308 ammo

[reddot223]

i will be finishing up soon on two builds, a stg58 and a imbel "izzy" clone.
i am new to 308 shooting but i have been following the threads...kinda...anyway, i bought a battle pack each of australian and south african military surplus..which is better?
i would like to buy a thousand rounds or so...maybe more[:D]..which should i shop for? is the portugal stuff any good? thanks to all who reply

[Hebrew Battle Rifle]

I haven't ever seen Australian surplus 308 in battle packs.

I shall list the surplus 308 that I have used in my rifles from best to worst.

Australian F4 (AFF and MF)
Portugese BF
Portugese FNM
Spanish Santa barbara
South African M1A2
South African R1M1
Argentine
Indian OFV M80 74/75
Malaysian


All of the listed ammo has been decent at worst and excellent at best. (with the exception of the Malaysian. It seems that my experience with this brand of ammo is an isolated anomily. Others have stated that it is good ammo)

Until you get some experience, I advise you to not buy any of the Indian ammo. Some of it is decent while some of it is horrible. Until you can identify the differences between them, it is best to just pass on it.

The Australian F4 is regarded as the best surplus ammo available. In some rifles, it provides match grade performance.

Some of the Argentine has slightly corroded cases. I have purchased the Argentine that comes in 20 rd cardboard sleeves and in 20 rd cardboard boxes. I bought 4000 rds of the sleeved ammo and I haven't found any that was corroded to an unsafe condition. ( a few spots here and there)I haven't found any of the ammo in cardboard boxes that was corroded.
A member here posted some pics of Argentine ammo that was heavily corroded on the inside of the cases.

BTW, until you have enough ammo to collapse the leaf springs on a half ton pick up truck, you have a short supply.

[win308]

If you can find it, Australian .308 is best by far. Lake city Match will beat it, barely, but the price for L.C. National Match ammo is too high for blasting ammo.

The last vendor with any quantity of Aussie that I have seen is Polygunbag.com.

Good luck.