Mis-posted in Chinese rifle forum.

Does anyone collect Chinese 7.62x39 ammo? I'm still looking for a few more boxes to add to my collection. Specifically a box of Armco and two variations of the plain white boxes. What's in your collection?

I used to. Sold it all a few years ago. Your box collection is pretty representative of the majority of what is out there.

There are some very interesting military boxes and packets out there as well. Some of the early stuff has Chinese writing on it and color codes.

Every time I thought I had every variation, I would see another... Good luck!

I remember some of those boxes.  Smells like Victory!

Here is some of my Chinese ammo I have in storage.

.308  x 1040 rounds



7.62x39  x 1200 rounds



9mm x 1000 rounds

I have at least one, maybe two boxes you don't have pictures.  Silver box may be the one upside down.  I'd consider trading a few boxes.



Few other cases I've been sitting on for a while.









Tempted to cut this one open.

Ah, the good ole days

I'd be curious to see pics of the ones I don't have. There are some subtle variations in fonts occasionally. I have some silver box with bold and thin lettering.

Interesting thing about the upside down box. There's no traditional front and back. Only two backs, which would be the warning label. What makes this one peculiar is that one warning is in English and the other one is in French.

No need to open that sealed crate. There are 1440 rounds of ammo in two sealed spam cans of 720 each. They'll be paper wrapped in 20 round bundles. Definitely corrosive and steel core.

Here is a link to the Armco ammo I'm looking for.



Here's a pic of the white box I'm looking for. Found it on the Dave Cushman site.

I believe the bi-lingual boxes were for the Canadian market in Quebec. I got mine when I lived in Vermont, near the Canadian border.

What is the head stamp on those rounds with the green case mouth seal?

"31 ??"

These are the two I have that I don't see in your picture

31 over 94

I went into a Pawn shop today in Utah to check out some Black Fridays deals, as they had advertised 20% off all ammo today.

What do I see on the shelf? Norinco 7.62x39. The red boxes like in your top left corner of the OP’s picture. Never seen it in a retail space ever. As I’m young enough the ban went into effect long before I was into guns.

Price was $3.50 per box of 20. I thought hot damn that’s a good deal. And assumed that was with the 20% off. Nope. Regular price was $3.50. After the Black Friday deal it was $2.80 per box!!!

I grabbed 1,000 rounds for $140 before tax. My father in law then shot over and bought 1,000 rounds. And we left about 8 boxes on the shelf for someone else.

Best deal I’ve gotten on 7.62x39 ever.

That was quite the find...congrats!

I have full crates and a few orphan boxes.  I’ll look and see if there is anything in the boxes that you may want.

I stopped buying it because I keep hearing people tell me it is corrosive even though it says non-corrosive.

I have a few of the same green boxes that you all plus some that day China sports boxes.

I do have some corrosive ammo but it is 7.62x51. That’s the only stuff that is confirmed. However all the 7.62x39 says non-corrosive. I don’t clean my guns fast enough so rusting/pitting is a big concern. Sometimes it is months before I clean my stuff.

I have shot thousands of rounds of mostly silver box Norinco 7.62x39, mainly if the boxes were damaged from poor storage and some of the copper washed rounds might have patina forming. Have not had any corrosion, even after a month sitting in my rifle bags uncleaned. My general rule is any rounds dated before 1985 is corrosive, anything after is not and in my experience as most Chinese ammo I've shot is dated from 88-93 none of it was corrosive. Maybe those who say it is corrosive was shooting pre 85 ammo?

The .223 was later dated and corroded up a mini-14 I was shooting. All of the Norino .223 was marked non-corrosive. The Chinese are not big on truth in advertising

Finally scored some ARMCO ammo. Apparently this was some of the first Chinese 7.62x39 ammo imported in boxes. The headstamps are 31 over 64 which tells me that it's reboxed military surplus. The cartridges are copper washed and presumably steel core and most definitely without a doubt corrosive.

https://www.tumblr.com/blog/chi56man

Headstamp date really doesn't matter, it just depends on what the ChiComs had available when they made the ammo. If all they had was corrosive primers, that was what they used.

I bought an SKS Paratrooper when they were first being imported. It was before the ATF mandated that they couldn't be sold with bayonets attached and mine came with it still attached. I bought a 1000 rd case of ChiCom 7.62x39 ammunition at the same show, along with a bunch of stripper clips. IIRC, they were the yellow boxes, I can't remember for sure because when I got home, I unboxed all of the ammunition and put them on stripper clips for the SKS. The cases are lacquered steel and the bullets are copper washed steel. I distinctly remember that the boxes had the Norinco logo and name on them.

I shot the SKS and didn't worry about cleaning it right away because the boxes said the ammunition was non-corrosive. I got it out a few days later and the stem of the gas piston (behind the head, which is chrome plated, while the stem isn't) and the inside of the gas tube were covered with rust. There was some light surface rust on the outside of the barrel just behind the muzzle from the gasses flowing over it when the bullet exited. Luckily, the bore was OK because of the chrome plated bore. It all cleaned up OK because it hadn't gotten too bad yet, but it was perfectly clean before shooting it, so it was the ammunition. I'm just glad that I caught it early and that it was "only" an SKS. If I had shot ChiCom ammunition in a high-dollar firearm and found rust from supposedly non-corrosive primers that turned out to be corrosive, I would have been pissed. For me, anyway, after that, I consider ALL ChiCom ammunition to be corrosively primed, no matter what the box says.

IME, the ARMCO was definately repackaged surplus (steel core/corrosive) and one of the least common box styles out there.