The quality of Russian ammo for rifled small arms often causes criticism, especially among civilian shooters, sportsmen and hunters. Russian ammo “eat” trunks imported rifles and not capable of providing high accuracy. But experts say that the ratio of “price — quality” of the domestic ammo is close to ideal, and attempt to play in a different market niche will only hurt our companies.
As there was steel
The main feature of the Russian ammo, as military and civilian — the material from which they are made (depends on the accuracy of the shot and the resource weapons). The shell material of the bullet should be possible to reduce the coefficient of friction to reduce wear of the barrel, to be flexible, so the bullet tightly rammed into the rifling and at the same time firm enough that it does not tear with them.
In most foreign ammunition, and military and civilian, use the brass sleeve and the bullet, tombac (an alloy based on copper and zinc) shell — it is believed that copper alloys best meet the requirements. In Russia in the early twentieth century, also used alloys based on copper. So, trilinear patron of the sample in 1908 had a brass cartridge case and a bullet with a cupronickel (copper-Nickel alloy) sheath (Melchior in the manufacture of bullets used).
But since the 1930-ies of the Soviet industry began to switch production rounds of bi-metal is a soft low carbon steel with a thin, of the order of four to six percent of the total thickness, a layer of tombac. One reason for this was the imbalance of the Soviet economy — the steel was made in huge amounts and were relatively cheap, allowing to establish mass production of inexpensive cartridges. Saving non-ferrous metals in the transition of cartridge production at bimetal has reached 96%. During the great Patriotic war, shells were often made do without a protective coating, and with the 50-ies of XX century tombac increasingly replaced by the cheaper Lac.
The AK-74
Photo: Shmelin / Wikipedia
Of course, steel sleeve and bimetallic shell faster wear out the barrel of a gun — after the rejection of copper alloys resource rifles fell by about four times. This problem was solved by chroming the barrel and chamber. It is believed that the modern army samples and their civilian counterparts in the Russian domestic production of the respective cartridges do not create problems. So, the declared resource of a Kalashnikov rifle caliber 5. 45×39 is 15 thousand shots. About the same resource at the carbines “saiga” on the basis of the Kalashnikov assault rifle from concern Kalashnikov (caliber 223 Rem (5,56х45), 5. 45×39, 7. 62×39, 308 Win (7,62×51), 7,62x54r). Resource carbines “Vepr” on the basis of the Kalashnikov machine gun from the factory “Sickle” — about 25 thousand shots. However, specified in the passport of the goods and on the website of the factory warranty life does not exceed two thousand shots.
Experts note a rather high quality Russian military ammo. “You have to understand that the cartridge does not require sniper accuracy, and gross gross 5,45 and 7,62 quite adequate to the tasks that they face,” says weapons expert Maxim Popenker, stressing that the intermediate cartridge 5. 45×39 mm according to this characteristic, as the flatness exceeds malinowsky NATO caliber cartridge 5,56х45 millimeters.
“Eaten” trunks
The main suppliers of “rifle” ammunition for the Russian civilian market — the Barnaul cartridge plant (BCP), Novosibirsk cartridge plant (refinery) and Tula ammunition plant (TPZ). The vast majority of their product is the cartridges with a steel cartridge case and bullet with a bimetal jacket. Only the core is not steel, as in army ammunition, and lead. Steel sleeve may be covered with varnish or zinc, having a polymer coating or galvanization. Bullets sometimes is put an extra brass finish — for example, ammunition Barnaul Gold from BPZ. According to the manufacturers, the wear resistance of the barrel when a bullet is increased by 30-50 percent. But the cost of this cartridge almost twice as much — about 14 rubles, as against 8-8.5 rubles.
7,62×39 mm
Photo: Twthmoses / Wikipedia
Problems when using this ammunition arise primarily from the owners of imported weapons. “Bimetal bullets used in Russian ammo 223 caliber, about three times reduce the life of the barrel of the rifle in comparison, tombac, and domestic cartridges with foreign tomakomai bullet cost three to four times more expensive compared to cartridges with bimetallic shell, explained “the Tape.<url>” responsible for working with manufacturers of arms of the Federation of practical shooting of Russia, honored master of sport of practical shooting Vsevolod Ilyin.
