.308 ammo options

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Rich Jordan
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Joined: Tue Aug 19, 2008 5:04 am

.308 ammo options

Post by Rich Jordan »

I have a fair amount of South African, and about 500 rounds each of Australian F4, Swiss 7.62x51, Austrian bimetal, and 100 rounds or so each of American Eagle, Geco hunting loads etc. And I've been collecting both NATO and commercial brass for reloading.

The South African is adequate, but noticeably the least accurate even at 75 yards, and it will take time to work up 'The load" (or loads) that this rifle likes. Appreciate any heads up on decent not-magnetic practice ammo at best price/sales/clearance. I'm not going to shoot steel case in this rifle, and so far the Bimetal Austrian hasn't been allowed any any of the ranges I've visited.

In the meantime I'm going to be using the SA ammo first, except for optics testing where the Swiss or Australian ammo will get tapped.

Added complication is living in crook county il, which limits which vendors are willing to ship here, but I have a friend in a neighboring county who should not have any problems ordering some.
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D5CAV
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Re: .308 ammo options

Post by D5CAV »

I have a lot of SA 7.62x51. The earlier stuff is more consistent than the later stuff, but not my favorite. Sufficient to provide a good beaten zone out of a GPMG.

German 1980s loose packed, berdan primed and NATO headstamps at about $0.40 per round. Probably range pick-ups or delinked from MG belts: https://www.the-armory.com/shopsite_sc/ ... o-m80.html

I've always had good luck with German MEN manufactured NATO ammo, but no indication on who made this stuff. Maybe worth a call. Germans always use berdan primers for their military ammo because it is about 1% more reliable than boxer primers and Germans don't reload ammo (G3s turn once-fired brass into scrap, anyway).

Ammoman is advertising MEN manufactured "military grade" 7.62x51 at about $0.60 per round: https://www.sgammo.com/product/308-win- ... en-men762a

However, this is boxer primed, not berdan primed, and doesn't have the NATO headstamp. My guess is that MEN is keeping some 7.62 manufacturing line running absent any German government orders for 7.62x51 ammo, hence being advertised as "military grade", whatever that means.

Note that .308 Winchester is not 7.62x51 NATO. The NATO case is specified with much heavier wall thickness, so smaller volume in the case. Make sure you watch the reloading recipe if you are using NATO cases. Smaller volume means higher pressure with the same load. Outside dimensions are also slightly different. A 7.62x51 NATO round will not chamber in a "match" .308 Winchester rifle, and a .308 Win round at the smaller-end of acceptable .308 dimensions may have dangerous amount of space in a 7.62x51 chamber on the bigger-end of acceptable.
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Netpackrat
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Re: .308 ammo options

Post by Netpackrat »

PRVI is usually good for the money, just don’t expect stellar accuracy.
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Vonz90
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Re: .308 ammo options

Post by Vonz90 »

D5CAV wrote: Mon Aug 26, 2019 7:06 pm
Note that .308 Winchester is not 7.62x51 NATO. The NATO case is specified with much heavier wall thickness, so smaller volume in the case. Make sure you watch the reloading recipe if you are using NATO cases. Smaller volume means higher pressure with the same load.
I've found that dropping the powder weight 10% from 308 to 7.62NATO is a good starting point.
Rich Jordan
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Joined: Tue Aug 19, 2008 5:04 am

Re: .308 ammo options

Post by Rich Jordan »

Picked up a case (500 rounds) of Prvi, nonmagnetic boxer primed after reading overall decent reviews. The only cheaper options were bimetallic bullets or steel case. Swiss was sold out (it would have been 2.5 cents more per round). I may not be able to test it for a few weeks because of work.
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