Hey all, looking into buying some cheap ammo again and stumbled across Brown Bear 55gr FMJ and 62gr HP. Pretty cheap, thinking I might buy some up and save it for a class later on.
Any thoughts on the ammo or if it’s worth buying? Stick to the 55gr. FMJ or the 62gr. HP?
Thanks.
cheapest steel ive seen is golden tiger 55gr for $180/1k at wideners. Steel case should fine, never had a problem in any of my rifles with steel case, even my ACR
I’m seeing $194 for 1k for the 55gr. FMJ and $204 for 1K for the 62gr. HP.
Not a big difference, but I’m wondering if the 62gr. would be a better choice or if it would have feeding issues or what.
shouldnt have issues
Golden Tiger is the best of the Russian ammo IMO and I have shot alot of the Bear Brands and Wolf.
Right now I’m just looking at the brown bear. Overall, you don’t have any issues with it or recommend not using it?
I’ve fired several thousands of rounds (sorry, lost count) of the Brown Bear 62 gr HP with no issues other than not cycling in a 20" stainless barreled upper with rifle length gas system. Same upper ran fine with brass cased stuff and the Brown Bear ran fine through chrome-lined barreled uppers.
I’ve also gone through several thousand (4K+) rounds of Wolff 55 gr FMJ with no issues through chrome-lined barreled uppers.
Just bought several cases of the Golden Tiger but have yet to shoot it, will know in a few days how it performs.
Russian ammo is cheap and not as good as brass cased stuff but the quality is consistent. IMO, if your gun can shoot it- it will shoot it all day long.
This part is interesting. Ever figure out why it wouldn’t cycle in the 20" upper? Under powered?
I actually have the same issue when running Wolf through my 20" Stainless Barreld rifle. My chrome lined barreled guns run 100% on steel cased ammo, but my 20" just won’t feed it.
I was thinking it may be more of an issue for Stainless barrels, however one of my shooting buddies runs a Barnes Precision AR with Wolf, Brown Bear and Silver Bear and has no issues. The Barnes guns use stainless Rock Creek barrels so that rules out the issue of barrel material.
I’ve shot a lot of 55/62 gr Brown Bear out of my old 16" LMT and my current 14.5 Colt upper with no problems, it’s my training and plinking ammo of choice.
Any ideas if Golden Tiger is the same thing as Brown Bear, Barnauls, or Monarch manufacturer wise? There’s a lot of ammo lines with different names but from the same factory.
The Golden Tiger is Vymperl and the Bear is Ulaynosky. Wolf is mainly Tula.
The Vymperl plant is the most modern ammo plant in Russia. I havent tested it myself for any kind of accuracy but others have said it is the most consistent.
It is still a bit like looking for virtue amongst ladies of ill-repute to look for accuracy amongst russian blasting ammo.
For $180, you can’t go wrong with the Tiger IMO.
My bet is that the stainless barrel doesn’t have a 5.56x45 chamber. When people buy stainless barrels, they’re generally wanting something very accurate, and that usually involves a slightly tighter chamber.
I began having excessive stuck case issues with Wolf of all weights/types in guns that previously ran it just fine for thousands of rounds leading me to believe there has been a QC change at Wolf. Im am currently trying Brown Bear 62 grain HP. I have not encountered any stuck cases with the Brown Bear to date and am 1/4 way into my second case now. I will not trust it completely until it gets me through a three day class without issue, but for now it’s serving my needs.
I have seen the 55 grain prices ~$200 mark and have been tempted, similar the Golden Tiger stuff, but haven’t used either extensively as of yet.
It didn’t run long enough to get a stuck case so I think it was more likely that it was underpowered with the rifle length gas system.
Tried the Golden Tiger stuff this morning and it was short stroking with a mid-length upper. Upper ran fine with ultramax reloads.
Golden Tiger ran fine in my carbine length back up AR.
Brown Bear 62gr is my exclusive training ammo. Last 3 carbine classes no issues at all in my LWRC 16" and 10.5"
I never worry about leaving my brass behind which I know is very warped logic from an avid reloader.
Just bought 2k rounds of Silver bear 62 grain hollow point.
1,000 rounds for $206 I think. Never had a problem .
pb
I’ve fired about 4K of Brown Bear in total, 2K this year and more than 20+K of Wolf in the past 4 years or so. Although I’ve only had a few issues with using Wolf, mostly with bad mags causing double feeds and a few stuck cases, I’ve had zero issues with BB in .223 and 9mm so far. I have run Wolf at every formal class and informal practice, but reason for my switch was Wolf is (was) being sold at ridiculously high prices at most places until recently.