[Badlander]

My neighbor bought A RRA LAR8 308 today. He came over tonight to show me that it would not feed, then would not eject. I tried the ammo in my FAL and had the same problem. So I tried it in A bolt gun and it would feed but the bolt closed hard.
The ammo is marked7.62x51mm Ball R1M1 029 B06/81. He bought it at A gunshow. A140 round Pack.
Anyone know what this stuff is? What would you do with it?

[RCArms.com]

R1M1 is South African 7.62x51mm Ball ammo.

I've had good luck with it over the years.

[Vaarok]

Those rifles probably all have .308 headspaced chambers, and thus the 7.62 fits tight and causes problems.

[Badlander]

It will not work in my FAL either, fits tight in my bolt action.

[jonnyc]

Although .308 and 7.62x51 are the same round, commercial .308 chambers can be a bit tighter and less-generous than military chambers.

[Badlander]

I guess no one is actualy reading my post. My FAL certanly has A 7.62x51 chamber and is completly reliable with any other ammo I have tried. This stuff will not chamber.

[SANDRAT]

Strange,I loved the SA battle-packs of 7.62x51 in both my L1A1 and my STG58.Very hard primers,but never a FTF or feeding issue.Only surplus I had trouble with was of Indian mfr,nothing but misfires and jams.Rumor had it they figured out how to make dirt burn........

[JT-AR-MG42]

Works great for me as well. Have shot many cases of varied lots.

First I've heard of chambering problems with the SA for anyone.

If you have a cartridge headspace gauge in 7.62/.308 or know someone who does, you might play around with it to deduce just what is going on.

JT

[Badlander]

Is this stuff corrosive?

[HankC]

I shoot South Africa 7.62x51 surplus in my FALs, M14 and 2 bolt guns. The bolt guns and FALs are home builts and head spaced within 308 max/min gauges. No problem at all except one bolt gun, head spaced at low end of 308, was tight. I guess you can check head space and try polishing the chamber a bit if yours are so tight. You can always sell your SA ammo, they are popular.

[lionking]

Badlander, I have some South African R1M1 ammo and have tried it in my M1A, H&K91, DSA FAL and FN Israeli mauser. It fired flawlessly in every one except my FAL where after firing the case would stick in the chamber locking the bolt and I had to slam the butt on the ground to force the bolt back and eject the case.

Accuracy results were mixed in the different rifles. The FAL for what little I shot through produced a decent group and the H&K shot well while the M1A wasn't very accurate with it and the mauser it is the only ammo I have shot through it so far.

It is not corrosive though. Odd that it being South African the rifle the ammo doesn't like is a FAL which I would think the FAL would be prevalent in South Africa and I read a few people have a problem with that ammo in a FAL.

M1A with NM sights
http://i198.photobucket.com/albums/aa45/lionking_rocks/m1a/022-1.jpg

M1A standard pre-ban with military barrel.
http://i198.photobucket.com/albums/aa45/lionking_rocks/m1a/009.jpg

H&K91
http://i198.photobucket.com/albums/aa45/lionking_rocks/HK91/206.jpg

FN Israeli mauser
http://i198.photobucket.com/albums/aa45/lionking_rocks/Israeli%20FN%20Mauser/210.jpg

[HavelockLEO]

Same here I've always had no problems with South African ammo except in a newer FAL I bought about 6 months ago. And then I only had two failures to fire.

[Badlander]

Thanks for the replys. He gave up and gave me the ammo. I will stash it away for emergengcys for bolt gun use.

[TexasPatriot.308]

I have some nice AR10s and M1As, I woulnt think of shooting cheap inferior ammo in these quality firearms.

[HavelockLEO]

I dont characterize it as cheap or inferior. South African ammo whether the 7.62 or 5.56 I've bought and shot has always been surefire (with that one and only exception) and accurate.
If you want cheap or inferior, or both, try the POF or Indian 7.62, but wear PPE and dont get too upset if you damage your rifle.

[TexasPatriot.308]

thats why I wont shoot something like that, aint gonna take a chance on messing up a high dollar firearm.

[jonnyc]

Badlander, this is your initial statement:
"My neighbor bought A RRA LAR8 308 today."
If that's what is marked on the cahmber, it is not necessarily a generous "military" chamber, but perhaps a tight commercial one.

[HankB]

South African milsurp runs fine in my FAL (a DSA StG-58) and is actually a little more accurate than the Aussie milsurp so many people were praising a few years back.

[Badlander]

Well We loaded the LAR 8 with federal .308...........It is sweet!!!!!
Stuck the ammo in A ammo can and forgot about it.

All is good!

[lionking]

I don't know if I would consider the R1M1 as "cheap ammo" as in bad ammo. It is surplus though and I have some battle packs stashed for the sake of keeping them since they were not costly back when I got them. But I check to see how it performs in my rifles for the sake and based on my results I won't use it in my FAL again, probably not in the M1A again either seeing as the groups are weird and stringing with it.

The only rifles I really trust with it are the H&K and bolts actions. That said after trying it in them I'd rather usually use other ammo like the Federal even though it costs more and I'll shoot less but the Federal commercial ammo performs well in all of them and they are all dialed in for that ammo.

If I get other surplus ammo known for decent quality I'll try it out in the rifles also. I would like to get some Radway green to try......

I have a little bit of Cavim ammo stashed also, which I shot a few rounds through the H&K years ago with no problem but then read the ammo is hit & miss in quality so I never used it again.

http://www.surplusrifleforum.com/viewtopic.php?p=705860

[goon]

I have also shot a lot of the South African surplus 7.62 through a lot of rifles. I found it to be one of the better surplus ammo options available and even managed some pretty impressive groups with it at 100 yards. Sorry it's not working for you, but I'm really surprised to hear of problems with it. It was always 100% for me.

[desidog]

As far as surplus goes, in my experience, I'd say the R1M1 SA stuff is second only to German DAG. It makes quite a fireball out of my 16" Saiga.
Here's some in action one evening last summer....caption edited for THR. My old drill instructor used to say, "'mother' is only half a word."
http://i45.tinypic.com/t62ued.jpg