Chinses Ammo Surplus Corrosive or Non Corrosive 7.62x39 9mm

[westrifle]

Apparently you don't know how to read a year of production from a headstamp of a Chinese military cartridge (Ammunition headstamp has the arsenal number at 12 o'clock and the last 2 digits of the year of manufacture at 6 o'clock). On the ammo from Lever Arms it's 61/08 which means the production year of 2008 and the factory # 61. I suspect that Lever Arms reads it upside down.
The ammo I bought from Lever Arms is of a very good quality. After shooting my SKS (bought from you guys at Westrifle) there is just a little of dirt left. Very clean ammo. Never seen any cracked cartridges.
I also shoot it in my Zastava M85. In this case it's a bit tight in a chamber sometimes. I also use another typical Chinese corrosive 7.62x39mm ammo with a headstamp 31/73 which means a production year 1973 and the factory # 31. This one leaves my SKS very dirty. A lot of carbon deposit.
The Lever Arms' ammo is not so cheap for someone leaving in Ontario, like myself. With taxes and shipping it costs me $0.29/cartridge. The other corrosive Chinese ammo I have comes to $0.23/cartridge. However, the ammo from Lever Arms' is still cheaper for me than the 7.62x39mm Tulammo that comes to nearly $0.59/cartridge and is definitely non-corrosive. On top of it, both my 61/08 and 31/73 ammo seem to be slightly more accurate than Tulammo.

I know how to read a headstamp, I just don't have this ammo in stock. Can someone please post picture of headstamp. All I did is called Lever Arms and ask which year their ammo was produced. Since they are the importer and they know what they paid for they told me 1980th.
TULA AMMO bimetal is the best for SKS because it does not damage the barrel.

 

[Slamfyre]

I know how to read a headstamp, I just don't have this ammo in stock. Can someone please post picture of headstamp...

I posted one in this thread back in post#69.

 

[05RAV]

Quote Originally Posted by 05RAV View Post
Apparently you don't know how to read a year of production from a headstamp of a Chinese military cartridge (Ammunition headstamp has the arsenal number at 12 o'clock and the last 2 digits of the year of manufacture at 6 o'clock). On the ammo from Lever Arms it's 61/08 which means the production year of 2008 and the factory # 61. I suspect that Lever Arms reads it upside down.
The ammo I bought from Lever Arms is of a very good quality. After shooting my SKS (bought from you guys at Westrifle) there is just a little of dirt left. Very clean ammo. Never seen any cracked cartridges.
I also shoot it in my Zastava M85. In this case it's a bit tight in a chamber sometimes. I also use another typical Chinese corrosive 7.62x39mm ammo with a headstamp 31/73 which means a production year 1973 and the factory # 31. This one leaves my SKS very dirty. A lot of carbon deposit.
The Lever Arms' ammo is not so cheap for someone leaving in Ontario, like myself. With taxes and shipping it costs me $0.29/cartridge. The other corrosive Chinese ammo I have comes to $0.23/cartridge. However, the ammo from Lever Arms' is still cheaper for me than the 7.62x39mm Tulammo that comes to nearly $0.59/cartridge and is definitely non-corrosive. On top of it, both my 61/08 and 31/73 ammo seem to be slightly more accurate than Tulammo.

TULA AMMO bimetal is the best for SKS because it does not damage the barrel.

What "damage" to the barrel are you talking about? Are you are try to tell me that my SKS from Westrifle will soon have "damaged" barrel after being shot with milsurp ammo!?

 

[Sinbad]

Please post your result.I'm curious.

Lever Arms in Vancouver is selling chinese 7.62x39 surplus that they claim is non-corrosive - I'm planning on buying a crate tomorrow. I'm going to do a nail test to confirm but Lever Arms told me they've tested it and it is non-corrosive....

 

[Gatehouse]

Just got a crate of this from lever arms. After going through one spam can I found about 40 rounds out of the 750 were cracked at the head. Ill be doing the nail test tomorrow

Cracked at the head or at the neck?

 

[Slamfyre]

Cracked at the head or at the neck?

I've had some cracked a the neck. None at the head. I've had a few that have been longitudinally bent. Most will fire fine, even with a cracked neck. Very few will not go in the chamber because they have been deformed one way or another. Usually you will be able to catch these very easily when you load you mags. Make no mistake about it; it is cheap ammo. Do not expect 100% pretty, well polished rounds. But in my experience it is not corrosive.

