The previous thread has been archived. If you've already voted, then please don't vote again.

Please add your personal experience with Guatemalan surplus M193.

Previous results:
540 votes
454 with no problems
61 with minor problems
25 with major problems

I am trying to solicit only information about your PERSONAL experience with this ammunition. If you haven't used it, then please don't clutter up the thread. Information about proper functioning (or lack thereof) is obviously the most important, but factors such as the accuracy or other peculiarities you've noticed are informative also. If you have had problems with this ammo which were severe enough to cause you to stop using this ammo, then please describe them. And one more minor request: keep your reviews objective.

If you are voting that you had problems with this ammo, PLEASE give your feedback below and tell everyone what those problems were. If you don't, you're not being very helpful to those who are basing their purchasing decision on this thread.

Some comments from the archived thread:

Some comments from that thread:

hus far I have fired about 300 rounds. All went bang, just as expected. Some in the lot I received had minor corrosion on the cases from storage, but nothing major.

FALARAK:

My Chrony data: Guatemalan 5.56 surplus (1997 lot 7)

Bushmaster 20" chrome lined barrel:
3224
3266
3244
3265
3263
AVG: 3252

Bushmaster 16" M4
3112
3098
3136
3121
3116
AVG: 3116

These speeds were consistent with M193 spec ammo.

When fired for accuracy - I only did a single 5 shot group, which held 3.8"@100yds. Pretty bad. I need to get out and test some more in different barrels, but my match barrel sure didnt like this stuff for grouping. Fine by me.... I didnt buy it for target ammo. It had no problem busting clay pigeons at 100yds.




Bought close to 8000 rounds. Have shot about 500 so far. Absolutely no problems whatsoever with it. This was some of it with some minor corrosion, usually the size of a pencil eraser or smaller where the case was touching the paper box. All fed, fired, and ejected properly and was reasonably accurate to boot. All sounded the same and recoil was about the same as 193 would be.
All was shot out of a Colt 6920 carbine.

Im not trying to trash this ammo but I actually had a problem with this stuff once.
I bought it about 3 years ago, way before tons of it was showing up on the market.
It was good looking and corrosion free but made my 16"Colt choke up quite a bit. After firing about 2 mags I got cycling failures almost every single round.
The headstamp was IMG 5.56 91
Perhaps my ammo was not stored properly. Guatemala is not the most ammo friendly environment.
Having said that I'm willing to give it a second chance, although I would only use it for practice and not storage/SHTF use.

I've shot thousands of rounds, maybe 5K. I bought 4 cases of the stuff a few years ago and have maybe 1 K left. It's been my primary blasting ammo, give to friends ammo, give a few boxes to the guy next to me who ran out or is choking on ammo they brought ammo and so so forth. Works every time but accuracy is maybe half that of IMI and other premium mil-specs. I don't measure targets or anything but I notice the groups tighten up somewhat with federal 193 and more with Q3131A. Perhaps go from roughly 6" to 4" to 3" at one hundred yards.

I have 2 cases--first case was all tarnished (not corroded per se). Second case was shiny. I have been shooting the first case it all goes bang and is hot. (shot about 6-700rnds) No problems. Saving teh second case for now. Not as accurate as WWB value packs from wal mart but pretty good nonetheless. Would def. buy more if I had the cash--but I chose to buy a case of XM193 for storage--then I will shoot the shiny Guat

Shot 300 of 360 rnd battle pack, lote #4 '85. Bought years ago at pawn shop by freind, not the current stuff. All bright and shiny with no no corrosion at all. No problems out of 20" chrome lined. Hot and accurate. Would buy all I could afford if I knew it would all be this good. I'll watch this thread before deciding on any of the current stuff.

Bought the 1440 case lot 3/90. Shot two battle packs with now problems. All the rounds look like brand new....guess i got lucky. Accuaracy is about average out of my Colt m4 however my Ta01 is sighted in on LC m855 and this stuff shoots consistently lower. Otherwise great plinking ammo....not nearly as dirty Wolf and for the extra few bucks well worth it.

