The Gun Counter

Anybody's 150 grain bullet. 43.0 grains of Rl15, anybody's standard LR primer. That's been my go to .308 load for about 10 years. For range "blasting" ammo, I use whatever blem bullet I can find. For hunting ammo, it's either a Speer, Sierra, or Hornady soft point.

D5CAV wrote:I like MEN ammo. I like that it is hot.

I shoot it out of G3 and M14 clones. I've had no trouble. Actually, guns that have cycling issues with Winchester white box ammo run great with the MEN ammo.

I'd offer to relieve you of your MEN ammo, Denis, but the EU free trade doesn't seem to extend to ammo shipments to the US.

What are you shooting your MEN ammo out of that is giving you problems?

I tested it in every .308 rifle I own. My Kassnar / Sabatti Churchill Highlander, my FR8, my StGew58, both my SSG69's and all my .308 ZKK 601's. I thought, like you, that it might be misbehaving in just one gun, but it's definitely overloaded ammo. Other people I know who bought from the same lot at the gunshop have had exactly the same problems; I understand the gunshop even agreed to take it back and refund them, so they must have decided the stuff was no good too. I might see if the'll take mine back too - it'd save me the trouble of breaking it down and reloading it, which I would do, as it certainly looks to be made of quality components.

Denis wrote:my StGew58

That ammo was made to run in HEER G3s and MG3s.

I thought it would run fine in a StGw58. What happened in the StGw58?

D5CAV wrote:

Denis wrote:my StGew58

That ammo was made to run in HEER G3s and MG3s.

I thought it would run fine in a StGw58. What happened in the StGw58?

Same as the others; stuck case / failure to extract on every round. Overpressure signs on the case heads and primers. Usually MEN ammo is good stuff, but that was definitely a bad/hot batch. Either they loaded much too much of the correct powder, or they loaded the wrong powder entirely.

If I get a round tuit, I'll break down a few rounds and do some testing - reduce the powder charge by 25% and work back up to some amount that gives decent results. I'd normally just use the original powder to fertilise the garden and refill with known-good powder, but I have 1000 rounds of this ammunition (less the couple of dozen I ruined in testing, which I scrapped immediately), so it would be a big waste.

So much for my faith in German quality control.

That sounds like the QC I've experienced with Aguila Ammo out of Mexico or American Ammunition Co. (AMERC) out of Miami, FL.

Just reloaded another 50 rounds of my standard .308 ammo. It's just so friggin hot out in the shop. Muggy. Terrible.

I normally keep about 200 rounds of my standard calibers, but I have a bunch of components, so cranking out ammo isn't a problem as long as the weather doesn't conspire against me.

D5CAV wrote:So much for my faith in German quality control.

That sounds like the QC I've experienced with Aguila Ammo out of Mexico or American Ammunition Co. (AMERC) out of Miami, FL.

AMERC was horrifying crap. I still have a bag of undersized .45ACP bullets (pulled) for recycling, and at the bottom of my bag of recycle brass (the recyclers here won't take cases regardless of prepping) lies a few hundred deprimed and crushed (to prevent resale or reuse) AMERC brass that was too thick and too uneven to trim/turn down. I flushed the powder, figuring with my luck it would poison rather than fertilize the yard...

Aguila I've never had trouble with other than it tends to be dirty and not as consistent as other brands, but also never so far out of spec as to be a problem. I've shot a lot of Aguila .38 Special, 22LR, and .30 carbine over the years as well as some .45ACP and 9mm with totally acceptable results. Is your experience over time or more recent? I haven't bought any in the last 7-8 years.

Rich Jordan wrote:Aquila I've never had trouble with other than it tends to be dirty and not as consistent as other brands, but also never so far out of spec as to be a problem. I've shot a lot of Aguila .38 Special, 22LR, and .30 carbine over the years as well as some .45ACP and 9mm with totally acceptable results. Is your experience over time or more recent? I haven't bought any in the last 7-8 years.

I had some issues with feeding of 9mm and .45ACP. When I used other ammo, even white box Winchester in the same guns, the feeding issues disappeared.

On examination, the Aguila cases had much thinner walls, probably how they saved money on brass. So sometimes the Aguila cases would get bent or dented on feeding and cause a jam.

I probably shot the last of my Aguila about 3 or 4 years ago. I probably bought it 6 to 10 years ago.

I haven't touched it since.