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[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Ammunition review - OLYMPIC (Greek) (Page 1 of 2)
Posted: 1/19/2005 7:28:35 AM EDT
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Since the previous poll about Olympic has been archived, I have started a new thread to collect more information as this ammunition is still for sale, and questions come up at least once a week in the ammo forum.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: 79 TOTAL votes 22 Have Not had any problems at all (27.8%) 4 Had some problems, but would continue to use the ammunition (5.1%) 53 Have had major problems, and would not use the ammunition again. (67.1%) 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 with OLYMPIC 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. There is some good supplemental information in this thread: Preliminary Review – Olympic 1999 “Military Contract” Ammo THE ARCHIVE SERVER IS UP!. I was able to condense the information from the previous posts: Collin Well, I have shot over 1200 rounds, out of those 1200, there have been two failures, maybe three. That is an excellent track record. They've been out of 20inch HBAR and an M4 style. edit: It was 55 grain. Tony_A I bought 1k of the red + white boxed ss109 ammo. Have suffered through 200 and gave up. Constant FTF and FTE about 1 failure in 10 from a chrome lined 20" colt and 1 failure every other shot from a stainless 24" colt. Ammo also seem slightly underpowered--less recoil. Mr-L I had not read this thread, before getting a pile of this ammo. In my Colt Government Carbine, it jammed often!!! and when it did work it did not seem accurate at all. It fed well in my Bushmaster Super Light, so I did some accuracy testing. I put up two targets at 25 yards, loaded three rounds of Olympic M193 55gr, and three rounds of Winchester Q3131a 55gr. Fired three rounds at one target, then the next three at the other target. Conditions were absolutely identical for all rounds. I did this three times; the Winchester groups were from, all touching to about a quarter inch, the Olympic groups were from one to two inches!!! I am not exaggerating!!! Unless you need to shoot around corners I would stay away from this stuff. Mr. L. JRJ Just finished up 1100 rounds of this trash. I had to cull through the 1000 55 grain. I threw away 74 out of 1000 and another 16 got by me and jammed my rifle. My Bushmaster runs flawlessly with everything, including Wolf, but this stuff wore me out. Problems included necks too long, bulged necks and even a missing primer. I know why this stuff was surplus, and will never buy it again. I also bought one box of their "ss109" match, and had a primer end up under the spring of the trigger. After a field repair to remove the primer I discarded the rest of the box immediately. John jff24gordn Well, I got through 12 rounds of SS109 before 4 primers jammed the fire control up. Kreutzberg It jammed the hell out of my Model 1 upper. No real problems with my bushmaster until it got really hot, and then I had a few failure to extracts. Megistopoda I purchased 1000 rounds of Olympic "M193", 55gr. FMJBT, for $129 ($144 shipped). Headstamp reads: "NPA 01, 5.56x45". I have run ~600 rounds through my 16" RRA A4, and have experienced no failures to extract/eject, and the loads seemed relatively consistent. I am not particularly impressed with the precision (groups) of the rounds fired at paper. However, regarding their functioning, they have been flawless in my AR. millirad I had a 1000rnds of the SS109 with green tip in the red&white box, I forget the head stamp. It FTE and FTF in all of my AR15s. Sorted through 800+ rounds and found that 1 in 10 would not fit in a case gage. I'll never buy this stuff again. Monroe Brought 250 rounds and shot,as best I could,maybe 150 rounds as threw 50 away that wouldnt chamber. Gave one box to friend with Rock River who did the same. This was 69 gr SS109 and I have Armalite. This stuff ranks in my opinion next to Wolf as not acceptable for use. phobia Bought 300 rounds of their SS109, total trash, lots of FTFs. Rifle was a Bushmaster 16" carbine on a nice fall afternoon. Cant say anything about their 55 grain stuff, never used it, but I'm staying away from anything they make. thebloke 7 FTF and 5 jams, out of 100 rounds I tried. Its trash...If it was 50c a box I could live with it for plinking, but not if I needed reliable life saving ammo. Even the cheaper Wolf rates over this stuff. NO MORE FOR MY GUNS Zhukov Olympic feeds fine through my RRA, but that is based on a VERY limited sample size. At the same time, it also feels very underpowered compared to M193-spec ammo, even though it's supposed to be just as hot. I'll reserve judgement until I shoot more of it, although I think I'd rather spend a few $$$ more for Q3131A on sale. Olympic falls in price between Wolf and M193, but I wouldn't use it for anything serious. If I'm just plinking, I might as well save some money and get Wolf. MadeByMattell Bought a case of 1000. 