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Anyone had experience with Olympic ammo in 7.62x39 or .223? I am interested in reliability of feed, accuracy, and how clean or dirty it is in terms of powder residue.

 

I believe it is imported from Greece and is manufactured using brass like US ammo.

 

Any feedback is appreciated. Thanks

 

Wolverine :smoke:

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I've found some of the 7.62 at Gander Mountain 2.29 for a box of 40 needless to say I bought every box they had. Its good brass ammo. I didn't notice anything fantastic except it's reliability I fed some to the saiga but mainly put it all on stripper clips for the sks. If it's cheap jump on it Wolv.

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I picked some up today at Gander on my way to the range, it's ok stuff.

 

The brass was kindy spotty and felt grimy, I had one round wich must have had too much powder in it, as the recoils was very heavy, and the recoil rod and carrier failed to return from therear of the reciver to chamber the next round.

 

Other than that, it was good stuff.

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I also bought some Olympic from Gander Mountain when they were closing it out at our local store (I paid 3.95 per box of 40 though). I tok my son to the range last weekend with our Saiga and FAL. My son loaded up the mags for the Saiga, fixed a 30 rounder cycled the bolt and it jammed. The bullet tip was jammed against the edge of the feedramp. Cleared that and noticed the first problem with the Olympic; lack of crimp and cannelure caused the bullet to get shoved into the case quite a bit. Tried a 20 round mag which cycled all ok. No accuracy report though, we were shooting up a large galvanized garbage can and clay pigeons. We continued to have random jams where the bullet would catch on the feed ramp using some of the other mags. Only one 20 rounder would feed reliably. I never, in thousands of rounds of Wolf, Barnaul and Norinco, had a jam like I had with the Olympic. The show-stopper was one round that went click; I cycled the bolt to extract the round, noticed that the primer had a good hit, with no bullet. Squib round? I never heard a pop, but pulled the dust cover and bolt/carrier, and noticed fresh powder all over in the receiver near the breechface (stick type, like IMR 4064). The bullet was stuck in the barrel just about where it sits when seated in a round that is chambered. Another problem with the lack of crimping. I have 400 rounds left, and had planned to pull the bullets, but I think I'll give them a whirl in my SKS and see how that goes. I wouldn't buy it again at any price though.

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I also bought some Olympic from Gander Mountain when they were closing it out at our local store (I paid 3.95 per box of 40 though). I tok my son to the range last weekend with our Saiga and FAL. My son loaded up the mags for the Saiga, fixed a 30 rounder cycled the bolt and it jammed. The bullet tip was jammed against the edge of the feedramp. Cleared that and noticed the first problem with the Olympic; lack of crimp and cannelure caused the bullet to get shoved into the case quite a bit. Tried a 20 round mag which cycled all ok. No accuracy report though, we were shooting up a large galvanized garbage can and clay pigeons. We continued to have random jams where the bullet would catch on the feed ramp using some of the other mags. Only one 20 rounder would feed reliably. I never, in thousands of rounds of Wolf, Barnaul and Norinco, had a jam like I had with the Olympic. The show-stopper was one round that went click; I cycled the bolt to extract the round, noticed that the primer had a good hit, with no bullet. Squib round? I never heard a pop, but pulled the dust cover and bolt/carrier, and noticed fresh powder all over in the receiver near the breechface (stick type, like IMR 4064). The bullet was stuck in the barrel just about where it sits when seated in a round that is chambered. Another problem with the lack of crimping. I have 400 rounds left, and had planned to pull the bullets, but I think I'll give them a whirl in my SKS and see how that goes. I wouldn't buy it again at any price though.

 

 

glennb,

 

Interesting feedback. Thanks for your report. Strange that they would not crimp the bullets. If the bullet is driven far enough back into the case one can have an excessive pressure issue upon firing/ignition. Of course that presupposes the primer works and the bullet clears the barrel. A lodged bullet can be damned dangerous during rapid fire. I'm glad no one was hurt.

