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[ARCHIVED THREAD] - WOLF AMMO (Page 1 of 2)
Posted: 10/1/2008 3:43:25 PM EDT
| ok, i need opinions. i got some wolf .223 rem 55GR. FMJ steel case non-corrosive boxer primed ammo at the tiniest gun shop i have ever seen! it was really cheap. $4 for 20 rounds. I CAN AFFORD THIS. i think i have heard mostly bad stuff about wolf ammo. "i'm trying to stay away from it" is mostly what i have seen. i want to know what kind of experiences you guys have had with this ammo. i also got some american eagle that is brass 63gr softpoint for $8-20 RNDS. any info on this ammo as well please. thx. |
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Some, if not most people claim to have 0 problems with it at all. I, on the other hand have had it jam every few shots and even lock up my entire carbine to the point of having to pry back the bolt with a flathead screwdriver. This was the "new" wolf without the lacquer after about the 20th Wolf shot. Luckily paper targets don't shoot back. I have never shot wolf again. In my far from expert opinion it is "dirty" and steel isn't as soft as brass causing for things to get pretty sticky in the chamber. It seems that it is all up to the individual gun and it's own tolerances. IMO you made the right choice in buying it at that price though, that is pretty cheap. And if your gun likes it you are GTG. If not I'm sure there are plenty of people willing to take it off your hands... Either way you'll find out for yourself like the rest of us. Happy shootin' 
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It is dirty, but it works. Just make sure your guns are OK with it. I have fired about 4000+rds of this stuff though my ar's and have overall been happy. Occationally, if you get the gun hot enough and dirty enough, you can get a case stuck in the chamber. Simply pop out with a cleaning rod and continue shooting. I have another 7000rds of the stuff in my closet.
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Just remember unless you have a tight chamber or let the fouling build in chamber the case will not stick.Mild steel cased ammo does not expand like brass so its hard for a steel case to stick to chamber walls unless the chamber is tight or really,really dirty.You get gas or fouling blow by because the case does not expand so going wolf and then brass can sometimes cause a problem. Ive never experienced any problems other than the ammo being dirty and weak..sometimes too weak to cycle a 20" AR.In my carbines it works fine.Just use good mags..lube generously and you should be GTG
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All the above. 
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Wolf is good to go. You can get a bad "lot number" out of any kind of ammo. I've seen Q3131, AE and S&B Kaboom and malfunction in rifles too. I've fired thousands of rounds (over 8K) through 2 AR's with no problems AND I only clean every 1500-2000 rounds. I just lube and shoot, including several mags of rapid fire. I even used it in 2 carbine classes, no problems. Just keep your weapon well lubed.
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Same here. Some AR's (one of my Sabres) will hardly run at all on this crap. Unfortunately, I can't afford to shoot good brass ammo at $1++/pop! |
Must have a crappy AR... I've never witnessed a Round of wolf do that in a rifle... I have personally shot of a couple thousand rounds of it... and have seen thousands of rounds of it shot off... Only issues I have ever seen are in rifles of less then decent quality... a good gun should feed rocks through it without a Jam... |
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Friend of mine has a 20" AR with a Colt barrel, bushy upper, eagle lower, RRA lower guts, and a colt half circle bolt/carrier. It will run XM193 and UMC like a top, but totally chokes on Wolf, sometimes not even cocking the hammer. My 100% Colt and 50% Colt AR (upper half all Colt) both eat Wolf like candy. |
| The only problem I have had with it, is that it is not the cleanest or most accurate ammo. If you just shooting paper with it, you will be fine. I have shot a few thousand rounds of wolf and never had a jam or major issues with it. Remember AR's like to be lubricated and a little extra won't hurt it at all. |
| My old RRA 16" carbine wouldn't feed Wolf at all. After a few shots I would get a round stuck in the chamber and would have to use tools to get it out. That being said, the majority of people who I know who have shot Wolf out of an AR have had no problems. IMHO, try it through your AR at the range. If it works, I see no reason why you wouldn't want to shoot it. |
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Ive gotten my rifle plenty hot and have never had a steel case stick and that was with the old laquered stuff as well.If its hot enough that a chamber would cause the steel of a steel case to expand to stick then its definately hot enough to cook off...not gonna get those temps in semi-auto no matter how fast you shoot. But like I said maybe if your chamber is tight or not up to 5.56 standards..or even unlined may be more fouling prone then chromelined.I dont see how a hot steel case could stick when hot when it doesnt expand like brass...unless chamber is tight or real,real dirty and unlined to boot. Ive used wolf in 90 degree high humidity weather,if that + rifle heating up also with ammo doesnt make emptys stick then nothings gonna.But then I use top quality parts and components in my re-built pre-bans to include barrels,bolts and carriers and have never had a wolf problem. |
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The only I own that has ever had trouble with it is my Ruger m77 chamber in .223. Both of my AR-15's (a 16 inch and a 20 inch, both with 5.56 chambers) feed it flawlessly, and have never jammed up with it. The M77 does have trouble extracting the spend case, but I think that it has rather tight chamber, as it has had trouble extracting south African 5.56 also. |
| I've posted this previously but it is worth repeating. It is important to try Wolf ammo in YOUR rifle under various conditions. All of my rifles work just fine with it, as long as a round isn't allowed to sit in a hot barrel. Both of my "serious" rifles, (Colts if it matters), will stick the polymer cases if the barrel is allowed to cool with a round in it. I don't know of any way that I could have predicted this based on just shooting and then unloading the gun, such might happen at a match. Once the barrel is allowed to cool, the extractor will tear the rim from the case. Once this is cleared with a cleaning rod, the rifles function normally until the condition is repeated. I suspect that this probably is a common issue, but that it is never discovered in most rifles until the gun is used in a class, etc. |