 

[05RAV]

Quote Originally Posted by Gatehouse View Post
Cracked at the head or at the neck?

I've had some cracked a the neck. None at the head. I've had a few that have been longitudinally bent. Most will fire fine, even with a cracked neck. Very few will not go in the chamber because they have been deformed one way or another. Usually you will be able to catch these very easily when you load you mags. Make no mistake about it; it is cheap ammo. Do not expect 100% pretty, well polished rounds. But in my experience it is not corrosive.

What is a headstamp of your ammo? Like I said before I purchased 2 crates (3,000 rds) of 61/08 ammo from Lever Arms and I've NOT found EVEN ONE CARTRIDGE THAT WOULD BE CRACKED and any location (head or neck)!

 

[can14]

I think the shipping issue is that, the container company can't be certain that the Chinese ammo will land in canada.
If it lands in America, they will be fined because it isn't allow there and it will be seized!

 

[Slamfyre]

What is a headstamp of your ammo? Like I said before I purchased 2 crates (3,000 rds) of 61/08 ammo from Lever Arms and I've NOT found EVEN ONE CARTRIDGE THAT WOULD BE CRACKED and any location (head or neck)!

The spam cans that I've opened so far are 61/08, 61/07 and 61/05. Even with split necks I'm still buying more of this stuff. I'm not one to clean my guns right on the same day I fired them, nor will I do eventual cleanings for every firing session. My guns will undergo two or more shooting sessions before they get cleaned. None of my guns have any rust on them.

I would estimate that less than 1% of the ammunition is not suitable to be fired. Most of that is because they are deformed. In conclusion, I'm happy with it and will buy more.

 

[Gatehouse]

Cracks at the neck are not a big deal. Cracks at the head can lead to case separation and part of a case stuck in the chamber. I've found some of this ammo has split necks and even split sides, but no cracks at the head.

 

[05RAV]

Quote Originally Posted by 05RAV View Post
What is a headstamp of your ammo? Like I said before I purchased 2 crates (3,000 rds) of 61/08 ammo from Lever Arms and I've NOT found EVEN ONE CARTRIDGE THAT WOULD BE CRACKED and any location (head or neck)!

The spam cans that I've opened so far are 61/08, 61/07 and 61/05. Even with split necks I'm still buying more of this stuff. I'm not one to clean my guns right on the same day I fired them, nor will I do eventual cleanings for every firing session. My guns will undergo two or more shooting sessions before they get cleaned. None of my guns have any rust on them.
I would estimate that less than 1% of the ammunition is not suitable to be fired. Most of that is because they are deformed. In conclusion, I'm happy with it and will buy more.

So which batch exactly had those cracked/split necks? 61/08, 61/07 or 61/05? Like I said before among my 3,000 61/08 rounds I couldn't find even one with a split/cracked neck. I'm extremely happy with that ammo. I mentioned before that also the amount of soot left by shooting the 61/08 batch is several times smaller than that which I see after shooting a corrosive Chinese 31/73 batch (the year of production 1973). Unfortunately, so far, I don't have any other 7.62x39mm ammo like Russian, Bulgarian, or Romanian for comparison.

 

[Gatehouse]

Most of it doesn't have cracked necks, but there is obviously some batches that do, since I have had some, actually quite a few of them in one case. I'll try to find the headstamps of the cracked ones.

Also, I can't imagine how much the shipping costs would be sending these crates across the country. They are very heavy and of course-wooden ammo crate shape. Lever doesn't offer any free shipping or flat rate shipping, to my knowledge.

 

[Gatehouse]

This is what they look like. I've shined up some with steel wool to see it better. As you can see, most of them are split necks, but the one on the top has a crack all the way down the body of the case. I've had some neck cracks in most of the different batches, although some spam cans seem to have a high percentage of cracks.

 

[05RAV]

Also, I can't imagine how much the shipping costs would be sending these crates across the country. They are very heavy and of course-wooden ammo crate shape. Lever doesn't offer any free shipping or flat rate shipping, to my knowledge.

Shipping of a crate from Lever Arms to my locality in Waterloo, Ontario, was $60.88/1,500 rds. With shipping and 13% tax, the price was still $0.29/rd vs. $0.23/rd an average for corrosive Chinese. I consider Lever Arms a good deal.

 

[05RAV]

This is what they look like. I've shined up some with steel wool to see it better. As you can see, most of them are split necks, but the one on the top has a crack all the way down the body of the case. I've had some neck cracks in most of the different batches, although some spam cans seem to have a high percentage of cracks.

