Who here shoots surplus ammo?

[Never Enough Ammo]

I was wondering who here shoots surplus ammo in their pistol? Does not have to be a P64,but CZ82 or Makarov too. If you do how is accuracy and recoil compared to commercial plinking ammo,like Whitebox or Blazer? I am considering 9x18 for one of my two pistol calibres to stock up on,7.62x25 being the other. And is it me,or is the 800 round spam cans getting harder to find? Many thanks.

[lklawson]

If you can still find surplus makarov ammo at competitive prices then you're lucky. While it was available it always shot great in my mak cal. guns.

As for other surplus, yeah. If it's available, it's usually fine shooting. I shoot surplus tok ammo in my CZ52 with no issues outside of the rare hard primer.

Peace favor your sword,
Kirk

[Wizard6oBaghdad06]

I concur with the above. I have not seen surplus Makarov ammo (in large, ready, easily mail ordered quantities) for years. And its a shame I didn't hoard in the '90s when it was dirt cheap. However, I think TulAmmo and Brown or Silver Bear are pretty equivalent to a milsurp round might be like if available today. Brown Bear at $190.00 a case from Sportsmansguide (join his buyers' club and wait for the free shipping weekends) has performed very well out of my P-64 and 3 other 9x18mm pistols.
And the Russians will likely make it for decades to come.

This is slightly off topic, but your idea of shooting milsurp is a good one, and in other calibres there are some fine rounds available. With a C&R license, a Polish Tokarev pistol, a Finn Mosin Nagant rifle or a Polish M44 carbine are relatively cheap, can be (not always) beautifully rendered weapons, and are quite often and deadly accurate. The Tok round sizzles. Much more fun than 9mm or .38 spl in my book, and still fairly affordable. I have had excellent luck with Tokarev 7.62x25mm surplus. You can still get Tok ammo for about the price of 9mm Luger, WHEN you can find it. It is drying up quickly. I have had the same good performance from the 2 rifle rounds that are cheap and readily available. That is, Russian army surplus 5.45x39mm in my S&W M&P15. And 7.62x54R in my Mosin Nagants, SVT 40, and PSL rifles. The Mosin ammo is about $.17/round from SG with free shipping, and the 5.45 is even less in the 1,080 round spam cans. Those 3 milsurp calibres may be the ones to hoard now...

[Never Enough Ammo]

I know,I have a Polish TT-33 on the way now and a 1934 91/30 and Type 53 Mosin Nagants on hand now. With over 6,000 rounds of 7.62x54r and 400 rounds or 7.62x25. I am currently trying to stock up on 9x18 and 40SW. Get the cheap ammo while you can,like 9x18 ten years ago,it WILL be gone.

[lklawson]

It's been covered here before but I should throw a heads up about the Brown Bear ammo. It is "bi-metal" jacketed and that causes some heartburn at certain ranges. I've shot it any number of times at one of my favorite local indoors and, just this weekend, a well-meaning range officer told me that it was steel-core and was tearing up the backstop. I explained that it was new manufacture and lead core (you can't really buy steel core handgun ammo because of AP laws most of the time). I showed him the ammo and he said he'd let me shoot the rest of my pre-loaded magazines, but I didn't want to give him a hard time so I put it away. He went on to tell me that if he had his magnet he could tell me how much steel was in the round. Yeah, a steel cased, bi-metal jacketed, round.

He then went on to tell me that I should clean my gun as soon as possible because that russian ammo is corrosive and would pit my bbl quickly.

<sigh>

The good news is that I was there shepherding my son with his new .22 handgun and had just brought my P64 to shoot while my boy was reloading so I didn't feel like I was robbed.

Peace favor your sword,
Kirk

[MakAttack]

I shot about 500 rounds of surplus East German 9x18 in my IJ-70 Makarov. Good stuff, but definitely hotter than commercial- had noticeably more kick. Sigh..those days are over. Probably the closest thing to surplus you're going to find is Brown Bear FMJ.