This ammunition review is for Barnaul
manufactured ammunition, which includes BROWN
Bear, and BLUE box "Monarch". As of
2009, the Monarch boxes have apparently been RED in color. Please note that "Monarch" is made
for Academy stores by Barnaul AND Prvi Partizan. The Barnaul variant is
55gr FMJ, green "lacquer" coated in blue boxes - NOT the green boxed
ammo made by Prvi.
Since the previous poll about Barnaul has been archived, I have started a
new thread to collect more information as this ammunition is still for
sale, and questions come up at least once a week in the ammo forum. The
previous results were:
587 TOTAL votes




479 Have Not had any problems at all




74 Had some problems, but would continue to use the ammunition




34 Have had major problems, and would not use the ammunition again.
IF YOU HAVE ALREADY VOTED IN THE PREVIOUS POLL, PLEASE DO NOT
VOTE AGAIN.
I will add the totals and generate a correct count for the ranking in
the Ammunition review thread
Please add your personal experience to this thread. When you do, please
give information about:




1) Firearm used in




2) Approximate number of rounds fired.




3) Ammunition type
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.

Somehow or another, the poll disappeared from the last thread. I'm deleting the old thread and creating this one instead.



Summary of content from archived post:



bigdb1

1K of the 62 and
500 55 FMJ's in a 20 inch 1:7 Colt HBAR. No failures of any kind.
Accuracy only fair with the 62's working better in my rifle. Dirty, but
not enough to cause any problems in 2-400 round range sessions.



2Manchu

500
rounds of their 62-gr. BTHP load through an Olympic 14.5" CAR97M4 w/ SS
barrel. No functioning problems. Accuracy was about 3"@100-meters,
rested. Edited to say that this ammo wasn't as dirty as the PMC that
I've tried.



out4trout

500+ rounds thru my RA M-96. No problems
with sticking, failure to extract, failure to eject, torn rims or the
like. Of course my RA M-96 shoots everything without complaint. Not real
tacking driving ammo, but OK. Here's the way I rate it: Better than
Wolf About the same as S&B Almost equal to SA Not even in the same
league as IMI, Fed 193, X193 or Win Q3131A Is it good enough for casual
plinking? You bet. Do you want to use it at the range to show off your
new Bushie to your buds? I doubt it, there's always the confusion of is
it the ammo or is it the rifle. Would I bet my life on it? NO WAY, stick
with the good stuff.



DavidDetroit

I would echo the last guy
exactly. Better than Wolf. Not as good as SA. Not in the same world as
XM193. I can't get it to group better than 2" at 100 meters out of my
Oly PCR 1. Not great, but not as bad as Wolf. I can't get the Wolf to
group in the same State. Value is the relationship between quality and
price. This ammo is a good value for average ammo at a great price. When
I find it below $50/500, I stock up.



photoman

My only
experiance with burnaul was with the 62grHP. And I'm not happy with it.
I've shot 1k rounds of the stuff from an olympic PCR1 with a bushie
14.5in/ y-comp M4 profile 1/9 (marked match) barrel. It's the only
Russian ammo I've tried that I've had problems with. Though the problems
may be mag related. It won't feed reliably from orilite mags. And it
actually wouldn't feed from a colt mag either. Though that one has to be
the mag as it would not feed them in a friends gun out of that mag
either. He also was having problems with the ammo feeding from his
orilites. I'll try their 62gr FMJ before i decide to not use this stuff
anymore, as I've had not one problem from the wolf 62gr FMJ. Other than
that no other problems.



QuidProQuo

62 gr Barnaul. Underpwered
and inconsistent as usual. Does not hold back bolt in any of my ARs.
Very occasional short stroke in one of them. Have reserved it for the
Mini-14 where it performs flawlessly for plinking.



