Hello all.  I just closed a deal on an m16.  With ammo starting to go due to elections, I ended up buying 3 cases of pmc bronze.  I know its not great ammo and it is underpowered.  Although I wanted to have a little bit of ammo in case 223/556 becomes hard to find again.  Anyone shoot this ammo through your m16?  I dont want to shoot it through the rr if its not safe to use...

What ammo do I need to keep in mind to stay away from?  Thanks!

I'll shoot anything through my M16s that cycles them. Principally that has been Ulyanovsk or "Brown Bear" branded steel-cased ammo, and LC and IMI and South African and Guatemalan surplus, to the tens of thousands of rounds, and more than one replacement upper or barrel.

It's your rifle, if all you want to shoot is premium brass cased ammo, that's your choice, but in my opinion is nowhere near necessary.

in prep for the elections i bought 2-3 lifetimes of .223....Wolf gold is what ive bought....it runs great through my M4 and my Ruger Kac556k...my M16 is a couple of weeks away from a stamp still, but i dont see any issues with most major ammo brands

ive gotten wolf gold for $310 a case shipped forever....sportsmans guide with a coupon is where ive gotten most of it...some as low as $300 shipped

time to stock up is now...ammo is still dirt cheap...AR's are going up in price over all w/ a few deals left to be had.....i believe Hillary will win, even from a prison cell.....go buy 20,000 rounds

I shoot wolf gold 99% of the time.
I avoid regular wolf and brown bear because of the bi-metal jacket, not a safety issue really, I just don't want to wear out my barrel, which is a real issue when shooting full auto.
But as long as its factory brass cased, lead cored FMJ ammo I don't really care what third would country it was made in.

I like Silver Bear. H2 buffer for that. MGI rate reducer for full power stuff.

When it comes to automatic fire, the best ammo is the cheapest possible ammo. Cheap ammo equals more trigger time, unless you have unlimited funds.

I have shot a boatload of steel case Russian ammo over the years with the only downside being a handful of stuck cases ever thousand rounds or so.

However, as the price of steel case ammo has risen on a percentage basis compared to inexpensive brass case ammo, I don't find the value prop there anymore.

When I bought my first M16 in 2000, I was buying cases of wolf for $99 and brass case (non-surplus) was close to twice that.  However, steel case now runs $230 per K and I can get brass case for right about $300 per K.

If you are just running an M16 with a sear than its still probably worth it to buy steel case for blasting as AR/M16 barrels are cheap and easy to replace.

As my mix of machineguns has grown over the years, I continued to run steel case in my M16s, but switched to brass case for guns where the barrels are hard to and/or expensive to replace. (HKs, AUG, AC556, Shrike, FNC, etc.)

I also was running brass case in my M16 for competition as stuck cases will kill your time/score.  Plus it just pisses everybody off when you hold up the stage trying to clear a malfunction or taking a reshoot.

Eventually I just got tired of stocking both steel and brass case for different guns/scenarios and the steel case price delta was no longer compelling.

I still have about 5000rds of steel case left (that I am slowly shooting up).    But pretty much all my purchases have been brass case (either Federal/LC, Priv, or more recently Wolf Gold).

The only ammo I would really stay away from is corrosive ammo and/or surplus from a country where you wouldn't drink their water out of the tap.

The only stuff I wouldn't shoot, is reloads.
Throw on a blaster upper and hammer away with wolf or tula, no problem.  Kabooms are the only thing that you'll have to fear.

I shoot PMC Bronze in all three of my 16's with no problem at all, never have had a problem with their rounds?

Steel case 545x39

Definitely an excellent, low-cost option, and unlike steel cased .223, no stuck cases. The 7n6 was particularly attractive when it was 7¢ per round, but it is still some of the least expensive ammo available. There are a few downsides, of course. The hard primers which necessitate a stronger hammer spring, the lack of good magazines, although C-Products (or whatever they're called now) usually work fine, and the military ammo is corrosive. It certainly made MORE sense back when the ammo was dirt cheap, but it is still an excellent round which is worthy of consideration.

I used a standard hammer spring, c product mags and melonite barrels with good luck.

My 5.45 M16 upper has occasional failures to fire with 7N6 using the standard hammer spring. I now remember to swap in or at least take along the extra power spring when I'm planning on using the 5.45 upper.

I did have some duds in one case but they shot out of ak74. So heavy hammer spring good idea.

Well after seeing some runs it and reading a lot on this forum with good results I bought 5k rounds of wolf gold.  I ended up cancelling my pmc ammo order.  I just remembered that my sbr doesnt run well suppressed with them.

Some of you indicated the only fear I should have is a kaboom.  Can you guys tell me what causes them in an m16 and what I should do to avoid them?  Also that is not necessarily caused by cheaper ammo?  Thanks!

I thought 7N6 is illegal to import anymore?  That or someone is being a smart aleck.

Edit:

Okay, I went back and looked some information up, so never mind.

Some of us stacked it deep - like cases upon cases upon cases deep. Still got like 20k rounds of 7N6 left, here.

something to consider is a new upper

i have a M16a2 and dont want a 20" upper

i bought a BCM 11.5 upper and am going to strip my m16 down to the receiver....keep all the colt stuff in a box and shoot w/o worries

good choice on the wolf gold....i would have bought 20,000....but 5,000 is a good start....if you shoot it 300 rounds at a time thats 16 trips to the range.....or a few years worth.....Hillary may have her EPA Ban lead bullets by then...or put a serial # on each bullet making them $2 a bullet by the time you need to buy again.....

99% of the time, it's bad reloads ajd not paying attention (pop, no kick.  Instead of investigating, people charge another round and shoot the squib)  Bear in mind, good factory ammo sometimes has an issue, but the manufacturer usually takes care of the customer.  I didn't see it mentioned, but do you have a RR or a DIAS?  If a sear, then no worries since you can swap receivers.

Just stay away from reloads. Every time you see a blown up gun it's because of a bad reload. I'd probably stick with brass cased factory ammo. Cheap steel cased stuff works fine, but wears out your barrel faster. You could get a cheap blaster upper for shooting cheap steel stuff though it.

I run Federal Lake City in mine.
I figure that if I can afford the gun, I'd sure as hell better feed it properly.

Avoid reloads like an AIDS ridden hooker.



Anything factory that cycles your gun is fine.