7.62x39 Ammo

Hopefully one day tree scientists will finally do something useful and genetically engineer a tree that grows ammunition. But until that day finally comes, at least we have the nation of Bulgaria – home of JSC Arsenal AD, the manufacturer of this fine 7.62x39 ammo that Global Ordnance has shipped to the U.S. for your shooting pleasure!

One look at this ammo is all it takes to appreciate why its price tag is lower. Those steel cases are a lot more economical than the conventional brass variety, and AK-47 and SKS rifles have zero issue cycling them. These steel cases may not be reloadable, but their new Berdan primers won’t do anything corrosive to your firearm.

But one look at this ammo will also reveal why it is higher-quality than 7.62x39 by Wolf, Tula or Barnaul. Bluish sealant lines the primers and case mouths, thus keeping the ammo well-protected against atmospheric moisture and precipitation. Arsenal furthermore adheres to a more exacting set of quality assurance protocol, which you’re sure to appreciate as you contend with relatively fewer jams and failures to fire!

You can’t see these rounds’ 122 grain FMJ bullets’ steel jackets because they’re concealed by a thin copper wash exterior. Steel jackets make FMJs plenty strong enough to avoid deformation that could cause a jam or weaken accuracy, but they’re also certain to attract a magnet. If your range doesn’t like magnetic projectiles, then they’re not going to have kind things to say about Arsenal’s 7.62x39!

Wolf ammunition is a popular range staple for owners of SKS and AK rifles. These 7.62x39mm cartridges are similar to the ones these rifles were designed for, though they have some significant quality-of-life improvements including non-corrosive primers and polymer-coated cases.

Each cartridge in this box of 20 fires a 122-grain full metal jacket bullet at 2,362 feet per second.

This ammo is loaded in Russia or Ukraine using non-reloadable steel casings.

We hate to break it to you, but if your dream is to join the Yugoslavian military then you’re about 30 years too late. But even though the Jugoslovenska Armija has kicked the bucket, its 7.62x39 ammunition lives on!

The first thing you’ll notice about this ammo is its packaging. No boring cardboard box here. You get a big wooden crate with Cyrillic stenciling all over it. (Please expect a reasonable amount of wear and tear on so old container.) All the ammo is sealed inside the crate – gotta pull a wire by its little wooden handle to set it free!

The crate contains 28 boxes of 7.62x39, each with four loaded ten-round stripper clips. You’ll notice the ammo is brass-cased, but don’t make any plans to reload it. Yugoslavia was loading Berdan primers, and those make handloading not worth the trouble.

This ammo’s bullets are nonmagnetic 123 grain full metal jackets. Yugoslavia’s M67 FMJ is a little shorter than the original Russian design. That helps the bullet to destabilize more quickly while it’s penetrating soft tissue.

Here’s the big thing to remember with this ammo: Its Berdan primers are corrosive. That means they leave a residue behind which attracts humidity, which in turn forms rust. You have to clean your rifle a special way if you fire corrosive ammo – and right away, before rust can take hold.

Don’t be thrown off by the foreign sounding name! Belom is headquartered in Serbia, and was founded to better supply their nation’s armed forces as well as contribute to the local economy. In just a few years Belom has become internationally recognized for making dependable small arms ammo!

This 7.62x39 cartridge makes a swell pal to any AK-47 or SKS rifle. Its 123 grain bullet is an FMJ, with a hard lead/antimony alloy core and copper/zinc alloy jacket. The 90 percent copper jacket is hard enough to feed reliably and prevent accuracy-harming deformation under extreme pressure. It is also devoid of steel and therefore compliant with indoor ranges that ban the use of magnetic ammo.

This round’s case is made of pure brass and outfitted with a non-corrosive Boxer primer. It fires even cleaner courtesy of Belom’s proprietary double base propellant blend, so you’ll be able to spend less time scrubbing your rifle than if you had chosen steel-cased ammo. Belom’s ammo is engineered to perform on the harsh battlefield, so it is both waterproof and reliable in extreme temperatures.

Do you need 7.62x39 ammo? Does the bear do something unmentionable in the woods?

This AK-47 and SKS ammo by Prvi Partizan is a versatile fix for all your range needs. Its bullet wears a simple gilding metal jacket, so it feeds and fires through semi-autos without leaving too much fouling in its wake. It’s also poised to do accented damage to a threat. This particular round’s FMJ won’t expand, but it has a good likelihood of yawing within soft tissue to tear a wider wound channel than its 0.31” diameter alone could account for.

At 123 grains this bullet exits a 24” barrel at a velocity of 2,461 fps. Trajectories are decent at a ballistic coefficient of 0.204, so you can peg nearby targets with negligible bullet rise, 250 yard targets with less than 7” bullet rise, and 400 yard targets with about 25” bullet rise. A bullet like this will remain supersonic until the 420 yard mark when fired through a 24” barrel, and retain sufficient energy with which to neutralize a threat throughout an AK-47’s effective range (despite its shorter barrel).

Prvi Partizan makes their own reloadable brass cases. Their bullets contain no steel that could run afoul of a range’s magnetic bullet ban, and their non-corrosive primers are sealed for added longevity on the shelf.

If you like to reload for your AK or SKS, or simply want to shoot at an indoor range that won't allow steel-cased ammo, these brass cased 7.62x39mm cartridges from PMC are your best bet. Packaged in an economical case of 500, these rounds fire a 123 grain full metal jacket bullet and produce typical ballistics for this caliber.

This ammunition is loaded in South Korea and uses non-corrosive Boxer primers. All of the components are made in-house to ensure optimal quality control.

PMC ammo is made by Poongsan, a major supplier to the South Korean military.