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AR ammo warning!

4K views 9 replies 7 participants last post by  howlnmad 
#1 ·
My son-in-law had me put together an AR-15 using a Stag Arms bare lower and a Stag Arms Varmint factory assembled upper. The first shooting trip was a bummer for him as it kept short cycling. To add insult to injury the other gun he brought along was a H&R CMP M1 Garand that doubled (CMP tech had assembled the trigger group incorrectly but we did not determine that until after we got back home).

The ammo he was using was some no-name surplus ammo and we had no other ammo along. We even exchanged lowers to be sure it was not the lower that was the problem. I anticipated a blocked gas port or some other malfunction but told him we need to try some other ammo first.

Yesterday I took it to the range with some of my AR varmints reloads (75 gr Match bullets and 52 gr HP bullets). The gun never missed a beat and put the bullets into a single ragged hole (less than a quarter size). So it WAS the crummy ammo.

Be aware. Some surplus 223 ammo needs to be discarded or only used in bolt guns with no expectation of good results.

LDBennett
 
#2 ·
When I first got my new Stag Arms AR-15 5.56 LD, I'd gotten some of the .223 Rem
Russian ammo to shoot/try it out with, for one, the price was low on the ammo.
(bad mistake and a bad way to learn)
The ammo was totally dirty stuff and the emty caseings was lodging into the chamber.
Took me about two of them doing that to realise I was abusing the AR badly and have'nt
and wont, shot another of those rounds in it since. Or any "cheap/made" ammo.
 
#4 ·
The ammo in question failed to cycle on some of the first rounds through the gun. It is just under powered ammo. It is not a case of a dirty gun. Too bad I don't know whose ammo it was (???).

My son-in-law does not reload. He claims to not have the space (probably true). Virtually all the ammo he uses for his many guns is surplus ammo or at best cheapy ammo. I reload and NEVER buy centerfire ammo with a few exceptions: 8mm Mauser for my Egyptian Hakim that literally destroys cases and ammo for my Swiss K31 whose surplus ammo is absolutely excellent (match ammo) but is Berdan primed making the brass only good to salvage. All the rest gets my reloads that are much better than almost any surplus ammo. Too bad I can not convince the son-in-law to reload (I have tried, believe me).

LDBennett
 
#5 ·
LDBennett Weight the bufferin your sons rifle. Can't look at stags site to know what there varment model is but if a rifle gas system and a H2 or maybe H3 buffer is in it. Your sons rifle might run a lighter weight buffer. Say an H and run that ammo fine. Have 2 buffers ,One of the powder cake .223 loads and one for hotter 5.56 loads.
 
#6 · (Edited)
The gun runs perfect when not using the crummy ammo. Buffer changes, I believe, are not necessary, in my opinion.

More details were uncovered in my last conversation with my son-in-law. The ammo was some older Wolf ammo, not surplus as I assumed. But it had a tough life.

My son-in-law stored it in the garage in a metal cabinet with doors. My daughter saw some empty shelf space and stuck a open package of pool chlorine in the same cabinet and closed the doors. Every piece of brass in that cabinet has discoloration on it from the chlorine fumes.

I suspect all the ammo stored in that cabinet is suspect. For bolt guns shooting at steel target at medium ranges (our common shooting scenario) it probably is OK but for semi-autos it may be degraded enough to not let them fully cycle like the new AR varmint did.

Funny how some things are not as they seem at first. But I still am not all that much of a surplus ammo user because of corrosive primers mostly but also because of the potential for poor quality and the potential for gun damage. Some is good and some not so much but which is which??? I do recommend CMP Greek 30-06 and Swiss K-31 G-11 ammo.

Sorry for the deviation from the actual facts but I had no idea.

LDBennett
 
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