Chinese, steel core or not?

[01SVTvert]

Found a couple boxes of chinese ammo and wanted to know if it is steel core or not.

Box: White box, ink stamped 7.62 X 39 and MADE IN CHINA on one side along with three chinese characters. Opposite side has WARNING KEEP OUT OF REACH OF CHILDREN paper sticker attached. Styrofoam holder for the ammo, two rows of 10.

Ammo: Ammo appears to be steel case with copper wash, Headstamp 351 and 92, which I assume is factory 351 and manufactured in 1992.

Just curiosity at theis point and yes I understand this is NOT AP ammo, just trying to expand my knowledge about an ammo I had not seen before.

Thanks

 

[Harleynut]

Use a small magnet. I did that with some ammo I bought and could pick it right out of the box. The cases were brass but inside the bullet was steel.

 

[LoginName]

Does this help?....

How to tell if your ammo has steel core bullets

The cartridge in the center has a steel core bullet. The others on either side have lead core bullets except the one on the right that is a experimental round that has plastic beads in the nose and a lead core.

You can't use a magnet to check if your ammo has steel core bullets!

All Chinese ammo uses bullets made with copper plated steel jackets, So using a magnet is useless because it will be sticking to the steel bullet jacket and not the steel core. The only way to tell if your ammo is steel core is to pull a bullet. Steel core bullets are over 1" long, have a boat tail, and have black sealer on them. In the pic the steel core bullet is on the left and the lead core on the right.



Only Chinese factories 31, 71, 311 and 351 made lead core ball. (maybe 61 also, but not sure)

Any other Chinese factory code will be steel core.

Lead core ball from 31 ALWAYS has a green case mouth seal.

Lead core ball from 71 ALWAYS has a knurled crimping groove on the projectile.

Lead core ball from 311 and 351 is harder to tell, but generally the rounds have NO case mouth seal or primer seal and date from 1991-1994

The earliest known lead core from 31 is 1990 dated.

The earliest known lead core from 71 is 1988 dated.

More info here. with pictures of the packaging...

http://home.comcast.net/~jfreeman16/ak_rifle_ammo.htm

Chinese steelcore ammo was what Wolf ammo is now. I say a good average for steelcore is anywhere from 30 to 50 cents a rd. Some sellers will try to trick you by saying the chinese lead core ammo, is steelcore by using a magnet. All chinese ammo had a copper covered steel (magnetic) jacket. You need to ethier know the headstamp info and/or use a bullet puller to know for sure. Good rule to follow is any chinese ammo you come across that has ethier a 3 or 4 digit head stamp number, (9121, 311 or 351) is steelcore. All steelcore ammo is also boattail bullets.

http://www.uzitalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=17619
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[01SVTvert]

Lead core ball from 311 and 351 is harder to tell, but generally the rounds have NO case mouth seal or primer seal and date from 1991-1994

Looks like lead core, nice info. Thanks