Milsurp ammo

[Gazza]

OK chaps and chapesses......
The FAC has landed so I am now pricing up all options for ammunition.

How much cheaper is milsurp ammo over new shop bought stuff? and is it readily available or just available through specific outlets?

And.....is all military ammo Berdan primed?

[Alpha1]

What calibres ?. I don't use military ammo in any of my milsurps. I don't do cheap. The old girls deserve better. I reload for them so the ammunition fits the rifle.

[Gazza]

Calibres will be .223 and .308

[Whizzbang]

I use a lot of GGG 62gr 5.56x45 in my .223Wylde (I'm assuming you know .223Rem isn't exactly the same as 5.56x45, if not google and learn !)


The 2013 batches of GGG are very good, I bought from an RFD or the armoury at Bisley, around £45-/100rnds when I last stocked-up.

It shoots 1.5 moa consistently in my 1:8 twist barrel, which is better than I need it to do. The brass is good, not Berdan-primed, so I reload it (primer pocket crimp has to be reamed first time.)

For my purposes, it represents a significant saving over factory, non-milsurp.

[Gazza]

I use a lot of GGG 62gr 5.56x45 in my .223Wylde (I'm assuming you know .223Rem isn't exactly the same as 5.56x45, if not google and learn !)


The 2013 batches of GGG are very good, I bought from an RFD or the armoury at Bisley, around £45-/100rnds when I last stocked-up.

It shoots 1.5 moa consistently in my 1:8 twist barrel, which is better than I need it to do. The brass is good, not Berdan-primed, so I reload it (primer pocket crimp has to be reamed first time.)

For my purposes, it represents a significant saving over factory, non-milsurp.

Yes I knew they are not the same but thanks for pointing that out.
FAC states .223/5.56 and .308/7.62 so it will depend on what guns I actually buy as regards the ammunition I will need.
I was just wondering what the saving will be roughly by buying surplus stuff.
So roughly 20 quid saving per 100 rounds? Same for the 7.62?

[Alpha1]

.223 and .308 ammunition is readily available you will have to shop around for prices. Both rounds are easy to reload for and the components are available from most gun dealers.

[meles meles]

If you factor in the cost of buying all the reloading kit, you'll struggle to save money on reloading over buying GGG ammo. It's pretty good enough for most club level shooting and so we'd recommend buying plenty and practicing lots. Save the brass. Once you get to be a really good shot, then consider reloading the saved brass to eke out those extra few morsels of accuracy...

[hitchphil]

There is some very good mil-surp out there but peoples views on it seem to be spectacularly wide ranging. my comments are on 7.62/308 (i dont use 223/556etc so cant comment but the same manufacturers & suppliers have it in the same makes as below)

Barnaul steel cased lacquered green - shoots fine in a clean chamber but the lacquer vaporises a bit & can coat the chamber & if its a tight cut one then you can get feed & extraction problems, so if you use it clean it more often & harder, other than that its shoots OK to 500-600yds. Its rare now.

- HPS target rifles sell some Zn plated steel cased Cu FMJ Barnaul milsurp for 40p bang! you can slag it off after you have scored 50.4 with it at 600yds like I have! & if you know that ZnO that might come off the case is sooooo soft its used in nappy rash cream so actually no it wont ruin your chamber you can not worry too much about that either. put in the scrap metal bin with your tin cans.

Both ITL & Ammo-zone have cupronickel coated steel bullet Patrone or MEN NATO 7.62 again you can call that rubbish after you have shot 50.8 at 900 yds like my daughter has with it. & those that say the black fouling is because the steel head (vs the ball milled powder) & it ruins your barrel can carry on paying ott for 'better' stuff. CuNi is actually an 80%Cu coating on the round. Berdan scrap brass recycle.

Occasionally FN turns up at 55p/bang - that's 'Begian RG' & again its fine to 900 or to 1000 out of a 30" quality barrel. Berdan scrap brass recycle.

PPU 147 grain seems to have dried up but it was good to 900yds too. At 65p / bang selling the cases for 10p made it competitive on price. Good boxer reloadable brass.

GGG 147 grain is now more like 65p bang & imho not worth that vs the NRA 155 grain SierraMatchKing 2215 GGG at 79p. The brass is good & discussed in length on here.

HPS once fired manual reloaded 308 is very good & is in effect the same as the RWS NRA round. They will reload the cases for you at 74p. Boxer its either RWS or GGG brass.

RWS is rare now & very expensive. Superb brass.

Hope that helps track down some cost effective & good to shoot ammo.................Am sure others can point out good deals they have found too.

[HALODIN]

Don't buy too much of any ammo until you know what works well in your rifle. Ideally you'd buy a box of several different brands and test for accuracy before committing to a larger quantity. Even two identical rifles may have a different preference for ammo.

Congratulations on receiving your FAC!

OK chaps and chapesses......
The FAC has landed so I am now pricing up all options for ammunition.

How much cheaper is milsurp ammo over new shop bought stuff? and is it readily available or just available through specific outlets?

And.....is all military ammo Berdan primed?

[Blackstuff]

I haven't seen any milsurp ammo in a gun shop near me for well over 2 years Hopefulyl more will become available now we've pulled out of Iraq and Afghan (large scale).

My .308 loves 7.62mm MEN ammo, well, at 100-300m anyway. NOt used any in it for a long time now. Up until recfently PPU wasn't that much more expensive than milsurp but once the latter dried up the price of the former started creeping up and I think is almost double what it used to be 3-4 years ago