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Ammunition review - Wolf M193/Prvi Partizan M193 (Page 1 of 6)
Posted: 3/1/2006 12:25:16 PM EDT
[Last Edit: Zhukov][Edited]
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PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS REVIEW IS FOR BRASS-CASED M193-spec AMMO PRODUCED FOR WOLF BY PRVI-PARTIZAN, NOT FOR ANY OTHER KIND OF WOLF AMMO Please add your personal experience with Wolf/Prvi Partizan M193 ammunition to this thread. When you do, please give information about: 1) Firearm used in 2) Approximate number of rounds fired. 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 vote that you've had problems with the ammo, then please be so kind to let us know what those problems were. Simply voting negative will not help anyone. |
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For reference, I am going to quote FALARAK's excellent review: A member here sent me a box of this stuff to inspect. This is *imported* by Wolf but the ammo is produced by Prvi Partizan in Serbia / Montenegro. They have a very good reputation in rifle ammunition. The ammunition is sold boxed, 20 rounds per box. Some vendors have it in sealed battlepacks, 200 rounds per battlepack. Other vendors have it in 20 round boxes, overboxed, no battlepack. It is selling for around $209/K plus shipping, or $0.21 per round.  The ammunition is bright, shiny, and clean. No evidence of dings or dents. The case neck is obviously annealed. The bullets are all crimped into the cannelure as expected. The cases are boxer primed, and crimped.  I measured the weights of 20 loaded cartridges. They spread from 178.5gr to 180.2gr. Average was 179.5gr. Bullets were pulled from the heaviest and lightest loaded rounds, to see if the difference was in case, bullet, or powder: The 178.5gr cartridge was composed of a 97.6gr primed case, a 54.9gr bullet, and 26.0gr of powder. The 180.2gr cartridge was composed of a 99.8gr primed case, a 54.5gr bullet, and 25.8gr of powder. This was the largest spread. Not very consistent, especially in the bullet. However, this is NOT match ammunition either. The powder was examined. Suprisingly, it is a stick/extruded variety.... with odd/random shaping:  A typical Q3131A round from a 2004 lot, contained 27.8gr of a flattened ball powder. Quite a difference. The bullet and case were examined. The bullet is a 55gr FMJ projectile, with boat tail, and an open base. This is consistent with other M193. The cannellure is sharp and well defined. The bullet was sealed with the typical black tar neck sealant, consistent with other military loads. The projectile was tested with a strong magnet, and as expected, no magnetic material is present. This is not steel core or jacket.  The bullet was then compared to known M193, from a pulled round of Winchester Q3131A, made by IMI in Israel.  Note the open base of IMI M193 is larger. The jacket appears thicker on the Wolf, but it could simply be a difference of bullet construction, with the bottom of the jacket being rolled in. Therefore - a cross sectional cut was made just after the cannelure on both bullets:  Note - the jacket thickness appears identical to IMI M193. The loads were chronographed in two different barrels: A 20" chrome lined Bushmaster, and a 16" Chrome lined Bushmaster, both having NATO chrome lined chambers. (gratuitous weapon porn included:)  Results: 60 degrees, sunny, mild breeze. 20" barrel 3247* 3347* 3249 3223* 3295* AVG: 3272 ES: 124 SD: 49.3 16" barrel 3153 3161 3117 3116 3112 AVG: 3131 ES: 49 SD: 23.2 I also measured several other rounds, as a control... Q3131A gave an avg. velocity of 3343 from the 20" barrel. Black Hills gave an avg. velocity of 3056. BOTH had MUCH lower (better) ES and SD results. The conclusion on velocity: This is within the expected velocity of M193, to be 3250fps at the muzzle from a 20" barrel. However, it was not as consistent as other rounds tested at the same time, or as fast as my lot of Q3131A. I must note the "*". 