Here are my experiences with South African and Portuguese .308 surplus in my Remington 700 Ti.
I have experienced about 3 slightly harder bolt lifts with SA surplus out of about 40 fired, 2 while the rifle was almost brand new. I have chronographed 6 rounds over 2 different range sessions and came up with an average of 2640 fps, with an extreme spread of 57.5 fps, which appears to be a rather normal to low end velocity for 150 grain rounds. Primers look OK to my unsophisticated eye. The problem is that I am getting some scraping on the rear of the cases that is being caused by either the ejector and the extractor. It does not appear to be an indentation like the classic pressure sign pictures. I do not get this with any other rounds I have used, whether Portuguese surplus, Federal High Energy 180's at 2636 fps, or handloads with Barnes 165 gr XLCs at 2600. I have not had a chance to post pictures to this forum to get comments from the gurus. For now, I have suspended use of these. It's a shame, too, because I have gotten some great 3-shot 200 yard groups. And whenever I can get 2 rounds touching dead center in the target at 200, I get pretty excited, because I'm not that good.
The Portuguese feels hotter, and 3 rounds averaged 2751.3 with an extreme spread of 34.9 fps. This chrono group was shot the same day as one string with the SA. No bolt lift problems, no marks on the case, primers look OK to me. Go figure. It doesn't seem to be as accurate for me as any of the other factory or handloaded rounds I have been using, so I haven't shot much of it.
I will post pictures when I get some free time.
I can load better than factory quality ammo for about 40 cents a round using standard bullets ($1 for the most expensive premiums), using new brass for each round. The surplus is costing about 17-20 cents a round. Considering that I may only fire 25 rounds during a range session, the cost difference isn't significant to me.
