I bought some 5.45x39 ammo, the run of the mill 52 grain surplus stuff in the plain white boxes. It is touted as being 52 grain COM BLOC issue. When I fired a few rounds of it today at a 100 meter target I notice I was getting maybe one out of ten shots on paper. A few rounds at the 250 meter backstop at a rock showed no accuracy what so ever. The ammo looked normal and mike’d out at .215. There was deep snow on the range so I cannot provide a head stamp, sorry.
As I was walking back from the target I noticed a bullet laying on the ground about 80 yards out from the firing line. A few steps further on and I found another bullet laying on the ground. This one had a slight bend to the ogive of the jacket. I noticed right off the bat that the cores were not in the jacket! And, it does not appear that they ever did! I'm so glad the bullets when fired did not damage the muzzle break.
I switched to a box of Wolf 62 grain bullets with very good results.
Any of you have any idea as to why no core? A training round? Poor quality control? They are not any sort of a tracer. The one photo seems to show a core, it is not, it is the filler in the nose of the bullet. (In 2D you cant see that it is up in the nose.)
Any comments?
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c...issingcore2.jpg

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c...missingcore.jpg

Wolf 62 grain

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c...b/Tantalfun.jpg

Here's the info from the head stamp on a fired cartridge:
1982 production from the Soviet State factory at Lugansk, Ukraine

yea in your second pic it looks like they forgot the creame filling!

holy crap... where did you buy it? Is this the stuff that was on sale at Century awhile back?

Pat

Yes, it is from the Century buy. It was cheap at about 1.50 a box delivered.
Now I know why.

Have you shot it all up? did you get a full tin and if so can you take a picture of the markings on the tin?

thx
pat

Good thing for me is that my ammo is Manufactured in 1981 from the markings on my two tins. Debating opening one up to check them out.

Pat

Those fired bullets don't look like they impacted into the backstop or anything... Did they just flutter to the ground short of the targets?

Pull a few bullets and see if they are coreless BEFORE you fire them. I understand your statement.."never had cores", those bullets don't look like they shed their cores out the back end. The boat tail is intact.

So did you notice lower recoil when shooting this stuff? Is it possible you got training rounds. Also was this stuff from a TIN or did you buy some boxes. These tins usually come with ammo wrapped in brown paper but I have to admit I have not opened my tins so they may come with white boxes instead from the Ukrain.

Recoil from the round is so light out of a Tantal and its brake, I cannot say that it was any lighter. A fellow shooter to the right of me said he heard abnormal sounds as the rifle was fired. The bullets must have tumbled out of the rifle and lost all forward momentum.One bullet did bend "U" shaped a little. The two bullets never reached the 100 meter target.
I pulled some of the bullets and they seem to have cores in them. I cut one bullet lengthwise and the core is shaped normally.

Try shooting the rifle with out the muzzle break on.

If you have any left weigh the whole cartridge, weigh several and see if the weight differs much. If the bullet weghts are all over the place the accuracy would suck.