I would like to get one to shoot for fun..

Are they reliable?  Safe to shoot with surplus military ammo?  

Advise would be appreciated.

Good plinking & home defense bolt action.  Just be prepared for quite a kick, IMO.  Not a bad rifle for the price....just don't expect MOA accuracy out of it.  Other than slight finish chipping off the bolt, I have had little problem with it.

The Weaver base that comes with it may need to be dremel tooled to fit correctly.  The Weaver base is precision machine made...the rifle is not, so you MAY have to work to get it to fit just right.

Nice rifle for the price & it comes with a "survival kit" in the buttstock.

See:
www.gibbsrifle.com/sport.html

The 308 "Jungle" Carbines are built on the the No.1 MkIII Action forged in India which supposedly has better metallurgy than Non-Indian No.1 Mk.III Actions.

Frankly I would be a little leerly of shooting .308 in an No.1 Mk.III Action. Though the No.4 Mk.1 Actions can safely handle .308 pressure levels.

Stick with .303 British if you are going to be using a No.1 Mk.III rifle.

I have a Navy Arms No.7. (not the more expensive "Quest" from Gibbs). Got it about 3-4 yrs Ago.  Except for the extractor breaking on the first day I fired it (replaced by a .303 extractor for 5 bucks) and the mag needing some tweaking, the gun shoots great!!
Many of the Ishapore .308's were fired very little, and the bores are in excellent shape.  As for the recoil, I slip on a rubber recoil pad.  It ain't so bad.  I have never heard of one blowing-up, but I shoot only Mil-surp 7.62MM in it.
I like mine, it's short handy, fun and surprisingly accurate

I have one of the Ishapore .308's(not a carbine though)and it works great. I smoothed out the trigger and it shoots quite well. The only problem I find with the rifle is the price of mags for it. I paid $80 for the rifle and they want $25 to $35 for replacement mags. Needless to say I haven't bought another mag.

A lot of fun for the money...mine had a p-o-s rear sight.......

I have a MK5 carbine still in .303 that has gone through three generations of deer hunters in my family, and I hope to give it to my son.  I have heard some of the .308 conversions are sloppy, though I haven't actually fired one.  Consider staying with .303, mine is a tck driver even though with a hard rubber butt bad the recoil SUCKS the big banana.

Had a original MK5 in 303 Brit. The rifle would not hold zero , which I think the British Army found out in the late 40's. After 3-4 rds it drifted more than a foot off at 100 yds. Also this thing will shake your brain loose in recoil. Deer hunting I guess would be ok , hell you are only firing 1 rd , but to take to the range and play with ?  NO WAY. Now the full size Enfields , they are sweet.