FAL's and ammunition...

[callahan318]

Ok, so I ma looking around for ammunition to buy in preparation for the FAL I will be acquiring in January.

My question is this- will ammo from Brown Bear function well in a FAL?

What about (dare I say this) Wolf?

I have enough components to load up about 2000 rounds of M80 spec ammo, but want some stuff I can stash away at a somewhat reasonable price.

What does everybody have to say about the Russian ammunitions?

SHould it just stay in commie guns?

[humpback]

FAL's, in my experience, don't generally do very well with Steel Cased or Copper Washed .308. Your best bet is to get whatever surplus, or current Federal production over-run that you can, and a reloader. Save your brass!!!

[James]

Brown Bear works fine in mine and at 200 yards it will hit a 8x13 inche plate with not problem.

James

[bronco_buster]

My FAL's eat whatever I feed them, DAG surplus, Radway, Remington, Aussie surplus, Brown Bear and Wolf have all been tried with no appreciable loss of function. My favorite ammo is the tarnished DAG that I got for $.20/round. I don't tumble it, just use it "as is" and none of my FAL's have had any issues with it. A "range acquaintance" dipped into my stash to try out for his G3; turned him into a "bolt mode" on the tarnished crapola. Bang-jam-cleared-bang-jam-cleared-ban-jam-etc. etc. His comment was that the ammo was crap. My FAL's are sh@teaters I guess.

[newton3407]

I have shot Brown Bear and Wolf in mine with no problems. No failure to feed, fire, extract or eject. It did leave more soot and dirt than Federal Match ammo. In fact, there were burning embers shot out the barrel that one could see floating in the air with the Wolf ammo. The Wolf and Brown Bear accuracy was about 1moa to 1.5moa worse than Federal Gold Medal Match 168hpbt.

I have shot every type of .308 or 7.62X51 ammo I could find out my FAL and have not a problem with any of them. The only stuff I have not shot out of it is some corrive ammo that was in a greenish blue box.

A list of the ammo I have shot with no problem: Winchester, Remington, Federal Match, Federal American Eagle, Lake City surplus, Lithuanian Surplus, DAG, American Ballistics, Malaysian, Portugese, Hertenburger, Brown Bear, Wolf, South African, Privi Partsan (smelled like cat pee), Blackhills, Hornady and UMC.

[newton3407]

I agree with Bronco Buster about the DAG ammo. The stuff I got was tarnished terribly. It appears it was on links that got wet. The brass case with the brass or, even worse, steel links seperated by water, (maybe even salt water) is essentially a battery, so the corrosion would be bad in those areas. However, I experienced not one problem with it and it held groups around 2inches in diameter at 100yds.

That said, there were some cartridges in the batch I did not fire. I polished all 500 rounds (!) with emery cloth that was slightly oily and inspected each round. During the inspection about 5 rounds were rejected as having lost significant material on the case due to corrosion. About 10 others were set aside as suspect, but fired individually to remind me to have my safety glasses on. A few of these rounds ended up with holes in the side of the case after being fired, athough there was no problem with functioning.

My point is, with the gas setting at 3, this crazy thing eats ammo like an AK47!

[jacmec]

Has anyone ever really burned through (rapid fired) any wolf or brown bear? I have been warned that there is a possibility that the cases could expand causing extraction problems.

Any fear that using steel cased ammo would mess with headspace?

[callahan318]

Interesting....very interesting.

Anybody else have opinions?

[humpback]

I've burned through it on private property. About the end of the 3rd mag it started giving me failures to extract, and mis-feeds. And when I say "burned" I mean as fast as I could go. I've done the same thing before with brass and made it to mag #12 with no problems at all. Your mileage may vary.

[caseyh]

Terrific info guys, thanks. I picked my used STG58 up a week ago, now I have to stock up so this is quite relevant to my interests

I'm thinking the Wolf treatment for now anyways to get used to it.

[Knifeman]

I have about 400 rounds of wolf through my Fal with no issues. This past Saturday I put four mags through it. Three rapid fire and one pretty slow while zeroing my optic. No problems to feed or extract.

[W.E.G.]

Sure, shoot all the Wolf you want.

