For you AK buffs, is there a real difference in quality between the various Russian ammo brands in 7.62x39?
The most common makers I’ve seen are Brown Bear, Silver Bear, Golden Bear, Wolf, and Barnaul. Which one would be considered to be the best overall quality?
Also, is there a steel cased load in the above brands that uses the Yugo M67 bullet design?
Yugo is brass cased, but corrosive.
The difference in quality between the brands is minimal, in my opinion. I believe the chamber is so large on an AK that the quality of the ammo has little impact on accuracy, if that is the “difference” to which you refer.
If you are interested in bullet design and terminal performance, what little testing that has been done is documented in the Terminal Ballistics Forum. I would call most Russian ammo “lethal enough” if shot placement is correct.
M_P
I pretty much agree with MP on the quality of the various brands all being about the same quality. I have found for whatever reason that I have a couple Bulgarian rifles that really like Golden Tiger. Wolf Camo box 124gr is also pretty consistent. I don’t care as much for the 122gr Black box…YMMV Unless you have an AK that is especially accurate, you should be GTG with most surplus.
I have never really noticed the difference and have gone through lots of the stuff. Echoing what is already posted here - Golden Tiger you hear folks speak highly of. Nothing bad going corrosive - just mind your care/cleaning.
Stuff goes bang every time.
I can’t say that I have ever seen a difference in “quality” between the various Russian ammo manufactures but my rifles seem to like Golden Tiger FMJ more than others.
Black box Wolf seems to be on the lowest quality end IMO. It’s underpowered in .223 and .308 calibers although power is good in 7.62x39. Of the brands mentioned it has been least accurate across the board for me. The Poly coating on the cases is prone to rust when stored even in dry environments. If the poly ammo is handled first then stored it is sure to rust up pretty good. For 7.62x39 they use M43 bullets.
Wolf Military Classic - Most out there is now poly coated so it’s also not good for storage like Wolf black box. When Military Classic first came out it was lacquer coated cases and primers. Occasionally you can still find it with lacquer coated cases and primers. The main difference is the Ulyanovsk bullets used. The FMJ version uses a M67 bullet. The HP uses an 8M3 bullet. The 8M3 bulles have a frag range around 90-100 yards out of a 16" barrel. At 200 yards they yaw like a M67 bullet in soft targets and about 1/3 of the time will even mushroom decently. The only drawback is accuracy is similar to Wolf black box. If you are using the 8M3 HP bullet I think it’s worth sacrificing a little accuracy.
Barnaul and the Bear ammos are all lacquer coated cases and primers. With the exception of Silver and Golden Bear. Silver Bear has a thin coat of zinc over the steel cases. They used to use nickel coating until they switched over to zinc. I believe the only caliber in their lineup to still use nickel is 9x18. Golden bear uses a thin coat of brass over the steel case. All the Barnaul and Bear ammo has proved to be more accurate in my guns. They are also not underpowered in any of the calibers I have used. For 7.62x39 FMJ they use M67 bullets. The HP bullets are essentially M67 bullets with the tip cut off. You loose the penetrating power of FMJ on hard targets for having the look of a hollow point. Their HP bullets serve no function.
Personally I think the Barnaul and Vympel (Golden Tiger) lines are better than the Tula (Wolf).
Agreed. Wolf tends to be popular because of marketing, not actual technical superiorty.
That said, I will use Wolf too if it meets my requirements.