I've never seen any cartridge like this in my 2 crates (3,000 rds) of the 61/08 batch! What is a headstamp for those cracked cartridges!?

 

[Gatehouse]

Those happen to be 61/05 but that doesn't mean anything. I've got other crates of 61/05 with virtually no cracks, too. And I've looked a bit more now and there are cracked ones with 61/08 and 61/07 too. You may not have any, or you may not have noticed them since they are not that apparent until you look for cracks, but the cracks are in most of the batches to some degree. Some crates have almost none, others have quite a few. I go through far more ammo than most, so I've seen the good, bad and ugly.

But why I actually got involved in this was because someone said they had seen cracks in the head of the case, and I have not seen that. Cracks in the head would actually concern me. Necks- not so much.

 

[Gatehouse]

Shipping of a crate from Lever Arms to my locality in Waterloo, Ontario, was $60.88/1,500 rds. With shipping and 13% tax, the price was still $0.29/rd vs. $0.23/rd an average for corrosive Chinese. I consider Lever Arms a good deal.

$60 is significant, but it's still a decent deal for ammo. I usually just pick up 4-5 cases whenever I get to Vancouver.

 

[05RAV]

Those happen to be 61/05 but that doesn't mean anything. I've got other crates of 61/05 with virtually no cracks, too. And I've looked a bit more now and there are cracked ones with 61/08 and 61/07 too. You may not have any, or you may not have noticed them since they are not that apparent until you look for cracks, but the cracks are in most of the batches to some degree. Some crates have almost none, others have quite a few. I go through far more ammo than most, so I've seen the good, bad and ugly.

But why I actually got involved in this was because someone said they had seen cracks in the head of the case, and I have not seen that. Cracks in the head would actually concern me. Necks- not so much.

Actually, after all that discussion I inspected the remaining 2,500 of my 61/08 batch looking at the heads and necks and didn't notice anything there, unless the cracks if they exist, are hidden somehow. I must point out that the cartridges in both crates I bought are very shiny, perhaps shinier than those on your pics although that might be related to the light in the pics.
All in all, I've already shot around 500 without any hiccups whatsoever. Very good quality ammo. Also, not a speck of rust could be seen on my SKS and Zastava M85 after a few days of storage after shooting. I usually, clean my guns within 2-3 days after shooting. Actually, cleaning is fun. It takes about 30 minutes per gun so it's nothing tedious.

 

[City Boy]

What is Lever Arms comment on it? Can you bring the cracked one and get a refund ?

If you walk into Lever Arms, there are signs that basically say they don't guarantee surplus ammo or rifles; it's been a while since I've been in there, so the exact wording escapes me, but I don't think they stand behind anything surplus.

 

[Gatehouse]

Actually, after all that discussion I inspected the remaining 2,500 of my 61/08 batch looking at the heads and necks and didn't notice anything there, unless the cracks if they exist, are hidden somehow. I must point out that the cartridges in both crates I bought are very shiny, perhaps shinier than those on your pics although that might be related to the light in the pics.
All in all, I've already shot around 500 without any hiccups whatsoever. Very good quality ammo. Also, not a speck of rust could be seen on my SKS and Zastava M85 after a few days of storage after shooting. I usually, clean my guns within 2-3 days after shooting. Actually, cleaning is fun. It takes about 30 minutes per gun so it's nothing tedious.

As for shiny, it must be the light, all of them from every case of every different batch I've opened looked about the same, and there is always a bit of a solvent type of smell to them. There is no doubt to me that having cracked necks seems to be the luck of the draw, and little to do with what the headstamp is, because while those are 61/05 in my pics, I've also got 61/05 that have few cracks, and I've now seen cracks in all of the batches from 0 to 25% or more. I assume it had to do with what steel they used in the cases that day.

I've gone through about 10 000 rounds of the stuff so far. Most have been pretty good, but I've seen some defects including the cracks and a few dud primers.

I wouldn't say it's super great quality ammo- the stuff Canada Ammo used to sell as Dominion was incredible quality- but we could do worse than this.

When it comes to this ammo, people need to wrap their heads around what is being offered, and completely understand what they are buying. It's Chinese surplus. It's cheap.It may have flaws. It's bulk ammo, not premium ammo handcrafted by virgins at midnight on the Summer Solstice.

Understand that, and you will have some cheap, fun ammo to shoot. If that doesn't work for you- buy something else.