Russian 7.62x39 Ammo Shootout

Setting up for the test. We used 4 boxes of ammo. Golden Tiger, Brown Bear, Wolf and Silver Bear. We loaded them 5 at a time into each of three different magazines

we sorted the flavors of ammo into four piles and loaded each mag as in the picture, 5 of one, then 5 of the next, etc

In order to help track hits we named each mag 1, 2  and 3. One is a Chinese 30 round, Two is a Romanian (?) 40 round RPK mag and Three is a European (Hungarian?) 30 round mag. We loaded five of each flavor, Then shot five rounds from each mag into the targets.

Loaded and ready for the test. We went to a popular public shooting area near Tucson. Criminals had left piles of trash here, so we set up a target on some broken equipment we found left there

We counted off a few feet more than 25 yards and shot from the back of a pickup truck. Shooting supported but not at a bench in a "sighting   in" vice

The trash. lots of it. Signs, Traffic barricades, a wash machine, TVs computers, countless bottles, a debris from other things that were destroyed. Even standard targets stapled to a piece of wood and left for 'someone else' to clean up..

To help test reliability we shot the AK from a variety of positions, using the mag as a mom pod (resting on mag), shooting without a mag occasionally to test extraction, etc

It only took about 25 attempts to finally get a shot with brass flying through the air.. was it worth it?

The results. Of the four types we shot, the two 'bears' were best. followed closely by Wolf (black box) with Golden Bear in last place. None of the mags had consist ant results. They each malfunctioned a few times, but all worked well mostly. Mag one had two failures, Mag Two had seven (in three of four targets) and mag Three had three malfunctions

T1 T2 T3 T4 Mag One 2 0 0 0 Mag Two 3 3 1 0 Mag Three 2 0 0 1

Target One: Worst of our test. Each of the magazines had failures. Mag one had 2, Mag three had 3 and Mag Three had 2

Golden Tiger, 124 grain Lead Core, Steel Case FMJ from Vympel in Russia

Target Two: One of the better results in both accuracy and function

Brown Bear 123 grain, Bimetal FMJ Laquered Case made in Barnaul in Russia

Target Three: Also third place out of four. Only one malfunction, but poor accuracy.

Wolf  'Black Box' 122 grain FMJ, Steel Case made somewhere in Russia

Target Four. Best results in our sample test. These seemed to do best in terms of accuracy and performance. The shooter did have time by this point to shoot better, and this wasn't a scientific test, but these results are much better than Golden Tiger and Wolf

Silver Bear, 123 grain Bimetal HP in a zinc plated steel case made in Barnaul, Russia

We also tested a Tommy Gun on this outing, stay tuned for that review