500rds – 7.62x39 Barnaul 123gr. FMJ Ammo

Barnaul 123 Grain Full Metal Jacket (FMJ) Ammo Details

The Barnaul Cartridge Plant, also known as “Барнаульский патронный завод” to our Russian-speaking friends, has been at it for ages. If you fought on Russia’s side in any armed conflict within the past 120 years, there’s a good chance your ammo had a Barnaul headstamp.

It’s only natural that the 7.62x39 should be one of Barnaul’s most popular cartridges. This ammo represents an affordable approach to firing your AK-47 all day long, as it offers a great cost-saving feature: the steel case. Steel may not seal a rifle’s chamber quite so effectively as brass, nor is it useful for handloading, but that price tag, man! Hard to resist. The AK-47 notably manages to feed and extract steel with great efficiency, and Barnaul’s own lacquer coating reduces friction for even more reliable cycling.

This round’s 123 grain bullet and 2,543 fps muzzle velocity are both classic specs for the 7.62x39. According to Barnaul this round has a G1 ballistic coefficient of .294, so its bullet should remain supersonic until around the 640 yard mark. Barnaul does save on production costs by implementing a bimetal jacket, which means this round’s bullet is magnetic – something to bear in mind if you want to shoot at some indoor ranges.

This round’s explodey bits are modern, both clean burning and non-corrosive. Some shooters are wary of Berdan primers, but Berdans really only present an issue when they’re in old mil-surp ammo – which this new production ammo certainly ain’t.