AK 47 Ammo Help...

Spekter

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I'm new to AK pattern rifles, always cursed getting into a new caliber...but i picked up the IWI Galil Ace in 7.62x39 when classic sold them for $999. I know very little about them, and have been researching like crazy. I am aware that this rifle isnt exactly an AK....i get it, but its very similar. From what i have read steel cased ammo is great for AK's and the rifles are designed with steel cases in mind. I understand the basics between corrosive and non-corrosive, berdan and boxer primed, etc.

What i want is REAL experience and REAL knowledge. I want to know what ammo is best to stock up on. Best to me, is reliable that it goes bang every time and minute of man accurate out to 100 or 200 yards. Also, needs to be decent for longterm storage...5-10 years. Cheap is also very important. Teach me and tell me about your ammo experience, whats good and what would you buy. Id like to buy/trade for about 2000 rounds, for now, of good plinking ammo and something that if SHTF...i can rely on to handle threats, etc.

Please do not tell me what you have "heard" as im sure I've read the same and/or opposite viewpoint. I've heard golden tiger is notorious for having strong primers that can be overly hard to ignite...but i have no experience. Ive heard brown bear is a good in the middle, and tula/wolf can depend, etc. I want to know your experiences. I am very aware from other rifles, that some guns just do better with certain weights/brands etc. I want to try multiple brands/weights, etc. to test...but want to know what has worked for you.

Thanks guys...and if you have a good sample of several and want to trade send me a PM. I know this isnt the BST section, but thought I'd throw it in. I've got ammo, mags, and a couple pistols or rifles.
 
Ohhh buddy are you in for a cornucopia of conjecture!

I've been shooting 7.62x39 for close to 20 years now, and I've owned and shot milsurp guns and ammo from just about every combloc nation of manufacture, along with most of the current off-the-shelf stuff available to us peasants as well. And my definitive answer to you is ... it depends.

Generally speaking, you'll be fine with Wolf variants, Bear (brown, silver, and gold), Monarch (Academy Sports exclusive Barnaul factory) and Red Army Standard (new stuff is former Golden Tiger/Vympel factory). Some guys like Tula but I don't buy it because I've had a few problems with it - more so than the options I just mentioned. For stacking, I generally look for lacquered steel case with sealed necks and primers (GT, RAS, and Wolf milspec green box, among others). Don't worry about lacquered stuff - the claims that lacquer gums up your gun's action are myths. If you can't find lacquered and sealed ammo too easily, your next long-term storage bet is to buy sealed spam cans. You can find these cans from all the major factories and brand names. I also have some brass cased rounds in storage, but I wouldn't suggest you stock up on this right now. No need to shoot the more expensive brass, but if you buy some save your spent casings for reloading or selling/trading down the road.

For me personally, I shoot about 90% Barnaul (Wolf) and 10% Vympel (GT and RAS). Mostly Wolf because that's usually cheapest and mostly what I purchase and have stored. Among Wolf, I run mostly lacquered or poly coated 123-grain FMJ, but most of my AKs and SKSs feed the HP and SP rounds with no trouble. I've not found any of the HP rounds to perform ideally as intended (little to no expansion), but the SP rounds can pack a punch. Most of the stuff I've mentioned can be bought for +/- 20 cents per round in cases of 1,000. Make sure you sign up and add some keyword/caliber searches to gun.deals, and use Gunbot, Ammoseek, etc. to find the current best deals when you're ready to buy.

As for SHTF stacking, my goal is at least 10,000 rounds in every caliber and at least 10 spare mags for every gun. Since I have a lot of guns that run 7.62x39, I have quite a bit more mags and ammo stashed.

Since you're brand new to x39 guns and ammo, I'd suggest buying a few boxes each of different brands along with a few different mags (PMAGs, steel surplus, bakelite, and Circle 10 and/or Russian polymer), and finding out exactly what your Ace really likes to eat, along with what it shoots most accurately. Chances are it'll like just about everything you feed it and will perform well across the board. After that, then I'd suggest you start stacking whatever is cheapest. Also, once you go down this road, chances are you'll find yourself with another gun or two (or 10) chambered in 7.62x39 before you know it :p

All the above is easy-to-come-by current civilian stuff and perfect for a new x39 shooter. The more you shoot, stack, and research, the more you'll probably read about Yugo M67, Russian 8M3 "effect", Chinese steel core (steel, not lead ... big difference), and some others. None of this stuff is imported anymore, but if you come across it and can afford it, you should buy it. Some of these are corrosive, and that's nothing to worry about either. A bit of hot water down your barrel followed by whatever cleaning routine you choose will be more than sufficient to take care of the salts.

