Topic: A confession and question

[Hubby_MC]

Ok, I admit it, I don't need it, but I saw a flyer from Cheaper than dirt in my inbox and couldn't pass up buying "A lot" of ammo this morning.

Yes, I am a fool, but how big a fool am I? Anyone had experience with the 223 from Brown Bear? 

Tell me just how deep a hole I have dug before the wife gets the bill for this and it shows up on the front porch. She will see it, its gonna be too heavy for her to move LOL

[TrooperBrian]

Depends on your definition of "a lot". I personally wouldn't have bought it, and I'm not sure how it would reload (if at all).

[Precise]

I've shot Brown Bear and it's OK, it goes bang (at least the stuff I purchased two years ago did). I did find the Golden Bear was more accurate.

[9Shooter]

I haven't shot it but a lot of the search results indicate it's similar to Wolf ammo.  Here's a review page from ar15.com that may be helpful:

http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=3&f=16&t=357661

[fj40mojo]

I purchased some silver bear for the last Patrol shoot and I wouldn't do it again.  The stuff is not reloadable, but I wasn't concerned about that as I wanted something that I didn't have to sweat picking up brass.  Out of the roughly 120 rounds I used on the patrol shoot I had at least 4 that failed to go bang, no biggy in a training situation in fact it's good training to clear stoppages, but I wouldn't stake my life on this stuff.  I've still got whatever was left of the 500 rounds I bought that I plan on using for blastin' ammo but I won't be buying any more.

[tankermedic]

I have always heard that Brown Bear or Silver Bear was better than Wolf. I have also, heard to stay away from Wolf at all cost. In my M-16, I was having trouble with the Wolf ammo but RRA shoots it with no problem at all. I am tempted to get some for my AR and SKS.

[e11charlie]

I do not know if they still do but the problem with the wolf used to be they had a coating on it.  That coating would gum up the chamber and other things causing failure to extracts and so forth.  The silver bear did not.  It was only coated in Zinc to prevent rust of the shell.  Zinc is a metal so it can be bonded to the steel hence no residue.  I shot a lot of silver bear through a Kel-tec and had alot of failure to extracts.  To the point one time I had to shove a cleaning rod pretty hard down the barrel to get the spent shell out.  Also had one shell that broke leaving 75% of it in the chamber.   I think it depends on the rifle and lot as it is such a mixed bag of experiences. 

[fj40mojo]

I have always heard that Brown Bear or Silver Bear was better than Wolf. I have also, heard to stay away from Wolf at all cost. In my M-16, I was having trouble with the Wolf ammo but RRA shoots it with no problem at all. I am tempted to get some for my AR and SKS.

I don't think Wolf is still putting the lacquer coating on their ammo.  I haven't shot a lot of the stuff, but a couple of years ago for my b-day a buddy gave me 4 Pmags loaded with Wolf and it ran thru my AR just fine.  Zero malfunctions and minute of man accuracy.  Can't say the same for the silver bear that I bought.

[Spiff]

Wolf hasn't put the lacquer coating on their ammo in some time, and the Brown Bear stuff shoots just fine.

[TrooperBrian]

Once again, I'll post the article about shooting Wolf in an AR-15:

http://www.theboxotruth.com/docs/edu18.htm

[Spiff]

Once again, I'll post the article about shooting Wolf in an AR-15:

http://www.theboxotruth.com/docs/edu18.htm

I've shot hundreds and hundreds of rounds of Wolf during a single day of shooting (usually during competition, I use it when I can't pick up my brass). And have shot thousands of the new poly coated ammo all totaled (5.56x45 and 7.62x39). I have never had this ammo cause malfunctioning in my weapons. And I've gotten as bad as JR about cleaning them.

The only problem I've ever had with Wolf was way back when I was shooting the lacquer coated stuff out of my M44. Also, contrary to what the article said, the sticking problems I had with the old lacquer coated stuff would happen *after* I let the rifle cool off and the lacquer residue had hardened.

[JollyRoger]

I have shot thousands and thousands of rounds of Wolf with absolutely NO issues whatsoever...even when mixed in with brass cased ammo.  If you have a good weapon with good parts and good mags you shouldnt worry at all.  Same goes for the Brown Bear, never any problems through any of my ARs, SKSs or AK.  Accuracy isnt going to be as good as other brands, but you already knew that going in.  It shoots, it's accurate enough and it was cheap. 

[Frank_Castle]

I've never ran Brown Bear through my AR (my AK loves the stuff though.) but I have tried laquered Barnaul .223. The only thing I remember about it were the fireballs that came out my ejection port.
It was pretty cool.

[Hubby_MC]

Well, they delivered today. As predicted I have to go home at noon and haul the crates in myself because my wife wont/cant. I will go out this weekend and find out just how big a mistake I did or did not make.

For the record we will be running it through a DPMS Panther 5.56 and a Bushmaster 5.56. Have never had any problems before with either weapon using all kinds of other manufacturers so I am curious. I will even post a shot of the actual rounds we got from CTD

[Nealio]

I only run handloads through my AR as the Russian stuff (as well as cheap US ammo)  seems to load it up with soot requiring me to clean it too often.
 - Nealio

[Matt21]

I put 100 rounds of this through my ar, not the best ammo as far as accuracy is concerned but it killed jack rabbits and cycled fine. Like said above, did dirty up the barrel pretty well though.