4 out of the 5 rounds fired from the 20" barrel short stroked. All rounds were test fired in a EXTREMELY dirty and dry 20" Bushmaster. I wanted to perform this test - because this weapon is notroious for choking on lower powered ammunition, when it is dry and dirty, yet will run 100% on Q3131A even under the same conditions. Q3131A produced NO short strokes of any kind. As I stated, this Wolf short stroked 4 out of 5 times, even though it is only running about 71fps slower than Q3131A. I also tested Wolf polymer 55HP, which short stroked on every round, as expected. But it gets worse... in addition, I tested Federal AE223, which yeilded an avg velocity of 3157fps..... a full 115fps slower than the Wolf M193. However - NONE of the AE rounds short stroked. Now, this isnt a fully scientific test, so dont draw too much information from this.... but it must be noted, this ammo, in a weapon under less than desireable conditions, underperformed other choices... even lower velocity ammunition. I expect this has something to do with the burn rate of the stick powder chosen. I experienced zero failures on the 16" weapon, which was cleaned and lubed properly before firing. Please keep in mind - I only fired 5 rounds in a finicky, neglected weapon, to evaluate failures. 5 rounds is NOT enough to make a full reliability determination. This is JUST my observation.... use the information as you will. Lastly, I tested fragmentation. A box was constructed to contain a large plastic tub, with plastic bags filled with water. I fired into this box from a distance of 25yds. The results?  Basically, I blew the shit out of my box.  The hydraulic pressure blew the tub to bits, and blew out the bottom of the box with such force, it splintered the wood base. In addition, the force of the wood was so great it shattered by plastic sawhorse stand.  All was not lost, however - I was able to recover a few fragments:  The bullet did fragment in water. It did not violently fragment, but did shear at the cannelure, shed the copper jacket, and deform greatly. I dont know if this is consistent with gel, so my plan was to fire a round of Q3131A into the box and compare. However, the damage was done.... so I will need to redesign the box if I want to try that again. Conclusion: This is JUST my opinion based on this evaluation. The bullet is M193. The velocity is in spec. However, given the fact that it short stroked in my finicky, neglected weapon, when Q3131A and AE223 did not, makes this less desireable ammunition, to me. Also, the ES/SD was worse than Q3131A, but not as bad as AE223. I didnt see any other glaring issues with it. At the current price, I will not buy any. There are still too many other options out there that appear to be better, or at least as good of choices. If this drops in price, in comparison to other available ammunition, I will consider it. |
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| See above. I consider the issues I had minor... since I know the reason for it, and 5 rounds is not enough to consider it a major problem. I look forward to testing this some more when I can get my hands on more ammo. |
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Rifle: 16" M4 profile RRA (except for Bushmaster patrolmans 16" barrel). Standard CAR buffer and spring. Rifle was clean and well lubed. No previous ammo fired to the tested ammo. Weather: About 50 degrees and dry as a bone. I purchased 200 rounds. Loaded (6) 30 round magazines and (1) 20 round mag. I personally fired 5 magazines of the ammo and my guest fired 2. We each experianced multiple failures, and experianced 6 failures in 5 magazines. Each failure was the same. Fired case not ejected, live round stripped from magazine, both jammed into the barrel extension. My guest experianced a couple failures as well. This rifle has been run with the following ammo without significant issues. (I can only remember 4 failures since the first 200 rounds it ever fired). XM-193 over 1000 rounds Q3131A over 1000 rounds Wolf 55gr .223 over 2000 rounds Winchester Supreme 100 rounds Winchester WB .45gr 300 rounds Silver Bear .223 500 rounds (This was the cause of 3 of the 4 failures) I don't consider this issue to be major as there could be some aspect of the rifle that could change to make it work, but I will not purchase any more contrary to the poll option as other ammo that runs 99.99% can be purchased for only a few dollars more. |
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I've got some on the way from SG, no chrono but I'll report on functionality/reliability after it arrives. (Mar 7 estimated arrival) My mutt-gun (Model-1 11.5" upper, Colt bolt, RRA carrier, Stag lower) has had no problems with a minimum 200rd each of XM193, steel-case Wolf, IMI, SS-109, and AE...it has only choked on Olympic green-tip. |
