Ammo quality going down?

R

RamItOne

New member
Went to a new range, they don't allow steel cased ammo so I couldn't bring in my cheap Russian crap .223
I was forced to spend 16.99 on a box of American eagle. I've put 1,000s of rounds through my AR, almost exclusively Russian/soviet block steel - monarch, Tul and wolf. Never once a failure. Had 3 of 10 not fire. !!!!:mad:
Had real nice deep dents in the middle of the primer. Found a box of federal in my bag, perfect 20 for 20.
Just wondering if anyone has noticed a drop in QC during the shortage. I'm upset that now I can't say I've ever had a misfire in my AR.
 
What is your firing pin in your AR made of? I think that Russian ammo typically has harder primers. If that is usually what you shoot in high volume the. Maybe you have worn your FP over time. They don't sell titanium firing pins for nothing.
 
Still scratching my head over your range banning steel case ammo.

AP rounds I understand, steel jacketed bullets I get, tracers definitely.

But steel case rounds with regular lead bullets ??????
 
Lt. Skrumpledonk Ret said:
"Steel cased ammo typically has steel core bullets (and is therefore armor piercing"

Thats what my local range officers say anyways.
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Couldn't be more wrong. The reason is because the way they test the ammo to see if it is safe (to make sure there is no steel in it) is with a magnet. If it picks up the round, you can't shoot it. With a steel cased round it doesn't work because the magnet will always pickup the case. Since they can't tell they play it safe and tell you that you can't shoot it.

To say steel cased ammo also usually means the rounds are AP is a crock.
 
Yup, a lot of places require you to pass the magnet test... The steel case will always fail, therefore you can't use it...

Unfortunately I haven't gone shooting since Feb so I haven't seen any decrease in quality. My dad bought a bunch of remanufactured ammo that he hasn't had as good of luck with as I have with my Tulammo.
 
It does stand to reason that if a manufacturer will not spend any extra money on brass cases, why would he spend any extra money on guilding metal jackets?

Steel cases and jackets = lowest bidder.
 
.223

I've been working with my MK. X Mini-Mauser in .223 a bit lately and started having what I though was accuracy problems due to a stock bedding issue. The W-W "Ranger" 55 gr PSP's that normally did quite well, would barely break 3 MOA. And some W-W white box FMJ stuff was worse.

Fortunately I shot some groups w/ match grade factory (Rem 62 gr) and some carefully assembled handloads which produced about 1MOA and restored my faith in the little rifle.

My thought was that they are slapping most .223 together in an attempt to meet demand these days and some quality and component standards may have been relaxed.
 
I was forced to spend 16.99 on a box of American eagle.
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I'd like to know how they FORCED you to buy ammo for 16.99 - they hold your gun to your head?

I believe the door to their business works both ways..........

As to the functioning issue, the Federal stuff should have worked, it always has in mine (now my son's) AR

Take pics and call/send to Federal/ATK. With machinery running 24/7/365, OOPS is going to happen now and again
 
I don't buy any centerfire ammo except the "cheap Russian crap" I use for my AK, so I can't say whether or not ammo quality is suffering, but the "cheap Russian crap" goes bang every time. I'd consider reloading 7.62x39, but bullets are expensive, brass is hard to find and my gun throws the steel about 50 feet northeast. :D

Maybe you have worn your FP over time.
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If that was the case, the problem would likely have shown up before now on the Russian ammo.
 
BigD- Yeah they held me down at gunpoint while they yelled at me :D

Had driven 25 miles to try out the new range so was gonna give it a "shot" per se regardless.

Their reasoning on the steel case it they keep the brass and sell it, they get charged back quite a bit from the brass collector if he finds anything mixed.

As for A E and Federal, yeah thought the same thing, didnt know if the AE was a "value line".

Ill take a pic of the firing pin, but it worked fine on the russian stuff a few weeks ago, not a material science major, but I don't believe the metal would soften or wear down that quickly. As I said before, my rifle has fired several thousand rounds. When I can find a cool day (in FL that means high 80s) Ill go back to an outdoor range with the russian stuff and see if I have any issues.
I did save the box of AE in case I did decide to email them.
 
When I can find a cool day (in FL that means high 80s)
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We had a few last year -I think it was in February..........:D

I know that feeling - was all set to go to a fairly new indoor range because it had AC, but they said no reloads allowed - of any kind - as a few idiots had some issues and did some damage, so everyone gets restricted
 
Update

Went to the outdoor range last week, ran 120 rounds of Tulammo and monarch, no issues. One mag of federal and boom within the first 10 rounds a failure, clean centered dent on primer but no ignition.
Just got in my freedom munitions reload 62 grain, took it to an indoor range and fired 85 rounds, no issues, these were rather fast shots, no more than 1.5 seconds between shots, and several triple shots.

Will have to try some non federal new ammo.

Just don't understand, I've always been under the impression that cheap ammo has hard primers or at least sub par primers.
 
It does stand to reason that if a manufacturer will not spend any extra money on brass cases, why would he spend any extra money on guilding metal jackets?
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I believe Hornady makes steel cased ammo loaded with premium bullets. Or at least they did up to just a couple years ago. Price was less then brass cased.
 
Went to the outdoor range last week, ran 120 rounds of Tulammo and monarch, no issues. One mag of federal and boom within the first 10 rounds a failure, clean centered dent on primer but no ignition.
Just got in my freedom munitions reload 62 grain, took it to an indoor range and fired 85 rounds, no issues, these were rather fast shots, no more than 1.5 seconds between shots, and several triple shots.

Will have to try some non federal new ammo.

Just don't understand, I've always been under the impression that cheap ammo has hard primers or at least sub par primers.
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You probably got a bad batch of AE ammo. If all other ammo except the AE223 works fine, then its definitely just that box/batch of ammo that is bad.

Contact the ammo manufacturer (if you want to go through the hassle) and see if they can send you some free ammo :D
 
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