1 out of 4 rounds results in a FTF. Seems to be underpowered loads. I've used probably 500 rounds of this. Just had to clear the malfunctions in between. This is M193. The rest of it is sitting in my closet hoping that the manufacturer will make good on it. I've purchased 2 cases of PMP and some Winchester as well and both of those have performed well with zero malfunctions. Mayo I've run close to a case of M193 through my RRA also with zero problems. I agree with some previous posters that I can't pull good groups with it like I can with XM193 or Q3131A. Could be me though. cartech I bought 200 rounds. I have shot 60 of them. All but 10 either had a FTF or FTE. I had to manually chamber most all of them. Also seemed underpowered compared to Q3131A. This was the M193 in a JT/RRA 20" rifle. The rifle was brand new which may have aggravated the situation. GoVol98 Yes I bought it too  500 rds. After reading previous posts, I shyed away from using it in the AR and reserve it for Mini-14 use only until it is used up. Ammo is underpowered, partial ejections, failures to load, and not that accurate. Accuracy from the Mini is not that great but here's the comparison: XM193, Q3131A, and even silver bear avg. 4-6 MOA at 100yds Olympic SS 109 ....10-12MOA on a good day. cali-man After reading all of the hellish stories here about Olympic I decided against buying cases of it. I did buy a couple of boxes just to try it out. Using a Bushmaster A2 20" it fed and fired perfectly. I shot it along with XM193 and some SA M193. The olympic I got seemed to have about the same punch as the XM193 but was not nearly as accurate. I only shot 100 rounds and I did not get the lot #. I will avoid this stuff anaway just because Q3131A\XM193 is the same price or just a tad more. The only difference I noticed was that all the Olympic casings were dented on the neck after being fired. None of the other stuff I shot was this way. phoenix27 Olympic M193 ammo- stamped 01 This ammo is the WORST stuff I have ever used and that includes Wolf. The Olympic has given me a 35% Failure To Extract or Failure To Eject rate fired from three different ARs, specifically a pre-ban Colt and two post-ban Bushies. These Olympic guys should be sued and banned from the site. Phoenix27 vegasdude36 This stuff is GARBAGE GARBAGE !!! Now there are two things you cant trust the greeks for... Cant trust them in the shower.....or thier ammo. I tried this crap in three rifles all with problems.......Some greeks are laughing ha ha dumb Americans......... AR_prof Another "I should have read this thread" post! 1) Ammo used: Olympic SS109 ammunition. 2) My AR is a Armalite/Eagle Arms A2 Carbine and is practically brand new. As you will read below I was barely able to get 20 rounds of this ammo through the rifle. 3) I haven't had much chance to spend with the new rifle, so I went to a local gun show and looked for some good quality, moderate cost plinking, rough target ammo. I purchased 200 rounds (note to self, buy 20 rds to try first, then commit to bulk) of the Greek manufactured Olympic SS109 ammo. First shot the report sounded different than I was used to. Second shot, same thing, pulled the trigger for the third shot, nothing. Checked the chamber and had a clear FTF with the bolt 1/2 back. Cleared the rifle. Checked the target (100 yd) and not one round made it onto the paper! On the wood support I used for the target I saw one hole about 4 inches below the bottom of the paper. So I decided to try some plinking on some stumps to see how the ammo was cycling. Nothing but FTFs. Every second or third round. If I chambered the rounds via the charging handle, great. Otherwise the rifle would not feed. I switched to some leftover Winny white box ammo I had in another mag and quickly cycled through it (30 rds) with