Which cheap ammo for Ruger Precision Rifle 308

Precision shooting is like race car driving, there is no cheap solution, it is an expensive hobby.

NORC has lots of flyers, expect 2+MOA with a 3+ flyer. Being a newbie you won't have the confidence/experience to call flyers. Great for end of day blasting abandoned clays or for initial barrel warming.

By the time the RPR has worn out the barrel feeding it will be several times the cost over purchase. Reloading makes it less expensive.
 
I hear FMJ supposedly wears barrels faster. That I cannot confirm. As a hunter, I bought the 7.62x51 Chinese stuff to practice for hunting. I don't know what your end game is for your precision rifle, but for my case, practicing at 3+ moa is just fine. Especially for setting a scope. I only hunt moose, so I need to be ~ 30 MOA lol. After 100 rounds with your gun you will recognize a flyer, often sound different too. I got use to the stock, the trigger, the recoil, and the flinching / sound while using the cheap 0.50$ ammo. When I go to hunt, I shoot half a box of Hornady SFT super performance rounds, make sure scope is on target, and off hunting I go. Trusting and knowing your rifle makes all the difference in hunting. Not as much reaching sub-MOA. But I doubt many hunt with your type of machinery. I know I wouldn't. My gun cost me 250$ with a cheap scope. So I run everything through mine. I hear there's extraction issues with semi auto 308s running 7.62x51 though. They feel tighter in my Savage but still function fine. If you are ever in Ottawa, I can spare you a box of 20 if you want to try them out.
 
commandac said:
I hear FMJ supposedly wears barrels faster. That I cannot confirm. ....
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The military specification copper jacketed bullet is no different than a civilian softpoint jacket. Steel jacketed bullets MIGHT wear steel barrels faster, but remember steel hardnesses matter and armies aren't so stupid that they would intentionally wear out their important equipment.

In my understanding the wear factors are the speed of bullets, the cooling between shots and the bore itself. Fast bullets cause more friction, and likely more wear. Hotter temperatures will cause more damage than cooler temperatures. For instance, I have seen ordinary 9mm SMG barrels with chunks shot out of the bore from mag after mag fired on full auto and machine gun barrels expand out of specification from belt after belt fired continuously. This is one reason why military barrels are chrome lined, have standard operating procedures about change out cycles and firing rates. Finally, extraction is as much a function of dissimilar metals "sticking" either momentarily which is how blowback guns work, or more permanently from tight civilian specification chambers firing military ammunition. In ALL my shooting experience, I can't remember such a hard extraction that the case stayed in the chamber - expect on a loosely headspaced machine gun that had just fired a couple of belts.
 
I've used bunch of PMC Bronze .308 from CanadaAmmo and it's pretty good stuff. It is surprisingly consistent, and much better than the commercially reloaded stuff. You can find it on sale occasionally for $15/20. You won't beat that with anything else except maybe Norinco or Tulammo. But those are bimetal jackets which will destroy your precision barrel.

Stick with PMC for practice until you can afford to start reloading.
 
Use cheap stuff to sight in at 100 yards, and then mid quality to fine tune it or shooting 150+ yards.
I use Norinco surplus for plinking, and the first few shots at the range to sight in and then I'll go to new production ammo for the remainder of the range session.

But if $1+ a shot is expensive maybe going to .223 or a caliber that offers cheaper ammo would be an idea worth considering, or loading your own ammo, if you shoot lots it would likely pay for itself in the long run and you can play with different loads to see what works best for you.
 
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