.308 Practice Ammo

[sbr4141]

Anyone have some suggestions for some cheap .308 to run through my Rem 700 for practice. Anyone out there used silver or brown bear .308?

[jdonovan]

What kind of practice are you going for?

Lower quality ammo will not group as well as higher quality ammo, so its genrally not great for accuracy practice.

[sbr4141]

Just looking to do some 100-200 yrd target practice.

[jdonovan]

Well if you are just interested in hearing the gun go bang, then the bear or silver ammo will work.

I don't know what kind of practice you can get with ammo that groups 2+ inches other than manual of arms... and you can get that practice a whole lot cheaper with snap caps.

[Baer45]

A lot of people shoot steel out to 500 yds and some of the bulk ammo will work for that...I think you would have to step up from the brands mentioned...If I can find some of my old bulk ammo, I'll let you know what worked...

[ Post made via Mobile Device ]

[gunderwood]

Some of the NATO spec surplus is much better than those brands and doesn't cost a whole lot more. GGG, PP, etc. are good options. They won't shoot like match grade ammo, but good to ~500-700 yards give or take. In my experience you can get 1-1.5MOA out of it reasonably.

[arkypete]

I'm fortunate, Tula and Wolf 308, 150 grain bullet works well in my AR10a4.
I'm using an Eotech sight and can still put a kill shot on a siluette target out at 500 yards from the prone position. Kill shot defined as hitting the thorax.

Jim

[monkymate]

My practice 308 round.

I cast my own and use around 30 grains of H4895 powder. With the brass costs (I buy once fired military brass) paid for and the wheel weights being free and Tula primers being under $20/1000 I can load up a bunch for about 7-8 cents a round. These shoot well out of my bolt guns and my Saiga and FAL. They will cycle the semi's just fine. Accuracy is about the same as regular ammo in the semi's (2 MOA) and about 1 MOA with the bolt gun.

Recipe is
-Lee 160 Grain .313 bullet (pointed for AK/SKS) cast with wheel weights water dropped for about 20-22 BHN and an Aluminum .014 thick homemade gas check.
-Bullets are sized down to .309 and the check put on using a LEE sizing die. Tumble lube the bullets with a 45% LEE Alox/45% Johnson's Paste Wax/10% Mineral Spirits lube. This will not lead up to about 2000 FPS if the bullet is sized right for the bore.
-Powder is Hodgdon 4895 at 30 grains.
-A Lee case Mouth expander die is used to bell the cases for the cast bullets.

These will be cheap and accurate as any surplus. No leading occurs except a little on the gas system of the FAL. But it is easily cleaned. The Saiga 308 and the bolt gun just chug right along.Good for about 1850 FPS out of an 18" barrel and slightly faster with longer barrels.

Check out www.Castboolits.com for any info you need on casting your own. Your brass will last longer at the reduced loads and you can shoot cheaply.

[Tweaker]

I made ammo just as you mentioned monkey. I dicked around with the OAL and the powder and I had terrible results in my RFB.

I used 160 and 200 grain Lee molds and I got TERRIBLE accuracy and the rounds will not feed 30% of the time. I have given up and now have 2000+ gas checks and two molds I can't use.

Can you offer some tips or do you want to buy any of the above?

[monkymate]

The RFB has a 1 in 11.25 twist so the 160 should be fine in it. The 200 grain is probably a little heavy. The optimum range for that twist is 160-185 or so.

I have no experience with the RFB. The throat could be tight on it compared to most military rifles. That may be causing the feed problems. Which Lee do you have? I am using the CTL312-160-2R. It is a pointed bullet. The rifles I shoot it out of are a Saiga AK in 308, FAL L1A1 in 308 (sold it after buying the Saiga, has some issues with lead and the gas system) and Spanish FR8. The Saiga and FR-8 have long throats. The Fal didn't and I had to play with OAL length too for feeding. Ended up with 2.650 if I remember right. I also use the LEE factory crimp die for the last step to remove the belling of the case mouth and apply a light crimp. The bell could cause failures to feed if it catches on something or you have a tight chamber.

A check on Cast Boolits doesn't show much for the KelTec so you are in new territory. I did read up some on KTOG and it appears that people have had problems with reloads due to tight chambers and short throat and lead in. This is probably not a good candidate for cast bullets.

Post the gas checks and molds on Cast Boolits. They will sell. I make my own gas checks after getting a FreeChex III so they only cost me about $18 for over 3000 or so. Ebay will let you sell them too and you will probably get a better price since the guys on Cast Boolits are price sensitive.

Good luck.

[Hocktl]

Wow Monkymate,
Pretty interesting stuff. I would expect more leading. I buy bullets in bulk and the light end (powder 41 gr Varget and bullet 150 to 155 Gr) of the spectrum seems to shoot better out of the 1:12 twist of my 16" barrel. Not counting brass I thought I was doing good @ about $.38 a round. I bought an 8# keg of Varget and found it does not meter well. Have a couple pounds left and I'm gonna change when I get more powder.

Where are you getting tula primers? All I can find around here are CCI and Federal even at the gun shows. Mail order you got the dang Hazmat fee. How do they perform? I had a few duds out of my last CCI Brick.

[monkymate]

Try this site:

http://www.dagammo.com/shop/index.php

They sell the primers in Case lots (5 boxes of 1000 in a case for 5000 total) Prices are good at about $20-25 per thousand. ($100 -$120 for 5000)

They are in Fredericksburg, VA so pickup may be available to save on shipping. I usually use Widners and others though. The above guys were at the Richmond Gun Show and they had Berdan primers for sale. With the Berdans all that Berdan primed Yugo 7.62x39 brass becomes reloadable. I am picking it up at the range now. RCBS make a Berdan primer removal tool or you can use the "hydraulic method". Then the Lee/RCBS etc hand priming tool can be used to prime it. Will also work on Berdan 308/8MM and other brass than is Berdan primed.

The Tula are the same as the Wolf. There are lots of reports of these being excellent primers by the benchrest and 6BR guys. Just make sure they are FULLY seated to set them. They are also sometimes tight which if your brass has been shot a few times is a good thing.

As to the leading I have found and a bunch of other guys too that the 45/45/10 lube recipe is great up to about 2200 FPS. The lube is a tumble lube style so LEE sizers can be used. (No lubrisizer needed or sticks.) You also have to have the right hardness. Wheel weights (not stick on) are about 12-13 BHN air cooled and the same boolits dropped in a bucket of cold water will be about 20-22 BHN. I test the hardness with the LEE hardness tester, works well. Be careful about water and hot lead, my bucket is at the limit of my reach away from the lead pot. Some guys use towels that cover part of the bucket opening and slope down to the water for the bullets to roll into it.

Search 45/45/10 on Cast Boolits. Also Look at BruceB's thread on cast in his M1A for 308 info. He tried lots of molds and powders.

[monkymate]

I looked back at my targets and I am a little off on the accuracy. I was shooting 1.5 MOA with the FR8 with iron sights and the Saiga seems to be 2-3MOA iron sights. The FAL was 2 MOA but had leading problems also iron sights.

[Chingon]

Check out Samco Global for cheap plinker ammo. Its not the best but at least you'll have plenty to practice the basics. You can get a case for about 300 and some change.

http://www.samcoglobal.com/

[vaeevictiss]

Not that it's a good comparison, but would you run shitty, no name fuel through a Ferrari?

Not that a rem 700 is a Ferrari of the rifles, but why run crappy ammo through a good gun?

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

[sbr4141]

Making my own .308 these days.