Safe to shoot?

C

CanukMauser

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Edmonton Alberta
I was recently given a few rounds of Nato 7.62 for my m305.

It's stamped DA 60 and has a plus sign in a circle on the bottom. If this stuff safe to shoot? Its still the original military stuff as it has the sealed primers.
 
Looks like the stuff in this picture with the black stripe?
762closeup.jpg

Dominion Arsenal Match Grade Ammo Manufactured in 1960. I came across some of the same stuff not even a month ago. I shot it up. Had one case rupture on me , the groups were pretty lousy also. If the brass is in ok shape, it'll likely be fine to shoot, but don't expect anything spectacular in terms of precission.
Here's my case rupture:
rupture2.jpg


If you're looking for cheap ammo for your M305, just keep in mind that South African surplus is slowly filtering into retail stores across the country. Keep checking in with your local shops as it's only a matter of days before their shipments arrive.
 
Yeah I dont expect great things from it, its the idendical stuff to the one on the far right.

There where just 12 rounds of it mixed in with some unknown reloaded stuff I am taking apart for the brass. Any specs on what this stuff is loaded like?

Is the military brass worth picking up for reloading or just shoot and forget.

I keep hearing about the South African stuff, I take it it's worth buying then if I see some? I handload but sometime it'd be nice to just have something semi accurate to go blast off
 
I've never owned South African .308, but from what I understand, it's not reloadable. As for the specs on the stuff, some people think it's great in their M14, others think it's ho-hum. Nobody's really said anything overly bad about it though. After all, it is the cheapest stuff around at the moment!! if you go through previous threads in this forum and also the Ammo (pre-rolled) forum you'll see a couple of threads comparing South African to Portugese to Austrailian, to Austrian, to British, etc. Bottom line is if it's surplus, it's cheap(er) and still fun to shoot.

As for keeping the brass from that DA stuff, well, I guess it depends on how well it's been looked after. The stuff I was given was looked after poorly, hence the rupture.
 
Frankly, .308 brass is not scarce nor is it expensive. I would err on the side of caution...

Any other CGNutters with M14 experience and this milsurp ammo in question ? Let's see what others have experienced.....

Cheers,
Barney
 
DA is excellent stuff. Any problems will be due to storage. 64 was the best ever. Although very reloadable not worth the effort due to al the non crimped availabl.
 
englishman_ca said:
For what it's worth, I believe that the plus sign inside the circle is the NATO standard sign for ball ammunition. I have seen it on headstamps and on ammo boxes.

I was curious about the symbol so I asked a weapons tech.
Click to expand...


Not just ball ammo. It is the Nato acceptance mark, I believe. It signifies being made to Nato standard. Strangely enough, I have seen Chilean ammo with this mark. I didn't think Chile was part of Nato. :confused:

Canam Chris, are you reading this? Nobody more knowledgeable about military ammo than Chris.
 
The SA ammo is, IMHO probably a bit inferior to Radway Green and Hirt....but is is reasonably consistant and accuracy is acceptable and probably as good or better than any surplus out there currently. Much of the 7.62 ammo had dried up or been diverted to Iraq (I'm told). I picked up a case of the SA recently and found it quite reliable in the sealed battlepacks. Probably a good time to stock up.
 
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