Thoughts on Best M1A Mil-Surp Ammo
 

I'm sure this has been covered extensively before, but may I revisit the subject since there may have been some re-thinking subsequent to more recent range reports.

I have some S.African. which I haven't tested. I know there are about 5 or so NATO Mfgs w/non corrosive ammo.

What are your thoughts among those 5 or so different rds?

TIA

Also, did we get the report back from the member who purchased those rounds which were advertised (after the fact) that they had a little corrosion on the cases...(Maddie?)

Re: Thoughts on Best M1A Mil-Surp Ammo
 

Hirtenberger (Austrian) used to be available for under $200 per crate, now 3-4x that.

edit: probably more than what I said, if you can find it. There's somebody on Gunbroker asking $1900 for a case!!

http://v4.beta.gunbroker.com/Auction...Item=127352481


It's good, IDK about $2000.

Re: Thoughts on Best M1A Mil-Surp Ammo
 

Any Lake City products would be great but are now very hard to find. Portugese would also be a solid hit (no pun intended).

Re: Thoughts on Best M1A Mil-Surp Ammo
 

The great number of nations which have manufactured 7.62 NATO include:
USA
Britain
Germany
Australia
Canada
Israel
Portugal
Brazil
Argentina
Russia
Albania
Turkey
South AFrica
Lithuania
Austria
Serbia
Egypt

Re: Thoughts on Best M1A Mil-Surp Ammo
 

This gentleman from the M14 forum has tested a lot of the different 7.62x51 ammo. It's an excellent guide but still a question best asked of your own rifle.

http://www.m14tfl.com/upload/showthread.php?t=69144

A lot of this ammo isn't technically NATO for the record (Russia, Israel, South Africa, Australia, Argentina, etc.).

Re: Thoughts on Best M1A Mil-Surp Ammo
 

I lean toward the Winchester White Box 147 grain 7.62 x 51. It is Nato stamped and functions good in my gun. It has been running up in price the last 8-10 months or so but if I can find it below $14 per box of 20 I buy it. I do not shoot the gun all that often so I am not burning thru a bunch of rounds and I am well stocked for the most part should the world end today. I will buy a box here and there as the deal presents itself but I won't over spend on the stuff either.

I do have some South African battle packs I bought 2-3 years ago while I was saving up for the M1A. I have not broke them out to shoot though.

Re: Thoughts on Best M1A Mil-Surp Ammo
 

I like Aussie and Port. I have some South Africa, but I've only shot a little of it. It's good ammo, but my rifle seems to like the Aussie the best with Port a close second. I'm still mostly shooting Aussie, which I really stocked up on back when the prices were a lot lower. (Albeit, I'm not blowing through the stuff as fast as I used to when I didn't have the fear on me of having to replace it at almost $500 a case.). I'm down to one battlepack of my old Port stash.

I haven't received the Port I recently ordered yet. Apparently, they didn't get the signed statement of age I emailed them, and they finally emailed me about it. I called them this morning and re-sent it, so I suspect I'll be getting my order in soon. I'll let you all know. Half an hour after I called them I found some Radway Green at Ammunition to Go, which I'd like to try, but now I can't afford it for awhile (by which point some other fool will probably have bought it all up). :banghead: That Port had better be shined up like a new penny. :mad_m:

Re: Thoughts on Best M1A Mil-Surp Ammo
 

Thanks Maddie,

Always appreciate your thoughts...even though I have my doubts about your being old enough to purchase ammo.

P.S. We can all jump on 'em if your ammo isn't shined up like a new penny. I remember your first post regarding that site. I checked it out immediately, and I don't recall the disclaimer which subsequently showed up either.

Ammo to go, huh? Fools rush in...where wise men never go (per Elvis). Not me, I'm all spent-out right now...but I'm still lookin' high and low...