no problems and the report of the rifle was what I was used to. This Greek ammo is crap, and may even rank as dangerous to use. Spooky130 Olympic 55 gr. Olympic Lower Bushmaster Upper (M4 style) Multiple FTF requiring way too much force to pop out. Same issue in a friend's stock Bushmaster rifle. All the bad rounds worked in a Mini-14 with no further problems. Should have read this before I bought!!! Special-K I have fired less than 150 rounds of the green tipped SS109 out of an Olympic FAR-15 and a Colt Hbar sporter with no problems. Definatly penetrates steel and aluminium better than the standard 55 grain. Accuracy was pretty bad though, 5-6 MOA. crochunter I HATE IT! 1)OLYMPIC SS109 62gr. 2)RRA ENTRY 3)I tried about 500 RDS. FTE/FTF constantly! Dirty as Wolf, and not accurate at all. Selling what I have left in the EE for cheap. Da_Bunny The only ammo I felt compelled to run every round through the case gage. I threw away 7%. No more for me. AGC Ran 500 rounds of the Olympic 55 grain FMJ through a new 'A4 build a few months back. Nothing but trouble. About 80% short-cycles. Wasn't the rifle. Everything else (SA military, Winchester white box 55gn FMJ, UMC 55gn FMJ, US GI M193, Chinese 55gn FMJ, some 20+ year old Federal 55gn SP) fed, fired and cycled without any problems. Forest I ran a couple hundred rounds of Olympic SS109. Accuracy was on par with military surplus - it chronoed to the M855 specification. No problems with feeding/extraction/ejection. whenheavenfell i bought a case of "greek ss109" before i realized it was olympic. i fired one round. and it caused the worst jam i've ever had (bushy 16" hbar). so i've decided to believe what i've heard about this ammo, and am calling tomorrow to get a return/refund. Benelli_Boy I've tried the M193 and have not had a problem with malfunctions. With that said, I will say that accuracy is worth crap. I've had tighter groups with Wolf ammo. YMMV Crpdeth My personal opinion of the Olympic 5,56 62Gr SS109 is that it would probabally be better suited for a bolt gun of some sort, accuracy wasn't horrible out of my Bushy, and it certainally pokes pretty holes in 3/8" Jr Beam @ 50 yrds, which is fun, but after about 10 or 20 rounds were fired it would fail to feed the next round every time, after every round fired! using a factory mag, and an aftermarket 30 round mag. Switching to 55 Gr Federal LC XM193, the weapon would cycle smoothly everytime...Switching back to the Olympic would recreate the problem immediately. A few possible fixes: -Maybe my recoil spring is a little too tight, The LC ammo is certainally more "potent". -My AR was very clean prior to shooting, and seemed to operate fine with this ammo before given a chance (10 or 20 rounds) to acquire some grit, so possibly the AR's that are not having problems just do not have as tight of tolerances as mine. Final analysis: If I do not come up with a solution before I finish this case off, I'll never buy anymore...What good is a break in purchase price if the crap wont cycle? jeff6342 I just recently bought 250 rounds of Olympic SS109 5.56 ammo. Then I read the posts on this topic and almost didn't believe them. So I took 100 rounds out to the farm and tried them. I had more feeding and ejecting problems than I had with the last 400 rounds of other ammo. I've come to the conclusion that this ammo doesn't work in a 20" Colt Hbar. POODLESHOOTER-IN-AZ Oly SS109 sucks. It would not fire more than 2 or 3 rounds before a malfunction in my cherry preban Colt carbine, which has never given me any problems before. Went to a stranger next to me at the range and gave him some to try in his new post ban Colt carbine and it would not run. I sold what I had left over cheap to some guy at a local gunshow, and he said it worked great in a cheap cobbled up AR parts gun. He had 3 failures out of 600 rounds. PSYWAR1-0 I had major trouble with the Oly SS109 while attending the Pat Rogers Carbine Operators Course. Blown Primers, balls of carbon the size of pin heads. Ended up messing my M4 up so much that the bolt carrier key struck my gas tube and bent it very badly. I had 2 lots of this ammo. 1 800 round tin that I purchased at Bulletfest and 250 rounds that were from the red/white box. mcpd34 I just back from Blackwater Training Center. I was worried because I ordered 1000 rds of the Olympic SS109 62gr from Sportsman's Guide because of the cheap price of about $140.00 for 1000rds. Well I only had one malfunction. It was a failure to extract. After looking at my rifle the instructor stated it was probably caused by a dry bolt. I oiled my bolt carrier with some miltec and no more problems from there. Colt M4 Upper 1-7 twist 16 in barrel Colt H-Bar preban Lower w/ Car stock Aimpoint ML sight forend grip |