ok update. so i shot the ammo today. 100 rounds. not one jam or ftf or anything. ran fine but boy, was it dirrrty as sin. took me longer than usual to clean my rifle. and i definately agree that it should have the heck scrubbed out of it after shooting steel. but overall, i'm happy with it. it shoots and it is cheap.  thx for the feedback everybody. i will definately be buying more of the stuff. maybe try the camo box too, if i can find it. |
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oh! oh! 'nother question. somebody said i should be generous with the oil if i'm going to shoot steel. um... how generous??? i took outers to the range with me and when i got ready to shoot the wolf i sprayed some oil directly into the barrell. is this too generous, or do i just give the barrell a couple of extra pass throughs with an oil soaked patch? |
I doubt extra oil in the barrel would have any affect on the steel cases. Now keeping your action, meaning the BC assembly well oiled will help. Of course I keep my rifles well oiled no matter what I'm shooting through it. |
| Hot barrels will not melt the polymer so it sticks..the steel does not expand like brass so heat has nothing to do with it.Ive used wolf in classes and have left a round in a hot barrel as it cooled and it does not stick.Like I said the case does not expand like brass so how does it stick to chamber walls cause its hot..doesnt make sense unless the chamber was already really really filthy. |
He is correct. Concerning the failure to cycle in the middy. Am I reading correctly that it's short stroking and failing to pick up the next cartridge? What buffer are you running? I know that many, ahem me, run a 9mm or H3. Drop a CAR or H in it and see if the runs better. |
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My personal experience with this is quite different. Both of my Colt 6520's stick Wolf cases when they are allowed to cool in a hot chamber. Otherwise the ammo functions fine. I discovered this less than a month ago. I was curious about using Wolf ammo in a class given the cost savings. I had heard about the problem with stuck cases and wanted to see if it might be a real issue vs. internet chatter. Each rifle was tested individually and both were clean and lubricated. Except for the cases sticking, there were no malfunctions. The temperature was approximately 80F. The ammo was Wolf Military Classic 55gr, Lot M101. Wolf's websight indicates current Military Classic ammunition is polymer coated, not lacquered. The label on this lot does not mention the cases being lacquered like my older cases of Wolf ammo do. I set up a 30 round USPSA stage and proceeded to shoot five magazines of ammo through the rifle at a moderate pace, firing 30 rounds in approximately 20 seconds. I'd take maybe 20 or 30 seconds between magazines, so overall I fired 150 rounds in about five minutes. I then chambered a round and let the rifle sit while I policed the stage, and reloaded magazines. When the rifle was fired after five to ten minutes, the rim was torn from the cartridge. The rifle was then cleared, cleaned, and then placed back into normal use without any malfunctions. BOTH rifles exhibited this behavior TWICE which leads me to conclude it is not some type of fluke. I believe the issue is the differential cooling between the case and the barrel, perhaps made worse with the lightweight barrel profile of the rifles. The chambers of both rifles weren't all that dirty after the malfunctions and rifles functioned normally after they were cleared and allowed to cool, even without cleaning.
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Colt Carbine Govt. Model Colt M4 Barrel 14.5 with perm attach YHM Phantom M4 reciever cuts M4 barrel ext. I never had a problem with M193 Just completed a course 2K round count Purchased Wolf 55grn military classic due to the ammo $$$$ Wolf has less muzzel velocity ( had to come up 12 on My Aimpoint) It is accurate but 40 rds into it low and behold failure to extract! Took the course a week later 3 failures to extract(stuck case) Absolutely filthy ammo The second day when it started to rain mud etc is where you really see that this ammo is rubbish.( Cases started to rust profusely) Lube + this filthy ammo = massive IADs Never again! If you just want to plink at the range on a sunny day then buy it up!! Conclusion, cheap, filthy, underpowered, rusts immediately with any moisture!! RUBBISH!!! |
The case is mild steel, the hardened steel extractor should have no trouble from it. Even if it wore the extractor at a faster rate, what is the cost of a new extractor. Would the cost savings of Wolf ammo make up the difference? I'm willing to bet you could buy an extractor to go with every case of ammo and it would still be cheaper than the upper end brass cased stuff. Edited to add: If I had a rifle that couldn't shoot Wolf, I would dump the rifle and get another. I want a rifle that can function with whatever may be available. |
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Here's the deal with Wolf: it is not loaded at all hot (maybe even "wimpy"), and it isn't very consistent—usually meaning that it goes from sorta light to really light. So that causes some problems in a rifle set up for much hotter military loads. Plus the steel cases don't expand like brass does, so they don't seal the chamber well and thus powder gasses deposit gunk in the forward part of the chamber. This causes some sticky extraction problems, again especially with rifles set up for hotter loads. So if your rifle is great with M193 and M855, you may notice either slower functioning or some intermittent failures with Wolf. It IS the ammo's fault, but not because it's evil, stupid, dog-kicking stuff, just that it's mild and inconsistent. To me, trigger time is trigger time one way or the other, and it's a good idea to know what brands/loads work well in your rifle even if you don't plan to feed all of 'em to it all the time. Give it a try and see for yourself. You won't blow up your gun, your dog will not be kicked, and your crops will not fail because you're using this particular brand of ammunition. Edited for typo. |
Good point |
[ARCHIVED THREAD] - WOLF AMMO (Page 1 of 2)
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