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Centerfire Rifles - Semiautomatic or Gas Operated Centerfire rifles, carbines and other gas operated rifles.

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  #1  
Old 06-22-2009, 9:06 AM
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Default Brown Bear ammo problems?

Just recently I went to the range and had a problem with Brown Bear ammo. I was shooting with my RRA upper/BCG and it was feeding Wolf and some reload stuff with no problems. Once I switched to Brown Bear, I had a FTE. The expended casing was stuck in the chamber and the bolt would not rotate/open. My buddy and I tried to pull the bolt out for at least 15 minutes and it would not unlock or come free. Finally we had to tap it out using a cleaning rod and a hatchet (don't worry, there was absolutely no damage done ).

Upon inspection of the casing that was stuck, we noticed that a chunk of the rim/base was missing. The broken piece was still stuck under the extractor. I cleaned, reassembled, and fired with no other problems.

Anyone else have this same issue? Is Brown Bear completely useless?
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Old 06-22-2009, 9:09 AM
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I don't recall any issues in the past for me. You say one round gave you issues and the rest were fine? You fired more after the incident?
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Old 06-22-2009, 9:12 AM
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If I'm not mistaken, Brown Bear is lacquered. Most of the steel-case stuff is now polymer-coated or galvanized, which seems to greatly reduce the extraction issues.

I would recommend giving your chamber a really thorough cleaning with an AR-specific chamber brush and a good solvent, and consider not using the Brown Bear again. The polymer and galvanized (zinc) stuff is usually about the same price and shouldn't cause you problems.
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Last edited by reidnez; 06-22-2009 at 12:17 PM..
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Old 06-22-2009, 9:21 AM
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Brown Bear is the cheapest stuff of the "Bear" family. The silver bear is zinc plated steel and the golden bear is brass plated steel. Both of those are going to be much more reliable than the lacquered stuff. I would use polymer coated Wolf long before I would use Brown Bear. The prices are so comparable I see no reason to ever use the Brown Bear. Just stay away from the stuff.
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Old 06-22-2009, 9:40 AM
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Default

I use Brown Bear in my M1A with no issues, but that's not an AR.

I've heard that Brown Bear can cause issues because of what it's coated with. I figure it doesn't bother the M1A because that monster will eat anything, but I know that many ARs are much more picky. For that reason I've never even tried to put anything that isn't brass in my ARs.

YMMV.
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Old 06-22-2009, 2:28 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by technique View Post
I don't recall any issues in the past for me. You say one round gave you issues and the rest were fine? You fired more after the incident?
Yea, one round gave me that issue. None after that. I stopped firing Brown Bear after that.
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Vu 308 on home defense-

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Old 06-22-2009, 2:37 PM
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Like many others have mentioned, Brown Bear ammo is lacquer coated and will require you to clean your rifle after each session to minimize lacquer build up that may cause your rifle to malfunction.

Wolf ammunition stopped using the lacquer coating process and switched to a polymer coating process that resulted in better performance in ARs in terms of malfunctions caused by their ammo.
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