What kind of accuracy can I expect from surplus military ammo. I have a new to me 308 on a vz-24 action and have shot some Indian 308 and some South African 308 surplus ammo thruogh it and they both group about 3" at 100 yds off the bench. Is this what I should expect ??

Thanks

quote:

Originally posted by DPM:
What kind of accuracy can I expect from surplus military ammo. I have a new to me 308 on a vz-24 action and have shot some Indian 308 and some South African 308 surplus ammo thruogh it and they both group about 3" at 100 yds off the bench. Is this what I should expect ??

Thanks

Probably. When you buy surplus ammo you seldom know when, where, and how it was manufactured, or when, where, and how it has been stored.

Some of it is good stuff but you can seldom know going in the door what you are getting.

Years ago I got ahold of some Hirtenberger .308 that shot 1" groups @100 yards out of my H&K-91. Aint seen nothing surplus ever match since.

Most all of the milsurp ammo I've shot has given me results similar to yours. Sometimes a little better, sometime worse. If you've got a rifle in a military caliber thats shoots small groups with factory ammo or handloads, just try some milsurp ammo through it and you'll find out real quick how accurate that ammo is.

I bought a thousand 7.62x51 from Century International in the pale blue boxes and except for the occational misfire could not believe the accuracy out of my "sniper type" rifle out to 325Meters.( don't have a range available longer than that) derf

DPM, that 3 inch group you are getting is ~typical.

I have a range buddy that makes a hobby out of squeezing every drop of accuracy out of his mil-surp rifles and mil-surp ammo. He starts out with various cheap ammos, like Turk 8mm and Hungarian 7.62x54. He then pulls the bullets and recovers the powder. He then spends hours loading and testing different combinations of cases and bullets until he gets a 1.5 inch group. He will use 44 grains of Turk powder, Hungarian cases, Russian bullets, and eventually come up with something that will shoot 1.5 inches. Like I said, it's his hobby.

The best mil-surp I've encountered is Swiss 7.5 Swiss "surplus" ammo that is actually high quality stuff, more match than service.

Given up on trying to get anything resembling accuracy out of any milsurp ammo...Also, got ahold of some 60s German 8x57, and had 2 cases split(on the body of case) on me...Luckily no harm done. The only milsurp ammo i ever found that was reasonably accurate was Czech Silvertip in 7.62x54R...That was almost as accurate as commercial ammo.

Still good for short-medium range plinking,but I don't try to shoot for accuracy with it any more.

South African, Portuguese and the Australian 308 have shot under 2" in my converted M1, but won't group in my M1A type....so depends on the rifle.

Have you tried some some "quality" factory loads or handloads to see what the rifle's potential is?

For offhand shooting/service rifle pratice,the above surplus works... just the ticket.

DPM, I've shot several types of surplus 7.62x51.

The M118 clones from various countries aren't going to shoot much better than what you reported.

The Australian and Argentine stuff are probably some of the more accurate. I've shot tons of US surplus M118 it's only slightly more accurate than the typical "white box" commercial ammo... nothing to write home about.

The Argentine stuff is probably the best CHEAP ammo. I bought a case of this and wish I'd bought more!

I've heard the South African stuff is pretty good. But haven't tried it yet.

I just noticed that Cheaper than Dirt has the South African ammo at $28 for a 140rd. battlepack. I ordered some just to give it a try.