555R

well
my vmatch seems to like this quite well not that I am a great shooter or
anything but grouping around 5 inch avg at 100 yds off the bipod and
EoTECH. good enuff for me seems loaded hotter than Wolf no failures
after 200 rounds today went thru steel and aluminum plate like butter
its the red box wrapped nicely in a paper sheet. nice stuff I want more
FYI I usually get 3 inch groups with XM193 off the bench I didnt have
the bipod that day so to me the 5-6 inch groups offhand arent bad and
still on the silhouette. green fingers and all



geoffdaniels

FWIW,
I have the least amount of experience of anyone that posts here, but I
have fail to ejects about 30% of the time with JSC/Barnual. Never had a
FTE or FTF with Q3131A. However, my crappy Ruger Mini-14 eats the stuff
flawlessly. Flawlessly means 8" groups at 100 yards though, as opposed
to about 3" with the good stuff



makattack

Don't have alot of
experiance with it. Just shot about 350 rds of the 55gr fmj. yesterday.
no problems.Really good for cheap ammo. About 21/2" groups @ 100 yds if I
do my part. Seems a little weak though. I does function well in My 16"
AR. Alot of richoches( think thats how you spell it).Steel jackets like
to bounce more than any ammo I've ever fired.



al_bum

I ran 1k
rounds through my armalite M-15A2 20" and RRA LAR-15A2 16" without a
hitch. Just some mag related probs, that being they were bad mags
anyways. Groups were 2"-4" @100yds. Didn't really matter cause I used'em
for shooting steel. As compared to Wolf, I can't tell alot of
difference cause I don't use either brand that often. Seemed abit hotter
and accurate. I say go for it if you're looking for cheap plinking
ammo; something I have a habit of not doing when I probably should.



thumbho1e

I
bought 500 rounds on sale just before Y2K, I just brought it out
recently and have been shooting it in my standard bushmaster 20" hbar.
With iron sights at 100 yards I get very acceptable tactical accuracy.
Not as good as South African but good enough for me. Figure about 2 inch
groups if I shoot from a rest. This is the 55gr stuff.



Zhukov

Shot
about 1000 rounds through my RRA M4, and it feels about the same as
Wolf. Most definitely loaded lighter than M193, as I mixed up a mag of
XM193 and Barnaul. The Barnaul still has the red neck sealant, but I
guess it's fine in my rifle which shoots Wolf without complaints also. I
got the ammo for a very good price, and would buy more, but the new
Wolf Polymer coated stuff sounds like it's the way to go now...



trapguy

I
tried some of there 62 grain fmj in my colt 20" a2 and had about 30% of
them stick in the chamber. Accuracy wasn't to bad but i think i'll burn
the rest in my mini14 and give up on the commie 223rd.



yekimak

I
have shot about 1200 rounds of this through an armalite 180b, it has a
tight chamber and has not been cleaned in a while. recoil is heavier
than wolf, and indistinguishable from q3131a. Had one FTF (bolt did not
close all the way), but all rounds have fired without a hitch otherwise,
only a couple mag related problems (USA ACK). This is by far my
favorite blasting ammo. It is half the price of xm193 up here.



RELOADER-BOB

I
got 7k of 55gr Barnaul from Widener's on a closeout sale last spring.
My sons and I have run about 2k of it thru 3 Olympic Arms parts kit guns
with no problems. Loads good and fired every time. Just used it for
blasting though.



Brerarnold

55 gr FMJ in a Colt HBAR 20 in. No
problems. Accurate enough for plinking ammo. I will keep using it, as
it is about the cheapest I can buy hereabouts that shoots well in my AR.



pas59

I've
shot 2500+ rds of SMA223FMJ 223 AMMO 55GR FMJ $56.00 / 500rnds from
Widener's in the last few months.

No failures, no problems. Excellent
plinking ammo.



put about 100 rds of 55gr though my 16"
bushmaster dissy. No problems at all. Chrono'd 5 rounds of it, and it
varied from 2940 to 2990. I let a round chamber and sit there for 10
minutes to see if i'd have any problems with the laquer sticking, and it
ejected fine after i fired it.



Firearm: RRA middie

Approx #
rds: 500

Type: 55gr FMJ

Not a hiccough or bobble. Good
consistency, good performance, and not as dirty as some U.S. made ammo
I've fired. POI is just about exactly the same as with Q3131A, at least
at 50 yards through my rifle.