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I ordered 2000 rounds of the Olympic SS109 a few months back, it was not as bad as I expected. I did end up running all rounds through a Dillion case gague and came up with 15 out of 2k that would not fit into the gague and another that had no primer. As for function I did not have any problems with it, all rounds went bang and were not excessively dirty, accuracy was what I expected for cheap ammunition. Would I buy it again? Most likely not due to the fact that I hate gaguing that many rounds, and Wolf is plentiful and cheaper. Cheers. |
This has been very enlightning. First where did you get the Dillon case guage? Secondly, have you tested any other brand let's say at least a 1000 to see how many of those would be out of spec? It would be interesting to see. |
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I ordered the gage from Dillon Precision, its a simple go-nogo gage. After I found the rounds that would not fit into the gage, I tried them in the chamber of my Bushmaster M4, 16"bbl. Once again they did not fit, they all seemed to stop 1/2 - 3/4" shy of the bolt closing. I never measured the brass for dimensions to see what was out of spec, I simply pulled the bullet and tossed the brass - my curiosity didn't run that deep. As for gaging any other rounds I have not done so. Cheers |
| A dealer friend of mine bought 50,000 rounds (yes, fifty thousand rounds) of Olympic ammo. The bullet type is FMJ M193. I told him about the negative reviews on this forum so he gave me 1,000 rounds to test. Today I ran 250 rounds through my Bushmaster XM15-E2S with 20" chrome lined barrel. I did not have any malfunctions. The 50 yards groups of 20 rounds averaged 4". Also the brass did not fly as far as the Federal XM193 I also shot today. |
| I recentley picked up a 1000 rounds marked NPA 99 5.56x45 on the headstamp. The guy at the sporting good store I bought it from said that he only knew that it was some European manufactuer. So I decided to try it. I searched the internet trying to find out who made it and came across a site called cartridgecollectors.org. It contains alot of info on headstamps and their manufacturers. It said the headstamp NPA was a contract for the Tawain National Police Adminstration. The cases are made by Sellior &Belliot therest ismade by Olympic. Any how seing how I have alot of time on my hand I loaded all 1000 threw the chamber to see if they fit and they all did. So far I only fired about 25 of them , no problems, they seem to be loaded somewhat hot. Did manage to shoot a perty large jack rabbit with one, length wise at about 75 yards, and I can assure you that the bullets do fragment , just as well as what a Q3131a would do. Accuracy wise, I managed to group 5 round at 50yard just a hair over 2 inches resting on a block. Not too bad but also not too good!hug.gif |
| I found this stuff at a gun show firgured I buy 100 rds. Worked great no jams no FTF it was stamped 99 NPA. The guy told me the ammo that came in boxes of 50 were good it was the bulk ammo and the boxes of 20 that were bad. I am going to make sure next time I see him to get more aslong as its the same head stamp. |
| I got a box of the 9mm and it shot fine so I figured I'd try the 5.56, that was a mistake. I only made it through about 15 rounds before I gave up. I had malfunctions (FTE) on about every 3rd and the last one I had to kick down on my charging handle to get it out of the chamber. When I got it out the neck had a bulge it. After that round I decided it wasn't worth trying any more. Worst ammo I've ever bought. |
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I find it strange that this ammo could be THIS bad?!? This is a far worse report than Wolf ever got with the laquer cases in non-chromed chambers. Has anyone tried to determine the reason why this ammo jams so much? Has anyone with reloading experience done any measurements on this ammo? What physical aspect of this ammo makes it so unreliable? Reading this thread leads one to believe that it is a virtual guarantee that the use of this ammo will jam your gun. I know bad ammo does exist, but ammo reported to be this bad shouldn't even be on the market, as any ammo with a fault to cause what is reported to be causing is probably UNSAFE. Any input? |
