What to buy?

[drine]

Fellas, I don't care about cost, etc.. I just want say a regular battle pack of something. What seems to be the best, cleanest, most accurate ammo in your collective opinions?

[weasel_master]

What caliber?

[okie shooter]

Well one of each thing you might be for starters, other than that, what do you shoot, not everything is available in battle packs.

[drine]

7.62X51. What's the best? I was in another thread and just assumed you knew what I meant. I'm running out of SA but just want to try some OTHER kind. Fouling issues. Sometimes a question gets so embedded in another thread an answer may not come. What is considered the best mil-spec. ANd, is Winchester White Box still milspec as I remember it used to be?

[okie shooter]

Southafrican is good, but I have some hurtenburger too, what ever you can find at a good price would be my suggestion though.

The australian was good too, just not battle packed, but on bandolers with strippers for the L1A1 rifle. Came in four cans in a fruit box case.

[drine]

Is Port, Aussie, Radway as good or better than SA. Again, the cost isn't the factor here, I'm not buying much just to see how they function.

[okie shooter]

Ironically we talk up the sa, but of many of the ammos out there, its not nato spec, but I imagine its up to it. The port, santa barbra, Radway Green are all up to nato spec, along with others. The australian I imagine is up to nato spec, but not being a nato nation, its not within the Protocals of nato, but I imagine its good enough too.

The winchester if its not labled .308 winchester but 7.62x51 or such should be, and it may have nato head stamps.

I guess I keep buying if the price is right, thus cases of australian, south african, argentine, plus battle packs from any where I could find it with good prices. I started with just feeding a C1A1, then got a cetme, then another, then a fal kit plus receiver, then a saiga, then a g-3, then the M1A, thus you get the picture, plenty of mouths to feed here, if I ever get out and shoot.

You might look for boxes of each and try it. See what you thinks better and how well it functions.

[weasel_master]

Both SA and Port have worked fine for me.

[drine]

Win white box is NATO stamped. Good, now I can tell my wife you guys said try them all and see what works best.:slap: Thanks

[k98k792]

Austrian Hirtenberger is the best milsurp I have ever shot. I have shot a lot of different milsurp 7.62x51, from a lot of different rifles.4 rounds one 40 caliber hole at 100 yrds from a Ruger M77. This was repeatable over and over. It was the best in any rifle I shot it in. I have two battle packs left. I had a chance to get some last year at 60 a pack. I should of jumped on it.

[drine]

I'll look for it also.
drine

[MicroPilot]

I have some Aussie blister packed (almost gone, about 100 rnds left) and new Winchester white box. In my rifle at 25 meters the Aussie made groups about 6 inches across, the Whitebox grouped around 3 inches. I just got some SA battlepacks but have not shot any yet. Maybe I'll do that tomorrow and report the results.

[okie shooter]

Drine, one way to look at any of the nato spec ammo, is that it all supposed to be with in specification as set forth by the STANAG group,(load for velocity within a spec range, bullet ballistics with in spec, case dimensions and such too) to function and shoot to point of aim in any 7.62x51 rifle fielded by nato nations. That said some groups better than others, maybe due to manufacturing standards being tighter than nato's specification. Ironically many of the favorite surplus stuff out there isnt nato spec, but seems to be good, the Hurt, SA and Austrailian, plus all of the south american made stuff, though made for fal rifles, isnt truely certified nato spec. Thus most military ammo will have the case specification right so head seperation shouldnt be the issue unlike civilian loaded ammo.

Half the western and third world armies adopted the FAL rifle, or L1A1 or variants, The second place gun in the race proably was the CETME/HK G-3, with the M-14/BM59 and like being third, and some other guns in 7.62x51. With most of the west carrying and still useing the round in machine guns there are plenty of makers of ammo out there, just as they say, beware of Indian ammo.

I recomend buying what you wife will let you get away with and find what works good for you.

[drine]

I'm getting greedy and trying to tighten up the groups even more! I've got less than two boxes of SA left now. Might as well be out! Excellent points from all.
Is there a sticky with NATO and other headstamps still? I saw one before and haven't found it again.

[SteelCore]

try googling "NATO headstamp database"...it is out there somewhere.

I've shot Aussie, Port, CAVIM (Argentinian?), S.African, and like most of the stuff...Liked Aussie and Port best, S.African seemed more accurate (and shot about 2inches higher) than Argentinian at 100yds. THe majority of what I've shot is Port and S African thru the CETME (about a 1500+ of each), with about 200 Argentinian and 400 Aussie thru it.
[wow...I've put some mileage on the ol girl...3600 rounds? Already!?!?]

[bullseye]

http://cartridgecollectors.org/headstampcodes.htm This should do it for you. :)

[hulygan]

If cost is not a problem, Why not get some Lake City. I usually shoot the Winchester white box 7.62 Nato and have not had a failure yet.