Loading your own is the ONLY way you are going to be able to come up with decent 7.62x51/.308 Winchester ammo at a price you can afford. Reloading, you can usually shoot a modern universally-available round such as the .308 for a little over half the price of factory stuff... and your own is more accurate if you are at all careful.
For unusual types, handloading is the ONLY sane way to go. An example: I can get 70-year-old 8x51 Lebel ammo for 2 bucks a shot. It is 80% misfires. OR I can load my own for the same price as loading my own 8mm Mauser: about 10% more than loading .308. I can pay $3 a shot for factory Carcano ammo, or I can load my own for 65 cents, EVEN at Canadian prices for components. I can pay $4 a shot for .43 Mauser OR I can reload my brass for 10 to 25 cents a shot. I can BUY Snider ammo for $8 a shot OR I can reload my brass for 35 cents. And it goes on and on.
Which makes more sense?
And there are actually ways to CUT the price for practise ammo. The C.E. Harris UNIVERSAL load for military rifles works well here: 13 grains of Red Dot behind a 180 CAST bullet for 1800 ft per sec and 2 MOA out to 300 yards. Costs 14 cents a shot including the gas-check which isn`t really necessary.
I am getting one of those fake M-14s and will be loading 7.62x51/.308 for it, too. That`s MY answer, anyway.
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