My first case is head stamped 8-89 (can't remember which lot)Most of the brass is what I would call "dull" looking, no shine to it. Two boxes had serious corrosion issues with 3 rounds being so bad that I chucked them. The other 37 rounds were fired within the week and shoot 100%. The without a chrono handy I can say that the blast is brisk and "feels" like m193 spec (as it should be)

I have fired 360 rds. of this ammunition through my 14.5" no-chrome carbine with no problems whatsoever. My lotes #02-92 and #10 were visually flawless specimens. My groups are 3"- 4" at 100yds.
I'll make this short and sweet. It's good, hot ammo at lower cost than most all other commercial and mil. spec 5.56/.223 out there right now. AIM is a great vendor to buy from in bulk.

Just put several hundred rounds of it thru carbine this weekend.
Ran great & hitting same point as XM193, didnt have to adjust Eotech at all.
No failures or jams of any kind, will be ordering more from AIM this week.

I bought 1440 rds of this stuff about, what, 2 years ago and didnt' have a single problem. I'm somewhat suprised with recent complaints of tarnished/corroded ammo, but I guess the stuff they are selling now is not as good as the stuff that came out initially?
The Guat ammo does have A LOT of flash. The guys on the firing line were, like, "What the hell are you shooting?" But, I guess having a post-ban barrel didn't help any. Accuracy was so-so. I used XM193 to sight in my upper and while this isnt' super accurate ammo the Guat shot noticeably larger groups.

Ive bought a total of 4 crates. The last 3 I got last week were all good. 3 BP's in one of the cases has some minor orange tarnish/discoloration, its shoots fine and the stuff thats discolored is going thru the tumbler as I type this in batches of a 150-200. It comes out after about 30-40 minutes looking good.
Someone did make the comment that my rifle has a large flash BUT Im using a F2 comp now not a flash hider.

I shot 360 of Lot 7/97 with no problems. Brass was shiny, like new. Groups were consistent but a little bit larger than XM-193 but not enough to cry about. I also shot 120 of Lot 3/90, performed similar but the brass has a little discolorization aroung the neck but no corrosion. Definately like this ammo for plinking and general range use and I wouldn't count it out for SHTF ammo. The Battle packs are completely sealed (no pinholes) for both lots- I only shot from the packs AIM QC'ed.

I ordered a case from AIM. I put a superlight barrel on my Bushy and my M16A1 clone tagged along today for a function/sighting test.
This is the first time I have shot this ammo and am very pleased. I have Lot(e) 9, all bright and clean.
I dumped two mags out of the superlight without incident, barely aiming at anything, just making sure it runs. The amo seemed loaded on the hot end of the scale.
I 50 yard zeroed the superlight with irons and then did the same with the Hakko red dot that sits on top. Ammo perfomed very well. I had one FTFeed that I attributed to the mag not being seated properly. The bullet hung up on the feed ramp ledge. I carefully pulled the mag, checked the barrel, reinserted the mag, dropped the bolt and it hung up again. I bumped up the bottom of the mag and the bolt closed on its own.
I then shot the Guat through my M16A1 clone, which is a complete CDNN M16 upper, RRA bolt, Stag Lower with DPMS LPK, and topped with a Tasco 2-8x32 World class scope in a carry handle mount. (The scope is just for giggles, it normally stays home)
Pictured is a target shot at 50 yards with the scoped A1 off a picnic bench with a sandbag front rest. The group circled in blue is at least a 10 shot group (I got excited and forgot to count them, just blowing what was left in the mag). I was shooting one round every 2-3 seconds, so not rapid fire, but not as deliberate as I am capable. The two holes in the upper right and the one in the upper left are sighters.
After I was satisfied with the 50 yard scope zero I found a coffee can way out at about 175 yards, and could make it dance relatively easy if I paid attention.

I went through 900 rounds of guat this weekend without a problem. The boxes were date stamped from the factory, in spanish, december 15, 1989. A couple of my friends were shooting guat ordered at the same time without incident either. Some of the rounds had light to moderate surface corrosion, others looked factory new. Glad I hooked myself up with a couple K to keep the plinking stash happy and wouldnt hesitate to purchase more if it came available at a reasonable price.

