Best Ammo for Every Caliber (Patch 1.1.x)

The problem this guide solves

Most deaths in Tarkov are not aim problems. They are ammunition problems wearing an aim problem's clothes.

You land four center-mass shots on a PMC, he turns around and drops you in two. On the death screen you blame your recoil control, but the real failure happened at your stash: you loaded rounds that cannot defeat his plate, and he loaded rounds that walk straight through yours. In Escape from Tarkov, the bullet matters more than the gun that fires it, and picking the wrong load for a caliber is the single most common way intermediate players lose winnable fights.

This guide gives you a working pick for every major caliber in the game: a budget round you can run every raid, a mid-tier step up, and the top armor-piercing option for when the lobby is running heavy plates. Every number comes from the live ballistics data snapshot taken on 2026-09-08, and where the research base cannot verify something, this guide says so instead of guessing.

One expectation to set up front: this is a shopping list, not a physics lecture. The full explanation of damage, penetration power, armor damage, and the blunt damage system lives in our companion guide at /guides/ballistics-and-penetration-explained. Here you only need three ideas. Damage is the flesh wound a round deals on a clean hit. Penetration decides whether armor stops it. Armor damage is how fast a round grinds a plate down so later shots get through.

Use this article alongside the sortable reference table at /tools/ammo-chart when you want to compare two specific rounds head to head, and treat /gear/ammunition as the permanent glossary for any term you do not recognize.

At a glance: the pick for every caliber

If you only read one section, read this table. It lists the budget workhorse, the mid-tier upgrade, and the top AP round for each caliber covered in this guide.

The effectiveness ratings refer to the community Wiki's 0 to 6 penetration scale used on the ballistics chart, where 5 means the round penetrates the listed armor class reliably in one to three hits. Budget picks are chosen for availability and adequate penetration, not raw power.

Values below are damage, penetration, and armor damage percent in that order. Prices are deliberately excluded: the research snapshot flags all market pricing as community consensus rather than verified data, and the 1.1.0.0 economy rebalance shifted trader prices across the board.

Reading the numbers without a math degree

Every round in Tarkov carries three core stats. Damage is the base flesh damage applied to whatever body part the bullet hits, and it does not change based on the weapon firing it. A 61-damage bullet does 61 damage from a dusty SKS or a fully built AKM. Penetration power feeds the armor check: the game compares your round's penetration against the armor class and the armor's remaining durability percentage, then rolls to see if the shot punches through. Armor damage percent is how much durability the hit strips from the plate, which is how weaker rounds eventually chew through armor they cannot cleanly pierce.

When a round does penetrate, its damage is reduced by anywhere from 0 to 40 percent depending on the matchup. High-penetration rounds against low-class armor lose almost nothing, which is why top AP rounds feel so brutal. When a round fails to penetrate, the target still takes a small amount of blunt damage, but it rarely decides fights on its own. Every armor hit also strips at least one point of durability, and each individual shotgun pellet counts as its own hit.

The community chart's effectiveness scale runs from 0 to 6. A rating of 4 means the round is effective against that armor class, typically needing three to five hits. A 5 means very effective, penetrating within one to three hits. A 6 means the round essentially ignores that armor class with an initial penetration chance above 80 percent. Throughout this guide, statements like good against class 4 refer to this scale.

Angle of impact does not change the penetration roll, so do not bother trying to game ricochets on body armor. Helmets are the exception, with their own ricochet chance stat, and /guides/helmets-and-visors-guide covers that system in detail.

5.45x39: the budget king's ladder

The AK-74 family caliber is the cheapest complete climb from starter to endgame ammunition, and every step is meaningful.

Start with PS gs at 56 damage and 28 penetration. It is the true entry round: fine against scavs and class 3 armor, but it only rates slightly effective against class 3 and runs out of answers the moment a plated PMC shows up. Treat it as a raid-filler, not a plan.

PP gs at 51 damage and 34 penetration is the first rung that reliably beats class 3. BT gs, the tracer, sits at 54 damage and 37 penetration and is rated effective against class 4, which makes it the point where the caliber starts winning real fights. Because BT is a tracer, remember you are broadcasting your position with every burst.

The top end is where 5.45 surprises people. BP gs at 48/45 is very effective against class 5, BS gs at 45/54 handles class 6 reliably, and PPBS Igolnik, the 7N39 round, reaches 62 penetration and effectively ignores class 6. Igolnik trades down to 37 damage, so kills take more hits on flesh, but no armor in the game truly stops it.

The practical ladder is PS into PP into BT as your money grows, then BS or Igolnik for high-value raids. Because AK-74 variants are cheap to build and the ammunition chain is cheap to climb, 5.45 remains the default recommendation for players funding their own kits through the mid game.

5.56x45: the NATO workhorse

M4A1 and HK 416 platforms fire this caliber, and its ladder mirrors 5.45 but starts one step weaker.

