I like to take people who have little or no experience shooting and bring them to the range. I provide the rifle, ammo, and equipment. Due to high prices of brass cased 5.56, I decided to check into the steel cased ammo. I bought 80 rounds of Silver Bear 62gn HP at a local gun show.
I was shooting my home made polyglot AR with Bushmaster 20 in goverment profile chrome lined barrel - 1/9 twist. I was using a scope. it was 10 degrees, with light snow. I was shooting a practice AQT at 25M.
I was very happy with this ammo. I had no malfunctions of any kind. Accuracy was very good. When prone, I averaged 3/4 inch (3MOA). This is the same I do with brass cased ammo and is probably at my limit of practical accuracy.
When I cleaned my rifle, it was much dirtier than usual, but cleaned up quickly due to the chrome.
I plan on buying more Silver Bear 5.56 to use as handouts in my loaner ARs. I feel a new shooter would not be handicapped by using this ammo.
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I've had the same experience with this ammo and recently purchased more.
However, due to the cost of said ammo, I will not be handing out any 5.56 EVER. Loaner ARs? Man, must be nice. If you're ever in Ohio.....
I ask people to the range weekly and provide the equipment, ammo, ect. I rarely get anyone to come, although I have made 1 rifleman and 2 are close, so its been worth it.
I get where you're coming from. It amazes me, even with free ammo and a loaner rifle, you're still pulling teeth to get people to come out.
I just bought some Golden Bear 62gr. over the weekend but haven't shot any of it yet. The guy also had some Barnaul mfgd. "5.56X45 62gr. For Sporting Use" ammo for a buck less per box so I bought all the ammo he had!
"Discount" .223 (62gr) is getting very hard to find now. The last bit of Silver Bear I could find at this month's gun show was in 700rd boxes and going for $298. That was the price for 1000rds at the last gun show. It's just gone. There's no more left. If you can find it anywhere, buy it! I know, it's hard to justify it to the wife, but I just tell mine, "but dear, just think, at this rate, it'll be worth more than gold soon!"
Another telling sign is it's getting harder and harder to buy quality ammo cans. I doubt it's "geocaching" that's upping the demand!
I use Silver Bear in .223 and .308, when I can find it. Equally happy with the quality of both. Of the steel cased stuff, this is the top of the line.
There was a guy at the last GB gun show selling Bear ammo in bulk. He was between $.28 and $.35 per round depending on Silver or Brown, etc...
Are you heading out to the range this week at all??
.28 is like a dream around here!
I can't find any more Silver Bear any more. I have since shot som 55gn Wolf. It functioned fine but wasn't very accurate.