If I could find their stuff in 62gr,
I'd buy all of it I could carry.



did about 300 rounds of barnaul
in a tactical rifle class i had today. Rifle is a Bushy super light 16"
and used cproducts SS mags. No problems at all, this is great ammo if
you dont need a high level of accuracy (i was shooting with irons at man
sized targets out to 100 yards, and it was accurate enough for that).



I've
gone thru a case of their .223 and .40 with zero problems.



DPMS
1:9 14.5"

~800 rounds fired

Barnaul 55gr FMJ from Academy

Overall
satisfied with Barnaul. Shoots a little hotter than Wolf and just a tad
bit dirtier.

Able to consistently hit turkey-sized plate @ 100yds
offhand and 10" steel plate @ 200yds supported with iron sights.

The
only problem with Barnaul is occassionally FTE (1 out of about 120
rnds). I think it's due to dirtyness, but Wolf has never had a problem.
Could be because Wolf is polymer coated & Barnaul is lacquer coated.



I
had issues with the Barnaul/Monarch steel cased .223 regarding tumbling
bullets impacting the target sideways @ 25 yards in my 16" POF 1/8
twist upper. When I finish the remaining rounds through my 16"
Bushmaster HBAR, I will not purchase any more of the Monarch .223 steel
cased variety.

I am going to have to change my vote on the Monarch
Steel Cased stuff from Academy. It shot like a dream in my 16" 1/9 twist
Bushmaster. No keyholes or anything like that. I started the day off
mag dumping just to finish the ammo out, and then I decided to try aimed
fire, and was pleasantly surprised at the results!

I think the 1/8
twist on the POF may have had issues with stabilizing the bullet. FWIW,
the POF tends to favor heavier grained bullets.

I will use this stuff
again because the price is right for plinking with.





RRA
midlength 1:8 16" SS barrel

I've fired approx. 1K of the 55 gr. FMJ's
through the RRA. One failure to fire out of the entire lot. The primer
strike was good, just no boom. No failure to feed, eject, etc. with any
magazine that I've tried. I never chronographed or shot it for accuracy.
Plinking only.

I will continue to buy it just as long as Academy has
it. I'll try the brass cased stuff when I get a chance.



I saw
some of this at academy the other and decided to give a try. I ran a 100
rounds through a rra car 15 midlength with no problems whatsover. I am
pleased with the ammo and the price



I have run at least 500
rounds of the lacquer coated Monarch through my 6920 with zero problems.
Indistinguishable from Wolf for plinking. At least for my purposes. I
will continue to use it.



Shot it in a 16" LW SOC. It produced 4"
groups at 50 yards. Switched to 45 grain SP Winchester and it produced
1" groups or less. Its 8 MOA ammo. I wont buy anymore unless its for
full auto shooting where I just want cheap ammo. And its dirty.



Used
about 3K rounds through a surplus M16a1 upper that Kurt's Kustom
converted to a dissy. No functioning problems. Stuff stinks. Patterns
OK. Just don't bother trying to get a group out of it.



My rifle
is an M4gery that I built with great quality parts (or later replaced
cheap stuff with great quality parts. Runs 100% with xm 193 and black
hills but short strokes almost every shot with monarch. After firing the
monarch it reminded me of what everyone says wolf will do to your
rifle. It was nasty, I mean NASTY. As bad as it was, I then fired 170
rounds of XM193 through it, and even after one of the mags took a dump
into clay (I loaded it anyway) it functioned 100%. Guess my carbine just
likes the hot stuff.



500 rounds thru Bushmaster. Shot fine. Used
it for plinking, have no idea what size groups, but hit the gongs I
pointed it at.



Just ran 100 rounds through my RRA Varmit E4 and
only about 60% cycled correctly. Problems with ejection and
feeding/cycling. This became extremely annoying.

Also the best I
could group with this ammo @100yds was about an 8" circle. Will not buy
or use this stuff again. I can buy Remington UMC for about the same
price and it cycles great and groups much better.