M855 at 54 damage and 31 penetration is the entry round, and it is only slightly effective against class 4. If you spawn with a budget AR and M855, pick fights against lightly armored targets or aim for legs and faces, because chest shots into plates will let you down.

M856A1 is the tracer mid round at 52 damage and 38 penetration. M855A1 at 49 damage and 44 penetration is the real dividing line: it is rated very effective against class 5 armor, which covers most of what mid-lobby PMCs actually wear. This is the round where 5.56 stops feeling underpowered.

At the top, M995 runs 42 damage and 53 penetration, very effective against class 6. SSA AP pushes further to 57 penetration and 58 armor damage at the cost of dropping to 38 damage. Both are legitimate endgame loads; M995 kills faster on flesh, SSA AP shreds plates faster.

The stated upgrade chain is M855 into M856A1 into M855A1, with M995 reserved for raids where you expect geared opposition. Since 5.56 rifles tend to be fired fast, the per-raid ammunition bill climbs quickly, which is worth remembering when you compare this caliber against the cheaper 5.45 ladder.

7.62x39: the starter king

One round carries this entire caliber's reputation, and the data backs it up.

PS gzh delivers 61 damage, 35 penetration, and 52 armor damage, and it is rated very effective against class 4 armor. That rating, on a cheap and widely available round, is why the research base calls it the best starting ammunition in the game. An AKM or SKS loaded with PS gzh beats plated targets that entire other calibers cannot touch at the entry tier.

PP gzh at 59 damage and 41 penetration is the natural mid step, and BP gzh at 58/47 is very effective against class 5 and merely effective against class 6. Notice what the ladder does not do: damage stays nearly flat from 61 down to 58, so you lose almost nothing on flesh while gaining armor performance at every step.

The ceiling is MAI AP at 53 damage, 58 penetration, and an enormous 76 armor damage. That armor damage figure is among the highest in its class, meaning even shots that fail to penetrate are stripping plates at a vicious rate. Against class 6 lobbies, MAI AP turns a cheap AKM into a legitimate threat.

The only honest criticism of 7.62x39 is the platforms. AKM-pattern rifles kick harder and mod less efficiently than 5.45 or 5.56 options, so you trade gun handling for ammunition value. For a player watching a wallet, that trade wins almost every time.

7.62x51 and 7.62x54R: the full-power calibers

Battle rifles, DMRs, and sniper rifles live here, and even their budget rounds outclass most calibers' premium picks.

M80 is the round that defines value in 7.62x51: 80 damage and 43 penetration, rated very effective against both class 4 and class 5. Its tracer sibling M62 hits for 82 damage at 42 penetration, statistically a near copy. Any SCAR-H, SA-58, M1A, or SR-25 loaded with M80 is already dangerous, which is why budget battle rifle builds punch so far above their cost.

Above M80, M61 runs 73 damage and 60 penetration and effectively ignores class 6, while M993 tops the caliber at 65 penetration and 85 armor damage. These are boss-hunting and heavy-lobby rounds. For boss fights like Killa, whose armor is exactly the kind of problem these rounds solve, see /bosses/killa before you commit a kit.

The 7.62x54R family powers the Mosin, SV-98, SVDS, and PKP-class machine guns. LPS gzh at 81 damage and 42 penetration is the cheap workhorse and is effective against class 5. From there the caliber climbs through PS gzh at 84/45 and the BT tracer at 78/55 to two elite AP rounds: SNB gzh at 75/62, which ignores class 6, and BS gs at 72/70, the highest penetration in the caliber.

Both calibers share one practical warning: the ammunition is excellent, but the guns are loud, heavy, and slow to handle compared to assault rifles. You are paying in handling what you gain in per-shot authority, so build these platforms for the ranges where their damage actually decides the fight.

Pistol calibers: 9x19, 9x18, and .45 ACP

Submachine guns and sidearms are ammo-dependent to an extreme: the same Vector is a toy or a terror depending on what you load.

9x19 starts with Pst gzh at 54 damage and 20 penetration, which the chart rates as needing heavy spraying to beat even class 3. AP 6.3 at 52/30 is effective against class 4 and is the first honest PMC-fighting round in the caliber. The ceiling is PBP gzh at 44/39, effective against class 5, respectable but never a match for rifle AP.

Then there is RIP: 102 damage and a penetration of 2. It cannot defeat any real armor, and it is not meant to. RIP is a leg-meta round, built to dump maximum flesh damage into unarmored limbs. If you run it, commit to aiming at legs, because chest shots into armor are wasted ammo.

The 9x18 family is strictly an early-game affair: Pst gzh at 50/12, PMM PstM at 58/24 as the mid round, and PBM gzh at 40/28 as the armor-piercing option with low damage. None of these threaten plates, so treat 9x18 weapons as scav-clearing tools and upgrade out of the caliber as soon as traders allow.

