The influx of inferior ammo brands during the pandemic panic.

[40Garand]

Where is all this off brand coming from, over seas? Our US manufacturers can't keep up but inferior brands and random remans are coming out of the woodwork. For example brands I don't recall ever seeing before the pandemic like NSI, Fort Scott, Monarch, Black Aces, and the list goes on. I'd only see 7.62X39 run of the mill steel case now it's popping up in multiple calibers. All the decent ammo is a tough score yet all of this random bottom of the barrel stuff seems to be on the shelfs. If I only had budget guns and was desperate I'd probably think about testing some out. Who's willing to risk a $600, $900, or $3000 gun with some unknown brand that I can guarantee won't fix your gun or replace it after it blows up in your hands? People seem to be gobbling this stuff up like cat fish eating hot dogs though.

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[fstdraw]

Monarch is an oldie, it's American as I remember. You are correct on the glut of cheap quality ammo.

 

[OldTengu]

Black aces is decent
Fort Scott is pretty good
Monarch ain't bad
Don't know about NSI.
Im fine with cheap ammo. It's a good reason to keep some inexpensive firearms around, to test it in. My glocks see more cheap steel case 9 than they do anything else.

 

[40Garand]

Monarch is an oldie, it's American as I remember. You are correct on the glut of cheap quality ammo.

The recent manufactured Monarch I saw was steel cased 380. I could look deeper but I'm assuming it's import.

 

[40Garand]

Black aces is decent
Fort Scott is pretty good
Monarch ain't bad
Don't know about NSI.
Im fine with cheap ammo. It's a good reason to keep some inexpensive firearms around, to test it in. My glocks see more cheap steel case 9 than they do anything else.

I keep all my Glocks stock and I bet they'll eat crayons but I'd still hate for any gun to go EXTRA BOOM.

 

[SrMachoSolo]

Did you hear about the new ammo factory in Afghanistan? I think their stuff will flood the market soon... but I also hear it's military grade, so nothing to worry about, right?

-Robert

 

[OldTengu]

I keep all my Glocks stock and I bet they'll eat crayons but I'd still hate for any gun to go EXTRA BOOM.

I'd bet that it's better than you'd expect, especially considering that the QC on brands like Winchester has gone down as demand has gone up. I would worry about it less.

 

[40Garand]

I stay away from Winchester ammo as well. Guess I'm a bit of an ammo snob.

 

[Jonnyuma]

Did you hear about the new ammo factory in Afghanistan? I think their stuff will flood the market soon... but I also hear it's military grade, so nothing to worry about, right?

-Robert

Manufacturer?
Or are they just the distributor?

 

[fstdraw]

OK, let me back up a bit. I have Monarch .22 ammo from the 50's, it WAS USA made back then.

 

[Babalugats]

Did you hear about the new ammo factory in Afghanistan? I think their stuff will flood the market soon... but I also hear it's military grade, so nothing to worry about, right?

-Robert

Bahahahahaha

 

[WAYNO]

There is a bunch of new Eastern European ammo being hawked on Targetsports. My experience... this ammo is in no way inferior. We should count our blessings that the previously eastern-bloc is stepping up, call it capitalizing, to fill the ammo void that domestic manufacturers can't (or wont) fill. I don't want to buy Eastern European ammo, but I also don't want to buy all-too-scarce domestic ammo at twice to three times what it sold for a year ago. I keep a little of this stuff on hand, just to try it out and make sure it'll work okay if it was the only ammo I could get.

New brands (to us) are Belom and Igman. They've been around longer than we might think. It is great ammo.




.

 

[Babalugats]

There is a bunch of new Eastern European ammo being hawked on Targetsports. My experience... this ammo is in no way inferior. We should count our blessings that the previously eastern-bloc is stepping up, call it capitalizing, to fill the ammo void that domestic manufacturers can't (or wont) fill. I don't want to buy Eastern European ammo, but I also don't want to buy all-too-scarce domestic ammo at twice to three times what it sold for a year ago.

New brand (to us) is Belom and Igman. They've been around longer than we might think. It is great ammo.

Yeah I bought a bunch of Igman have not used it yet.

 

[Knobgoblin]

I stay away from Winchester ammo as well. Guess I'm a bit of an ammo snob.

White box has been my " last resort " for around 2 decades.

 

[40Garand]

There is a bunch of new Eastern European ammo being hawked on Targetsports. My experience... this ammo is in no way inferior. We should count our blessings that the previously eastern-bloc is stepping up, call it capitalizing, to fill the ammo void that domestic manufacturers can't (or wont) fill. I don't want to buy Eastern European ammo, but I also don't want to buy all-too-scarce domestic ammo at twice to three times what it sold for a year ago.

New brand (to us) is Belom and Igman. They've been around longer than we might think. It is great ammo.

Maybe I need a refresher economics lesson but how in the world do they keep the retail cost down after all the shipping and tariffs?

 

[CamoDeafie]

Maybe I need a refresher economics lesson but how in the world do they keep the retail cost down after all the shipping and tariffs?

The cost of labor wages and materials is much less in Central/Eastern Europe than the US at the least. Might be on par with the Ukrainian, Chinese and Russian ammo companies.

 

[gmerkt]

I've read that (contemporary) Monarch brass case ammo is made by PPU in Serbia, steel case is made in Russia by Barnaul. I think there were old-timey brands of the same name, no longer in business.

Fort Scott, online pictures of their product shows a Starline cartridge case headstamp. Also, there are pictures of in-house ballistics testings, looks like they make their own in Kansas.

Igman is made in Bosnia.

Belom is made in Serbia.

Black Aces shotgun ammo supposedly is made in Italy.

NSI, isn't that Nobel Sport, the plant in Italy? That's part of a large European company that also owns Vectan powder in France.

So far not mentioned in this thread is HSM ammo, made in Montana. They have been in biz for several decades but mostly crop up in times of shortage or as a lower cost alternative (when those used to exist) at gun shows, etc. From their product that I've seen, they use components from various US manufacturers.

 

[OldTengu]

I've read that (contemporary) Monarch brass case ammo is made by PPU in Serbia, steel case is made in Russia by Barnaul. I think there were old-timey brands of the same name, no longer in business.

Fort Scott, online pictures of their product shows a Starline cartridge case headstamp. Also, there are pictures of in-house ballistics testings, looks like they make their own in Kansas.

Igman is made in Bosnia.

Belom is made in Serbia.

Black Aces shotgun ammo supposedly is made in Italy.

NSI, isn't that Nobel Sport, the plant in Italy? That's part of a large European company that also owns Vectan powder in France.

So far not mentioned in this thread is HSM ammo, made in Montana. They have been in biz for several decades but mostly crop up in times of shortage or as a lower cost alternative (when those used to exist) at gun shows, etc. From their product that I've seen, they use components from various US manufacturers.

I bought some hsm from a forum member last fall. Good stuff.

 

[CamoDeafie]

Yeah, so far only Wolf steel case is it for lower priced 6.5 Grendel ammo.. and its currently within $10-15 of Hornady's 123gr offerings.. although I paid something like $35 a box for the Hornady Custom SST 123gr at Sportsman's.... I paid as low as $18 a box for the Hornady Frontier 123gr FMJ ammo, and $25-27 a box for the ELD Match/Black (supposedly the same thing according to a Grendel forum?)

I'd like to see more offerings coming up for 6.5 Grendel, especially for imported and US other than Hornady/Remington/Winchester/Olin.

 

[billdeserthills]

I stay away from Winchester ammo as well. Guess I'm a bit of an ammo snob.

I've heard of several to many guns blown up while shooting Winchester white box ammo