See:
http://www.falfiles.com/forums/showt...hreadid=176323

Some people never learn, and some people refuse to listen.

[Lee Carpentieri]

Lets see, FN Fal, Nato weapon, Weapon of 97 countries and still in use today by some, BUT NONE USE STEEL CASED AMMO, Designed to use Brass cased shells. What did they know that all the amateurs of today don't know other than it's CHEAP, Corrosive and has a potential to blow your weapon up.

The steel casings are made from recycled tanks and artilliery pieces, The gun powder is made from recycled tank and Artilliery rounds and made by people that don't give a shit as most haven't been paid in three months and the company filed for bankruptcy 3 months ago. It was in Gun Week.

Now I ask you as the consumer, HOW MUCH IS YOUR LIFE WORTH if the shit ever hits the fan or you kit gun decides to cut loose one day from that Wolf shit.

I've even seen some of my Class three friends use the wolf .308 in there belt fed weapons and man did it get costly for them to repair, HK21, M60, MG42 converted to MG3 and a few Fals, Plus a few M1A/M14's also Blown up and destroy parts. Do what you want, But don't say you haven't been warned.

[Barbcue]

Buy the BP's of South African from AIM..the ammo is decent, reliable and havent heard a thing about problems with it other than it cant be reloaded..

stay away from the steel cased fodder crap...you got a nice rifle coming from DSA
dont do IT and YOURSELF an injustice by shooting garbage steel cased crap thru it..you will be happier with a known surplus like SA ,PORT and even DAG over that crap.

i buy a BP or 2 here and there of the SA over the last 4-5 years and its added up to quite a bit over time..sometimes i pay more than i want but i know it will WORK when needed and its battle packed so it will stash well..

what LEE said is true all those folks makeing FALS and AMMO all over the world and none of them produced STEEL CASED AMMO for them..that should tell you something right there !..

dont cheap out on YOURSELF !

[The4thHorseman89]

What are good sources of Ammunition? What is a decent price?

[bronco_buster]

I love this site:

http://gun-deals.com/ammo.php

It gives you all the deals from multiple sources. Tells you manufacturer, corrosive-ness, and breaks the price down per round, and will also allow you to input your zip for actual shipping to your location.

Just keep the site alive by posting any deals that you run across!

[chromestarhustler]

i got a closet full of or surplus, and i still shoot wolf threw two if my fals. the 21 in rhodie and my 18 incher, the hesse twins, i wouldnt pay what they were asking now for it, but i did burn up alot of it when it was 100 per 500 delivered. neve had any problems with it

[jerrymrc]

Originally posted by James
Brown Bear works fine in mine and at 200 yards it will hit a 8x13 inche plate with not problem.

James

There is not an ammo in the world that would not work in yours. It is scared to death and just wants to leave as fast as possible.

[jacmec]

Other than the poor quality of the various steel cased ammos, can you expect any other negative effects? Faster than usual wear perhaps?

[wkendwarrior2003]

Is it seriously even worth it to even consider buying steel cased .308 ammo? It's almost $480 for 1000 rounds of Wolf 308 from at least one vendor. Still pretty expensive.

It's not like there's any great deals around on Wolf .308 (that I know of) like there are for something like 5.45x39 where you're paying about 300 bucks for over 2000 rounds of ammo.

[Shay]

Originally posted by W.E.G.
Sure, shoot all the Wolf you want.

See:
http://www.falfiles.com/forums/showt...hreadid=176323

Some people never learn, and some people refuse to listen.

You beat me to that one W.E.G.!

I would personally not recommend using steel-cased ammunition in your STG-58 at all. The only ammunition related failures to feed that I have had in my new STG-58 have been with the Monarch brand steel-cased ammunition from Academy.

I would vehemently warn anyone against using the Wolf steel-cased .308 ammunition specifically though, for the reasons amply illustrated in W.E.G.s link. ...I only wish that I had read that thread before I took my rifle out shooting that first day.

Admittedly, I only ever fired eleven rounds of the Wolf .308 through my rifle, but here, take a look at the casing from round #11.



Needless to say, I will NEVER shoot Wolf .308 ever again!!!