What brand / Manufacture 7.62X39 ammo should I stay away from ?

None really. Like handguns, you have to find which your rifle likes best. If you don't want corrosive ammo stay away from anything surplus but it's usually the best performing ammo

jimmyj,

So I guess you got that SKS?

Short answer: don't worry about the ammo.

Long answer: There are two kinds of 7.62 x 39 ammo to stay away from and one kind I would think about avoiding.

Stay away from corrosive ammo (duh!) unless you want to spend more time cleaning after shooting or unless you don't mind corrosion. Also stay away from expensive ammo because I've found no advantage to brass case "high quality" ammo over the cheap stuff from Tula (TulAmmo), WPA, Barnaul (Brown and Silver Bear ammo), or surplus. We've shot probably around 10K rounds through all variations of Kalishnikov type rifles and the ONLY ammo problem we've ever experienced were a couple of FTE's with some lacquer coated Brown Bear ammo in a Bulgarian milled receiver AK-47 that I suspect was due to the lacquer coating so I avoid the lacquer coated Brown Bear ammo. Hundreds, if not thousands, of lacquer coated Russian and Chinese surplus ammo were no problem. On the other hand Silver Bear subjectively seems to cycle slightly smoother.

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Scoundrel & Ne'er-Do-Well

The advantages of more expensive ammo vs Wolf is that Wolf tends to be underpowered, sometimes by alot.....200 - 600 fps. It's across their whole line of black box ammo. The military classic so far seems fine. Their 5.45 crono'd at 2400 - 2600 fps where in actuality it should be 3000fps. That's a lot. But they do cycle and shoot.

Corrosive ammo is not some evil magic bullet. If you're cleaning then you're cleaning anyway and it doesn't take any longer to clean. People will tell you to use Windex or soap ...I use CLP, run a few patches and done. No rust issues since 1998

The advantages to the more expensive brass cased ammo is pretty obvious!

I have never found any really bad 7.62X39 ammo and I've shot a lot of it up over the years. Corrosive ammo is only a problem if you don't clean the gun properly when you're done shooting. I have been collecting and shooting old military guns since the 70's, shot a lot of surplus ammo. The military forces of the world used corrosive for many years without issue.

Now as to modern commercial ammo, it is supposed to all be non-corrosive. If you're wanting easy cleanup then don't bother looking for surplus, not much left out there except the Yugo stuff anyway. I've never found a big difference in the Russian brands, all seem to work well enough. Accuracy will vary a bit but none of it is match grade. I've found the Bear brand is usually a bit more consistent than Wolf or Tula but I won't turn down a good deal on any of them.

The only 7.62X39 ammo that has given me any trouble is S&B brand.
The heavy coating on the case caused rounds to stick in the chamber
of my AK and that takes some doing. Of what's available today I have
found Russian ammo headstamped TCW (Tula) and Wolf to be good. I
would definitely avoid the corrosive primed Yugo that's on the market
now. I don't mind cleaning handguns or bolt rifles fired with corrosive
but the gas system of semi autos has to be cleaned as well as the
bores and that's a pain that's not worth it to me.

Lotsa comments that I tend to agree with. One of the pluses of the AK is it typically isn't ammo sensitive and digests most everything you run through it. And as mentioned, the corrosive stuff is more time consuming but with proper cleaning, no harm done. With AK/SKS ammo, I typically go cheap, and some romy surplus and tula (both non-corrosive) are the last brands I've purchased.

The Golden Tiger stuff runs real good in my AK.. got a few thousand rounds laying around here somewhere.

Not necessarily. What type of rifle is it and where & when was it built. It all comes down to who built it. If you bought a rifle built on a parts kit within the last 5 - 8 years chances are it has an aftermarket US barrel which may be cu to tight. Since 2005 there has been a ban on military barrels. All rifles, no matter what, that come in as parts kits have their barrels cut. The barrel is now considered an instrument of war.

The cheap Russian (Wolf, Tula) ammo works perfectly in my AK. After all, Russian rifle, Russian ammo. Seriously, I have never seen an AK that is fussy about ammo.

The Ak and SKS were designed to fire steel cased ammo. I prefer the powder coated cases to the laquer coated cases.

Any of the cheapo stuff seems to work fine. Wolf, Hot Shot, Tula, Bear, etc.

If you want really top end accuracy, I'd look for some Norinco, or mil surp ammo. These haven't been available here for some years, but you can still find some on gunbroker.

