cheap miltary 308 ammo

[oldtimer48]

i was at a local gun shop today and they ave some 168 grain nato military ammo $12.00 a box per 20 looks like bt hp will it damage my new 10 fp shooting it at the range? they called it cheap target ammo

[axaviere]

dont see how it could hurt your rifle. sportsmans guide has some of the same stuff. its just mil spec 168g stuff. may not win any matches with it, but it should be good enough to spend a day at the range with. if i had the money i would get me some to have on hand even though i reload

[Balljoint]

There is a company in NJ. Ammoman.com that has 556 & 762 NATO rounds with free shipping check it out

[brianinca]

Was the ammo you saw in a red-white-blue box? Sounds like Ultramax, it's remanufactured/reloaded with Lake City (USGI surplus) brass. I bought a bunch when it was real cheap, good source of brass for reloading. I guess these days $0.60/rd is a good price. The lot I got is loaded pretty soft and is useful for sighting in after a scope change or the like. I was just shooting some the other day in my FP10.

I've never seen milspec 762 NATO 168 gr anything, certainly not USGI. Not sure what Sportsman's Guide had, keep in mind they were at one point selling Czech 762 NATO with corrosive primers (!!!). Be aware!

Regards,
Brian in CA

[oldtimer48]

it's in a light green box all it says on the box is .308 winchester (7,62x51mm) no name on the brass it is says 308wand it has a 0 on the 3oclock and 9 oclock side and 83 at the bottom at 6 oclock on the bottom of the casing brass. looks like something you see in a army surplus store

[axaviere]

post a pic of the headstamp and i will help you ID it. or you can follow this link and see what the make is

http://cartridgecollectors.org/headstampcodes.htm

the stuff sportsmans guide listed was

http://www.sportsmansguide.com/net/cb/20-rnd-box-308-168-gr-m118-fmjbt-ammo.aspx?a=535761

sportsmans guide does a good job of making sure that they tell you when its corrosive. and corrosive isnt really bad, you just need to clean up after you shoot, right?

[kenbo776]

I bought some sorta cheap Military ammo locally. It is from India, around 1980's production. Still have not fired it because I have been reloading my own ammo and have gotten verynexcellent results that way. I dont plan on using this ammo ( maybe 50 rounds anyway) and will probably give it my friend who has an M1A and it shooots almost anything. It would really not serve much use for me to shoot it as its probably not going to have same impact point as my handloads and I want to keep things consistant. I did buy some Magtech ammo awhile ago and it jammed the bolt after it fired. Had to tap the bolt handle with wooden stick to eject the empty. Someone said the Savage Model 10 must have a very tight spec chamber. My M1A friend had no trouble shooting all the Magtech.
As far as corrosive ammo goes, that stuff will never touch my Savage.......corrosive ammo leaves behind salty deposits after firing, it has to be cleaned out immidiatly with hot water and soap, in addition to regular cleaning. . Not worth it to me to expose my expensive(to me anyway) rifle to that kind of trouble.
By the way..yesterday I shot a 1.4 inch three round group at 300 yards...yes ...300 yards. with some of my latest handloads . So I plan on not messing with much of the commercial ammo . the only thing I would be tempted to buy would be more of the Federal 150 gr. Power Point ammo. Last time Walmart had it at $14 box earlier this year. That stuff was giving me 1 inch groups at 100 yards. I still use the cases for my reloading .

[brianinca]

>>>
As far as corrosive ammo goes, that stuff will never touch my Savage.......corrosive ammo leaves behind salty deposits after firing, it has to be cleaned out immidiatly with hot water and soap, in addition to regular cleaning. . Not worth it to me to expose my expensive(to me anyway) rifle to that kind of trouble.
>>>

Just to clarify, I've shot thousands of rounds of corrosive primered ammo, normal cleaning with BreakFree CLP is all that is needed. You can patch with water or Windex first but it's not really neccessary. The foaming bore cleaners also flush any primer residue just fine, as does any ammonia based copper remover that is water based. It's not a big deal when it comes to corrosive primers.

I agree, shooting generic surplus ammo in a precision rifle is a waste of time and money compared to proper handloads.

Regards,
Brian in CA