Anyone shoot surplus ammo in their hunting rifle for practice?

hifiwasabi

hifiwasabi

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I'm looking into practicing at the range without spending $35-40 a box on 308. I know the usual suspects will suggest reloading my own, but it's not currently in the cards (renovations at the house). I was just wondering about purchasing cheap, bulk 7.62x51 so I could blow away more then 40 rounds at a time when I do finally get out. Any thoughts?
 
The bulk .308 will most likely not hit the same point where your hunting rounds do, but nothing wrong with the practice you will get using it.
 
Contrary to popular belief, shooting bulk surplus ammo, especially the recent production .308, will not cause the barrel to fall off. Buy a crate or two and go to it. Use some FLUID FILM as the last swipe when cleaning and hang a tag on the rifle reminding you to run a patch down the barrel prior to shooting.

I have been using FLUID FILM for 25 years. I have used some really nasty old surplus ammo (read corrosive - big time) in some of my old surplus lampstands and have never had any problems with corrosion.

Shake the can up good, spray some on a patch (and all over your hand and workbench, floor, etc.) run it through the barrel. Do it twice if you want. :)

Buy it at Canada Tire, Co-op, auto supply stores.

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I shot a lot of surplus this last summer. It was good stuff for milsurp. 100% brass cases, not the copper washed or zinc cases. It was the South African stuff and I got a sweet deal on it. I should have bought two crates! LOL Even though I'm getting into reloading I don't think I can make my ammo for the same price per round as that stuff but I expect to get better accuracy with my reloads. That beig said, at certain times when the fouling was just right in my gun I was getting MOA 3 shot groupings at a 100 yds. with it which is saying a lot for milsurp IMHO. Conditions had to be perfect, though~
 
hifiwasabi said:
I'm looking into practicing at the range without spending $35-40 a box on 308. I know the usual suspects will suggest reloading my own, but it's not currently in the cards (renovations at the house). I was just wondering about purchasing cheap, bulk 7.62x51 so I could blow away more then 40 rounds at a time when I do finally get out. Any thoughts?
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Have a look at the Hiertinberger surplus. Fantastic stuff, and inexpensive to boot! Some site vendors sell it and there's a couple of ads in the EE with it for sale.

I've shot it out to 800m in both my bolt guns and semi's.
 
I have burned up 3-400 rounds of the norinco surplus in my .308 . I sighted the rifle in with that and found a hunting load that hit the same POI . I got my buck 2 years ago with this set up at a laser rangefinder measured 165 yards . Fairly long range for NWO hunting
 
Not only can you fire surplus ammo in your hunting rifle, you can pull the FMJs, neck size, and seat soft points of equal weight for low priced hunting ammo. If you are an experienced handloader, you can calculate the powder charge for heavier or lighter bullets, but this isn't recommended for the novice handloader.
 
I've fired lots of old surplus .303 in the good old days when the stuff was cheap and plentiful as well as surplus .308. To be fair, the .303 surplus was fired out of a sporterized military rifle, but the .308 was shot out of my Ruger M77. Oh how I miss the days when we could go to the range and spend a day banging off cheap surplus ammo (and by cheap I mean .17-.24 cents per round). I still have a few rounds of good Canadian .303 surplus tucked away as well as 5 boxes of the FNC stuff. The way prices are going on that stuff, I may hang onto to it until I die and use it to pay for my burial, LOL.
 
Ive used it in the past with good results at the range just target shooting. When I would take my 308 hunting I would use brand name ammo and resight the rifle before I went in the woods with it.
 
I'll go you one further.
My maternal grandfather, and his sons, had a very hard life. They barely scratched together enough to keep their place. So, what they used for hunting were SMLE's, and they filed the points from surplus ammunition. They hunted whatever they could legally get, and that included deer, moose, and bear. Ranges were very short, mostly in feet not yards, and they had no problems with it.

WARNING: This is now regarded as a dangerous practice. These old surplus bullets were frequently open at the base, if you filed off the top, the lead could be pushed from the bullet leaving the outer casing in the bore. You next shot could be a kaboom!
 
I regularly hunt with a Mosin or Mauser and I try to get out weekly for some surplus shooting. I try to find or handload a round in soft points for hunting that has the same or similar POI. I'm good for 200 yards with iron sights, gongs or whitetails.
 
I had a bunch of light strikes from Russian {Tula} 308 out of a bolt gun. Online there were a few threads saying the same thing, some of the primers are too hard for some bolt guns. I hope it's just that, as Ive only tried that ammo so far.
 
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