[JohnP]

A lot of the bulk ammo suppliers are out of the most popular brands of ammo and have only lower tier brands left. Are there certain brands that have caused problems and should be avoided or do they work as well as mainstream ammo?

~JohnP

 

[SJack]

John, why do you think the ammo suppliers are out of ammo ?
Is it because the USA is stockpilling ammo just in case TSHTF ?
Is it a coincidence ?
Or do you have your own theory.

 

[rridgeoutlaw]

I don't know if they still sell them but avoid any lead bullets. I had some from the 80's that I decided to shoot up, they will jam your weapon. For some reason they don't like to eject properly. Look for alternative sources such as private dealers.

 

[Cryptkeeper]

for 308 and 7.62 ive always had problems of stovepipeing from silverbear. i dont buy them anymore

.22 remmington gold value packs (walmart) ive gotten alot of duds.will not buy

 

[PAGUY]

Lead is a tough cookie unles it is loaded right. That is to say non jacketed lead is sometimes loaded in a way that many modern firearms care for. As far as brand name goes I can not speak 100% about any of them being bad.

 

[luckyshot]

my weapons don't like CCI ammo..

 

[Grub]

"Bad" ammo is mostly gun specific, most of my .22's won't shoot Remington Bulk pack ammo consistently, while I have one that eats is without problems.

Also, what type of guns do you have? AR's are more picky about cheap ammo than AK's. I Have yet to find anything my AK won't eat...

 

[Heavy G]

I've had problems with PMC .223. It was very dirty and caused some jams. Could just be my gun, though. And it was during the break in period so that might have something to do with it. But I don't buy PMC .223 anymore.

 

[JohnP]

Thanks for the replies. I was thinking mostly 9mm.

~John

 

[Grinnan Barrett]

Most 9MM shouldn't be a problem. I shoot reloads through my Sig and it feeds just fine. Some rounds are a bit dirtier than others. Find the ones that your gun feeds the best and go for that one. I try to store no more than one or two brands per gun. SOme times that does not work. The Russian stuff is hard to judge from one batch to the next. watch out for the coated rounds.

 

[American Chestnut]

I am not buying steel case ammo. I keep hearing from vendors at gunshows that its hard on extractors.....makes sense to me. I am also avoiding Wolf ammo because its very dirty. I'd certainly shoot it (and other steel stuff) if I needed to and I might even buy it if the price was too good to ignore but in genernal I don't buy it.

 

[Oh Shoot]

Ultramaxx has KaBoomed some guns.

- OS

 

[Oh Shoot]

I don't know if they still sell them but avoid any lead bullets.....

Lead is not recommended for sure in polygonal-rifled barrels.
Glocks and most Kahrs for example.

Really not a problem in conventionally rifled handguns and most rifles.
Takes a little more aggressive bore cleaning is all...

- OS

 

[kahn]

7.62 (.308) from Argentina, if you look at the back you'll see " NA o TO" (lower case "o" is the primer" That stuff is machine gun ammo loaded MUCH hotter than NATO spec. It has been known to blow the mags out the bottom and damage HK-91's M-14's and FAL's. Then there is the occasional round that's so under loaded that the round doesn't exit the barrel, its kinda like the powder hopper at the factory ran out and nobody refilled it in time........ Avoid that stuff at all cost. I never has a mag blow out with the HK-91 but it did take a LONG time to get that stuck round back out.

 

[kahn]

I am not buying steel case ammo. I keep hearing from vendors at gunshows that its hard on extractors.....makes sense to me. I am also avoiding Wolf ammo because its very dirty. I'd certainly shoot it (and other steel stuff) if I needed to and I might even buy it if the price was too good to ignore but in genernal I don't buy it.

Extractors are cheap, buy several. I own a AR with well over 8k rounds of Wolf through it, no problems what so ever, just a little dirty and the powder smells funny. The steel they use is very mild, you can bend it just as easily as brass.

 

[JRNC26]

Avoid Indian 7.62 (.308win) made in the 90's.Theres alot of stories floating around about rifles blowing up from this junk.Indian ammo from the 70's is okay since there factories were under british supervision.

 

[NEWGUY556]

Extractors are cheap, buy several. I own a AR with well over 8k rounds of Wolf through it, no problems what so ever, just a little dirty and the powder smells funny. The steel they use is very mild, you can bend it just as easily as brass.

Some of the older wolf .223 had a laquer coating on the casings. It was thought that the laquer would stick inside the throat of the rifle and cause stuck cases. The newer stuff has a different coating, I have shot over 1000 rnds of that stuff and not had any problems other than it is dirty.
I bought a case of wolf 12gauge shotgun shells to use for a combat shotgun match, after about 3-4 shots (rapid) the extractor on my 870 would tear of the rim of the spent casing and It was stuck. This happend on 2-stages before I bought some different ammo from another compettitor. My friend was using the same stuff in his Mossberg and did not have any trouble.
The bulk Remington .22's suck in just about all of my .22's except my AR conversion kit. The Remingtons are the cheapest ammo it will function with. Federal stovepipes about every other round. Any of the premium 22's work great in it.

 

[smoothED]

Don't buy any of that old 8x57 (8mm Mauser) in the cotton bandoleers. Its real cheap but 3 out of 10 are duds.

 

[Brother Buck]

Avoid Indian 7.62 (.308win) made in the 90's.

Can not be repeated often enough!
Indian ammo SUCKS!
As far as mass produced ammo avoid American Ammo brand remanufactured ammo of any caliber.
Sportsmansguide and a few others were selling it dirt cheap and it looks like a deal but it's not.
It has copper washed bullets, not copper jacket, copper washed.
The inconsistencies in the several different boxes I have seen were amazing.
They have awful QC.

 

[MIL-DOT]

A company called American Ammunition. I grabbed a few boxes of .40 at a gunshow way back, can't bring myself to toss it, but won't shoot it,either.
I've read numerous reports over several years about this stuff ranging from unreliable to downright dangerous.