Re: Thoughts on Best M1A Mil-Surp Ammo
 

A long time ago, when I used to work with real deal Walnut and Steel, The M14 would positively shoot and cycle ALL of any variety of 7.62 NATO and .308 Win.
In my experience, the '14 was not finicky about brand or style of cartridge..... I would hope the ones that Springfield is now calling "M1A" are similarly constructed.
Which one shoots STRAIGHTEST in YOUR gun is another story, one that only YOU can answer.

Re: Thoughts on Best M1A Mil-Surp Ammo
 

Exactly.

Best? Best for what?

(I'm not being a pain, but really, one must weigh their needs against cost, availability, accuracy, cleanliness, relaodability, etc, etc.)

BTW, the only corrosive 7.62MM ammo widely available is the S&B blue box imported/marketed by Samco. They advertise it as such.

BTWII, the best deal out there right now IMO is the Port in battlepacks being sold by Samco. It's berdan, NC, steel jacket, copper wash, VERY accurate (for milsurp), and sub .50 per round.

Re: Thoughts on Best M1A Mil-Surp Ammo
 

eat_beef, someone here reported that the Port he'd bought from Samco had a lot of corrosion, and Samco eventually placed a notice that the ammo may have some corrosion on their site. Did you buy any? What shape was in it? I bought a case+ of it from them, before the notice of corrosion, but it's yet to arrive.

Re: Thoughts on Best M1A Mil-Surp Ammo
 

I have a friend who located a fellow with a couple of bags of South African 762x51, at 140 rounds per bag. Here is the kicker, this fellow wants $150 a bag.

Wow, I remember when it was less than $50 a bag.

Would any of you folks pay this price?

Re: Thoughts on Best M1A Mil-Surp Ammo
 

The going rate for battlepacks of SA is around 80-90 bucks.

Maddie, I'm not sure what the big deal is with the corrosion. I've heard folks whining about it on the gunboards, but the pics I've seen were of ugly ammo, not unsafe ammo.

If I were shooting it in my Crazy Horse, I'd be worried. Then again why would I shoot ANY milsurp in a souped up match/sniper rifle?

I haven't bought any of the Samco Port. I'm not into buying ammo at these prices. That said, if you weren't able to source a lifetime supply of 7.62MM at .08 per round, the Samco Port is the best deal out there. It will all go bang, and it will all shoot minute of blue helmet at 400 yards.

But like I said, we need to know the purpose of the ammo. Looking to win matches? Looking to hunt? Shooting on a range with a non magnetic rule? No Port is going to fit those bills.

Re: Thoughts on Best M1A Mil-Surp Ammo
 

eat_beef,

Here's what I'm looking at. This is on GB but the guy is nearby and I can pick it up at $650/1000:

"308 Win, NATO Portuguese Military Surplus, 147gr, NON-Corosive, Brass cased. These rounds have the NATO head stamp, they are of NATO quality. the same specifications as domestic manufacture, like Winchester or Federal. 1980's production. Berdan primed."

Now I'm not an avid or frequent shooter. I have an M1A ( pre-ban w/very few rounds through it). This will not be a competition piece. It will be used as a defensive/perhaps hunting (Hog)weapon. Purchased because this was what I was trained on. I want accuracy and dependability. I don't reload...I mean except to stick another magazine in.I don't have a clue as to what we used in the Mil but I always did pretty well using whatever that was.

So, whadda ya think?

Re: Thoughts on Best M1A Mil-Surp Ammo
 

Rampon, that's way too expensive! The Port is almost $100 less than that per 1000 at Samco Global. The Port is very good ammo. Accurate and clean.

Re: Thoughts on Best M1A Mil-Surp Ammo
 

I would not pay that. Like Beef said, going rate in my area for that stuff is 95 per pack. Over a buck per shot is way too high.

Re: Thoughts on Best M1A Mil-Surp Ammo
 

Rampon,

Gunbroker is almost always too high. Check out the link Texan posted. It will have some much better deals. Ken (XXIV Corps) does a fantastic job keeping up with "the cheapest 7.62MM milsurp on the internet".

