The Russian Mosin Nagant Forum

i bought some cheap from a friend 500 rounds,have about 200 left.shot my ar today and had to spent another hour cleaning it. the stuff shoots good and i do not mind it in my mak 90 , but just takes to long to clean in an ar.

I think almost if not all the Russian ammo is a pain and just too dirty for an AR Platform. Have heard many a complaint about it.

I use S&B in my AR platform. Cheap and not too dirty. Brown Bear and my AK go hand in hand though

When I can find m193 5.56 for cheap I will shoot that, but otherwise I usually just run the Tula .223 I get at Wal-Mart for $5 a box. Doesn't seem to be extremely dirty and have yet to have any malfunctions with it. After a shooting session I just wipe excess carbon from the bolt carrier group and inside of the upper receiver, maybe run a a solvent and dry patch down the bore and that's that. Every 500 rounds or so is when I actually break it all the way down and give it a through bath.

Good to know, I never shot anything but milsurp 5.56, or Commercial .223 in my AR's.

If I had a piston AR I might buy the Russian stuff but for a gas system it just doesn't seem to be worth saving a few bucks here and there. I have no problem shooting surplus through Mosins and the like but when you put out that much money for an AR or something in that realm I'd rather spend a few extra bucks for some decent ammo.

with it even the bore was hard to clean .will probaly shoot what i have left but no more.the silver bear did not seem to be any better.gun shownext week so maybe i can get a deal on some federal. good friend has been trying to get me into reloading,i think i will watch him reload some for his to see if i think i would like it.i just hate to spend alot of money for a kit to get started with .

I have long since abandoned ARs for this is one of their flaws, they are picky on ammo. If I have to be specific about the ammo for it, it defeats the purpose of itself. So far I am 3 for 3 in AR failures. No more spending all of that money on such a faulty design.

You guys actually clean your AR's? When mine too dirty to fire any longer, I just buy a new upper. Problem solved!

Western weapons require modern ammo, and clean powders. The commies made everything to work even if it had mud frozen in it. The Mattel special requires attention to cleaning, and it was lack of cleaning and dirty powder that caused it's initial problems in Vietnam.

Junk Yard Dog wrote:Western weapons require modern ammo, and clean powders. The commies made everything to work even if it had mud frozen in it. The Mattel special requires attention to cleaning, and it was lack of cleaning and dirty powder that caused it's initial problems in Vietnam.

Mattel special... I like it!

I have yet to own one...

Man, you all must shoot an intense amount of ammo! I picked mine up only recently of course. It was a bit dirty from a previous owner's lack of care. That's OK though, I got to know the rifle before ever shooting it. I put around 100 rounds through it in just over 30 minutes without any issues. Of course, I was using modern, commercial ammunition. I came home, cleaned it up and it's ready for another day. All in all, it's not that much more work to clean than any other of my semi-autos.

Its very much one of my favorite shooters and I have a ton of confidence in it

the ammo works fine in my ar but i just cannot stand all the black that it leaves on everythigand in every yjing..i have never had a jam or dud with it.it just takes to long to clean and i use about half a can of the spray cleaner on it.i rember around 1982 when we still had the a1's in the army we got some new one in and they had MATTEL stamped somewhere on the plastic and i thought it was funny at the time.we even had some 50 cal mg's that had ac deco stamped on them. i am thinking about finding the helmet and web gear from the 70's - 80's to go with my retro ar.

The only Brown Bear stuff I shoot is in CZ-82; 9 x 18 (Makarov). It shoots fine, but leaves this black, sooty residue in and on the gun. Hoppes #9 takes care of it.

brownbear turned the piston in my SKS solid black, i was pretty impressed with that.

as for my AR, it eats everything i feed it, no problems.

I had a Bushy, DPMS and Delton all three failed a carbine course on three separate occasions and all failed the same way. 300 rounds of various munitions was just too much resulting in failure to feed, eject, fire and hot lock up. spending $600 plus on a gun that can only handle xxx amount of this ammo and only so much of that ammo and the fact that the design allows it to shit where it eats and lets not forget the gases, carbon and heat the spays in your face after so many rounds. It is just a poor design, perfect for benchrest fun shoots but the what if issues are too high when you apply hard pressure and use. I hear story after story about guys who use the AR in Appleseed and most end up out early or switching over to a better weapon. IMHO, screw the AR and all of the die hard elitist fanboys that come attached to them.

I have never had any lock up on my run of the mill $200 chinese SKS and i have just as much fun if not more i bet. But i will not be as hard on the fanboys as you Now if you was to make an assault on the mall and their ninjas i am all in.

desdem12 wrote:I have never had any lock up on my run of the mill $200 chinese SKS and i have just as much fun if not more i bet. But i will not be as hard on the fanboys as you Now if you was to make an assault on the mall and their ninjas i am all in.

notice I said "elitist" I wouldn't want a war on all fronts against the rifle range merc operators hehehe

the ar does need alot of care, but when taken care of it is a great gun.when your life depends on it you will keep it cleanand not have any of the problems you had.some of the cheaper guns not tp mil spec's may have those problems.they will not preform like an ak but will out shoot one when taken care of.i carried the a2 and a3 in iraq as well as the ak some times.does the ar need some improvements yes but it is still doing what it is suspose to do.i have friends who will not clean their guns till they do act up then complain about it. i tell them if you think your life might depend on it one day to clean after every range trip.

Brown bear is great cheap com bloc ammo , some of the best , i would buy 10 cases and store it up for zombie-ageddon .. i don't own a AR yet , but i expect to pick one up cheap after the tactical craze wears off and the market is flooded with them , i have fired a M16 full auto made in 1968 , a few AR's and a bushmaster .308 and i can say i prefer the wore out M16 and the .308 over the modern AR , AR's are real tight and need to be broken in thoroughly for reliability , i like the .308 hands down , but hey you need one of each ..