What is reliable but less expensive 7.62 x 51 nato or .308 win ammo?

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rod5591

rod5591

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What is reliable but less expensive 7.62 x 51 nato or .308 win ammo?

I want to stick up an emergency supply of 1000 rounds and shoot it off at the range over the next few years. But this round is expensive!

Has anyone tried the Ruag zinc plated steel case? does it work relaibly? here is some data:


http://www.ammunitiontogo.com/produ...in-ruag-145gr-fmj-zinc-plated-steel-case-ammo

200rds - 308 Win. Ruag 145gr. FMJ Zinc Plated Steel Case Ammo $73.95
This is .308 Win. Ruag 145gr. Full Metal Jacket Zinc Plated Steel Case Ammo. The NATO calibre 7.62x51 (.308) is gaining popularity again and allows effective operative ranges of more than half a kilometre. This Ruag round offers a solution for machine gun and precision shooters. Modern production and high quality controls ensure reliablility even under extreme conditions.This ammo comes packed in 20rd. boxes.\
 
German DAG or brit radway green are the current hot tickets. Neither is what I would call cheap. But neither is likely to blow up your rifle. ;) if you have an AK variant steel is probably fine. A lot of people won't run it in expensive 7.62 battle rifles, though.
 
I've run a few thousand rounds of German surplus 7.62X51 through my M1A's and AR-10's. It has run fine, burns clean and is reasonably accurate, good enough for steels out to 400yds at my local range.

The prices have gone up considerably in the past year or so. Just picked up two cans of Radway Green, L2A2 NATO. I'm not going to break the seal till I shoot up more of the DAG.
 
I have never had a problem with surplus 7.62 nato, it goes bang every time and with no worry over "I wonder if this steel ammo is screwing my baby up?".

Wideners is a great place to get stuff, check out their steel targets also! I got a steel target from them and they had no problems answering questions I had and they shipped my order quik. They were so good I told my local gun shop about them and they started ordering targets from wideners exclusively!
 
Have shot RUAG and Silver Bear through my PTR quite a bit. Both functioned 100% for me and were accurate ENOUGH, like 3-4MOA from my rifle. You won't win any matches with it, but it works well enough. VERY dirty though, lots of carbon fouling.

Silver Bear is actually my fallback "emergency" ammo, because it has always worked and is cheap enough that I, a lowly mechanic, can keep a usable quantity on hand. Since I'm getting into reloading, though, i intend to replace it slowly with quantities of Match-grade handloads.
 
I've had good luck with Tulammo in my PTR, M1A, and FAL. Acceptable accuracy and good reliability at only about ¢43 a round delivered from Midway. Doesn't seem any dirtier than anything else I've shot. Doesn't have that annoying lacquer primer sealant that gets into everything either. Makes nice fireballs out of carbines too, if that's your deal lol. :D

I don't worry about steel cased ammo... I figure if soft mild steel manages to break something, then that part was doomed to fail regardless.
 
I got cabelas "herters" which is russian steel case (wolf i believe). I ordered 30 boxes and it came to 37.5c a round shipped. Ran about 10 boxes through an m1a zero failures...
 
I buy federal blue box for about $14 per box at walmart. It is softpoint and runs clean in my AR-10. I have shot critters with it and even recovered one once. The jacket separated and I got about 30% expansion on a hog head shot that settled in a shoulder. Not the best performance but I am sure it beats the heck out of FMJ.
 
I have used Radway Green in the past and I like it, but my next case will be Prvi Partizan. To me, the fact that it is still under $.50/round and is reloadable makes it a much better deal than the NATO surplus stuff, the vast majority of which is not reloadable, and is barely (if any) cheaper than Prvi.

I too intend to switch over to hand-loads... and I figure a case of Prvi will give me a good supply of brass to start out with!
 
conhntr said:
I got cabelas "herters" which is russian steel case (wolf i believe). I ordered 30 boxes and it came to 37.5c a round shipped. Ran about 10 boxes through an m1a zero failures...
Click to expand...

Tried some Herters (mine had a Tulammo head stamp, but I think Tulammo is owned by Wolf IIRC) in my AW# PTR-91 and it ran fine. I'm not one of those guys that shoots brass cased only in their guns. Too expensive to shoot .308 if it's all brass cased for what I mostly do (blast dirt, steel, and paper). I've heard some crazy stories about steel cased ammo that most, if not all, I find to be false.

No problems with the following: PTR-91
Brown Bear
Silver Bear
Ulyanovsk
Herters
Tulammo
Wolf
Federal
 
Be careful what gun you shoot it from. Not "gonna blow up your gun", but "might not ignite the primer". I have an STG58 parts gun which has a Falcon Trigger Pull Reduction kit, which basically weakens the hammer spring. All ammo goes off except Wolf 308 (polymer coated). So, try it before you buy a lifetime supply.
GCMkc said:
... but I think Tulammo is owned by Wolf IIRC
Click to expand...
Not exactly. Tula is a big Russian manufacturer. Ever seen TCW on old 7.62x39 surplus? That's them. Wolf distributed ammo from Tula, and other companies. The story on the Interwebz is that Wolf went elsewhere and Tula now distributes under their own brand.
 
What is reliable but less expensive
Click to expand...

My reloads. Roughly about 30 cents a round. And that is for the good bullets. For plinking I used pulled surplus rounds that are $70 a thousand, free brass, $30 a thousand for primers, and surplus powder at $85 for 8 pounds.
 
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If you can find it at a price you can afford I would go with British Radway Green.
 
So OP, rod5591, in what rifle are you shooting this ammo? Besides 1000s of rounds for, I guess, emergency/defense, what is the rifle intended for? What kind of shooting do you like to do? Just plinking around or some relatively serious marksmanship? At what typical range or distance do you want to be able to make hits reliably? What kind of bullet do you want, for target effect (terminal ballistics)? Can you give a list of requirements for this ammo, other than just cheap price?

I think you've been given good advice on all the cheaper ammo options. So you're gonna pay $0.45 to $0.55 per round of 147 grain FMJ (+/- 3 gr). Is that what you want for your go-to, stocked in-depth ammo? What's the intended function?

Suppose somebody died and you inherited $5,000, so you could go out and get 5000 rounds of ammo that cost $1/round. What would you buy?

My argument is, if that is different than 147 grain FMJ, then maybe you ought to save up, buy a little more slowly etc., but buy what you really want.
 
I've seen some Indonesian 7.62 on the market, reasonable. If I needed some at the moment, I'd get that. I have some of the 5.56 surplus and it's about the most accurate 55 gr surplus I have fired. Don't see it anymore, tho.
 
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