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Shot 400 rnds of Wolf/PP M193. Test platforms: 1) 16" Bushmaster M4 profile, Chrome bbl and chamber. Trijicon Accupoint. 2) Model 1 sales 16" featherweight profile chrome bbl and chamber. SPOT optic. Both are zeroed for Q3131. The Model 1 Sales BBl has NEVER been able to shoot Wolf. It usually ended with me banging out the cartrige from the chamber. The Bushmaster eats everything I've fed it. Additonaly the Mod1 has not been cleaned or lubed in 1k rounds of Q3131. The bushmaster was fully maintained. ETA: both use carbine buffers and springs. Mod 1 : 200 rnds not 1 failure. Bushmaster: 200 rnds not 1 failure. Weather was ~70F and sunny light wind out of the south. Range distance was just over 100yds, standing offhand at a 12" steel plate. Each shot 100 rnds at target, standing offhand rapid fire. Total group size was about 8moa. The group size was squed due to the swinging plate and rifles not zeroed for wolf M193. The other 100 rnds in each rifle was shot at various distances at bottles and tannerite. The most noteable thing is shooting polymer Wolf I usually group 2" right and 2" low at 100 with the bushmaster, I did not see the drop with the Wolf M193. Paid ~230 ish for 1k from Sportsmans guide. I like the battle pack packaging but think it's a little overpriced. Will do some addtional testing at longer ranges and zeroed for Wolf M193 and a chrono once the farm dries out and am able to get to my 300yd shooting range. I would also like to do some additional fragmentation testing before purchasing more. |
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Great ammo! CLEAN AND VERY ACCURATE 14.7ish 1/9 Bushmaster A1 Shorty 24 mags shot without a single problem! used 20rd colt mags with metal followers and the new 20rd D&H! Also shot a couple mags worth out of a LMT 14.5 1/7 twist LIST BLUE LOT NUMBER ON BOX |
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Just finished shooting 200 rds of Wolf M193. Zero malfunctions. 20 rds through a 20" RRA varmint (stock) 90 rds through a 14.5" RRA M4gery (have a 9mm buffer installed) 90 rds through a 16" Stag/RRA carbine (have a 9mm buffer installed) I'm pleased with this ammo. |
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I shot 60 rnds through my 16" carbine. No problems with feed/fire/eject. Bolt locked back on empty mags. Spent primers and brass looked fine. Accurate to 3-3.5" group at 50 yards with a red dot. Was feeling great about my purchase of a case afterward. Then, just for reference, I loaded a mag of the XM193 I just got from ammoman. There was a very noticable difference in the recoil (XM193 being much hotter) and in the accuracy (1.5-2" group). The difference would have been obvious in a 'blind taste test.' Still, happy with the ammo overall, but not feeling like its on par with XM193 and its not that much cheaper. |
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Interesting - While I didnt test Federal XM193, in my accuracy tests, Wolf M193 was the most accurate "milspec" M193 round I have ever shot, at least in this gun. |
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FALARAK, which gun? 16" or 20". If it's in your post I missed it. TIA, TS |
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The details are here, which is linked in the main post: www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=3&f=16&t=273003&page=1 |
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My groups were at 50 yrds, not 100 which would be more rigorous, but even at 50 yrds it wasn't that subtle out of my carbine. Neither was the difference in kick. Still good ammo for my gun. Does XM193 vary much? Mine was stamped LC 05 and are from the batch just shipped from ammoman. |
Gotcha! I kept seeing BlackHills and drawing a blank... Then my mind kicked in and saw the Wolf M193 above it. As far as accuracy goes (and/or velocity) have you tested new Q3131 vs. Q3131A. The new Q3131 sucks in my carbine. [/hijack] TS 
