I got to go through about 100 rounds of Barnaul's .223 over the weekend through my 16" midlength AR, and I was very pleased.  My brother-in-law and I decided to check out Wolf to see if it was worth all the fuss people make of it, pro or con, but the Academy store we went to didn't have any-they DID have Barnaul .223 labeled (from the factory) as Monarch, so we bought a couple hundred rounds of it and headed to the range.

I was very pleased with the performance and consistency of this stuff.  It just kept going where I pointed it, without any problems at all.  No malfunctions, no flyers, no problems.  My brother-in-law didn't have any problems either, in fact he was hitting really well!  And this stuff wasn't any dirtier than Q3131-maybe even cleaner.  The rounds feature standard Russian laquered steel cases and copper clad steel jacketed bullets, with noncorrosive primers.  Since the range we went to "frowns on" shooters picking up their own brass, it seemed to us to be a great deal; cheap ammo that didn't hurt to leave the empties from.

So I wanted to point out that there is an alternative to Wolf that doesn't gunk up a rifle-at least not for us.

I've never had any problems with it.  There are cheaper alternatives, but it is convenient just being able to pick it up at Academy.  My only objection (and its a minor one) is the smell.

Quoted: Since the range we went to "frowns on" shooters picking up their own brass, it seemed to us to be a great deal; cheap ammo that didn't hurt to leave the empties from.

Why?  It's YOUR brass - you paid for it.  It's YOUR property.  WTF???

P-245, go to American Shooting Sports in Katy, TX and ask them about it.  It's part of their policy.  While it's a basically nice place, it's huge and they have a bunch of "rangemasters" roaming the line, but these guys don't have the time to watch Joe Brass-Chaser leaning over the firing line to snag that last case...  so their policy is that unless it's REALLY, REALLY your brass, AND you shag it very safely, it's better to just leave it.  So I use Blazers when I shoot handguns there, and now I know I can shoot Barnaul .223 through my AR without any problems, so American Shooting Sports can collect up my empty steel cases and recycle them for me.

And to be frank, sometimes it gets distracting to me when I'm shooting and I consider where my empties are going.  And somebody else crawling all over the place looking for a couple of his errant 9mm cases while I'm trying to shoot is really obnoxious.

Here in San Antoino, I go to the Bullet Hole range, and they don't care WHOSE brass you pick up, just as long as nobody complains.  But it's a smaller range with a different sort of clientele.

I  use Barnaul 5.45 and 7.62 in my AK's and I have used there 223 without problems in my AR's...Better than Wolf  IMO...

The local Academy just lowered their everyday price for Barnual.  From $3 to $2.85 a box.   Probably chain wide.