Monarch 55gr .223 FMJ Steel Case Ammo – Red Box Academy Sports Exclusive

If you live near or frequent an Academy Sports, then you have probably seen Monarch ammo on their shelves. Its an Academy Sports exclusive brand and although I am not 100% sure of its exact origins, I do know that it comes to us from Russia. They offer it in many calibers and in both steel cased and brass, and they range in price from .25 cents a round down to .22 cents a round when they run a sale.

I recently picked up 100 rounds of the steel cased 55 gr .223 just to see how it would run. I havent found much in the way of reviews on this stuff on the Interwebs, so I thought I would share my experiences and let everyone know how they performed for me at the range…..

They ran great. Out of the 100 rounds fired, I had zero malfunctions. They seem to be a little hotter than most domestic brass ammo, and they have that odd Russian smell to them when you are shooting them off…. But other than that they run great in my Daniel Defense AR. Accuracy was all you could want from a plinking round…. Not great groups, but if you do your job they will certainly group respectably. I will say that this rifle is pretty forgiving in terms of ammo selection. Of the seven ammo selections I have fed it so far it has enjoyed all of them except one. Tula Ammo…. I couldn’t get through 10 rounds of that stuff without completely giving up on it.