The Unofficial P64 Resource Forum

Anyone ever used:

Brown Bear, Russia
94 grain FMJ
Bimetal case, non-corrosive

in their P-64's?

If you have, what did you think about it?

Would you buy it again?

Yep, fired 1000 rounds worth between 3 P-64's. Zero problems. I prefer their JHP Silver Bears since that is the round I use for Carry/deffense so I try to keep things consistant.
-Troy

used a lot of it had no problems at all

I have used some of it, 500 rds, it ok as far as I know, however I do prefer other brands, but for relative low cost ammo its ok.........

papabear

I've used some of the brown bear stuff, also in .380, with no problems. It seems to be pretty powerful, but I've never seen the chrono ratings on it. Like papabear, I would prefer using other ammo for more 'serious' applications, but not bad for plinking, at least by my experience.

Isnt brown bear the same as silver bear, just a different color of steel case?

Brown Bear has a brown laquer-coated case; the current Silver Bear (from the Barnaul factory) has a zinc-plated steel case. The older silver Bear had a nikel-plated steel case. So, one looks brown, one looks silver. They both shoot and cycle through the pistol about the same; with Brown Bear having a slight edge in speed and a lower SD.

It is my understanding that the Golden, Silver and Brown Bear ammo is made by the same company at three different locations, I can't find anything to confirm this but, look at this site:

http://www.gzanders.com/bearammo/plants.html

and they offered this info also:

The manufacturing facilities selected to make Bear Ammunition : {The Barnaul Machine Tool Building Plant}, {Novosibirsk Low Voltage Plant}, and {Ulyanovsk Machine Tool Plant}.

I have had very good results with the Silver Bear [7.62x39 in all my SKS's and the same with it in [9x18] in my P-64's., I have shot some [maybe 500 rds] of the Brown Bear, it seemed to be some what dirty ammo, but it could have just been the lot I was using, but I didn't have any problems with it.

papabear

I have shot some [maybe 500 rds] of the Brown Bear, it seemed to be some what dirty ammo, but it could have just been the lot I was using, but I didn't have any problems with it.
papabear

It might have been my imagination as well that I thought there was more carbon build up. I think for me at least the ammo functions fine and reliable. I just settled with the Silver Bears cause they were $10 more for a case of 1k and jacketed hollow point. Also, I like the idea of practicing with the exact same ammo one would carry for defense.

papabear, they make Silver and Brown Bear in several calibers. I've only seen 9x18 Bear ammo come from the Barnaul plant. If anyone ever sees Bear 9x18 from the Novosibirsk or Ulyanovsk factories please post a note.

BTW, the Ulyanovsk Plant just recently began exporting their first 9x18 - the Wolf Military Classic. I expect they'll contract for other labels of 9x18 now that they're set up.