| Just ran another test of this ammo that came from the Ammunition Store in Ohio. Fired a total of 1,700 rounds. Used an FN M249 (800 rounds belted) and three different Bushmasters (one with 20" barrel and two with 16" barrels). We did not experience any problems at all. M249 was used on full auto for 5 to 10 second bursts. 30 round magazines with green followers and some with the Magpul followers were used in the Bushmasters. The ammo was the Olympic M193 in 50 round boxes. Temperature was in the mid 30's. |
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Olympic 55 grain ammo. Cav Arms MK II lower/DPMS LPK Olympic Arms 20" post ban A2 upper 4x Orlite Mags 1x Thermold Mag 1x GI 20 round aluminum mag 150 rounds spent After buying a Cav Arms lower from a fellow forumite I purchased a case (1000 rds) of Olympic ammo from a Dallas gunshow. As I don't have a upper for it yet I borrowed an Olympic Arms postban A2 upper from a co-worker to function check my new purchase. Included in the purchase was the Orlite & Thermold magazines. Accuracy was not tested, just function of the lower so it was a "plinking" enviroment. All rounds expendend went bang very nicely. No problem feeding from the six magazines listed above. I did notice ejection wasn't as vigorous as I remember from my Army days. Don't know if that was the upper or the ammo. This was the only ammo I had that day so I couldn't compare. Ammo appeared very clean burning. I'll see how it goes with the 16" mid length gas system upper when I get it. |
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I Bought 1000 rds of Olympic SS/109 ammo about a month ago from The Sportsmen Guide and paid 134.00 shipped to my door. During the wait I came across many sites disgusing the ammo this company puts out there to the public, I was shocked at some of the reports while others I thought might have been BEEFED UP for the sake of some of these forums..... Let Me Give You The Facts From My Experience With Olympic SS/109 Ammo Guns Used For Test 1989 Oly Arms Car-15 H-Bar & Pre Ban K-2 Daewoo Range Used 50 Yard Bench I loaded the first box grabbed out of the case and loaded the ammo into my converted 20 rd mags with blockers installed to make them 5 rd mags. Great for range trips! The first box of 50 went out of the Car-15 without any problems but , shot the worst groupings my gun had ever shot at 50 yards.......4 Inches ......hock.gif The pattern I put out at 50 is in the 1 to 2 inch range and that's with iron sights so I was pissed off already....... I put down the Car-15 and grabbed The Daewoo and placed it on the bench using the converted 20 rd mags and fired three mags at a slow pace trying to get a nice shot group out there. This rifle has a 3X9 scope on it and in the past has done tack driving placements at this distance. The rounds went out and I watched in disgust as the rounds keyholed groups as large as 6 to 8 inches. The rounds were to fast for the 1/12 twist but still the groups were way to large. Now I went to box two and three and had 1 out of 3 rounds malfunction in the Car-15 and towards the end one blewup in the chamber were I could`nt get the shell out of the gun till I went home. The ammo is crap and could be dangerous using in any AR-15. I can tell you better news that using the ammo in the Daewoo I never had any malfunctions all rounds ejected and feed well but could`nt hit the side of a BIG BARN at 50 let alone 100 yards...he I`d say STAY CLEAR OF THE OLYMPIC SS/109 AMMO and as for any of their other cal ammos they make, if they can`t get the 223 ammo to meet a good standard why would you buy any of it???? ANYONE WANT TO BUY MY LEFT OVER CASE OF SS/109 IT`S FOR SALE....hreiner |
At least you specified what type of Olympic ammo you bought (SS109). It seems that most of the problems come from that type. I've been using the M193 ammo. And while it isn't the tightest group, it's good for plinking. I haven't had any problems in my RRA and everytime you read about Olympic ammo, it isn't specified what type was used and usually never been used by the person making the post. Just my .02 |