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Had a bad day today with this ammo. I started out with a clean/properly lubed gun, put 30 rounds Q3131 through it, then 30 rounds reloaded black hills 55gr FMJ. Next was 30 rounds of this Wolf M193, ran flawless and i was thinking it was great ammo. Then came the next mag full... I had 20 out of 25 rounds (loaded mag to 25) that i had to manually cycle, almost half of the time the bolt would return and lock up without stripping another round. Next mag, same thing. So I ran various ammo through it (Ultramax reload, more Q3131, cheap winchester .223 bulk pack stuff) everything else ran fine, i only have 5 mags so i was mixing them up and none of the mags had failures of any type with the various ammo. I tried the Wolf one more time and hand cycled every round. All of this out of a low round count (maybe not completely broke in) Bushie 16" I will attempt to clean and shoot it again this weekend, but this stuff is more than likely going up for sale. My gun simply doesn't like it, and it hasn't had a single hiccup in the ~500 rounds it's had. Edit to add: The brass did seem to fly as far as Q3131, but not consistant at ALL. It was all over the place, and i can predict within 6" where all my other ammo will fall in a neat little pile. Also the brass markings on the case deflecter were not near the tip on all the Wolf ammo... (ie: near the center of the deflecter instead of the very outer edge) ETA2: Lot 46 and 47 |
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Firearm: 16" chrome lined Model 1 upper on a Doublestar lower Range: 25 to 100 yards Environment: slight wind <5mph, sunny 60 degrees Ammo: Wolf polymer 55 grain steel case-300 rounds Wolf M193 55 grain brass case-400 rounds Results: I ran the polymer Wolf first as a warm up and to get the previously clean weapon dirty. As usual, the polymer stuff went bang and extracted without fail. Next, I ran two thirty round mags with the Wolf M193 rapid fire. No problems with cycling, locked back on the empty mag. With new targets, did some precise work with the Wolf M193. Using the hood of my Jeep and ruck for the rest. I engaged targets at the above ranges at a moderate rate of fire. Accuracy was excellent! Groups ranged from one inch to three inches. During this test, I also function checked ten new mags I had received. The Wolf M193 fed and locked back on every new mag. |
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I fired Wolf M193 ammunition out of 6 different weapons last Sunday morning. All my weapons were cleaned (pounded into my head) so I was not trying to test this ammo for any situation other than plinking. I fired it out of: 14.15" BM M4 profile 16" Colt pencil 16" BM M4 profile 20" FN gov't profile 20" Colt HBar 20" Colt M16A1 pencil I had NO feeding or extracting problems. Every round fired with the same amout of felt recoil as my Q131A rounds and slightly more than my Wolf .223 55 grain rounds. I didn't smell the powder like I do with some older Wolf or Malaysian ammo. I did purchase 2,000 rounds of it at the gun show the day prior for $189 per 1000. I thought that it was a fair deal considering WWB costs more than that at Walmart. Now.... this shooting was done in the rain, not in the usuall HOT Vegas desert that does cause some of my weapons to jam. I have been in the desert shooting and the temp. out there gets to 120 degrees. Some weapons won't run on Wolf at that outside temp. I am curious to see how the Wolf performs but I don't want those hot days to approach any faster than they have too. BTW, my Jam-O-Matic (which is always kept clean) 16" parts gun with BM barrel, ran on the Wolf m193 ammo no problem where as the Wolf steel-cased ammo does not. thanks, Ron |
I am new to AR's, so I bought a bunch of different ammo to try in my bushy M4. I ran 160 rounds of XM855PD ammo through it, and then switched to wolf M193. I shot 200 rounds of wolf and they shot perfect. I have not shot any LC XM193 to compare it to, but the recoil seemed to be a hair less than the 855 stuff.........but that could be from the lighter bullet. I WILL buy more of the wolf M193.
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I spent 5 hrs today at the range! I waited for someone with a 20 incher? Everyone had 16`s or 14.5`s I did give a guy 40 rds Wolf M193 to SHOOT out of His Mini 14 I think its 18 inches dont know for sure? But all rounds fired without any problems? Maybe next time there will be a AR with a 20 inch barrel? I will spare you all of my results wich are the same. 