.45 ACP sits between the two in ambition. Match FMJ at 72 damage and 25 penetration is the mid round, and AP at 66/38 is effective against class 5, which is genuinely useful on a fast-firing Vector. The .45 RIP hits 130 damage with 3 penetration, the biggest flesh number in the pistol calibers, and the same leg-only rule applies.

PDW calibers: 4.6x30, 5.7x28, and .300 Blackout

Personal defense weapon calibers look weak on damage and win on penetration, rate of fire, and handling.

4.6x30 is the MP7's caliber, and it is built around one round: AP SX at 35 damage and 53 penetration, rated very effective against class 6. That is assault-rifle-grade armor performance from a compact SMG. The ladder below it is Subsonic SX at 52/23 for suppressed work and FMJ SX at 43/40 as the mid round. Run AP SX or accept that you are bringing a sidearm to a rifle fight.

5.7x28 serves the P90 and Five-seveN. SB193 is the subsonic option at 59 damage and 27 penetration, L191 is the tracer mid round at 53/33, and SS190 is the top AP at 49/37. Note that 37 penetration is well below 4.6 AP SX, so the P90's armor performance caps out lower than the MP7's even at its best.

.300 Blackout climbs a four-step ladder: BCP FMJ at 60/30 for entry work, the M62 tracer at 54/36, CBJ at 58/43, and AP at 51 damage, 48 penetration, and 65 armor damage, very effective against class 6. The AP round's high armor damage means even partial success chews plates down fast.

The pattern across all three calibers is identical: the budget rounds are genuinely bad against armor, so the price of admission is the top AP round. Budget accordingly. A PDW loaded with its entry ammunition is a scav gun, while the same platform on its AP load fights geared PMCs at close range.

.338 Lapua and 12/70: the specialists

The heavy sniper caliber and the shotgun gauge do not follow the normal ladder logic, so they get their own rules.

.338 Lapua offers three distinct tools rather than a ladder. TAC-X is a hunting round: 196 damage, a very high single-projectile flesh figure, but only 18 penetration. FMJ at 122 damage and 47 penetration is the versatile pick, combining heavy damage with mid-tier armor performance. AP at 115/79 effectively ignores class 6 and turns the AXMC or Mk-18 into an answer to anything walking.

Shotgun ammunition works on different math. Multi-pellet loads like 7mm buckshot (eight pellets at 39 damage each, 3 penetration) and flechette (eight at 25, 31 penetration) rely on volume: every pellet is a separate hit, each stripping at least one armor durability point, so buckshot grinds armor rather than piercing it. Piranha sits at ten pellets of 25 damage with 24 penetration as another grinding option.

Slugs are the other philosophy. Grizzly 40 at 190 damage and Copper Sabot Premier HP at 206 damage are single massive projectiles, but their penetration of 12 and 14 means armor stops them cold. They exist to delete unarmored targets and to punish legs, faces, and stomachs that plates do not cover.

The practical reading: shotguns are anti-flesh and armor-grinding weapons, not armor-piercing ones, while .338 is the opposite extreme where even the mid round out-penetrates most calibers' best. Pick the specialist that matches the raid you are actually planning, not the one with the biggest number on the box.

Budget chains: how to climb without going broke

The verified starter chains from the research base are simple. For 5.45, climb PS into PP into BT. For 5.56, climb M855 into M856A1 into M855A1. For 7.62x39, PS gzh alone is the plan until you can afford BP gzh. For 9x19, Pst gzh into AP 6.3. Each chain is built so that every step buys a real penetration tier, not a rounding error.

Follow the loadout priority the research base states plainly: ammunition first, gun second, armor third. A class 4 plate cannot save you from a player whose rounds ignore class 4, but your M855A1 absolutely can kill that player if you shoot first. When the budget forces a choice, downgrade the helmet, downgrade the rig, and keep the bullets.

A hybrid loading trick stretches expensive ammunition: load the top of your magazine with the good AP round and fill the bottom with the mid-tier round. Your opening burst, the one most likely to decide the fight, fires the premium ammunition, and sustained fire falls back to the cheaper load. Mixing ammunition in one magazine is standard practice among experienced players for exactly this reason.

What this guide will not give you is ruble prices per round. The research snapshot explicitly marks all price and value-for-money claims as community consensus rather than verified market data, and the flea market's category restrictions on ammunition are themselves unverified as of this patch. Check live trader and flea prices in game before planning a raid economy around any specific round.

Where ammunition actually comes from

Knowing the best round is useless if you cannot buy it, so here is the verified supply picture.