| Boought 1K NPA01 headstamped M193 type ammo back in 2002, jam in my BM and Colt every other round, require cleaning rod to punch out the brass, can't even test accuracy since I was so frustrated. Sold 900rds to a guy next to me who shoot Mini-14 and said stuff is great, I guess it's because Mini-14s have better tolerance then my AR. Now I shoot Federal XM193 and Wolf 55gr FMJBT without any issue. You want good M193 type ammo, get Q3131A or XM193; you want cheap plinking ammo, get Wolf. Olympic ammo is too expensive for what it is, which is JUNK. |
| There have been some concerns that a lot of the comments in the Olympic review thread apply only to SS109. Based on prior threads, and many reviews in this threads relating to M193, I don't think splitting the review is the answer. One other reason is that I don't even know of a source for SS109; most vendors are selling only the M193 variant. |
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about 1k in my cmmg 1:7 chrome lined chanber and bbl, no probs. about 500 rds thru my 14.5" mrp bbl. no probs either. i was very skeptical about this stuff, but smglee turned me on to it and has been really good plinking ammo. i store some lc xm193 for shtf ammo. but other than that it's cheap and shoots well . carne |
| I shot about 150 rounds of Greek (my first case of Olympic) through my Colt A3 Tactical Carbine today. I wanted to compare it with the LC XM193 I used to zero my Aimpoint. It grouped as well as the LC, no failures. After reading the horror stories about this ammo I didn't know what to expect. I'll shoot more tomorrow and if the results continue to be as positive I'll buy another case or two. |
| From my previous bad experience, the jamming problem starts to happen after the gun gets hot. In my case, that's after 60-70rds of rapid fire (about one shot per second or faster) then my BM M4gery will start to jam every other round until it cool off. However, this ammo seems to short stroke my factory Colt MT 20" all the time, cold or hot. |
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After firing nearly 2,000 rounds of Olympic ammo without any problems I ran into trouble today. I had 350 rounds left and decided to run them through a case length gauge. 53 would not fit in the gauge. I took all of them to the range. Eleven out of the first 100 would not chamber. A round would fire, be ejected, and the bolt would close on an empty chamber. Out of the next 50 I had trouble with 40. Two stuck in the chamber and locked the bolt. I thought the problem might be magazine related so I loaded the magazine with Federal XM-193 and all fired without any problems. I loaded the same magazine with Olympic and had trouble with every round. I gave the rest of the rounds to the range master for destruction. Even though the rounds I was shooting today passed the case gauge test I began to have trouble once the gun heated up. No more Olympic ammo for me. |
| Rocks with primers glued to them would work better. At least 30 malfunctions out of 60 rounds to include, numerous blown primers, stuck cases, bullet setback, oversize brass. Finally jammed a spent casing in the chamber that I had to knock out when I got back home. Worthless SHIT!!!! SS109 white 800 round tins. I will take it back to the dealer next show and tell him it's worthless crap. Also seems to be erratically loaded. Some might be overloads. I consider this stuff dangerous and a hazard to shoot. |
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Finally had a chance to shoot the Bushmaster 14.5" I bought from a friend. I'm not sure how many rounds he put through it before selling it to me, but I would guess at least a few thousand. He previously mentioned a problem with extracting, which was resolved when he took it back to Bushmaster to have it fixed. We tried some Olympic for the first time in this rifle, and right from the get-go, there were a TON of problems (extraction failures, double feeds, etc.). We tried some PMC and some Winchester .223. I had no problems with the PMC and only one or two problems with the Winchester, mainly due to the mag being used. I tried the Olympic with three different mags (Bushmaster, thermold, USGI w/ black follower) and had problems with all of them when shooting the Olympic. This stuff is junk. I would never allow that to go through my AR again. I would certainly not rely on it if my life depended on it. |