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50 rounds Wolf M193 through AR-180B- no problems. 50 rounds Wolf M193 through WASR-3- no problems. Accuracy was tested by firing from the prone supported using paper plates as targets at 100 yrds and paper targets with 1" orange center at 200 yrds. Average accuracy from AR-180B was 2 MOA. Average accuracy from WASR-3 was 3 MOA. I'll be buying more. |
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I test fired the Wolf M193 today while also range testing C Products Stainless Steel mags. All was fired through my 16" POF GTC. I had no problems with the ammo at all, no FTF, FTC, etc... It is by far the most accurate M193 spec ammo out of my carbine. I will be buying more of it. I wish I had bought as much of this as my budget would allow instead of the Q3131. Nice ammo! TS
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160 rounds fired (all we had time for). 20" A4 with 1/7 Colt gov't barrel and colt semi-shaved carrier 20" A1 with 1/12 Colt light barrel and CMT shrouded carrier 11.5" SBR with KFH. I am not sort of the spec of gun # 4 ( belonged to someone else) but short-stroked; #4 had an adjustable gas block with port 1/2 open. No failures of any kind in other rifles and it appeared to be more accurate than Q3131A. Nothing unusual noted. Ejection, condition of brass, all as it should be. Details here on page 20 w/pics: http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=3&f=16&t=270540&page=20� |
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Update on my earlier post: I ran ~200rd thru my mutt-gun described below. Had one FTE (fail to extract) after 100rd. The FTE was accompanied by the next fed round crammed into the M4 feeder slots. It cleared after removing the mag and stuck round, and cycling the bolt. Didn't have to break out the cleaning rod or anything. It then FTE'd again, so I field-stripped and cleaned the bolt and chamber. Re-lubed with CLP and back to work. Got around 60rd more thru it, same thing. Cleaned and CLP'd again, ran around 40rd thru it and then put the rifle away. I flag this as a minor nuisance and OK for range time. This gun has fired regular steel-polymer case Wolf just fine, Fed XM193, IMI, etc as mentioned previously, so right now it's looking like something specific to Wolf M193...guess I'll have to re-test just to be sure. -Kevin
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Have shot one battle pack(200 rounds) out of 3 different setups(2 lowers, one pistol, one rifle/carbine).. 10.5" pistol 1/7 twist - Standard carbine buffer and spring 60 rounds 16" Bushy HBAR 1/9 twist - Standard Rifle buffer and spring 80 rounds 20" Del-Ton Upper 1/9 twist - Standard Rifle buffer and spring 60 rounds No issues, all cases looked good. Didn't test for accuracy, but off hand it was hitting what I aimed at no sweat. Have another 200 rounds I'm going to run through a Colt HBAR 1/7 this weekend if it gets here before then.. |
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Just put 200 rds through my new midlength (Nosler180's midlength), stuff shot great. It was lot #43 and #44, came from Sportsmans Guide sealed in the rubber battlepack. I've not had ay problems with Wolf (steel case or M193). |
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Do you happen to know where the Wolf ammo in the rubber battlepack is produced? Did it arrive in a metal can or cardboard? What markings were on the container and battlepacks? The operator at Sportsman Guide was not helpful. Thanks. |
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I bought 1000 rds (200 rd battlepacks), this is the box they came in.  Here's what the battlepacks look like, the little white boxes hold 20 rounds and there are 10 in a battlepack. 
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"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." - Thomas Jefferson, Author of the Declaration of Independence, 3rd President of the U.S.
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I tried some this afternoon and gave up after less than two mags; first few rounds too weak to cycle action then a bunch of blown primers, non blown primers looked like gas leaked around rim so they may have been close to blowing. here's the thread I just started about this experience: Wolf M193 At the bottom of the post is a link to some photos of fired brass. YMMV. 
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I looked at your pics - those are dangerous pressure signs.... brass flow into the ejector, blown and leaking primers. Bad juju. Wolf needs to address this burn rate issue. |
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Shot 200rds through 3 different Mod-1 20" uppers today without any problems. Used 3 different lowers with different buffers. One had a regular rifle spring and buffer, one with an enidine buffer and one with an Acc pneumatic buffer. Uppers consisted of 1-20" SS 1/8 twist, 1-SS 1/9 twist, and 1- CM 1/9 twist. Accuracy was better than the Q3131A but not as good as the Fed 50gr. JHP that I also shot today. No blown or leaky primers. Brass showed no signs of overpressure. Locked back on last round everytime. Used 3 different D&H 20 round mags, teflon coated. This was out of one battle pack, although there were four different numbers on the boxes. They were 39, 46, 47 and 48. Grouped best out of the 2 1/9 twist barrels. Not realy enough rounds to make a determination, but it looks promissing for my rifles.
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200 rounds through a Bushmaster XM-15 16" A2. No problems. Seem to be be as as hot as Q3131 and XM-193. Nothing scientific to back this up, just plinkin'  I just tried one battle pack. If Q3131 or XM-193 is available I would not buy wolf unless the price drops under $200 |
| 2005 headstamp, lot number 43 and 44 on the ammo I tested. Another battlepack-200 rounds-down the tube on Sunday April 30. Not one malfunction. 16" Model 1 chrome lined 1/9 twist AR. Ammo was purchased from Sportsmans Guide. This brings my total up to 600 rounds on this ammo with no problems. |
Ammunition review - Wolf M193/Prvi Partizan M193 (Page 1 of 6)
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