M4C
Have shot up 1,090 rds. of Guatemalan dated 1990, 1991, and 2000 and all shot consistently. Absolutely FTF, FTE/E of any kind.
Accuracy was on par with IMI M193 out of my 14.5" heavy barrel.

MrClean4Hire
My Colts and CMMG's love it

Nate7out
I shot 1100 rounds of this in a weekend for a carbine class, not a single problem. And this was the dirty stuff AIM sold later at a discount. It was filthy stuff though.

The_Beer_Slayer
i bought 500 rounds from aim last they had it in stock. i have run about 200 of it so far and almost 50 rounds has not gone off on the first strike with good primer hits. it's done this from 3 different 223 rifles.
of that 50 or so duds about 9 did not go bang with 3-4 strikes.
mine must have ben a fluke but this lot was complete junk.

VLODPG
Close to 2,000 rounds combined down the pipe of a bushy lower/CMMG 16" upper and a dpms lower/CMMG 16" upper with no problems.

Bartholomew_Roberts
2,130 rounds down a stainless steel Wylde barrel and CMMG/Giffman 5.56 chamber barrel. Not a single stoppage in either barrel. Accuracy for a 10 round group at 100yds was around 3.5-4MOA. Some rounds appear to fire hotter than others; but everything goes bang - even the corroded stuff.

gus
I've fired roughly 2500 rounds so far from my M16 - had three FTF's in that amount. All three duds were from the same batch, but I don't remember which it was. Accuracy seems nearly as good as XM193, but it's a lot dirtier. I'll be "disposing" of a couple thousand more rounds in two weeks - I'll report back if I have any problems.
Edit: Fired roughly another 2500 rounds at Bulletfest and had 6 duds out of the bunch. I would consider this good blasting ammo, but I'm glad I have other stuff put away for a rainy day.

BT7
Ammo came in pretty good condition. Always fired and no malfunctions. BUT, my five-round group is about 4" or better at 50 yards, so I will not use for anything but practice. Worse still, the impact is about 2 to 3 inches low and 3 inches right of the point of impact of XM-193 and Privi-Partizan M193 out of my 16" CMMG M4-style.

demusn1979
In my two 14.7 + one 16"The only problem is getting it at 5.95 per 30 price.

Docsprague
1) 14.5 LMT M4gery, 10.5 LMT SBR
2) 200 out of 1400 so far.
3) 55 grain FMJ M193.
Not one problem so far. Some cases show signs of corrosion but function fine. I use the ammo for practice and dont really pay a lot of attention to accuracy. What I have seen is probably 2-3 inches at 50 yards not trying to hard.

wvar15
I've fired about 3000 rounds of it, 1440 of them being uglier than any of the photos posted on here. I've had one misfire (and didn't have time to check the round for a good primer hit), and no other problems.

MidgetIdjit
Picked up a ammo can of loose a couple months ago. 93 date stamp. Some tarnish on most of the rounds.
Fired 15 rounds on Saturday through my A2 carbine to get the sights close. 5 shot group at ~25 yards at 1" with 3 shots making one hole. *shrug* Seems to shoot accurately enough.
Had one FTE. Bolt was 1/2 open with the fired casing jammed against the breach. Pulled it out and noticed that the primer was missing.
A matter for concern but I'll keep plinking with it and see how the rest of the can pans out.

mrnuke7571
Shot about 300 rounds of it. Not ANY problems, accuracy was SAD though. Worse than wolf.

CavReconScout
Shot Guat at an Appleseed Shoot this past weekend. No problems, and accuracy was good enough to clean the 400 meter prone unsupported reduced target. I have also shoot it at 300 meters at an ISPC plate target and it is at least as accurate as XM193.

Bump to prevent archiving.

Bump

Weird, I always suspected it was loaded hot. The stuff I had was 02 or 03 I think it was 1440 rounds in 30 round cardboard boxes. Lots of green scary corrsion but they shot fine





 

Wish I bought more when it was around.

All mine went bang.