Prapor is the early-game ammunition pipeline, selling Soviet weapons, magazines, and ammunition, but he starts locked: you unlock him through the Tour story chapter by delivering two found-in-raid weapons to Mechanic. Skier, Peacekeeper, Mechanic, and Jaeger all sell ammunition too, with Peacekeeper as the dollar-denominated NATO source and Jaeger covering hunting and sniper stocks. Ref, the airport trader unlocked through Skier's Easy Money Part 1, sells rare accessories, armor, and ammunition among his wares.

Trader loyalty levels gate the good stuff. As you raise a trader's loyalty through character levels and quest reputation, deeper stock opens, which is why the budget chains above pair naturally with the progression in /guides/trader-loyalty-guide. If BT or M855A1 is not appearing in your trader screens, the answer is almost always loyalty level, not bad luck.

The hideout Workbench can craft ammunition alongside weapons and parts, and the research base flags it as a high-priority money module. However, the verified research does not include per-recipe ammunition lists, so this guide will not tell you which rounds you can craft at which Workbench level. Confirm recipes in game or on the Wiki before counting on a crafted supply.

The flea market is the last source, and the fuzziest. It unlocks at PMC level 15 with full category access reported at level 40, but the specific level gates for ammunition listings and the current restricted-item list are both unverified in the research. Community reports say weapons, ammunition, and armor face category or level restrictions post-1.0. Assume trader supply is your foundation and treat the flea as a bonus, not a plan.

Match the round to the raid you are actually running

Against scavs and unarmored targets, damage is the only stat that matters, and cheap high-damage rounds win: 7.62x39 PS gzh at 61 damage, M80 at 80, or any of the specialist flesh rounds. Spending AP ammunition on scavs is burning money, which is why the spare budget magazine from the checklist above exists.

Against the typical mid-wipe PMC in class 4 or class 5 plates, your floor is a round rated effective or better against class 5: BT gs barely misses that bar, M855A1 and M80 clear it, and BP gzh or better clears it comfortably. This is the bracket where the budget chains pay for themselves, because every recommended mid-tier round was chosen against exactly this armor profile.

Against heavy lobbies, bosses, and endgame zones, only the top AP rows matter: Igolnik, M995 or SSA AP, MAI AP, M61 or M993, SNB or BS, AP SX, .300 AP, and .338 AP. If you are heading somewhere like the Lab or hunting a boss with serious armor, anything below this tier is a donation.

Map choice feeds the same decision. Close-quarters maps reward fast platforms with their top AP load, while open maps reward the full-power rifle calibers whose budget rounds already handle class 5. Check the map pages such as /maps/customs for what you will actually meet, then load for that fight rather than a theoretical one.

Version snapshot and what drifts between patches

Everything in this guide was verified against Patch 1.1.5.0 during Season 1, with the underlying ballistics data snapshotted on 2026-09-08 from the live Wiki ballistics chart. Ammunition statistics are among the most frequently rebalanced values in Tarkov, so treat every number here as a dated photograph, not a law of nature.

Two structural changes from the 1.1.x line matter for ammunition buyers even though they are not ballistics changes. Patch 1.1.0.0 rebalanced the economy with trader sale prices rising by about 25 percent on average and buyback prices falling by about 20 percent, and it added an entirely new caliber, 5.8x42, with the QBZ-191 rifle. The research base contains no verified 5.8x42 ballistics data as of this writing, so this guide deliberately omits stat claims for it; check the in-game ballistics screen or the Wiki chart for its current numbers.

When a new patch lands, your re-verification routine is short: compare your main caliber's three key rounds against the Wiki ballistics chart or the tarkov.dev data API, confirm your trader still stocks them at your loyalty level, and re-check flea restrictions before assuming you can buy your way out of a shortage. Ten minutes of checking beats a raid lost to a stealth nerf.

If a number in this article and a number in your game disagree, the game wins. Patch notes on the official forum and the in-game ballistics data outrank any static guide, including this one, every single time.

Expected outcome and what to do next

After applying this guide you should be able to name, for any weapon you pick up, the budget round that runs it respectably and the AP round that makes it dangerous, and you should be spending your ammunition budget where it actually converts into kills. That single habit, ammunition before gun before armor, is the cheapest permanent upgrade available to an intermediate player.

Your next reads, in order: /guides/ballistics-and-penetration-explained for the mechanics behind every number used here, then /guides/armor-guide so you know what your bullets are up against, and /guides/budget-loadouts for complete kits that pair these ammunition picks with armor and weapons at real budget tiers.

When you are ready to spend, /guides/trader-loyalty-guide maps out the loyalty levels that unlock the rounds listed here, and /traders/prapor and /traders/peacekeeper cover the two most important ammunition vendors. For live comparison shopping between specific rounds, use /tools/ammo-chart and the reference at /gear/ammunition.

If boss fights are your reason for loading AP, read the relevant boss page such as /bosses/killa before you commit the expensive ammunition, because knowing the armor you are paying to defeat is the whole point of the exercise.