I was given 1k of 55gr FMJ made by UltraMax ... haven't shot this before but have seen it in like a Dick's store. Any experience and information would be appreciated before I start throwing these things down the tube.

got 250 rounds for plinking from a local gun shop. didnt shoot at paper so i have no idea about the accuracy. the first round failed to feed in EVERY one of my mags, after that it was straight shooting. could have been just breaking in the AR, as this round of shooting was the first for the new gun, but when i switched to Winchester the second time out i didnt have any problems. in my opinion good plinking ammo, like i said i have no idea on accuracy though.

Break in isn't an issue for me I have a couple thousand rounds down each gun ... but it's been almost exclusively federal XM193... we'll see what happens tomorrow

Ultramax is bar-none the worst ammo I have ever used.  A buddy of mine picked up some at Dick's one day thinking it would be decent plinking ammo.

Wrong.

Out of the two magazines we loaded, I think we had 15 of them FTfire (good primer strike), and about an equal number FTE.  Digging through the box a little more, we found rounds that had substantial setback and rounds where the bullet had COMPLETELY set itself back into the case to the point where we could pour the powder out.  

Although your question is specifically about .223 UltraMax, I will share my experience with their .45 load.

Crap. CRAP. CRAP.

When I fired the first round I thought I noticed a noticable puff of dark smoke.  I paid closer attention and noticed that each round produced a substantial small cloud of dark smoke, as if the ammo was loaded with some variation of black powder or cordite, and the ammount of smoke discharged varied between rounds.  It also seemed like the felt recoil was different between rounds.

Long story short, I fired only six rounds before I was too concerned with the obvious poor quality of the ammo to continue shooting.

I took it home and added it to my "War Reserve".  That is ammo I will only shoot if the boys in the Survival Forum turn out to be correct and the world ends and I have already shot everything else available.

I purchased mine at Sportsman's Warehouse.  Next time I'm in that store I intend to take the manager of the gun section aside and let him know that they might want to stop stocking that low grade stuff before somebody or their gun gets hurt.

I should also add that I am not an "ammo snob" I routinely shoot ammo like Wolf or military surplus, or older corrosive ammo in some guns.  Hell,  I've even shot other peoples reloads.

If I were you I would see if you could return it for store credit.

Quoted: Although your question is specifically about .223 UltraMax, I will share my experience with their .45 load. Crap. CRAP. CRAP. When I fired the first round I thought I noticed a noticable puff of dark smoke.  I paid closer attention and noticed that each round produced a substantial small cloud of dark smoke, as if the ammo was loaded with some variation of black powder or cordite, and the ammount of smoke discharged varied between rounds.  It also seemed like the felt recoil was different between rounds. Long story short, I fired only six rounds before I was too concerned with the obvious poor quality of the ammo to continue shooting. I took it home and added it to my "War Reserve".  That is ammo I will only shoot if the boys in the Survival Forum turn out to be correct and the world ends and I have already shot everything else available. I purchased mine at Sportsman's Warehouse.  Next time I'm in that store I intend to take the manager of the gun section aside and let him know that they might want to stop stocking that low grade stuff before somebody or their gun gets hurt. I should also add that I am not an "ammo snob" I routinely shoot ammo like Wolf or military surplus, or older corrosive ammo in some guns.  Hell,  I've even shot other peoples reloads. If I were you I would see if you could return it for store credit.

the puff of smoke is from them being  non jacketed lead bullets

Wow ... I guess this stuff hasn't been well recieved ... I was given the ammo so I won't be returning it anywhere .. I'm going to load up a pair of mags and see what happens tomorrow ... if it is as bad as ya'll are saying it will go right into an ammo can in my "end of the world stockpile" and then like Hellfish said only when all other resources are exhausted (which would take some time) will I be shooting it  ... thanks for the feedback     John

Well, there always has to one of me in every crowd.  I bought (unkowing) 500 rounds of UltraMax 55gr SP from Cabela's. It was their "bulk" stuff.  I did know it was suppsed to be "crap".  Shot up a bunch of it and still have about 110 rounds left.  No problems.  See targets.  I was hard pressed to remeber which load was which.  All through a RRA Elite CAR-4 @ 50 yds. UltraMax is the center of the bottom target.



I'm not sure it would have made a difference to me had I known it was "crap".