Arrows-athletes, according to him, the year make from 10 thousand to 40 thousand shots. In terms of money is from 80 thousand to 320 thousand rubles when shooting a cheap cartridge with a bimetal bullet (talking about the 223 Rem caliber, the most popular among practical shooters) and up to one million rubles when shooting domestic cartridge with imported tomakomai bullet. Accurate non chrome plated guns sporting rifles (mostly on the platform of the American AR15) is kept approximately 15 thousand shots on the ammo, tombac bullet and five to eight thousand bimetal. Have chrome barrels, the figure is two to three times higher, but their accuracy is usually somewhat lower.
By the way, if you believe the experts, even chrome does not always save the barrels of foreign guns. Saiga with a chrome barrel on domestic ammo can shoot 15-20 thousand shots, “buchmacherskie” trunk (American company Bushmaster Firearms International produces the type rifles AR-15), also chronium, “eaten up” for six thousand shots, the bullets begin to fly sideways, no precision, ” says Maxim Popenker. — We source a very rigid army requirements for plating”.
There is no claim to the assortment of ammunition. “If for sporting rifles in caliber .223 Rem, you can choose any, including branded cartridge for carbines in caliber 5. 45×39 match ammo not produced by native industry, and foreign high-quality ammo in this caliber is simply not available in our market”, — said the representative of the FPSR. And clarifies that some better things with the cartridge 7,62×39 on Russian market offers imported quality ammo.
Cartridge caliber 7,62x54r mm aircraft machine gun ShKAS
Photo: Miha Fetisov / Wikipedia
The mark on the cartridge for a machine gun ShKAS. Plant No. 529 Novaya Lyalya
One of the frequent claims is the uneven quality of the Russian ammo. The actual characteristics of civilian ammunition such as the speed of a bullet, often differ from declared by the manufacturer. The measurements show that the velocity of the bullets from one of the bundles can differ by 20-50 meters per second — a consequence of the unstable linkage of gunpowder and charges for the use of gunpowder, made to military standards.
More atomic bomb
However, experts believe that the range and quality of domestic ammunition fully meet the needs of the market and market niche which is occupied by Russian companies. Civil range of our ammunition factories optimized for export. Thus, according to various estimates, the civilian U.S. market annually receives up to one billion rounds of Russian production. “The Russian cartridge plants in the sanctions lists is not included, open export markets,” — said the chief editor of the magazine “Kalashnikov” Mikhail Degtyarev. Domestic ammo is very popular among foreign gunmen because of low prices. Their deficit in the American market, the expert estimates “at least 100 million bullets a year.”
Now the Russian manufacturers reliably occupy the niche in which they have practically no competitors. Modification of the materials or technology of manufacture of cartridges will inevitably lead to a transition to a different price segment, where they have to withstand strong pressure from foreign suppliers.
Ammo caliber 223 Rem
Photo: Keith LaFaille / Flickr
Generally, the cartridge replacement is extremely expensive. “The scale of such an army as ours, a change from caliber to caliber more than to adopt a new generation of nuclear missiles — says Mikhail Degtyarev. — This product is made of billions of pieces, and the life cycle of the cartridge is several decades — manufacture, storage, handling, periodic tests, etc.” Suffice it to recall that the stocks of Kalashnikovs in the army warehouses, according to former defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov, made in 2011, over 17 million units.
Of course, the output of new civilian ammo does not require such huge costs, but given the characteristics of our production, sharpened for mass production, conversion or purchase of equipment will be very expensive (a possible investment experts was not able to assess). However, the sanctions likely to force our factories to make their production policy flexibility. Especially in the segment of smoothbore ammunition, there are examples of fruitful cooperation of producers with consumers.
