Found some Barnual 556x45 today.  Looks exactly like Wolf, except for the head stamp.  What is it?  Are they a seperate company than Wolf?

They look similar but it seems most people favor the Barnaul by a little bit. I won't personally use anything of lower quality than M193 in my AR's (just my preference) so I honestly can't compare and contrast the differences between the two. There is also the Silver Bear version which uses the zinc plated cases. I think it's also made by Barnaul but doesn't have the laquer coating. There are quite a few people here who like it too and it may be among the best of the Russian ammo. This Russian ammo can make for some cheap plinking ammo if you have no reservations about using steel cased ammo in your AR's.

However, I would not use Wolf or Barnaul for self defense purposes. Silver Bear 62 gr HP's seems to be better in this regard based on a recent test someone posted here. But I would not recommend it for this purpose either until I see more thorough tests. For defensive use M193, Black Hills 68, 69 and 75 gr OTM, Winchester 64 gr Power Point and several other loads would be good choices. The cheap Russian ammo makes good cheap practice ammo. But I would not bet my life on it.

-Charging Handle

Tried some .30/06 Barnaul today and it totally did not want to extract out of my Mauser--well, it did with the application of a rubber mallet.  Too bad to, because I have acces to a ton of the stuff.

Those of us in the Ak world tend to like Barnaul much more than Wolf.  Better quality ammo even though it looks the same.

Silver Bear is also made by Barnaul, as is [i]most[/i] Brown Bear ammo.  There are a few other brands that Barnaul markets their ammo under as well. There were 6 different major ammo factories in the Soviet Union, now, only Tula (Wolf), Barnaul, Ulyanovsk (Uly), Klimovsk, and just recently Vympel (a new ammo producer of unknown quality) produce ammo.  There are rhumors of new factories opening up in the Ukraine, and Kazakistan this summer.

In 5.56, like Charging Hnale said, it is practice ammo.
I would rate Barnaul amoung the highest in quality, and Wolf near the bottom.

Do not use Silver Bear .30-06 in Garands!