.308/7.62x51mm Ammunition Choices

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I'm about to pick up my first .308 today (Smith & Wesson M&P-10 Sport). What's good to go as far as ammo?

What's the standard bullet weight for .308? What are the differences between .308 and 7.62x51mm?

I'm wanting to buy at least several hundred rounds of some decent, brass-case ammunition. I don't have to have match grade, and I don't want junk either. Something that will be decent quality (maybe 6 on a scale of 1-10). I'm not opposed to going for a 1000-round case if it's a good deal.

Looking at AmmoSeek, it looks like brass case, milsurp .308 starts at around 38 cents/round, with Lake City M80 ball (147g) at $.40/round when you buy 1000 rounds (not including shipping).

Anyway, what's your go-to ammo choice for .308/7.62x51mm? Preferred source?
 
I'm not going to be much help on what to buy. My bolt .308 has never seen a factory round. 14x grain is going to be your military ball range stuff. 168/175 grain for match. If I were you I'd go to SGAmmo.com and pick up 2-3 different low cost ball options and see how they shoot.
 
Malaysian surp is decent plinking ammo (MAL headstamp). It's about the only good surp I've seen consistently available these days.

Back in the heydays of surplus you had Portuguese, Australian, DAG, HIRTENBURGER and MEN (Austrian/ German), Radway Green (british), South African, Pakastani (POF) and Indian.

The Indian from the 70's was ok (when the British were still running things), but anything later than about a mid 70's headstamp DO NOT BUY. Your gun will likely explode.

All of the other stuff is good to go if you find it for sale. South African is the most common that you still see for sale every once and awhile. Either comes in 1260 round can or 140 Round battle packs.

The Aussie, Port, and german stuff were great, almost match quality ammo. RG as well. The SA, PAKI, and Indian go bang, little dirtier ammo.

Back in the 90's all of it was .10-.15/round shipped. Nowadays it looks like .40 is about the going rate.

http://www.falfiles.com/forums/showthread.php?t=423838

Keep in mind if you reload most surp is berdan primed, so not reloadable. If you reload look at some of this stuff....https://www.midwayusa.com/762x51mm-nato/br?cid=21340

I'm not really familiar with the AR 30 cals, but generally commercial 308 is hotter than military 7.62. Your owners manual should tell you whether you can safely shoot commercial 308 out of your rifle.

Load up on mags while you can get them. You might also put your zip code in here and see if there's any ZQI 7.62 left around your area at Walmart. It was $2.50/box at a lot of stores a few months ago, but likely is all gone to scavengers like me

https://brickseek.com/walmart-inventory-checker?sku=35327998

https://brickseek.com/walmart-inventory-checker?sku=55295576
 
If I could only buy ammo, I'd probably get 147gr that mimicked the military stuff. If you reload then just buy a bunch of 168 or 175 Sierra MatchKings and find a good load.

It's a fun round and is rather easy on barrel rifling. Very accurate if you do your part.
 
Originally Posted By: Jeepwm69


The Indian from the 70's was ok (when the British were still running things), but anything later than about a mid 70's headstamp DO NOT BUY. Your gun will likely explode.



I agree the 1970s Indian OFV headstamp ammo is OK, but the British were not "running things" in the 1970s. The Indians were flying Migs by then. Winchester set up and supervised the boxer primed OFV 7.62x51 line. ....quality control left when they left.
 
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Originally Posted By: john_pifer
What are the differences between .308 and 7.62x51mm?


As I understand it, 7.62x51 is safe in a .308 chamber, but .308 may or may not be safe in a 7.62x51 chamber. But it's debatable, because the pressure differences aren't very large.

Austrian surplus 7.62 is pretty common here in Canada, and was pretty accurate when I fired some out of a Tikka T3x last year. It's a fraction of the price of the good stuff in .308.

Edit: ah, this stuff:

https://www.sgammo.com/product/308-win-7...er-1980-mfg-146

It all seems to be 1980 production around here, but I gather there are problems with some of the later years. Boxer primed if you want to reload, but you'll have to clean the crimps out of the primer pockets.
 
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For safety sake, I would stay away from cheap foreign Mil-Surp ammo. It's not worth possibly screwing up your nice new rifle, trying to save a few pennies a round on ammunition. A bit like running 87 Octane in a ZR-1 Corvette. Stick with commercial ammo you've heard of. Not something made God knows where by God knows who. Most likely in some high humidity, steam bath, stink hole nation. Where it's been stored with the banana and coconut crop every year for the last 40 years .