I burned
through my last 2 mags of the stuff in my M16 (DPMS post ban upper)
yesterday .

no problems . I've put this stuff through 3 AR's/M16's
with no problems . Iwon't buy any more at $3.89 per 20 though. I'll
stick to wolf for that kind of money. sucks to as it goes down range
just fine (1-7 twist ) and I've shot quite a bit through my ETS .223
suppressor .



ZeroedIn

The monarch steel cased 55 gr FMJ has
been about 80% of what has gone through my Bushmaster 16 inch 1/9. Total
rounds fired is around 1000, so that makes it about 800.

Only
problems have been one failure to eject of a steel cased round (round
stuck in chamber pretty good, rim ripped off by extractor) and one
instance of the aforementioned occurring with a brass cased Monarch 55
gr SP (made by PP, I know) fired directly after many of the steel cased.

Accuracy
is about 6 moa at 100 yards. Round to round recoil felt very
consistent.



ARTX

1) 14.5" LMT upper, RRA Lower (m4 clone)

2)
about 300 rounds

3) 55gr Barnaul Steel case (Labeled Monarch from
Academy)

Not one single issue with the ammo. Always has worked
perfectly. Usually don't shoot over 50 yards, as I mostly shoot tactical
matches. Accuracy is decent enough, no complaints, though I have never
shot for group.

Much hotter than Wolf, though slower than M193.
Barnaul worked in my M4 clone even when other ammo types would short
stroke. Only downside is it isn't 2.86/20 anymore!



crunchy

i've
gone through 1k rounds of 62 gr. sp and just ordered another 1k. Had 1
FTE during a speed session. Figure that it got too hot and melted some
lacquer. Had no problems with slow fire off the bench. Accuracy is
decent, with some less than 1MOA groups @ 100 yds., if I can do my part.

My
rifle is a S&W M&P M15A, 1 in 9 twist, 16 in. barrel.



GHPorter

I
don't remember if I've voted in an earlier version of this review or
not, so here goes.



I can't count how much Monarch Blue Box .223
I've gone through-most likely at least 1k rounds. Not clean, but nothing
is (WWB seems about as dirty). Fair accuracy; good for plinking and
such, not long range or bullseye accuracy. Works EVERY time in my AR
(RRA Middie).

The only problem with it is that it's too damn
expensive at Academy. Nearly $5 a box for STEEL cased, non-reloadable
ammunition?

Forgot to mention that it's all been 55gr FMJ that I've
seen at Academy, so that's all I've had experience with.



DevL

I
shot the Academy stuff. I used it previoulsy as blasting ammo for full
auto for cheap and it is functional. It is the only ammo I have ever
tried and got 8 MOA groups with. Thats right, this ammo shot 8 MOA,
consistantly. Other FMJ shot 2 MOA. Wont ever buy it again unless
someone needs cheap ammo before a full auto shoot and an Academy is on
the way.



Samuel_Hoggson

I got to try about 100 rds at the
Eden MG shoot. This was the 55 gr fmj blue box. It was distinctly more
powerful than the Wolf black box I was using. I used it in Colt 11.5 1:7
and Colt 20" 1:12 uppers. All FA, some shot in the evening in mags with
tracer reloads. No failures of any kind. Moreover I shot this stuff
after I had fired off alot of Wolf poly........no cleaning, just an
occasional squirt of CLP on bolt and in bolt gas ports when I start to
need to use the forward assist. As has been my experience with the
polymer stuff, I could not stick any lacquer cases in the chamber, even
when I let one sit chambered after a few mag dumps. I didn't notice
anything unusual, cleanup-wise, when I returned home.

Accuracy? Dunno
- better than minute of car, anyway.

I'm planning on picking up 10k
when my buddy gets more in. I think I'd prefer this stuff to the black
box poly. Will run some over a chronograph alongside black box when I
get a chance.



seargeantjim

1) Ruger Mini-14, Essential Arms
AR-15, Olympic arms Ar-15 m4

2) 2500

3)Barnaul steel cased

IMHO,
its the best non-brass cased ammunition for your money, I think it
performs better than Wolf, achieving head shots on a silouette at a 100
yards every single time with the mini. I also like it because sometimes
with the wolf, it is a veryyyy dirty round to load and your hands will
be black after. With the Barnaul you have very clean hands left over(but
make sure you still wash) In all, buy this over Wolf anyday you can.



