Sure, I agree. They don't care. Same rules on my indoor range at Colby Shooting Club. Just magnet decides. However, it's good to know for ourselves that, in reality, there is lead in the bullet and the small steel core (soft steel) is sheathed in it.
Norinco 7.62x39mm 122gr FMJ 20rds red box
- Thread starter North_Sylva
- Start date
Sure, I agree. They don't care. Same rules on my indoor range at Colby Shooting Club. Just magnet decides. However, it's good to know for ourselves that, in reality, there is lead in the bullet and the small steel core (soft steel) is sheathed in it.
True enough. Thanks for the clarification and the additional info.
Where have you been looking? Cabelas has it in stock 90% of the time.. goes on sale for 9.99-11.99 every other month
On top of it, for the past few months Cabela's doesn't offer any Norinco red box for sale. The price as of today (April 29/24) is $14.99 per 20 rds box which with HST comes to a whopping 85c per rd. And, as mentioned above, it says "Out of Stock Online". Preposterous price for this type of ammo. No other vendor offering "free shipping" has the Norinco red box in stock. Obviously, brass ammo like PPU or Sellier&Bellot is still available but its price approaches $2 per round (with HST). The situation looks really bleak.
We were discussing this in another thread recently - the general consensus is that Norinco Red box has a reasonable chance of being corrosive, so youre probably gonna clean your gun every outing anyway. So you may as well just shoot $0.30 surplus ammo since you’ll be cleaning anyway.
Forum in "Rimfire" section.
Nope, there was some discussion last year that the white box had some batches which had corrosive primer. That could also have been because it has been around for a long time and people confused older white box Norinco with newly manufactured.
Overwhelming evidence shows that Norinco red box ammo is non-corrosive. Yes, some old batches in white boxes attracted complaints about being corrosive. Personally, I must say that for years I was using white boxes and didn't clean my SKS's for 2-3 days. I didn't notice any adverse corrosive effects. thegazelle mentioned in this thread: https://www.canadiangunnutz.com/forum/showthread.php/2444009-Cabelas-7-62x39-Bulk-Ammo-Sale/page3, that he had some unpleasant experience with a red box 2018 batch which had some corrosive rounds in there. I was wondering why corrosive primers would be mixed up with non-corrosive ones on an automatic assembly line. Corrosive primers have not been used for something like 40 years. All in all, for sure, 2019 and 2020 red box batches are non-corrosive.
Exactly. And this is the problem - unsubstantiated rumours and "I heard this here" type of things about the Norinco white and red box. I have mentioned it in previous threads - the possible corrosive mix is ONLY PREVALENT in IDENTIFIABLE LOTS based on headstamp. All the recent stuff that is red box and 311 19 and 20 are 100% non corrosive. I have shot literally thousands of these rounds and I record everything about the ammo from the time I buy it (who I buy it from what the lot number is, date, price paid everything) to when I shoot it (I have strict records of the same).
The big problem is SOME people have encountered problem batches but if you look online you'll find it is seldom you will see them identify headstamp, etc. They just generally say "red box sucks". The problem is unlike most other things, multiple lots of Norinco ammo are housed in the same non-descript packaging (that does not bear lot numbers). So people will presume a 311 18 white/red box (which I have encountered a small degree of corrosive mixed ammo) is the same as a red box bearing headstamp of cartridges that say 311 19 or 311 20. THEY ARE NOT THE SAME.
I have shot 4400 rounds of 311 20, and 3860 rounds of 311 19. NOT A SINGLE CORROSIVE round. And I check my collector's grade Russian SKSes for which I use to shoot the ammo. 4 days later - nada. And believe me I know corrosive ammo - have shot enough of it to know the signs. Red box 311 19 and 311 20 which are what is retail sold nowadays (well, when it was sold - it's all out everywhere now) has no problems. But people look at online reviews where the reviewers used 311 18 (they didn't know it) and said what the heck, this is white box or red box Norinco and it says non corrosive but it is. I can understand their irritation, but the distinction should be in the headstamp. If I encountered corrosive rounds in 311 19 and 20 red box; believe me, I would trash the product like no one's business.
One of my SKS has only seen Norinco red box “non corrosive”. Most of it was good. But one day had a bunch of rust in there. I don’t know what the headstamps were, nor do I care to leave it up to the head stamp whether non corrosive ammo is in fact corrosive lol