| Two weeks ago I fired 1,200 rounds of the 55 gr. at an NRA Patrol Rifle Instructor school without any problems. It was headstamped NPA 99. I shot it through a 20" Bushmaster. I requested Federal ammo for the class but my Dept. saved a few bucks & bought Olympic. (we carry Hornady 75 gr. TAP on duty) Over all I was impressed with the relaibility & accuracy. It would shoot into an inch at 50 yds prone. I would buy some on my own but being a Range Master I get all the 5.56 & 357 Sig I need free. |
| Shot 47 rounds, on the 48th the primer came out of the case. Did not know that until I tapped the cam on the bolt and got it to open. The primer got wedged in the cam and locked up a live round. Luky for me the bolt was still far enough back the round did not go off. That would have been an ugly boom. |
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Was at the range shooting my Bushy Carbon 15 type 97r and met a guy with the older Professional Ordinance version who was having REAL trouble getting it to run. We swapped ammo and my gun went to shit. Then it wouldn't function. I tore it down and found a primer on ther the trigger pack.. So we opened his gun up and found a shitload of blown primers. I wouldn't shoot this shit at live Haji's in a Circus Show. The people who sold this stuff should be in jail. Better yet, they should be held accountable by the troops who rejected/surp'ed it out in the first place. I can't imagine being sent out to battle with this garbage. Dave |
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1. OLY stamped NPA 99 2. Colt pre-ban 20" HB 3. 150 rounds at 200 meters Fellas--I was scared shitless about this stuff, so's I gauged and micrometer checked all 150 rounds before I fired. End result--no FTF noFTE; just good "hot" mil-srup ammo grouping 1-2 moa. Spent brass all tossed in one spot; fired primers looked good; brass not split. Fairly clean burning as I cleaned the piece. Go Figure! |
| bought some m193 at the gun show just 100 rds worked great next show bought 500 when they are done if no problems gonna by 1000rd cases . Its only like $30 more than wolf and its reloadable I have a little stock pile of south african battle packs but why use them when the olympic is working just fine from all my AR's RRA and a few home builts. Once I burn up the 3000rds of polymer wolf are gone gonna swich to olympic . The ranges around here won't let you shoot wolf some idiot blew up is $2000 Colt on the old varnished stuff. He never cleaned his rifle you could see the build up of lacquer all over the bolt carrier, barrel. $2000 for a $1000 gun and he was being cheap on ammo now he has no rifle shattered the upper receiver. Barrel has gotta be junk to. Now the range dosen't allow wolf at all even the new polymer stuff. I shoot my wolf at the Detroit Police ranges but they all got shut down for lack of proper ventalation. |
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I've used the 55gr. Oly in a number of my AR's without a problem. Century A1, Bushmaster M4A3, Bushmaster/Colt AR14A4, Bushy Dissy, Colt/Bushy M4. All chrome bore either Colt or Bushy bbls, twist from 1/12, 1/7, 1/9. I bought a few hundred last year to try, never had an issue but stayed away based on negative posts. Local Gander Mountain had it on sale $129/case of 1000 w/5% discount. OTD for $133 in NY. I shot 400 rounds of it earlier this week, not a hiccup. Went back and bought another case. I've fired about 800 trouble free rounds of the 55gr. I know some local dealers stopped carrying it, I'm sure Gander was clearancing it out for a reason. I won't use it in competition, but it's great for practice and better than the XM193. I might pick up case 3. Might not be National Match grade, but for 3-gun distances it works as well as M193 or Q3131A. Then again, I never had an issue with the Natec poly cased stuff either... |
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Had significant problems with this ammo. Tried in Robinson M96, 20% of ammo would jam entering chamber. Gun shop guru told me it was because M96 was .223 chamber, so I tried one round in Colt 6500 (USGI 1/7 bore, NATO chamber) with same result. Extracting partially chambered rounds took percussive maintenance. |
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I bought some Olympic 5.56mm SS-109 rounds last week on a lark. After buying it , I saw this thread, read it and was concerned. After shooting 100 rounds of it thru a BM SBR 11.5" barrel.... no problems whatsoever. At 50 yards standing , I shot about a 3-4" group. I blame that more on me than the ammo though. My perception of the recoil is that it's a little hotter than say commercial Winchester .223. The green tips look like they were painted by Greek kindergarteners. J |
