223 ammo question

M

Monkeyleg

New member
I'd like to get a case or two of some of the less expensive .223 for my AR just to keep as a backup supply. Some of the less expensive brands I've seen are the South African 55 gr, Wolf 55 gr, and some British-made 55 gr with Winchester bullets. Has anyone had any experience with any of these brands? I usually shoot Black Hills or Federal match 68 gr when I'm using factory ammo, since I have a 1:7 twist.

Thanks for any replies.
 
I've shot quite a lot of the South African PMP (new manufacture, brass case, reloadable, commercial, packed in boxes with a gazelle on the front). I've been happy with it (no misfires or other problems that I recall). I think I paid about $115 plus shipping for the last two cases I ordered, but I haven't seen it this low for awhile.

I've been thinking of getting some Korean surplus ammo that is available very cheap - but is said to have tarnished brass, beat up boxes, etc. Anyone tried this?

A friend has also suggested that I try the Wolf steel cased Russian ammo. I think I've read reports of lacquer from the ammo building up in the gun, and of the steel cases being hard on AR extractors (I'd be shooting this ammo in ARs and a Mini-14), so I'm reluctant to try this - especially when, up to now, I've been able to buy brass-cased ammo for just a little more.

I think I'll probably stick with the South African for reloading and any circumstance in which I really want reliability and consistency. But a case or two of some really cheap ammo would be fun to plink with if it won't damage the guns and works reasonably well. I'll be watching this string with interest.

Doug
 
On the cheaper side I would suggest the SA 300 round battlepacks. You can usually find them for $37.00 if you look around. The ammo is reliable and accurate. I would not use Wolf in any AR.
 
PMC and South African are good!

I'm with FireForged against the Wolf ammo. Even though I have not had any first hand experience with it, some folks I have great respect for have reported some bad things in terms of broken or damaged extractors, etc.

Check out www.ammoman.com for some good deals. Can't figure out why I can't hyper link here. Good luck. jack
 
I have shot around 1500 rds of Wolf thru my AR, no problem at all. If you are at the range having a good time, the lacquer doesn't cause any problems because the rounds do not sit in the chamber that long. I know for me, they are in there for about 1/2 second at the most. I think it is some good stuff.
The SA is also some really good ammo.
 
Check out this website:

www.southernammo.com

I ordered a case of their "dinged" .223 ammo last month, it cost $83 for 1000 rounds plus $12 UPS. It is all late '70s US-manufacture Lake City ball with some cases (not all) showing little marks or dents, I guess from handling or something. I've used 100 or so rounds so far and they all worked well.
 
OK. Down in the "for sale gear and accessories" topic is SA PMC 55 gr .223 for $39 per 300 battlepack. The ad describes the ammo as 80's vintage. Is this what you folks have been talking about? Is it decent brass for reloading?

Time was I bought Federal or Black Hills ammo and cost be damned. Now, I'm looking to buy some quantity of .223, but want to be able to reload the brass to my own quality specs when I'm done plinking.

Is the SA PMC brass reasonably consistent in weight and volume? Are the primer pockets crimped?

Thanks for any answers to the above questions. Sure wish I could just go out and spend the $$$ on Federal match ammo.
 
Monekyleg,

The South African I've used is new commercial ammo in gazelle boxes. It is reloadable. I don't think the primers are crimped in, but I'm not sure. I believe that the older surplus South African is not reloadable (Berdan), but I'm not 100% sure of this. A friend of mine bought a bunch of this, and it seems to work fine. I woud get the new commercial ammo if the prices were close, but if you can get the surplus ammo for a lot less, then it would be a good option. I'd verify that it is reloadable if that matters to you.

Oh, and just to clarify, the SA ammo is PMP. I believe PMC is Korean. Some of the SA ammo may be labeled Denel as well - I think PMP ("Pretoria Metal Processing" or something like that) and Denel are divisions of the same company.

Doug
 
I am going through a case of the PMP ammo now. It works fine in my bushmaster and as a bonus has a very low flash (which is good since my bushy is a post ban "circumsized" model). (Oops, hope I don't get in trouble for that last comment :D)

Wolf ammo is iffy, I would not use it in an AR. It seems to work fine in soviet guns. Besides, it is very dirty ammo.

Check out my post in the Revolver forum about Wolf .45 ACP.

Geoff Ross
 
Beware anything from Lake City. A shooting buddy of mine had his AR kaboom with this ammo about six weeks ago. The manufacturer agreed to buy a new upper for him, but it caused quite a scare and some minor injuries for his girlfriend who was shooting it at the time.
 
If the AR had a .223 chamber, the "Lake City" stuff must be either reloads or bogus. LC is the most reliable ammo one could find. In my Army days, we never had a problem. No misfires, no kb's.

OTOH, if its reloaded, all bets are off. The way to tell? Real LC will have a green tip on the bullet if M855 or orange if M856 (tracer). If the headstamp doesn't have a NATO circle/star, its M193 but should still have anneal marks.

All of the remanufactured stuff has been polished, hence no anneal marks.
 
There are two different types of Lake City ammo. The first and most common is from a US military munitions plant that used to make a lot of ammo for the US military. I think it is/was in Missouri, and that it isn't producing ammo anymore. This Lake City ammo is considered by most to be the best ammo out there.

A year ago, I heard that someone started a company called "Lake City Ammo" to capitalize on the name recognition. Most likely, this is the ammo that rock_jock is talking about.
 
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