.308 Heavy Metal Ammo

[Chuck Anderson]

So I've got my .308 for Heavy Metal and I'm wondering what ammo to buy to feed it. With the cost, I'm not going to be shooting match ammo for everything. What is the best surplus or low cost ammo. It looks like Federal American Eagle and Winchester White Box is close to the same price. Is this stuff better, as good or worse than the surplus ammo?

[D__]

I would say its going to be much more consistent. You can't really get cheap surplus anymore - not cheap enough to make it worth it anymore.

[jobob]

Put a magnet to it, Chuck. This winter I bought a supply of both brands, and both use steel jacketed ammo, with a copper wash. You can't tell by looking at it. Also, most surplus military ball 308 is steel jacketed, too. Most matches won't allow it.

[Religious Shooter]

I buy Scharch processed .308 and 147's from Wideners. Looking at my log it was about $400/1000 in 11/07. At today's prices it looks like it will work out to about ~$460-80/1000.

I use 155 Nosler CC's with the Sharch brass for long range.

[bigbrowndog]

50cents a round is pretty much the norm, or was last year. When I can find ammo for that or less I buy as much as I can afford. I load my precision ammo.

The only problem I've had so far was from some Israeli surplus that my rifle wouldn't ignite 100%, I'm hoping its just hard primers and that it will go bang in other rifles, the other stuff has worked well for hosing. If I can get 4moa out of it at 100, i use it.

trapr

[Dan Sierpina]

50cents a round is pretty much the norm, or was last year. When I can find ammo for that or less I buy as much as I can afford. I load my precision ammo.

The only problem I've had so far was from some Israeli surplus that my rifle wouldn't ignite 100%, I'm hoping its just hard primers and that it will go bang in other rifles, the other stuff has worked well for hosing. If I can get 4moa out of it at 100, i use it.

trapr

It will most likely work fine in the M1A you want to buy.

[bigbrowndog]

yeah, Dan thats what I was hoping.

trapr

[-JQ-]

50cents a round is pretty much the norm, or was last year. When I can find ammo for that or less I buy as much as I can afford. I load my precision ammo.

The only problem I've had so far was from some Israeli surplus that my rifle wouldn't ignite 100%, I'm hoping its just hard primers and that it will go bang in other rifles, the other stuff has worked well for hosing. If I can get 4moa out of it at 100, i use it.

trapr

Does that ammo look pinkish? A buddy had some and it wouldn't fire in my HK91 or his L1A1... The primers we deeply struck too.

I should have asked him what it was.

See you next week

[Dan Sierpina]

yeah, Dan thats what I was hoping.

trapr

Send me some, I'll try it in mine

I meant to ask if the hammer spring in your rifle is lightened.

Edited April 15, 2009 by Dan Sierpina

[DarthMuffin]

I'd just like to add another +1 on the Israeli surplus ammo. Sort of pinkish tinted brass, the marking on the end looks sort of like a pi symbol.

I've gone through about 700 of my 1000 batch that I got and have had 6-10 failures to ignite. Other than that, it works well so I just use it for practice/plinking ammo.

If you can find Santa Barbara surplus, that's what I usually use for matches. Very accurate, non magnetic, and also non reloadable so I don't care about the brass. Besides, my HK91 clone rapes and beats the brass and then flings it into the next zip code.

[ken hebert]

... I hate to admit this, but here goes: I picked up 2 cases of Wolf and it has run 100% through my DPMS, accuracy is a little over a minute.

[bigbrowndog]

Ken, I've had really good luck with Wolf, I've not tried the .308 yet. Every time I find it I'm out of spare money.

The .223 in 62gr HP has given me consistent hits out to 300yds on 4moa plates.

trapr

[Chuck Anderson]

Put a magnet to it, Chuck. This winter I bought a supply of both brands, and both use steel jacketed ammo, with a copper wash. You can't tell by looking at it. Also, most surplus military ball 308 is steel jacketed, too. Most matches won't allow it.

I contacted KY Imports who had a bunch of the Federal American Eagle .308 in. He did the magnet check and said it didn't stick. This stuff is $800.00/1000. There's some cheaper older stuff like S&B, or the various foreign surplus sources. I'm just wondering if the Federal is my cheapest option for something that goes bang every time. I probably won't shoot this ammo past 100 yds for matches. I have some better quality match ammo I can use to reach out.

[jobob]

I just rechecked, and both the Federal and Winchester react to a magnet. The Fed. may not be AE, though. It's in white boxes, not the red AE boxes, and the headstamp is FC with the NATO stamp.

I'm glad some folks are having good luck with Wolf. I often shoot it in 223, but I can get no better than 3 or 4 moa. Ammoman had some new Wolf with 55 gr. copper jacketed bullet (I had sold all the steel jacketed stuff I had), so I bought a case. I may use it for hosing stages, but with that accuracy I don't think I'd trust it with any no-shoots around at much over 50 yards. Pretty reliable, though. I've had a total of 2 stuck cases with Wolf, so I'm not overly worried about that little problem. otoh, any chance of a stuck case and you're taking a risk. Would be a pita in a match!

[Chuck Anderson]

I just rechecked, and both the Federal and Winchester react to a magnet. The Fed. may not be AE, though. It's in white boxes, not the red AE boxes, and the headstamp is FC with the NATO stamp.

The white box stuff is not AE, it's Federal's mil-spec NATO loading.

[kellyn]

I only shoot handloads with with either 150 grain Sierra MatchKings and Varget, 147 grain FMJs for close range, or 110 grain Sierra HPs.

[TRUBL]

Back int he day.......I would take the Nato rounds, pull the bullets, pour the powder back in....then stuff a 110 grain bullet on top. This worked REALY good for recoil (read....MUCH less). And it was still very accurate, worked on plates out to 400yds.

I used one of those old, old LEE hand loaders and damn, if it didn't work really well.

Then.....someone shamed me into not doing that anymore.

[lmccrock]

50cents a round is pretty much the norm, or was last year.

Last year, yeah. There is some German surplus ("DAG") that is about that, not much else that is brass and non-corrosive. The S&B surplus is reportedly corrosive, so beware. OTOH, the S&B commercial ammo runs great and used to be cheap, and I think it is $14/20 last I saw. Gun-deals lists some prices. The FalFiles has an ammunition forum with discussions of surplus, and the Israeli surplus is not highly thought of, at least some vintages. Date codes matter, apparently.

As for steel cased, polymer coated Wolf, I bought a DPMS LR308 last year, and have not shot it much, and I note that anything steel cased voids the warranty, and it is new enough, I will worry about that. The Wolf 308 does not ignite reliably in my STG58, although it does have reduced springs to improve trigger pull.

Occasionally I hear of a Walmart with commercial ammo around $12-15/20 and I would rather that than surplus of questionable heritage in the same price range.

Lee