JedYonkers

Great
ammo ,dirty, stays in the black

Frankenstien ar 16"

Brown bear
500rnds

golden bear 200rnds

Barnual box 29rnds



the-fly

Im
still working on a case i purchased several years ago (barnul). Ive
never had a dud or failure in 3 different rifles with it. I like it
better than wolf - less stinky, slightly better groups and more
consistent. Just my 2 cents.



opositive

16in stag upper/1 in 9
twist and old a1 20in colt upper/1 in 12 twist; 500 rounds 55 gr barnaul
from widener's. i shot 300 rds with no function issues last weekend and
200 rds today with one stuck, unfired cartridge that that had a small
blob of steel stuck to the side of the bullet––weird. i had 100 rds of
55gr wolf mc with me today, and i felt that the barnaul was a little
hotter and a little tighter on target.



votefromrooftops

i've
run all mentioned above from my colt m4 to all my J&T biulds,
bushmaster and cmmg m4gery or rock river, never had any problem with the
zinc plated barnaul, a couple fte on 1 kit gun after the rifle was hot
and did a 80 round mag dump with a beta c mag that was using the blue
box monarch, i feel this stuff is better than wolf imo. ammo prices have
forced me to shot russian ammo. the zinc coated barnaul has been great
in everything i own.



ShadowOne

Ran through 500 rounds of
Barnaul 55gr recently:

- Clearly not as accurate as LC XM193. But
pretty good for plinking, especially with the price of $198 / 1000 from
Widener's.

- Had 1 dud out of 500.



SSN_Doc

Recently shot
some Brown Bear 62 gr. HP through my wife's 16" flat top carbine and my
16" dissipator. No real groups were shot with this ammo.

This was my
wife'f first time shooting an AR-15. Her's is equiped with an A1 stock,
and a Bushnell Holosight. She was able to keep all of her shots but 3 on
a paper plate shooting offhand out to 50yds. She put over 100 rounds
through the carbine.

No failures of any type were experienced.

The
Dissipator has a heavy barrel and 1.5-4.5x scope. About 30 rounds of
the same Brown Bear load were put through this rifle. My wife shot ten
of these from the bench with the scope set on 4.5x She kept all rounds
inside a 2"x2" square. Most went into a single ragged hole about 3/4 of
an inch. There were 3 flyers out of the 10 shots that hit about a half
inch higher than the other 7.

The other 20 rounds through the
dissipator were fired by me offhand with the scope set on 1.5x as head
shots on silhouette targets. No misses, but again, not really fired for
groups. They clustered into about 3 inches at 50yds. These were not slow
fire but shots taken by holding the rifle at low ready, bringing it to
the shoulder and taking one "quick shot" as soon as the cross hairs
settled on the head. (roughly 1-1.5 seconds from rifle mount to shot).
No failures of any kind.

Also, my wife fired one shot into a one
gallon water bottle to impress upon my 4 y/o daughter why she can't
touch the guns without mommy or daddy directly supervising her.

Bottle
blew apart at 25yds (as expected). The bottle split at several places.
single bullet hole in the front label, three holes found on the back
side of the jug. The effect was good my daughter had wide eyes as the
jug exploded and jumped 3 feet into the air. I think it was a worthwhile
demonstration because after shooting paper plates and silhouettes I am
sure she had no idea how destructive a gun could be. My wife was equally
impressed with the energy her new carbine packs, as well as how much
easier it is to hit targets with than her pistol.

My daughter wants a
rifle of her own but she is still a bit too small statured and not
quite as good a listener as she needs to be to start shooting yet. Even
the Cricket has a little too much length of pull for her. I did help her
hold a 10/22 and put a few rounds through it. It appears she may be
plagued by being right handed and left eye dominant.

Good practice
ammo. I would buy more for range practice. Not going to win anny
accuracy matches, but definitely good enough for practical shooting
drills.