For what you described, it sounds like any milsurp will do. Just stay away from the 90's Indian (it's complete junk, quite possibly dangerous), but just about anything else will only differ in the accuracy (small difference, all good enough to hit a man out to 600 if you do your part), reloadability (not an issue for you) and cleanliness (some of it is dirtier than others, not that big a deal IMO). And of course price.

Port is one of my favorite brands of milsurp, it's as reliable as anything, and more accurate than most across a wide variety of weapons. Plus it's one of the cheapest out there right now.

Your other option is to try to find some for sale on the gunboards. I haven't ordered any from a vendor in quite some time, but I don't really need any more, I just try to scoop up a good deal when I can.

BTW, thanks for the line about reloading, I laughed out loud!:rofl:

Re: Thoughts on Best M1A Mil-Surp Ammo
 

Maddie, I am not sure if you are referencing me or someone else. I bought a case of port from clasicarms.com

The box was in poor condition, the cardboard was deteriorated and stank of mildew, and you could tell that it had been in water. Well at least it is sealed in a bag, right? I opened all of the battle packs except one so far, and they are all corroded. Some was very light. But a lot of it was pretty bad.

A friend of mine had some other battle pack ammo, and gave me some that had been open for quite some time. And it was all shiny brass. I think that it is all going to be shoot able, I am using a fal. But it leaves a bad taste in my mouth to receive ammo in this condition for that kind of money.

How about this fal, I just got it and don�t have much experience with them yet, are they going to eat any ammo or will it be finicky? I know all guns are going to differ, but in general if you will.

Re: Thoughts on Best M1A Mil-Surp Ammo
 

I think yours was probably the post I was thinking of, ctrl-z.

I don't have a FAL, but they're reputed to not be picky with milsurp ammo.

Re: Thoughts on Best M1A Mil-Surp Ammo
 

The FAL has a reputation for being Uber Reliable, you should be fine.

That said, ANYTHING mechanical can have problems. What's the make? Generally speaking, the Century L1A1s are the worst. I've owned two that I got cheap because they weren't working properly, but they were both easy fixes.

If it's a DSA or Imbel you shouldn't have any problems, and even if it's a Century or Entreprise you're still probably alright.

BTW, I don't think the corrosion will cause a problem if it isn't bad enough that the case loses structural integrity. If you find one that you think has corrosion all the way through the case wall, chunk it. Better to toss .50 worth of ammo than lose a rifle (or a face).

Other than that it's just an issue of possibly getting your chamber gritty. A good cleaning every now and then should take care of it, but if you're that worried, polish the brass up with some steel wool.

Re: Thoughts on Best M1A Mil-Surp Ammo
 

I am not sure what FAL I have, I have been over at falfiles trying to id it. I got it from a trusted source, a friend of mine. He said that he got it at a gun show in Dallas and it had a lot of work done to it. It had been accurized and so forth. I don�t know, and can�t really tell anything by looking at it. I do not see any brand name or marks that id it for me, I am thinking maybe FrankinFAL. I have been meaning to take some pictures and post and see if anyone can help me on it. I am sure someone will be able to look at a picture and say �Oh yeah, that is a ����

It is on an Imbel 3rd gen receiver, so that is very good. It has the fold up bipod. Non wood furniture, The front sight wings have no holes in them. My guy had 3, this one being the best. He said when he bought them he decided to go metric. This gun is designed for non-metric mags, it has the big �D�, but will take the metric as well. (I have heard some will do this) His other two have the little notch for the metric mags

I was at the range with it the other day and was impressed with its accuracy though. It was just a plink day so no numbers to share.

As for the ammo, I don�t think any of it is that bad, but I was not sure on what �bad� was as far as what I should not be putting in the gun. I think I will be ok on all that I got, by those guidelines. Thanks for the input.

Thanks Madde and eat_beef, for your assistance.