Opinions on Spanish SS109?

[shamus]

I know, this is a FAL board, but I figured you some of you guys are into AR's.

Has anybody here had any experiance with the Spanish SS109 ammo? Specificly I'm wondering about accuracy, reliabilitly, and penetration.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

[EMDII]

Moved to Ammunition

[Odd Gibbs Shooter]

Ive tried it !!
I could get about 4 inch groups at 100yards.
Only tried it on paper.
PPC I can get 1 inch groups .
Shot through my 20" heavy barrel.

OGS

[OZ]

That's what I shoot from my Bushy DCM rifle in 200 yds hi-power club match. But I go with Black Hills 75 gr Hornady when shooting full 600 yds match.

Spanish SS109 at 200 yds, slow prone, I managed to shoot consistently a 91-92% score (the 9 ring of the target is about 5.5" diameter). If benchrested, I beieve the group will be tighter.

My best group with this ammo gave me a 96% score at 100 yds.

Reliability is not perfect. I have had 2-3 extraction failures due to ripped case rim out of 1000 rounds I have shot so far. But no failure during the match so far. I hand-pick my ammo for the match. I inspect the case, rim and depth of bullet seating, trying to get as consistent as I can.

I dont know how well it penetrates since I only shoot papers so far. But accuracy is quite good if you can shoot NRA middle expert scores (92-93%) consistently during the reduced 200 yd match.

oz

[dragunov]

I've shot about 500 rounds of it through my Bushmaster XM-15 20" and have gotten some very good results. The only failure to extract was due to dirt (laquer maybe) under the extractor spring which may have come from the ammo's primers. I'm not a match shooter but I can generally get 2 inch 5 shot groups at 100 yards with this stuff. My Rock River 16's HBAR upper is not chrome lined and doesn't seem to like the ammo as much. Probably more like 3-3.5 inches at 100 yards with that barrel. I liked the results and the price enough to buy another 1000 rounds.

[lastdefender]

I have had multiple failures to extrat while using this ammo on two different AR's. This ammo is fine for plinking but I would not bet my life on it. I strongly urge you to keep a cleaning rod near by cause more likely than not, you will need it. If you have the money buy IMI M-193 or other such quality ammo.
Regards,
Gary

[shamus]

Hey thanks guys, I appreciate the input. I think I might spend the extra dough on some better quality ammo, since I'm looking to put some away for a rainy day. I use the South African battle pack stuff from AIM for plinking. And actually I've had great luck with it accuracy and reliability wise, but want some steel core.

Any opinions on the Greek stuff? Cabella's selling at a decent price.

Anyway, thanks again for the input. But I'll make sure to post questions about ammo in the ammo section next time. LOL!

[OZ]

Save some of the SA for the rainy day, they are reliable, clean and relatively accurate (not as accurate as the Spanish SS109 though). However, the SA is of M193 type, lead cored, so less in penetrating power than the SS109 (steel core).

I keep some SA for the rainy day, but shoot the Spanish SS109 for practice and reduced match.

One more note, a friend of mine who tried to decide whether he should jump ship and get into the black gun bandwagon shot my Bushy with the Spanish ammo. Shooting from the bench at 100 yds (supported), he shot some 20 rounds with total group about 2", 14 out of 20 fell in a very tight group, you can take a quarter and cover the whole group.

[ September 19, 2001: Message edited by: OZ ]

[Azalin]

IMI's M855 rounds use the ss-109 bullet and meet US military specs. They can be found at www.coledistributing.com. (http://www.coledistributing.com.)

As a side note, ss-109 bullets penetrate less material under 300 yards than do the 55gr lead bullets. The mild steel penetrator in the ss-109 rounds offers no advantage until you are shooting over 300 yards.

The Azalin

[nvcdl]

Its good stuff, shoots MOA out of my
AR. Seems to be well made, pulling a bullet with a collect style puller took a good bit of effort. Bullet was seated in case with tar sealant.