Justinhcannon

I use the "Monarch" blue box almost exclusively (sometimes I use the
green) because it's practical.  For the 8moa folks, I don't know what to
tell ya.  I haven't shot a carbine match with the stuff yet, but I used
ONLY monarch in a few IDPA matches with a Glock 19 and never had one
single issue.  Any faults were "operator error".

I have used it
EXTENSIVELY at the range while plinking, and it's worked fine.  I had
alot of feeding issues, but it was attributed to my rifle having a
(found out later) broken firing pin and bad bolt.  It worked flawlessly
on the other two AR's... over 3000rds on a beautiful Sunday afternoon
last month.
 Try to afford that with ANY  ammo.  It
wasn't cheap, but compare that to xm193 (which is what many people have
done here, performance-wise).

As far as accuracy, we were hitting
steel plates, so I couldn't give you an estimate.  However, sighting it
in was easy enough.  I would imagine getting fist-sized groups at 100m
with an EoTech or irons.

More comments:



beantamug

I use the Monarch blue box,  green steel cased ammo - 55grn fmj. I have
had no problems. It has enough power to eject smartly from my Bushmaster
14.5 barreled M4 upper with a standard carbine buffer. The rifle has a
chrome lined bore and chamber and is chambered in 5.56mm. I do not run a
black O ring or upgraded extractor (or ejector?) spring. It has always
locked the bolt open on the last round. Accuracy off the bench with red
dot or irons is 3 inches at 100 yards. I have done 1.5 inches with the
irons with XM193, though. It does run dirtier than the domestic ammos I
have tried, like Q3131, XM193, M855, Remington UMC, etc. From my
experience the Monarch runs a little cleaner than Wolf. I clean my M4
around every 500 rounds.



decodeddiesel

I just fired 500 rounds of Barnaul 55gr stuff through my LMT M4 today.  
Great ammo, absolutely no problems of any kind.  Grouped about 2.5 MOA
with my TA33-8, perfect for CQB training.  Given the price, I think I
will be buying a case of it very soon!

ETA:  Noticed this
includes Brown Bear.  I have fired about 100 rounds out of said LMT and
had one issue with Brown Bear.  The issue was a torn rim upon extraction
from a very dirty weapon.  Not a big issue, one light tap with a
cleaning rod and it came loose.  Just goes to show that even though it's
great cheap ammo, and I'm a big fan, it's not something you should be
trusting your life to.



bad_company5150

spent about 200 rounds of it today and had 3 case heads ripped off.  it
grouped well and I was happy until this occured.  wont be buying again
though cause it's really annoying to clear.



arcfootball17




Eastwood123

My experience is similar to that of crunchy, above. However I was using
Barnul 55gr fmj

Rifles used in were - 20in RRA upper and 16in RRA
upper.  Only 1 or two FTF's out of aprox 500 rounds fired over about 3
trips to the range.  With my 20in AR and using this barnul ammo, I could
regularly get under 2in groups @ 100yds and hit 5 in steel plates at
300 yds.

I love Barnul and brown bear.  Its all I will buy in the
various steel cased ammo, for either the AR or AK.



lamarbrog

Rifle: CMMG Upper Group, 16 inch barrel, 1:7 twist, 5.56NATO chamber,
Semi-Auto carrier, carbine gas system, standard weight buffer, PMags.

170
rounds fired.

Monarch, Blue Box. Steel cased, lacquer coated.
55 grain. .223Remington From Academy.

No failures at all
from the rifle. The rifle was running completely dry (as a test, not
standard procedure) and was brand new, no break in period.

Zero
failures of any kind. No failures to fire, no failures to feed, no stove
pipes, to extraction or ejection problems. It functioned flawlessly.
Did not seem nearly as dirty as some Russian ammo is. Very pleased.



euclid

I've been using Monarch 55 grain .223 ammo in both my RRA Entry tactical
and my CMMG upper/Spikes Tactical lower for almost two years with one
FTE and no FTF to report. The FTE was probably related to the fact that I
intentionally did not clean the CMMG I built just to see how robust it
was and that FTE was what prompted me to finally clean the rifle after I
had put close to 1000 rounds through it without cleaning or lubing it.
I'd estimate that I have fired well over 2000 rounds of the Monarch
through both rifles.



