or .45 auto ammunition manufactured in accordance with NATO, U.S., SAAMI, or CIP standards is known to be beyond the design limits or known not to function in these pistols."

that said i have used ZQ in my sr9c with no issues, but as per the SAAMI link i would not try it in an older pistol.
 

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