Russian .22 lr "pfffft"

swolf · February-10-14 08:02

Hit a gun show in podunk MN yesterday. They had a couple NIB Black Widows for about $300, and a short barrel lr going for $180. There was an amount of .22 lr ammo available also, but most were still crazy prices. I did pick up a few boxes of Russian steel casing .22 lr $3 for a box of 50. Looked interesting. Big mistake.

Firing 10 rounds through my BW I ended up with 3 FTF, and another 3 went "pfffft" and lodged the 40 gr bullet in the barrel. Appears the primer popped leaving the powder unburned as it tumbled out when the cylinder was removed. The FTF rounds did finally fire after a couple more strikes and rotating the round, but 2 of those went "pffft" also. For comparison I tried 10 shots in a little Marlin single action rifle and none fired. My BW did make those go bang. Another 10 rounds went into my Rossi Youth single action Assault Rifle (it has a sliding stock, making it obviously more dangerous...) and 3 FTF, even with multiple strikes and rotating the round. Again my BW did get them to fire, with one going "pffft."

The -20 temp kept me from shooting more. I'm glad I resisted buying a brick of the stuff, as that would have been just annoying. Anyone else play with the Russian stuff? I saw on a couple other gun forums that my results are pretty typical.

MR_22 · February-10-14 13:02

Those look kind of old. Are there any dates printed anywhere? What do Russian dates look like?

Maybe somebody found some old ammo stashed in their grandpa's attic and decided to take advantage of the ammo-shortage prices.

OV-1D · February-10-14 13:02

Your Russian stuff is just how that South American rounds use to be if not still the same . Your lucky you didn't send a round down half way besides that steel is scuffing up the cylinder some isn't it , untrustworthy junk , typical Russian .

MR_22 · February-10-14 13:02

Actually, these are the rounds I posted on the "What .22lr Ammo Do You Actually Carry?" thread.

cfsharry · February-10-14 13:02

What did you expect? Its' Russian ammo.

OV-1D · February-10-14 14:02

It would be great if they were using that ammo in those Olympic cross country skiing shoots , I can hear them now " son-of-a bitc* " coming from them all shooting at those targets on their timed runs . Hahahaha .

TwoGunJayne · February-10-14 15:02

I've used rounds like those before... simply atrocious.

I recall having to clean a Ruger 10/22 every 6-15 rounds with FTF and FTE being the norm.

The rifle never hated any other ammo in its life. I wonder if it's possible to "do it right?"

I've also encountered that stuff labeled as "training ammo." I wonder if the "training" is to constantly have to strip and clean the weapon, being very painfully aware of bullets getting stuck in the barrel.

redhawk4 · February-10-14 18:02

When American manufacturers seem to have problems making reliable 22 ammo, then buying Russian stuff is probably not a good idea. Perhaps the rule is to never buy ammo where you can't pronounce the manufacturer's name

Dinadan · February-10-14 18:02

It is just what I would expect of ammo out of Russia. Probably corrosive too. Understand - I know nothing about Russian ammo, I am just thinking in terms of what I have read about Russia. Seventy years of pretending to work for pretend pay may create habits that take a while to change.

swolf · February-11-14 07:02

The vendor said he got them from a tin he opened himself. I have a translator I will see this week to find out what the box says. The vendor said a Russian dude told him the box was marked "standard" rather than a bullet weight, and 40 gr is their standard--which turned out to be accurate. Another forum suggested the rounds were from the 70's-80's. (I just noticed a stamp inside the box "15-11-88" which I would bet is mfg date of Oct 1988.) I did a bit more shooting from a different box, and had 50% FTF on first strike. Even my trusty BW couldn't get 3 of those to boom. I was worried about deactivating the duds, but found they easily pulled apart in my fingers! I'm hoping to discover something interesting to do with steel cases.

redhawk4 · February-11-14 07:02

The Russian made Wolf, Tula and Silver Bear Ammo I've use in 7.62x39mm seems reliable and accurate too. However, if this ammo was made in 1988, there could be a number of reasons fro it performing erratically now, in addition to the the poor quality of the ammo when it was made, which may at the time have exceeded the expectations of the average Russian who was probably pleased any of them went bang.

I'm not sure what you do with your steel cases, while it seems inherently wrong to use steel cases, the words steel, brass, aluminum are vague terms for different alloys. Steel can be softer than certain brass and aluminum, depending on the amounts of carbon, chrome etc. added to the mix and then how the product is annealed. It has to be soft to be able to be formed into a cartridge without cracking or tearing the material. So while it's generally thought that the steel cases are beating up the internals of the gun, it's not necessarily fact at all, as the hardness of your chamber and other components is far higher than the casings - in addition they are usually coated with something too, polymer, lacquer etc. so the steel doesn't make direct contact and the case is sort of lubricated by the layer of material. I assume the bullets are lead, because that is the part that can do damage to your gun. A lot of the other calibers use a steel jacket that can wear the barrel over time, although shooting and cleaning habits play a part there. If you are going to fire a thousand rounds at a time, rapid fire, getting the barrel very hot etc. then accelerated wear will take place, if you fire smaller amounts at a time, taking your time and cleaning the barrel each time you use it then it's unlikely the difference will ever be noticed.

I'm sure if these are from 1988, they will be corrosive, so make sure you clean your guns thoroughly.

swolf · February-11-14 16:02

The casings are very magnetic attractive (if that means anything.) They might recycle well for jewelry use or as caps for wood dowel projects (wood dowel tamps for BP pistols, etc.) I appreciate the reminder 'hawk about cleaning. I tend to run a Bore-snake through for a quick after-shooting clean, but this Russian crap definitely calls for a thorough rinsing with CLR to get the residue washed out of all orafices. It would truly be an insult to injury to have crappy ammo corrode My Precious BW!