Ammo by brand... What to avoid?

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blincoln

New member
I am shopping online to source some cheap range ammo (9mm).

So far I have come across a couple of brands that are unfamiliar to me... Thoughts on quality & value for the following brands?:

Brown Bear
Aguila
Wolf
 
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cheap ammo

I dont know maybe its just me, but I ve bad problems with u.m.c yellow box wal-mart. It just did not work at all in a brand new ruger p-95 or a brand new cz-75.The others you mentioned I believe are steel cased and some people say dont run these through your gun they MAY do internal damage or premature wear.I have not had a problem with the others. federal,sellior-belliot,mag-tech of course remm,winchester. didnt even have a prob with cci aluminum case
 
blincoln said:
So far I have come across a couple of brands that are unfamiliar to me... Thoughts on quality & value for the following brands?:

Brown Bear
Aguila
Wolf
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Brown bear is Russian, steel cased. I haven't tried it. Seems to not generate a lot of negative reports.

Aguila is Mexican, and generally rather good.

Traditionally, Wolf has been Russian-made, steel cased. But Wolf is not a manufacturer, they are an importer. They have recently introduced a line of brass-cased ammo, I believe made for them by Prvi Partisan, that is supposed to be decent stuff.

The one you really REALLY want to avoid is American (the brand name) ammo (head stamp AMERC).
 
am shopping online to source some cheap range ammo (9mm).

So far I have come across a couple of brands that are unfamiliar to me... Thoughts on quality & value for the following brands?:

Brown Bear
Aguila
Wolf
Click to expand...

Wolf and Brown Bear are Russian. Never heard anything bad about them. I'd rather spend a bit more for cartridges with reloadable cases.

Ammo by brand... What to avoid?
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The only ammo brand I've never heard anything good about is American. Headstamp "AMERC" -- even the brass is reputed to be something you want to avoid.
 
I like blazer brass. i think its a good plinker/paper round at a good price.

Now straight up, blazer, the aluminum cased stuff, made me really angry and disappointed. left behind a nasty residue, and the rounds had NOTICEABLY different charges.

thats the only thing i have to contribute. the cheapest i go on pistol ammo is either blazer brass or WWB. tried the aluminum once and hated it.
 
Most of the imported stuff (bargain priced) is pretty bad. PMC is South Korean and the brass is good and affordable. I reload and have used their brass with no troubles. Russian and Chinese surplus, no thanks. Remington UMC is the worst American name around. Don't waste your money on it. I have used Blazer non reloadable aluminum in only one caliber and it was fine. Their brass is also pretty good. Have used mostly Federal and Winchester for reloading and some of that is twenty years old now and seems like it's going to outlive me. I have some Winchester Match brass manufactured in 1953 and it is very good stuff. I have no idea how many times it's been reloaded but not one has ever split and the primer pockets are still tight. If you don't reload you NEED to start. You won't save a lot of money but you'll get to shoot more rounds and it will be better than any factory stuff. Any factory ammo that seems to be cheap is junk.
 
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Wolf sucks
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Well, that depends, I guess. Using Wolf ammo over the course of one Summer, I made the rank of Master in Combat Pistol. Almost 1000 rounds fired, zero hiccups, and accurate.
 
Wolf seems to have a dirty powder. It means you will probably need to do a bit more cleaning after shooting it. Aguila seems to work fairly well. Wolf has worked for me too. I haven't used Brown Bear so I can't say if it is good or not. I also use CCI Blazer in any flavor, S&B, Federal Champion (Wal-Mart) and a few other brands. If you are collecting brass to reload then you will not want some of those rounds. Not all brass can be reloaded. If you don't reload then any of the above should be fine. Blazer Aluminum does have some pretty hard primers. Pistols with reduced hammer springs will probably not like them. I have used the ammo mentioned in 9mm with my Beretta, Sigs , CZs and CZ clones. RWS also works well.
http://www.weaponsworld.com/ammunit...-grain-full-metal-jacket-1000-round-case.html
 
I like Aguila, a Mexican brand. Have used in several calibers and several different guns, no problems.

Wolf and Brown Bear are Russian, steel-cased. I tend to use Russian in guns that I feel were designed for it, i.e. Makarov calibers or AK/SKS. The few times I have tried in other pistols it hasn't caused problems, although it is dirty. I just am always concerned about the extra wear from the steel cases, I suppose from all I've read about how Wolf damages ARs.

Wolf Gold is brass cased, I think mostly by Prvi Partizan from the former Yugoslavia. It's good, but not as cheap as regular Wolf.

I will never again buy the Herters ammo from Cabelas after I got a .380 squib load that I didn't notice in my LCP. Fortunately it lodged close enough to the chamber to keep the gun from going into battery and blowing up. Also VERY harsh recoil. The Herters brand is sourced from different factories for different calibers, but my VERY bad, dangerous experience causes me to avoid it altogether.

Mike 38, what pistol did you run your Wolf in? Any wear issues?
 
I've only used about 400 rounds of wolf and I had a couple of FTFs but who cares if the price is right. I obviously wouldn't use it for SD purposes though. Wolf is dirty also.

I love Silver Bear and Brown Bear. I buy both in bulk online and the ammo is as good as Blazer, Winchester (white box), or any other practice ammo.
 
Wolf Sucks
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I have about 1200 rounds saved, and I shot about 400 with 0 problems for my 7.62x39mm. I have a case of HP which I really wanted the FMJ stuff. Oh well.

I would avoid American Eagle for 22lr, doesn't cycle good in my P22. Maybe my spring just needs to be worn in more?
 
The Janitor: Wolf sucks
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I've run 5-7,000 rounds of Wolf (.380, 9mm, .40, .45, .223) through my guns with ZERO problems.
If a gun won't run CCI Blazer, Wolf, Tula or Monarch I'll get rid of it.....a gun ought to function with a variety of ammunition.


Maybe it's your gun that sucks.;)
 
I use S&B. It's always right around as cheap as the russian ammo and works great all the time, for me anyways. I find that Tulammo (never tried Wolf), while very cheap, sometimes isn't worth the trouble.
 
As Aguila Blanca said, AMERC is horrible. It is so bad, it should not be legal to sell. No exaggeration. I would go so far as to describe it as dangerous to your gun and maybe even you.
 
Herter's (from Cabela's) get's bashed a lot. I've never used their pistol ammo, but their 7.62x39 cycles through my Saiga just fine.

Then again, you could probably load my Saiga with a wet shoe and it would cycle it.
 
blincoln,

Have a look into Tula its not half bad. I purchased
a box of .45 ACP my last range trip and it was great.

I've shot Brown Bear 9mm and didn't care for the smell
it tends to generate. It performed fine though.

Blazer gave me a few hiccups.
 
I've shot Wolf, Blazer, UMC, American Eagle and Winchester White Box, all of which I consider cheap range ammo. Other that it being very dirty, I've never had a problem with any of it out of any of my handguns.
 
Maybe I don't shoot enough, because I have never had a problem with any ammo. I bought a bunch of bulk Tula for my XD9 and prior to that it was mostly WWB stuff. No issues.
My Beretta I had choked on anything and everything so it's not fair to judge based on that.
My TCP has run flawlessly with WWB, haven't had it too long so that's all it's had.
My brother has run mainly the yellow boxed bulk UMC through his XDm9 and he has not had any problem.
My cousin buys bulk factory reload stuff that comes loose in an ammo can and he is pretty happy with it.
I guess I really have not seen what I would call garbage ammo first hand. Maybe the further I get into my Tula I will run into problems....?
 
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