9x18 surplus ammo

nbender · Post by **nbender** » June 13th, 2007, 11:46 am

barnett, Trent, just realize that the dealer is selling that corrosive FMJ ammunition at the equivalent of $9.38 for a box of 50 rounds. May be Ok for a collection but there are better deals on shootable FMJ.

barnett3006 · Post by **barnett3006** » June 13th, 2007, 2:42 pm

nbender,

yeah I know, its for my collection and I dont intend on shooting corrosive ammo. This thread gave me a reason to go buy it.

barnett3006 · Post by **barnett3006** » June 13th, 2007, 2:54 pm

Pics of the surplus russian 9x18 ammo.

carguy · Post by **carguy** » June 13th, 2007, 3:15 pm

When I think "surplus" I think that it is old, excess "stuff" that is left over from it's original intended purpose. For example Military Surplus firearms are weapons manufactured for and use as military weapons but that are now outdated and or obsolete for their intended purposes thuis available at a discount...usually.

As far as surplus ammo goes wouldn't it be the same? So my real question points to the english only print on the package of Russian Surplus Ammo. Wouldn't that lend itself to being ammo manufactured or at least packaged specifically for export? Doesn't that sort of erase the surplus aspect at least for the purpose of collecting??

trent · Post by **trent** » June 13th, 2007, 4:37 pm

I just want a spam can full of 9x18 ammo...cheap....

nbender · Post by **nbender** » June 13th, 2007, 5:08 pm

Carguy, I sort of think the same thing about the meaning of "surplus". MikeH1 posted this question on several boards and received wide-ranging answers about Sellier & Bellot, Silver Bear, etc., none of which is military "surplus".

The B-West is not military surplus either, although they did use a corrosive primer. Military ammunition headstamps give the date and plant code.

Ramble on:

From a collection standpoint this B-West is interesting. It's sort of the precurser to Wolf ammunition, made at the Tula Cartridge Works (TCW). It uses a 105-grain bullet (erroneously labeled as 100-grain - early on the Russian exports always got the weights wrong). This 105-grain round-nose bullet was not seen again, but TCW went on to make a lot of 9x18 for us Americans. Their next offering from was the ammunition labeled "TCW" in a white box, which used a 109-grain round-nose FMJ. This is the precurser to Wolf, which used this 109-grain round nose in their first offering, which they called Wolf "bi-metal". That's one of my favorite 9x18 rounds - the round nose had no problem feeding, it's a heavy hard-hitting bullet, and few squibs were reported.

But from there Wolf went downhill and decided to start producing their "cone-heads" - first in 109-grain, then in 100-grain. I believe they aren't manufacturing coneheads anymore, just their "military Classic" round-nose FMJ. And they've left TCW for the Ulyanovsk Machine Tool Plant.

For now, I don't think that TCW is manufacturing 9x18 for export. Russian ammunition export contracts seem to have short life-spans, and I'll bet we'll see TCW 9x18 again.

Ramble off.

mikeh1 · Post by **mikeh1** » June 13th, 2007, 5:21 pm

I just want a spam can full of 9x18 ammo...cheap....

That's exactly what I was looking for.

mikeh1 · Post by **mikeh1** » June 13th, 2007, 5:23 pm

I guess I should have specified "military surplus", but doesn't look like there is much of that left either, in large quantities anyway.

When I think "surplus" I think that it is old, excess "stuff" that is left over from it's original intended purpose. For example Military Surplus firearms are weapons manufactured for and use as military weapons but that are now outdated and or obsolete for their intended purposes thuis available at a discount...usually.

As far as surplus ammo goes wouldn't it be the same? So my real question points to the english only print on the package of Russian Surplus Ammo. Wouldn't that lend itself to being ammo manufactured or at least packaged specifically for export? Doesn't that sort of erase the surplus aspect at least for the purpose of collecting??

carguy · Post by **carguy** » June 13th, 2007, 6:27 pm

I didn't mean to come off like a jerk but I seriously didn't understand the surplus view of that box of ammo and wanted to ask.

Trent...I'm with you brother, a spam can of 9x18 would be a blast...in more ways than one.

8~)

mikeh1 · Post by **mikeh1** » June 15th, 2007, 9:27 pm

Just got 5 boxes of this stuff, $3.99 ea, the store I picked up my PA-63 from has about 30 more boxes of it. Not the best price, just wanted to have some milsurp ammo for the milsurp gun. Thanx for the pics barnett3006!

Pics of the surplus russian 9x18 ammo.

nbender · Post by **nbender** » June 15th, 2007, 11:08 pm

Well, Mike, it isn't Milsurp, it was made for the commercial market, for import by the defunct B-West Corporation, and it has the "B-West" headstamp, not the factory+year headstamp of military ammunition.

nbender · Post by **nbender** » June 15th, 2007, 11:17 pm

But you can still buy military ammunition - the Chinese Norinco and Jing An is still sold by a vendor out of Virginia. Look for his auctions on Gunbroker or Auction Arms. It is true military ammo, just not packaged in a military box.

mikeh1 · Post by **mikeh1** » June 15th, 2007, 11:39 pm

Just noticed this ammo is 100gr, is this stuff OK in a PA-63?

nbender · Post by **nbender** » June 15th, 2007, 11:41 pm

As I posted earlier, the bullet actually weighs closer to 105-grains and is Not Ok to shoot in a PA-63.

BTW, as far as I can tell it was the first Russian import for the commercial market, and used the corrosive military primers.

Post by **papabear** » June 16th, 2007, 7:57 am

nbender,

Thank you, good info and advice, you are appreciated by this old dog. I'm still a work in progress, but willing to learn, at times though I do get my back up and get stiff necked, but I really like this board and respect its members. Keep up the good work!!!

papabear

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