Between Federal, Winchester, Remington, Fiocchi, PPU, and about a dozen others, you should be able to find something that runs good, is safe, and fits your budget. If you handload I've run a ton of loads through my DPMS AP-4 Carbine that consist of 42.0 Grains of Varget under a 168 Grain Sierra Matchking. I apply just enough crimp with the Lee Factory Crimp Die to prevent bullet setback from recoil. This load is safe, clean shooting, and very accurate.
 
Back when the surp market was flush with 7.62 the 70's OFV was always reportedly made with the British still overseeing the ammunition factories.

Perhaps that was misinformation that was spread at the time, but on the Falfiles, Cetme board, and ARF that was always the reason given for decent OFV in the 70's and the bomb in a clamshell stuff that came later.

I guess the correct answer might be "When someone from the West was overseeing the line in the 70's"
 
Originally Posted By: billt460
For safety sake, I would stay away from cheap foreign Mil-Surp ammo. It's not worth possibly screwing up your nice new rifle, trying to save a few pennies a round on ammunition. A bit like running 87 Octane in a ZR-1 Corvette. Stick with commercial ammo you've heard of. Not something made God knows where by God knows who. Most likely in some high humidity, steam bath, stink hole nation. Where it's been stored with the banana and coconut crop every year for the last 40 years .

Between Federal, Winchester, Remington, Fiocchi, PPU, and about a dozen others, you should be able to find something that runs good, is safe, and fits your budget. If you handload I've run a ton of loads through my DPMS AP-4 Carbine that consist of 42.0 Grains of Varget under a 168 Grain Sierra Matchking. I apply just enough crimp with the Lee Factory Crimp Die to prevent bullet setback from recoil. This load is safe, clean shooting, and very accurate.


A lot of the surplus stuff was as good as, if not better, than some of the cheaper current production stuff.

The Port, MEN, and Aussie 7.62 Surplus was cleaner shooting and more accurate than just about anything short of LC Match.
 
Originally Posted By: Jeepwm69
A lot of the surplus stuff was as good as, if not better, than some of the cheaper current production stuff.


True. But a lot of it was garbage. Some even outright dangerous. If you are not well versed on what to look for or at, you are much better off, not to mention safer off sticking with commercial stuff. It's not that much more expensive. There have been a slew of M1-A's / M-14's that were blown up with some of the Indian Mil-Surp .308.
 
The M&P Sport 10 optics ready gun is a 1:10 twist barreled rifle. Being so, it will have it’s best Accuracy with 175gr or heavier bullets. 1:10 is a little aggressive for light bullets
 
Originally Posted By: ROLEXrifleman
The M&P Sport 10 optics ready gun is a 1:10 twist barreled rifle. Being so, it will have it’s best Accuracy with 175gr or heavier bullets. 1:10 is a little aggressive for light bullets


I should order a few hundred rounds of some heavy stuff for the helluvit.
 
Originally Posted By: billt460
168 Grain Sierra Matchkings are loaded into Federal Gold Medal .308 ammo. It shoots beautifully out of a 1 in 10" twist barrel. Records have been set with it.


Yeah, I saw some of that Gold Medal at Academy last night. $25/20 rds! It better be good!

I’m still trying to wrap my head around .308 ammo prices.
 
Whatever is cheap in my SKS- it always shoots well, Its that Wolf ammo, what can I say...over a 1000 rounds of that cheap ammo, been doing great since 2000AD, Cheap Remmington spray on gun oil and few ancient cans of Gun Scrubber I got and all is well..works for me.
 
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I suspect that your rifle will be similar to mine (DPMS LR-308 AP4) when it comes to ammo.

It’s not picky.

It handles 7.62 and .308 equally well.

I’ve shot MEN 7.62 surplus. New ammo that runs well includes ZQI 7.62, Federal XM-80, Speer 7.62, Federal Gold Medal match .308, CBC .308, and IMI XM-80.

I would stick with decent quality ammo. SG Ammo sells quite a variety. The ZQI (Turkish) in particular was quite inexpensive, and very good ammo. It has lacquered primers pockets and annealed case necks. It was 44c/round from SG Ammo.
 
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