 

Were the rounds FMJ or HP as HP tends to snag more on the bullet guides/ramps?

 

I don't know if this was a bad lot, a fluke or representative of this imported ammo but it sure makes me wary of buying any since I tend to rattle through ammo pretty rapidly when I shoot.

 

PS.....thanks to all for your input on Olympic ammo. Keep the feedback coming as everyone benefits from hearing the good, bad and the ugly. :super:

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Ive shot oh, 8-900 rounds of this stuff in the last month over three sessions. there were a few things I noticed.

 

first - some bullets have some type of crud on them. Ive also noticed some of the bullet tips are crooked.

 

second - I have also noticed that ohhhhhh every 6th or 7th shot? I would guess? is definately louder than the rest. others said the same thing. almost like its loaded hot or something, boom boom boom BANG boom boom BANG. that kind of difference.

 

third - several jams under bumping. also one jam that turned out that the case was LONG, and caused a bolt lockup. I cocked and fired the hammer (yeh, with the brass base showing out of the chamber. its an ak), nothing. three times. took a rubber mallet to the charging handle because my palm started to bruise from hitting it, shell popped out. gun was fine, still is. verified that the shell was not the correct length. heavy hit on primer to boot. put a large rock on top of it for an hour, then got rid of it.

 

fourth - good primer strikes and no fire. no little pop either. rounds all tossed into woods.

 

 

 

other problems with other ammo Ive had:

 

wolf 223 - once in a blue moon a dented shell neck, one stuck so bad, I couldnt get it chambered OR extracted, so the buttstock was slammed into the ground with force three times? (yes, thats how you clear an AR15 when that happens...fuck taking it apart. no need if you have a good stock) to extract. also, twice the primer hole was clogged, round went pop, no fire, all gas was expelled out sides of primer.

 

hungarian 7.62x39 - out of a 400 round lot, two bullets went through target sideways from 25 feet. several more rounds flew apart out the muzzle and shotgunned the target.

 

wolf 12 gauge - shell necks catch while feeding and are cut by the chamber frequently enough to stop using the shells. good ammo, but the shell is too thin.

 

 

 

In any event, I will be going back to milsurp on stripper clips instead of buying olympic. Im not impressed. It DOES cut firewood. It has downed 5 trees, all over 8" thick. then again, so does all the other 7.62x39. I have 100 rounds left of the olympic, and its going down the barrel this week, and thats that for the stuff for me. I was hoping it would be good ammo, so I could take the 5 gallon bucket of spent brass to the scrap yard for a couple bucks for more ammo.

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IndyArms had a post about the accuracy of Olympic ammo back in August... to bad I bought 4 boxes of this stuff too.

 

 

Aug 14 2005, 11:49 PM

 

Ok... was at the range today... took BOTH my Saiga 7.62X39's

One is a 20" barrel conversion that I did, manufacture date '99, with the Kalashnikov USA import stamping...

The other is a 16" Conversion I did, Manufacture date of '03, with the EAA markings.

 

I was shooting Olympic ammo, brass cased, boxer primed, 124 grain FMJ.

 

I noticed the accuracy of the Olympic was *NOT AS GOOD* as Wolf 122g. FMJ. The best groups I was getting with open sights at 100M was about 4 inches.

I have gotten 2" groups with the irons using Wolf ammo...

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Wolverine, the rounds were FMJ. The bullets don't have a cannelure, so any crimping would probably do damage.

 

The biggest bummer was that I thought that a local buy with ammo under $0.10 a round was a good deal. Too bad I didn't do a little web search beforehand.

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Thanks for the feedback on Olympic ammo guys. I think I will steer clear of this stuff. Too many reports of performance issues some of which can be dangerous........like a bullet lodged in the barrel as you squeeze off another round. :eek:

 

Thanks again.

 

Wolverine :smoke:

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