Current ammo prices Feb 2017

[Lester Polfus]

Am I the only one who just doesn't want to buy Russian? Sorry, I know it doesn't add to the thread but for all the talk of buying USA made product there seems a err, disturbance in the force, when it comes to ammo.

I make a concerted effort to buy American whenever I can, which can be pretty tough sometimes. I avoid knowingly buying ANYTHING from Russia.

Fuck those guys.

[Clay]

I have a question about steel ammo. I have heard that steel ammo has a coating to keep it from rusting. I have also heard this coating when hot somehow attaches to the chamber and is hard to clean out. Is this correct or bull?

I have shot tens of thousands of rounds of steel cased Wolf and Tula ammo through various pistols over the last 20 years without any big issues. I did chip an extractor in a Glock 23 around 2001 or so, during a class no less, but the gun still ran fine, and others had the same issue in that time period shooting brass cased ammo, so I don't necessarily attribute it to the ammo. I would say that Russian ammo, as a whole, has improved over the last few years and is more reliable, in my experience. I only shoot 9mm now for the most part, but I do shoot at least once a week, so I run a lot of steel cased ammo through several different types of pistols.

I do clean my barrels using a true solvent like Hoppe's or Butch's when running steel cased ammo. Not a huge deal at all. I wouldn't concern myself with the coating when it comes to pistols, specifically. I can't speak to rifle ammo.

I've run over 2000 rounds of steel cased Tula through a Canik Elite and Springfield XD-9 in the last week alone, trying these two guns out for fun. No issues at all. My Gen4 9mm Glocks run it without fail. The Tula is very reliable, but the zinc coating on the bullet sucks compared to the copper coating on the Wolf.

I work at a local range on the weekend as an RSO, and we see more problems with Winchester ammo than any of the Russian stuff, FWIW.

Target Sports has some great deals on Wolf 9mm right now, and they're great to do business with.

Having said all that, if I had enough disposable income to shoot only brass-cased ammo, I would do so. I would shoot nothing but the German MEN milspec stuff from SGAmmo if I could. Super high quality and small boxes. The regular Brazilian Magtech stuff is great also.