My only experience with Olympic ammo is also with their 30-06 new production "M2 Ball". I put the M2 Ball in quotes because I have serious doubts that their ammo even comes close to meeting those specs. I bought a case (400 rounds) and managed to use up about 1/3 of it, mostly in a Howa 1500. I bought the ammo for use in my M1, but quickly discontinued the practice due to three reasons: 1) Enormous fireball at the muzzle and flash out of the chamber as the bolt cycled. 2) Abnormally loud report. 3) Atrocious accuracy, even in rifles that are known to be tack drivers (my Howa). Issues 1) and 2) are sure fire signs of a powder that has a too slow burning rate to be used safely in a Garand. Issue 3) just sucked all the way around. I took the remaining ammo, pulled bullets, and threw the powder away. I still have the Berdan primed brass and the bullets and will resize, refill with the proper amount of a suitable powder (IMR 4895), and reseat the Greek 150 gr FMJBT bullets to see if accuracy is improved. In closing, I would never waste my money on anything made by these people. 
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Wow .. this is really interesting. I purchased 1K of Olympic M193 a couple of months ago. I hadn't read this forum then, and I guess it's a good thing I didn't .. else I may not have purchased it. I know (and knew then too) that Olympic was low end, but I just wanted something to shoot at steel gongs at 100 & 200 yards, off hand. Obviously I'm not shooting for groups, but for proficiency. I've run maybe 500 rnds through a Bushmaster 20" A2, with a little weaver scope on top ... I've yet to have a FTF or FTE. It makes a loud noise everytime I pull the trigger, and if I do my part, I'm rewarded by another loud bang when the bullet hits the gong. The rifle is easily capable of 1.5 moa with my handloads, and you know I HAD to shoot it off the bench just to see what the cheap stuff is doing. It opened groups up to around 3.5 to 4 moa. Obviously not quality ammo, but it suits my purpose adequately. So I'm not claiming it's quality ammo, or that it's terribly accurate or even that terminal ballistics are good ... but I do know that if you take me out of the equation and shoot from the bench, it'll ring the gong every time at 100 and 95% at 200 (gong is 8 or 10 inchs in diameter). |
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I found 100 rnds of Olympic I bought many moons ago. so what the heck I'll shoot it up. I put in 20 rnds. EVERY OTHER SHOT WAS A FTE, FTF, or a stuck case! the head stamp was NPA 99 5.56 SCREW THIS! I pulled the rest of the bullets, saved the powder, trashed the cases and primers and put powder and bullets into some old LC brass I had with new primers. IF you can buy Olympic ammo cheaper than you can buy bullets and powder, go for it! pull the bullets and save the powder and put in better primed cases. the rim the extractor held onto was ripped off each time I had a stuck case, the brass was too soft IMO. Will never buy Olympic ammo again. |
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I went to the Iowa shoot yesterday and took a couple boxes of Olympic M193 ( date code on the brass NPA 01)To use up. To be truthfull I bought the stuff a few years ago before hearing what kind of problems people have had with them. I loaded up a 30 round mag in my Armalite that has hates wolf/bear. I figured that either way the 2 boxes wern't returning home. Use it or trash it. I was supprised! No problems what so ever. Accuracy was on par with the IMI Q3131. I'm not sure I'll run out and buy a case of the stuff yet, but if I run across some and the price is right I wont heasitate to pick up several boxes of the stuff. |
The boxes seen to be better then the tins. FWIW, I know the tinned crap was RECALLED by olympic, and the dealer I bought it from traded me even steven for Adcom. He says he cringes every time someone walks up with a tin of it. Take that for what it is worth, but even he says he has never had so many people complain in his life about a brand or caliber of ammo. |
[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Ammunition review - OLYMPIC (Greek) (Page 1 of 2)
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