Enjoy the new rifle, dude, and good luck! You really can't go wrong here ... the more you shoot and try out, the more you'll probably realize most of this cheap Russian plinking stuff is all pretty close in performance. I've not seen much discernible difference between 122-grain FMJ and 124-grain HP and all the stuff in between. In a nutshell, the old mantra remains true ... buy cheap and stack deep.
 
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Ohhh buddy are you in for a cornucopia of conjecture!

I've been shooting 7.62x39 for close to 20 years now, and I've owned and shot milsurp guns and ammo from just about every combloc nation of manufacture, along with most of the current off-the-shelf stuff available to us peasants as well. And my definitive answer to you is ... it depends.

Generally speaking, you'll be fine with Wolf variants, Bear (brown, silver, and gold), Monarch (Academy Sports exclusive Barnaul factory) and Red Army Standard (new stuff is former Golden Tiger/Vympel factory). Some guys like Tula but I don't buy it because I've had a few problems with it - more so than the options I just mentioned. For stacking, I generally look for lacquered steel case with sealed necks and primers (GT, RAS, and Wolf milspec green box, among others). Don't worry about lacquered stuff - the claims that lacquer gums up your gun's action are myths. If you can't find lacquered and sealed ammo too easily, your next long-term storage bet is to buy sealed spam cans. You can find these cans from all the major factories and brand names. I also have some brass cased rounds in storage, but I wouldn't suggest you stock up on this right now. No need to shoot the more expensive brass, but if you buy some save your spent casings for reloading or selling/trading down the road.

For me personally, I shoot about 90% Barnaul (Wolf) and 10% Vympel (GT and RAS). Mostly Wolf because that's usually cheapest and mostly what I purchase and have stored. Among Wolf, I run mostly lacquered or poly coated 123-grain FMJ, but most of my AKs and SKSs feed the HP and SP rounds with no trouble. I've not found any of the HP rounds to perform ideally as intended (little to no expansion), but the SP rounds can pack a punch. Most of the stuff I've mentioned can be bought for +/- 20 cents per round in cases of 1,000. Make sure you sign up and add some keyword/caliber searches to gun.deals, and use Gunbot, Ammoseek, etc. to find the current best deals when you're ready to buy.

As for SHTF stacking, my goal is at least 10,000 rounds in every caliber and at least 10 spare mags for every gun. Since I have a lot of guns that run 7.62x39, I have quite a bit more mags and ammo stashed.

Since you're brand new to x39 guns and ammo, I'd suggest buying a few boxes each of different brands along with a few different mags (PMAGs, steel surplus, bakelite, and Circle 10 and/or Russian polymer), and finding out exactly what your Ace really likes to eat, along with what it shoots most accurately. Chances are it'll like just about everything you feed it and will perform well across the board. After that, then I'd suggest you start stacking whatever is cheapest. Also, once you go down this road, chances are you'll find yourself with another gun or two (or 10) chambered in 7.62x39 before you know it :p

All the above is easy-to-come-by current civilian stuff and perfect for a new x39 shooter. The more you shoot, stack, and research, the more you'll probably read about Yugo M67, Russian 8M3 "effect", Chinese steel core (steel, not lead ... big difference), and some others. None of this stuff is imported anymore, but if you come across it and can afford it, you should buy it. Some of these are corrosive, and that's nothing to worry about either. A bit of hot water down your barrel followed by whatever cleaning routine you choose will be more than sufficient to take care of the salts.

Enjoy the new rifle, dude, and good luck! You really can't go wrong here ... the more you shoot and try out, the more you'll probably realize most of this cheap Russian plinking stuff is all pretty close in performance. I've not seen much discernible difference between 122-grain FMJ and 124-grain HP and all the stuff in between. In a nutshell, the old mantra remains true ... buy cheap and stack deep.
Good info and thanks for the real life experience and advice. I'll be sure to post some updates on my experiences as well.
 
Never had issues with wolf. Used to go through a case in a weekend back in 99/00 when it was $69 per K. I dont recall any failures to go bang. Accuracy was what youd expect from an SKS and a hungover 20 something year old.
 
Never had issues with wolf. Used to go through a case in a weekend back in 99/00 when it was $69 per K. I dont recall any failures to go bang. Accuracy was what youd expect from an SKS and a hungover 20 something year old.
Any reason to think QC or anything has changed in the past decade or so?
 
Any reason to think QC or anything has changed in the past decade or so?

Not that I am aware of, I know others with zero issues shooting it lately, been a long time since I have though. I would buy it myself for stock piling based on previous experience though.
 
My go-to is Golden Tiger. It shoots fine and is sealed, so it should store better than some other brands. I get about 2 MOA out of it in my SAR's, Vepr's, and Saiga.

