Brown Bear Ammunition?

AR/M4 AR General Discussion
1

Hey all, this is my first post.

I have had a DPMS type M4 for about a year now and love it. I go through quite alot of .223 (around 5000 rounds this year). Because of the cost of ammunition right now I usually turn to the cheap rounds since I simply can’t afford $18.00 per 20 round box.

My local 2nd Ammendment store had some new Brown Bear which I had never tried come in so I shot about 100 rounds just to try it out. Had no problems at all, and my rifle on later inspection was MUCH cleaner than say the Remmington at Wally World for $7.00 a box. No ammo associated failures since I’ve been shooting this stuff (which has been about 2000 rounds), which is contrary to what I keep hearing form co-workers who say that Brown Bear’s steel cases will screw up my upper reciever.

I guess my question(s) is: Have you ever tried Brown bear? Do you like it? Any problems while shooting it? I can say personally that with my DPMS rifle there are no ill side effects as of yet and I’d like to know what other manufactuer’s rifles might be experiencing any problems w/ it.

I’m loving this stuff so far since it only cost me $336 for 2000 rounds on my latest purchase from SportsmansGuide.com:smiley:

2

If your M4 runs good with it then use it.
From what I found back in the late '90s when I used to shoot wolf was that the finish on the case would gum up the chamber area some. I would not leave a round in a hot chamber. After I shot I would remove the mag and eject that round. I had some failure to eject’s if I did not do that and I replaced an extractor but I can’t remeber the full reason why. But remember also that that was the old style wolf ammo.
The new stuff should be fine for training.

3

Yeah I can see some gumming being an issue with the laquer coating on the steel case if you repeatedly reload and chamber after a rapid fire. Usually my rifle sits for around five minutes while I mark/change targets.

I’m pretty meticulous on how I clean and inspect my rifle after each shooting considering the volume of rounds that go through it. So far no problems but after the next 2,000 rounds I’ll post any negatives from shooting Brown Bear…but for the moment this is a great cheap round for me to blow through.

BTW, I shoot Black Hills when I can afford it and the difference in groupings is negligible when shot from my rifle.

4

I’m about to buy 1000 rounds of this myself. I’ve been shooting Monarch from Academy, which from what I understand is the equivalent to Wolf or Brown Bear, with no problems through my Armalite M-15A4 without any problems. It’s pretty dirty ammo, and it seems to take me a little longer to clean my rifle, but for the price, that’s all I have been able to afford. Hopefully the Brown Bear shoots as well as the Monarch.

5

I shot some Silver Bear (I think) last year and it was ok aside from some issues with feeding from tip drag on the SP rounds.

6

WOW, Is that a good price for steel cased ammo is costing these days?

I have some 855 I bought last year for less. My ammo is doing better than my mutual funds.

My advice is find out what your gun shoots well, and STOCK UP.

7

I’m going to keep buying every box of Monarch that Academy gets in for that reason. My gun does well with it, so I’m going to keep buying it.

Are you buying the 62gr. Brown Bear?

8

Yeah, 62 grain. The UPS guy delivered it all today, and for some reason the casings look alot different then the previous batch I bought…more like old surplus.

…We’ll see how it shoots.

9

I’ve had good luck with Brown Bear and Silver Bear in my Bushmaster M4 with zero problems. With Wolf ammo, at times I’ll get a few rounds that I have to Punch out myself with a cleaning rod, it only happens when I start shooting over a hundred or so Wolf rounds and then the jams start to happen.

It never happens with the Bear ammo or brass ammo. I have around 6,000 rounds through the Bushy and only Wolf will cause a problem after shooting more than 100 rounds or so of Wolf.

I’m now doing my own reloading and will keep the Wolf ammo to try in my POF when it gets here and see if I have the same problem. For now I’m not buying any more Wolf ammo but will buy all the Bear ammo I can afford, IMHO it’s better then Wolf.

Robert

10

Bump…anymore reports on this stuff?

11

ive never had any problems running brown bear through most rifles and subguns. but the brown bear is is a no go for most pistols.

12

I run the brown bear stuff in my Glock all the time, but have yet to try some in an AR.

I plan on trying some from aimsurplus soon.

13

I’ve gone through a few cases of brown bear and silver bear in 62 grn. It’s good ammo. No problems encountered. I’ve found that the SPs shoot the tightest groups.

14

I just bought a couple hundred rounds that I plan to shoot within the next couple of weeks or so. We’ll see…

15

if it runs i in your weapon i would buy it.

i have a couple old bushmasters that were made in the late 80’s that have fired thousands and thousands of rounds of wolf, silver bear, brown bear and the like. can’t say that they have had much problem shooting it up.

i just ran about 240 rounds of wolf polymer and about 60 rounds or silver bear through my brand new CDD D4MLE build. nary a cough with it.

as far as being dirty–most of the ball powder stuff is dirty --i think the most dirty mill surp ammo i ever tried was some of the greek stuff that was in the bottom of the deep discount bin about 10 or so years ago–

the crap was so dirty it would foul out a bolt action!!!