Added 10/1/04 - I saw PCA/Spectrum Polymer cased ammunition at the '04 SHOT show, and was intrigued. I was finally able to do some testing of the ammunition at the end of August '04. The commercial load had been available earlier, but I had wanted to wait until the military-spec load was available. I also wanted to test it on full-auto, not just semi, so it was a matter of finding a weekend to get together with my friend Ferdie Sy of Ferfrans, who is a military/LE dealer.

Some of the advantages to polymer cased ammo is lighter weight, lower manufacturing cost, less heat transferred to chamber, and natural lubricity of the case for easier extraction. The ammunition really IS lightweight, and the cases can be molded in any colour. The loose neck tension of the commercial cases worried me, as the bullet could be pried off with just some thumb pressure. The bullet could also be pushed back into the case if pushed against a hard object. I could not do that with the military case, however.

Relevant specs of the test weapons we used are as follows (see picture below):
Rifle A - LMT MRP upper receiver with 14.5", 1x7" twist barrel. Colt bolt carrer, LMT enhanced M4 bolt.
Rifle B - Bushmaster upper receiver with 11.5", 1x9" twist heavy barrel, Bushmaster bolt and carrier, Troy Industries MRF-C rail forend.
Rifle C - Stag arms upper receiver with 11.5", 1x9" heavy barrel, ARMS SIR forend

Lowers were all Bushmaster select-fire registered receivers.

Magazines used were 30 rnd USGI and 30 rnd thermold.

Lot # of the 55gr commercial ammo was PCA04 Jul B
Lot # of the 62 gr military ammo was PCA M855 0604

Ambient temperature at time of testing was approx 92° F and humidity was 45%

Here's a summary of our shooting session -

1. rifle A - commercial load, 20 rnds semi - no malfunctions. 20 rnds FA, 2-3 round bursts - no malfs.

2. rifle B - commercial load, 28 rnds FA, short bursts - no malfs. 28 rnds FA, long bursts, no malfs.

3. rifle C - military load, 28 rnds FA, long bursts - no malfs.

4. rifle B - military load, 80 rounds in 4 magazines, short and long FA bursts, no malfs.

5. rifle A - military load, 50 rounds in 2 mags, long bursts, no malfs.
50 rounds in USGI mags, short bursts, semi and double taps - no malfs.
50 rounds in 2 thermold mags, both unloaded in 25 round continuous bursts, no malfs. A round was loaded in the hot chamber and allowed to sit for about 5 minutes immediately after, and when examined, no melting or effect on the case was observed.

I had soaked 20 rounds each of the military and commercial ammo in a container of water for about 48 hours (see 'soaked' pic). all rounds were completely submerged. water was drained at the range and the ammo loaded and fired immediately.

Commercial load in rifle A - no malfs.
Military load in rifle A - 1 failure to fire. Primer was dented.

I fired the remaining ammo out of rifle A and B using a combination of mags, on the move, on both semi and full auto, with no more malfunctions. My inital concern with being able to remove the bullet in the commercial load with thumb pressure is still a concern.
Some of the commerical cases suffered partial seperation at the neck, while the military cases showed no sign of it. I'd feel a lot better about using the commercial load if the cases held up like the military load.

Summary: 120 rounds commercial - no malfunctions.
400 rounds military load - one malfunction (soaked round, failure to ignite primer).
If PCA can deal with that neck separation problem with the commercial cases, and offer it at a lower cost than the cheapest non-reloadable ammunition (Wolf), I think it'll do well in the market. Right now the commercial load cost is on par with other reloadable brass cased ammo, but it should go down in time. I definitely like it better than Wolf - it's much cleaner and the rifle stays much cleaner after an equivalent amount of shooting.

MD Labs XF7 Grease and SLIP 2000 Gun Care Products

10/2/04 - I actually got the SLIP 2000 products and MD Labs XF7 grease a while ago - almost a year for the SLIP 2000 stuff. I held off from writing any sort of review as I wanted to use these products for a while. As I don't get out to the range as often as I'd like, it takes me some time before I can get any sort of idea about how well gun care products work. If you're like me, you have bottles of different kinds of oils, solvents etc. I'm a sucker for products that claim to make my weapon function better and get clean faster.

The XF7 grease was developed by MD Labs, the makers of Mad Dog knives. It's distributed by MAXPEDITION Hard-use gear. From the Maxpedition website -

"Formulated specifically for protecting modern weapons and tools in extremely adverse conditions, MD Labs XF7 is a truly water-proof grease with extraordinary powers of lubrication and corrosion inhibition. XF7 will not run/melt/drip even when heated; it remains where you applied it and continues to protect at high cyclic rates and at high temperatures of up to 500 degrees F. XF7 guards metal surfaces in marine and under-water environments; it continues to work even in boiling salt water. Long after conventional oils or greases have washed/melted/boiled off, XF7 is still right where you put it, functioning at optimal level. Use non-toxic, non-staining, non-corrosive, O-ring friendly MD Labs XF7 for your high performance weapons, tactical knives, and tools because they deserve the best."

My particular interest in it was for the AR-15 series of weapons. I've found that the bolt gets dry after a few hundred rounds - the oil gets burned off or turned to carbon. XF7 seemed like it might work a bit longer to keep the bolt lubricated. Rather than repeat what's on the website, read the general information sheet, and instructions for use in the M16/AR15 series of weapons here. In a nutshell, you have to degrease/clean all components, apply a thin coat of XF7, and then lubricate with oil as usual. By following instructions, I found that the XF7 still remained on the components, after the oil had disappeared. It didn't gunk up any more than usual, and hasn't seemed to affect reliability adversely in any way. Using a very light coat spread with my fingers on handgun components before lubing with oil also seems to work very well. The grease stay put where the oil might run off.

The SLIP 2000 gun care products seen above are just a few of the many offered by SLIP 2000. Their CLP is a light, completely synthetic oil which contains NO silicone or teflon. Their 725 cleaner/degreaser, I've found works well, but doesn't dissolve carbon as well as M-Pro7 gun cleaner (in my personal experience), which I've been using for years. That's ok, as they also have their Carbon cutter which DOES work rather well to dissolve carbon deposits after soaking. It works best when parts are allowed to soak for a while. The large jar comes with wire hangers for submerging parts in it. You don't have to filter it when it gets dirty. It doesn't make the tough deposits on the back of the bolt simply disappear, but it gets most of the carbon off. Still need a little elbow grease.

I'm using the SLIP 2000 CLP as my gun oil, in combination with the XF7 grease, and it's worked very well so far. I found Break-free CLP to get rather gunked up and dirty in my weapons, while the lighter SLIP 2000 doesn't gunk up as bad. Reports from friends who've gone to Gunsite have come back with positive reports about SLIP 2000, which Gunsite has been using for a while.