I've never had any problems with any of the major brands except for Tula. I bought a big box once from Wal-Mart and it was rusted. I've had several FTF's shooting it. I don't buy it anymore.

I'd do what IUHoosier said and test whatever you can get your hands on in the rifle. That's half the fun of getting a new rifle.
 
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You can still get 8m3 if you want it. SGAmmo had a run brought in of it, it's not banned, the original importer just stopped bringing it in. In fact SGAmmo has been bringing in special runs of ammo for the last couple years, 8m3, sealed cans of milspec 7.62, 5.45, etc. The sealed cans are more than cardboard cased of the same cartridge, but should have as long of a shelf life as milsurp since it's packaged the same.
https://www.sgammo.com/product/tula...w-point-ammo-made-ulyanovsk-cartridge-works-u
 
You can still get 8m3 if you want it. SGAmmo had a run brought in of it, it's not banned, the original importer just stopped bringing it in. In fact SGAmmo has been bringing in special runs of ammo for the last couple years, 8m3, sealed cans of milspec 7.62, 5.45, etc. The sealed cans are more than cardboard cased of the same cartridge, but should have as long of a shelf life as milsurp since it's packaged the same.
https://www.sgammo.com/product/tula...w-point-ammo-made-ulyanovsk-cartridge-works-u

You may want to be careful/skeptical of the newer 8M3. A few guys have done some pretty extensive testing on the latest batches of the new stuff from Tula. The original batches of the new stuff, made exclusively for Sam at SG Ammo and first imported a couple years ago, were by all reports just like the original military 8M3. However, it seems like something QC-related changed for the worse at Tula in the last several months, and the newest batches of 8M3 are failing to expand and/or suffering jacket separation, and are shooting far more like FMJ than the infamous milspec stuff of old. Enough complaints to SG that Sam has walked back on some of his earlier hype about the ammo.

Pretty similar results reported for new 8V3 stuff from RAS - poor or no expansion at all, and jacket separation.

YMMV of course. Just a friendly heads-up to my fellow shooters.
 
Picking up some Yugo M67 tomorrow from someone, is it non-corrosive? What would be a good price per round on Yugo M67?

I should be picking up around 500 rds of it.
 
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One side note, every one I ever shot was holding a AK. So its seems to attract 7.62x51mm and 5.56mm in odd ways.

Just sayin....
 
One side note, every one I ever shot was holding a AK. So its seems to attract 7.62x51mm and 5.56mm in odd ways.

Just sayin....
Technically mine is a galil ace so...kind of an AK...and the only thing rolling through my head is Beavis and Butthead...saying, "are you threatening me?"
LOL
 
Technically mine is a galil ace so...kind of an AK...and the only thing rolling through my head is Beavis and Butthead...saying, "are you threatening me?"
LOL

Its all good. I m not a AK fan, but I do enjoy the system and how it was designed and operates.
 
Picking up some Yugo M67 tomorrow from someone, is it non-corrosive? What would be a good price per round on Yugo M67?

I should be picking up around 500 rds of it.

Nice score if the price is right. That is some good shooting stuff. 25-30 cents per round (without shipping costs) is fair. Sounds like you're doing a FTF? How's it been stored by the seller, can you verify?

Corrosive, yes, but a quick rinse of your gun with water after shooting and before your regular cleaning routine is all you need. Just remember to clean as soon as you can after shooting when running corrosive ammo.
 
Nice score if the price is right. That is some good shooting stuff. 25-30 cents per round (without shipping costs) is fair. Sounds like you're doing a FTF? How's it been stored by the seller, can you verify?

Corrosive, yes, but a quick rinse of your gun with water after shooting and before your regular cleaning routine is all you need. Just remember to clean as soon as you can after shooting when running corrosive ammo.
Part of a package deal...appears to be sealed up in boxes with plastic around it. Getting it below 25-30 cents a round...so im happy with that.
 
I've used Tula for several years and it is reliable.
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Made the pick-up...will have to shoot it over the weekend. Looking forward to testing the several brands, weights, bullet types, etc.
 
I shoot Brown Bear and Yugo through my sks. I've shot Tula and Wolf. The Yugo is some of the most accurate military ammo I've shot but it is considered corrosive. That just means I have to clean the rifle when I get home and not just put it away like I do with my AR
 
Just to throw in my opinion: from what I have experienced, most 7.62x39 is going to be fine sub 200 yards. I have had great luck with Tulammo, brown bear, silver bear, and some old surplus stuff I think was dug out of a field in Bulgaria or something. It has all been "minute of man" and all has gone bang with no issues.
 
Honestly I’ve never had a problem with any 7.62x39 ever. I’ve heard of some guys having problems with Tulammo, but I have never. My AKs and SKSs have always been happy with the cheapest ammo I could find.
 
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