LOL ... nice group ... I was more looking for function in the gun not on the paper ... I'll see if I can match or beat that tomorrow ... 10 round group ?? I'll give you a thrity ... I'll post tomorrow ... provided the stuff goes boom

I have shot a few hundred rounds of their 9mm and every round went boom.  It's definetly not qaulity ammo but no problems for me.

Quoted: When I fired the first round I thought I noticed a noticable puff of dark smoke. I paid closer attention and noticed that each round produced a substantial small cloud of dark smoke, as if the ammo was loaded with some variation of black powder Quoted: the puff of smoke is from them being non jacketed lead bullets

The smoke from black powder is white, the smoke from the bullet lube on lead bullets is light gray to white.  I don't have any idea what would cause dark smoke.

I've shot three different calibers from Ultramax: 250 rounds of .38 Special, 250 rounds of .45 ACP, and 250 rounds of .223.

The .38 and .45 were dirty but that's due to the lubricant on the lead, non-jacketed bullets.  BFD.  It wiped off easily.  The .223 was clean and functioned fine in my Mini-14 and Colt AR-15A3.

I no malfunctions, failures to fire, or any other misadventures when shooting Ultramax ammo.

I recently bought 1k of UltraMax remanufactured .223 55gr fmj from Cabellas (comes with 4 dry boxes).   In the first 500 rounds I had 2 case head separations.  This is the first ammo problem I've had in about 5k rounds through this AR.  YMMV

 Yeehaa

I had no problems with it in about 1000 rounds out the pipe.  However, Black Hills or WWB can be had for about the same price per round, and have much better reputations.  So I stopped with the Ultramax .223.  As far as pistol ammo is concern, I think they're all unjacketed lead.  Screw that.  I like my pistols too much.

I have used Ultramax extensively in all of my 5.56 weapons and my experience had varied depending on load, but I have had excellent luck and my experience has shown it to be excellent ammo. The only Ultramax I currently shoot are the 55grn Nosler Ballistic Tips, 50 grain Speer TNT's and 68grn HP's, all of which are very accurate and effective rounds for plinking and "hunting". In thousands of rounds between the  three of them, they have performed very well. That being said, when using Ultramax, its imperitive that you "eye fuck" every round you load into your magazine. Ultramax has a high rate of bullet setback, improperly installed primers and etc

compared to other manufactures, including BH whitebox*which I haven't been able to find since I left SD*Any of these anomolies should be easily visable upon inspection. I would say I pitch one in 300 rounds for being improperly assembled, which isn't horrible...but its not great eiether. With the cheaper Ultramax loads like the 52 grn HP and 55 grn FMJ, the ratio seems to be more like 2 of 50. Which is alteast 2 bullets per box that are unsafe or unable to shoot. There are definatly

worse manufactures, but there are certainly better. I don't shoot Wolf, Barnaul, Silver Bear in any of my 5.56 weapons, but I have had 0 rounds of Wolf  out of the thousands of  5.45 and 7.62 I have had to throw away because they are improperly made...After my current quantity of Ultramax is expended, its unlikely I will buy more, with the exception of a hundred rounds here and there. More reliable and safer ammo exists for the same price....Again, YMMV

My department uses Ultramax .223 for practice ammo.  All they get is 55gr.FMJ's, so that's all I have.  (I went to some training and supplied my own XM193, they gave me Ultramax to replace the ammo I expended after I got back)  It seems to shoot okay, but I feel like I need to carefully examine every round.  I have heard so much bad stuff about this ammo.

I did shoot expert on the army pop up range with my RRA middy and Ultramax ammo. (on the second attempt)  I believe I went through about 500 that day over all the different courses we shot, I had no issues.

I have had exactly one failure in  2500 rounds  with my RRA and it was due to a case failure (head seperation) and it was an  Ultramax 55gr softpoint. I was pissed because I was forced to use at the range I went to (no FMJ allowed) and I did not have a broken shell extractor. I finally pulled it out with a bore snake after it cooled down.

I fired 200 rounds of the stuff I got today and it worked fine ... I have a 30 round mag group I'll post pictures of tomorrow. it doesn't group the best at 100yds but for sure it's minute of bad guy. No function problems and I used 3 different mags 1-Parson 1-Okay 1-Colt and like I said no problem. Hell 1000 rounds free I'll take this stuff free all day

I've used up 800 rounds of ultramax 9mm and about 100 round of the 55 grain fmj in my ar with no problems with either.  I think it is good ammo.

and by the way, it's shit ammo