JB-NY

My local gun shop had Brown Bear 62 grain boat tail on sale $29 for 100
rds. I took 100 rds out to the range. I had no problem with the ammo. It
was accurate, no issues with FTF  or anything else.


I used it in my Stag model 2 (post ban)


I would/will absolutely buy it again.




shiky




wombat25

Ordered 1000 rounds of Barnaul 55-grain SP from Wideners for $244 plus
shipping. I couldn't go wrong with this...if it worked fine, I had ammo
for a great price, if not, I could easily sell it for what I paid for
it.


Fired approximately 100 rounds so far in a 16" RRA carbine with
1.5-5x Leupold scope - function was flawless, accuracy was marginal.
2-3" five-shot groups at 50 yards - this rifle will usually do 1/2"
five-shot groups at that range with high-quality ammo. Seems like it is
loaded pretty hot.


Definitely keeping the remaining rounds, though I doubt I'll order
more right away. Fine for plinking, practice, or training, but no
substitute for the brass-cased stuff for serious work.



spankyfromBAMA

ive shot around 500 rds of this through my m4, it seems to leave a
bigger mess in the gun than any other ammo i have tryed, i live in a
very humid area so anything i save in ammo costs goes to helping me feel
better by spending more time and supplies cleaning it,  havent given up
on the rounds yet just gana experiment with others to see what shoots
cleanest and fits my shooting needs the best,



Rjwpavo

16" RRA A4 middie. Shot about 180 rounds today.


Brown Bear 55gr FMJ.


1 blown primer in first mag.  Several light primer strikes. Re-fed
and they all went bang.  Not sure on accuracy, just plinking to try out
today.


Already shot 120 rnds of XM193 previously and not 1 problem. I'm
thinking these may have harder primers?



g8rgunner


RobNC

I tried out 100 rds each of 62 BTHP Golden and Brown Bear yesterday.
Both rounds were fired through a Colt 6920, a 14.5" LMT, and my match
gun which is a 14.5" LMT w/ FSC556 comp on a lower w/a fixed A1 stock
and JP reduced power trigger springs. The carbines have H2 buffers. None
of the guns were clean and were run wet.


I fired 5 rd groups from 100 yards with each round/gun. Both rounds
fired to the same POA/POI and grouped 3-4 inches. The Colt is zeroed
with 75 TAP, the LMTs are both zeroed with XM-193. The Bear ammo was
close enough for practice.


I then fired 1-5 drills to get the guns hot fast. I fired the drills
back to back, 2 mags through each gun. I had one double feed (mag
issue) and 1 light primer strike FTF with the Brown Bear. Both
malfunctions happened while shooting the match LMT with comp, rifle
buffer, and JP springs (probable cause of the light primer strike). This
round was ejected, inspected, placed back in rotation and fired the
second time. No issues with the Golden Bear.


I didn't notice any difference between the ammo other than the
medium used to coat the steel case and the red primer sealant used on
the Brown Bear. The ammo "felt" like 5.56 and was much more powerful,
cleaner, and accurate than Wolf.


At 25 cents a round Brown Bear will be replacing XM-193 as my
practice/3-gun ammo.



DaveyJonesLockerUSN

I had three FTEs with Brown Bear after shooting about 20 rounds.  The
first or second round would fire and then the empty casing would remain
in the chamber.  After clearing the stuck cases the subsequent rounds
would function OK.  This problem happens on the first few rounds after
changing mags.


Gun is a 16" mid-length Del-Ton with 300 rounds down the pipe in
total.  Fired about 150 rounds the day of these malfunctions so the
weapon was not too dirty.



Tomac

Last June my best friend and I put 2K of 55gr Brown Bear through a 2-day
carbine class using MSAR STG-556's. Only at the very end of the 2nd day
did one of the STG's start to experience stuck casings (the other STG
was 100% w/Brown Bear for the entire class).




wganz

Have fired ~500 rounds through a mil surp M16a1 upper without issue.
Just be forewarned that it does smell like burnt piss when firing.




Beerswimmer