Best rifle for bad ammo - 308

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Martin248

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I realize this will cause some eye rolling around here, but can someone recommend a good bolt action in .308 for target shooting with cheap factory ammo? Ideally in the $1000 range though if you can sell me a good story maybe I could go up to $1500. Planning on shooting it out of the box without mods.

Backstory is I have a .308 norc m14 and crates upon crates of cheap 7.62x51 145gr ball ammo for it. I've been interested in a bolt, and for convenience, would prefer something that I can feed with the same ammo as I put into the 14. A big advantage of this ammo is of course that for factory ammo, it's about as cheap as you can get.

I know if I want really good results I should be hand loading 168gr and so on, but I'm not that good a shot. I want to get a reasonably good result with a factory rifle using the ammo I have.

Something durable would be great, I will probably mistreat it in the woods. All other things being equal, I'd probably be interested in some variant of the rem 700 line, but I'd like to hear thoughts on what rifles do well with bad ammo.
 
Problem is you won't really know until you try it. Bad/cheap ammo is the same no matter what gun you shoot it through. In my experience it will probably group better than out of your m14 but its still really not going to be up to snuff. I'm thinking any remington 700 should do you fine. Were it me and I had a $1000 budget, I'd buy an sps and a better barrel. Then look for a cheap replacement stock on the ee. At least that way when you burn through your junk ammo you'll still have a rifle that can ehoot the good stuff well.
 
Been doing some googling and now I realize what should have been obvious to me at the outset--twist is going to drive this. I'm shooting 145gr ball and most of these barrels have are made for 168gr or higher.

So really I guess what I am asking is, is there a good rifle out there with a twist suitable for a lighter round, like my 145gr ball?

When I do burn through my crates of cheap Chinese ammo I'm likely to buy more of it, until some day when I start reloading. Until then, I'm likely to keep buying cheaper ammo because it means I can shoot more of it :)
 
Tomochan said:
Same as Longshot but I'd wait on a new barrel - some SPS' shoot real good with the factory tube and also why burn a new barrel with junk ammo.
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This is actually what I meant but didn't communicate it very well.
I'm guessing if you are going to buy more crap ammo then accuracy doesn't really matter so any old rifle should do.
 
1:12 twist should work. Are you looking for a sporter weight or target rifle? What distances?
 
blargon said:
1:12 twist should work. Are you looking for a sporter weight or target rifle? What distances?
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Probably mostly 200 yards and under, maybe sometimes up to 400. I'd love to shoot longer ranges, and it would be nice to have a rifle that could do it, but shooting longer ranges than that would be a once in a blue moon thing based on my location.

For the shorter distances like 100-200 yards, I'd like to have the option of using iron sights. Make it more of a challenge :)

Weight is not that important to me. Lighter is great, easier to carry! Heavier is great, less recoil! I've lugged my m14 around in the bush and none of these rifles will be as heavy as that.
 
Go for an sps varmint or sps tactical. If it were me I would get the sps tactical for the shorter barrel. While it has a 1-10 twist, it should still shoot your 145gr ammo no problem. If you want to spend more money to upgrade to stainless and a better HS Precision stock go for the 5R milspec.
 
Find an old "Sportco" target rifle (also called "Omark 44"). In an original, plain-Jane configuration you ought to be able to find one for $500-ish. They are a compact, cheap, single shot action made in Australia in the late 1970s. The original configuration looked basically like a Cooey .22 (except that it was in fact a .308 Winchester single shot target rifle with a 26" blued barrel with a 1-14" twist)... quite plain looking, but quite capable.

The original barrels are somewhat tight (about a .306" or .307" groove diameter) and have a 1-14" twist. They shot the crap issued ammo of the day (IVI ball and DA ball) as well as anything, and better than most.
 
I was about to suggest an old target rifle because once upon a time we were issued junk ammo we had to use in competition. RNBA beat me to it.

1;14 is a good twist for the light bullets. it will handle up to 180 gr bullets. We got very good at designing rifles to shoot bad ammo.

Barrels were tight, so that out of spec (undersized) bullets would still work and chambers had big throats so that crooked bullets will still chamber well.

The Sportco looks very much like a single shot Remington, except the receiver wall are about twice as thick. There is no cut out on the bottom for a magazine, so it beds very solidly. Lock time is fast.

As it happens I have a new one. It was presented as a prize and has never been used other than to sight it in. $500 to a good home.
 
rnbra-shooter said:
Find an old "Sportco" target rifle (also called "Omark 44"). In an original, plain-Jane configuration you ought to be able to find one for $500-ish. They are a compact, cheap, single shot action made in Australia in the late 1970s. The original configuration looked basically like a Cooey .22 (except that it was in fact a .308 Winchester single shot target rifle with a 26" blued barrel with a 1-14" twist)... quite plain looking, but quite capable.

The original barrels are somewhat tight (about a .306" or .307" groove diameter) and have a 1-14" twist. They shot the crap issued ammo of the day (IVI ball and DA ball) as well as anything, and better than most.
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X3 I have one in LH and it's a keeper. No SPS "tactical" and other like junk can compare to it. Mine have Shultz & Larsen 12" twist barrel. They sell in $400-$700 range and are worth every penny.
 
rnbra-shooter said:
find an old "sportco" target rifle (also called "omark 44"). In an original, plain-jane configuration you ought to be able to find one for $500-ish. They are a compact, cheap, single shot action made in australia in the late 1970s. The original configuration looked basically like a cooey .22 (except that it was in fact a .308 winchester single shot target rifle with a 26" blued barrel with a 1-14" twist)... Quite plain looking, but quite capable.

The original barrels are somewhat tight (about a .306" or .307" groove diameter) and have a 1-14" twist. They shot the crap issued ammo of the day (ivi ball and da ball) as well as anything, and better than most.
Click to expand...

x4.
 
listen mate i just bought a remington r5 and would recommend it to anyone but if I was doing it over I would give the thomson Centerfires a look same r5 rifleing at half the cost and the new model for this year allows you to pick and extra barrel and bolt so in reality you get two guns for the price of one and cheaper than a remington R5 the money you save on the rifle can go to really good glass.
 
I'm still using both of my Sportcos but they've had some gunsmithing done on them.

Another alternative is if you can find a SMLE that was converted to .308 for DCRA (Dominion of Canada Rifle Association) use - I don't know how valid this is, but the story was that they shot the IVI 7.62-51 well because of the rear-lock-up bolt of the Lee Enfield. (was it Lee Enfield No.4?). AIUI, with the rear lock up and inconsistent ammo, a "hot" round would spring back a little more on the bolt, delaying barrel whip-up just slightly, so it would leave the barrel with less elevation than a hot round out of a front-locked bolt rifle, and a "soft" round would spring back less, helping the take a little more time to whip up in recoil, leaving the barrel with slightly more elevation than a soft round out of a front-lock bolt.

Net effect (in theory) was that the bullets would leave the barrel on average closer to the same elevation. Those rifles were used between 300 and 1000 yards, so they should work at 200 or closer in - assuming they're not completely shot out...

The guy who did my gunsmithing (Jim Dugan - not sure if he's still in Saskatoon) said NOT to use 168 grain bullets on those target rifles (either the SMLE or my first rifle (A P-17 rebarreled to 7.62) because the barrels were cut to .3065 instead of .308. Full-on .308 155 or 168 Matchkings would cause LOTS of pressure and send hot gases down towards you through the bolt...
 
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