My AK runs fine on any ammo I have fed it.
Like gregintenn said get some Norinco if you can.
I found 400 rounds in a small shop close to me.

Anything not made in Russia.

Two issues I've had with pretty much any ammo ever:

I had a squib once with wolf ammo in 9x18 makarov, from my CZ82 (still regret selling it, lol) it was the "polyformance" 100 grain "conehead" stuff. It didnt even have the power to send the slide back, and cleaning it up was "fun"- I had to ramrod the projectile from the bore and clean the unburnt powder from the magazine and gun.

The polycoat stuff that seems to have taken over in the imported rooskie stuff, from the green lacquered stuff, it always seems to rust VERY easily for me.

I've never had a problem with the lacquered rooskie stuff, from my SAR, my mosin, or my SKS.

IMHO and in my limited experience- the rooskie "polyformance" coat stuff is ****, both for the range and for the stash.

My mini 30 will not cycle Wolf

Actually I have three AKs and none of them are the the type
that has been sold recently in the US. Two milled receiver
Poly Techs and an early Romanian. Truthfully I would hate to
be AK shopping these days if I had to buy some of these
put together parts guns. I would probably spend the money
to get an older Chinese model like the two I have.

It depends what you call "accurate" and what accuracy you and your rifle can generate.

I have a bunch of 7.62x39 rifles from folding stock AKs to a stainless Ruger #1KA single shot...and it is junk in, junk out.

Have a Ruger stainless Mini30 that was minute of paperplate accurate at 100 yards. With a receiver mounted scope as the barrel heated up it would walk off the target always to the 10:00 o'clock direction. Bought one of the Ultimak scout scope mounts that replaces the upper handguard and clamps to the barrel and accuracy improved and the walking off the target stopped. Changed from Wolf to Cheetah ammo and groups went from 6"+ to 2".

The accuracy improved also with a folding stock AK. Went from bigger than paperplate groups sitting with no sling to 4-5" centered on the plate groups going from Wolf to Golden Tiger.

I have several bolt guns that will shoot in the .5 MOA range with Lapua 124s. With Wolf well over an inch.

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Mini30 at 200 yards while sighting in with Cheetah...

PTR32....


Guns don't shoot that well with the cheap stuff....

Bob

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You could put a primer on a rock and my SKS and Saiga would digest it with gusto.

Point being...AK's and SKS' can eat darn near anything and work well.

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-Mike-

black box wolf is ****-o. military classic (camo box) is better just a bit more $$.
current spam can load is Yugo mil-surp - corro primed. not so hard to clean but must be done soon after shooting even a few. warm windsheild washer fluid does great, then dry and clean as conventional. don't forget the bolt face, breech and chamber also the gas pipe needs it too.

There were a few batches of Tula that were notorious for popped primers a few years ago. Made quite a mess with firing pins sticking and SKSs going full auto.

As far as cheap ammo goes Golden Tiger can't be beat. SG Ammo used to have it all the time, I bought plenty so I don't know if it's still available. M57 Yugo surplus is supposed to be even better but it's corrosive.

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LIVE FROM THE DAWGHOUSE

This is funny I really like Wolf in my mini 30s and x39 ARs
With Tula on one of my 30s I get light primer strikes but not with Wolf

Hank

I know the OP asked what ammo to steer clear from, but, if anyone wants to see what their rifle is capable of with top of the line ammo, there's this:

http://shopcorbon.com/rifle-calibers/762-x-39

Its pricey as all get out, but when I was into the 7.62x39 that was what I understood to be the cream of the crop.

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Israel Has The Right To Exist.

Can't speak for Corbon but LAPUA is one of the best if not the best. Of course every rifle is different. It's almost impossible to get but it's worth the money. ...usually

LAPUA fmj. 80 yards. AK47 on backpack

The yugo 7.62x39 brass cased with the red sealer around the primer is corrosive. The Royal tiger shoots pretty well out of my sks. Norinco from what I've read about is also corrosive. Not imported anymore but plenty floating around. Frank

There are two types of Norinco ammo. Those that came in wooden crates with plain cardboard boxes of 20 rounds ARE Military ammo and CORROSIVE. Then there are the ones that came in black and white or green boxes with the Norinco stamp and some sort of design, sometimes they say "Norinco Sport".......those are commercial and NON CORROSIVE

The commercial ammo would be brass cased and the surplus corrosive ammo would be copper washed

Arik, thanks for the clarification. Frank