I bought some South African battle packs about 4-5 years ago , and forgot about them. I also put my M1as away and forgot about them too! Yesterday I was at a gun store and they had a DSA SA58 for sale Cheap. Well if I bought it , I would have to feed it so... Is there any cheap 308 non corrosive ammo out there still? does wolf make a 308/7.62 round? Can that be shot in a FAL??

The days of cheap .308 are over.  AIM Surplus (a site sponsor) is where I get mine.  They have sales from time to time but like all ammo, the term "sale" is relative.

$69.95 for SA battle pack (AIM) is about as good as it gets these days.

check samco

AIM has some early 80s milsurp FN ammo right now for 19.95/50...better price than the SA.

Wolf does make .308 ammo.  I haven't tried it in an FAL yet, so I can't say now it runs.  The guys on the FALFiles forum say that Brown/Silver Bear .308 runs OK, but you may have to set your gas system on its tightest setting to get enough to run the gun.  I haven't had a chance to try any of that, yet, either.  The steel cased stuff is probably going to be your cheapest option.  There is some non-corrosive surplus floating around out there, but it probably won't be as cheap as the Russian commercial stuff.

I have an STG58 with a trigger pull reduction kit (Falcon Arms), which includes a reduced hammer spring, which has trouble igniting Wolf polymer coated ammo. When they do fire, no problems with gas. I did not shoot much of it; I may go back to the original hammer spring and try again sometime.

Lee

Well I skipped the FAL and got another M1a..... Anyone know about wolf in a M1A?

I don't know about Wolf, but my Socom 16 eats up Herters steel cased ammo just fine.

Who has herters?

Cabelas.

Is one better then the other when comparing the SA Battle packs from the 80's and the agerman DAG ammo?

DAG or South African?

Wolf 308 works just like wolf 223, dirty, groups kind of sucks accuracy wise.

Silver bear is a great 308 plinker if you dont need the brass, Very reliable, cheap. I did have a few that the neck tension cause problems but this is out of thousands of rounds. I use it for MG fodder.

Dag is more accurate and cleaner than SA, Both are good surplus but DAG is better IMO.

Samco has Portugese surplus for about .35 a round. Berdan primed brass though, so not easily reloadable brass though.

The Port surplus is great.  It's what I generally use at 3-gun matches where it's usually a "lost brass" match.

I don't know what is worse: Resurecting a two month old thread or starting a new one that covers "the same ol' thing". I flipped a coin and here I am adding to this thread.



Today I gathered up a few different blends of ammo to test for my OBR (can't afford to keep shooting Federal GMM). I have Hirtenberger on my to-do list but have not ordered any up yet. Anyway here is my mini report for my Sunday afternoon fun shooting 100 rounds of each of the following "budget" fodder.



BOWN BEAR (Russia) 145gr Bimetal FMJ Lacquered Steel Case $.40/rnd ..... Average 10 round group 2.75" (10 groups)

SILVER BEAR (Russia) 145gr Bimetal FMJ Zinc Plated Steel Case $.42/rnd .. Average 10 round group 3.25" (10 groups)

AMERICAN TACTICAL (Turkiye) 150gr FMJ Brass Case NATO Spec $.49/rnd .. Average 10 round group 1.25" (10 groups)



Control Group:

FEDERAL GOLD MEDAL MATCH 168gr BTHP $1.30/rnd ... One 10 round group 0.51"



All rounds were shot prone at 100 yards, 74 degrees, null wind. I shot 10 rounds of each type of ammo in succession and rotated each type thru 5 magazines in order to mix things up as much as I could. I had one Failure to Eject on the first volley of Silver Bear and one bad primer on the 7th round of the fourth volley of Brown Bear. Other than that there were no problems as the OBR digested them all without fail.



After shooting all 310 rounds (no cleaning) I found no lacquer build up from the Brown Bear. The low round count may be the reason but I have read other reports that say the melting lacquer problem has been solved.



The Silver Bear left very noticeable amounts of zinc shavings on the bolt face and locking lugs. If I had to pick between the Russian ammo I would go with Brown Bear but I would keep an eye out for lacquer build up just in case those reports I read were incorrect. The Silver Bear leaves too much zinc shavings in the weapon for my taste

(and, for me, it was less accurate even though it was the more expensive of the two).



Of the the types of ammo I shot today I would lean towards the American Tactical because of the brass case and considerably better accuracy (although FAR from FGMM!). I would feel okay using it to tune up fundamentals and for move-and-shoot drills. I would, however, defer back to FGMM or home brews for hunting or competitions.



The OBR defintely needs a cleaning after today's fun but I would have to shoot numerous rounds each type on their own to determine which of the three were the major culprits. Based on what I've read in other reviews I would have to guess it was the Russian fodder that was responsible for most of it.



Good Shootin'
Disclaimer: This was a day to play and "see what works" and this bit of information I shared should be viewed in that light. This is NOT intended to be the last word in technical evaluation...obviously.