Today I got out to the range to try out some of this ammo. The weather was cold, overcast, and misting.
All groups were shot at 100 yds off of a bench using sandbags under the fore end and butt stock.
The ammo I got from SAMCO was ROF dated 23 May 1952. The 32rd box that it came in was stamped “H3282”, “I.S.A.A.” and “MK7”. So this clearly was MK7 ammo, but by 1952 I’m not sure anyone was making anything besides that anyway.
I shot a total of 15 rounds in 3ea 5 shot groups. Results were 5-6” groups. This was with the iron battle sight as well as using the ladder peep set at its lowest setting.
I was surprised by the fact that this ammo had “Hangfires”. I’ve actually never had a hangfire before that I can remember, so this was a unique experience for me. About 8-10 of the 15rds hangfired. The brass case was berdan primed so reloading it is not an option. I doubt that I'll be purchasing any more any time soon. I can live with the hangfires for the shooting purposes I wanted this ammo for - general plinking. But I've decided that as a general rule I'll try to stay away from ammo that hangfires.
Next up was some ammo I believe originated in Greece. The headstamp is “HXP” and “85”. If my headsatmp reference guide is correct then this ammo was made by the Greek Powder & Cartridge Company, Athens, Greece.
Anyway this ammo looked GREAT. From a strictly aesthetic point the cartridges were bright and shiny. It looked the best of the 3 types of MILSURP I had on hand. I only wish it shot as good as it looked. The best group I got was about 5”. I hot a total of 2 groups. This stuff is boxer primed and the cases are already out of the tumbler and ready to reload. I was somewhat disappointed by the performance. I had read that Greek .303 was super accurate. Judging by my very limited tests I guess I had a bad lot. To bad I only have a few rounds left so I can’t do much more testing. I'd really like more of this ammo. FWIW - this ammo seemed to shooter "hotter" than the other 2.
Next up was some of the Pakistani ammo that everyone complains about. It is POF, headstamped and dated 30 September 1966 on the 32rd boxes. I've had this ammo in stoarge for about 7 years. This was very interesting to shoot. I shot about 4 groups using this stuff, one group was a hair under 2”. All the other groups were in the 5-6” range. I’m not sure how I got such a wide variance. Everything I shot today was in the 5-6” range with the exception being one 2” group with this ammo. **95%+** of this stuff hangfired. I also had some type of filler material come out of the end of the barrel while shooting. It seemed like a fine pulverized material. Upon taking a round appart when I got home I found something I had not encountered before. First off there was a paper/cardboard wad over the powder. When I removed this wad I discovered something I had never seen before. The powder wasn’t. If I had to guess I would guess it was some form of Cordite. There were multiple amber colored thin straight cylinders arranged side by side running from the flash hole up to the wad filler.
Last up were some gallery loads that I load using wheel weight lead cast bullets. I use a Lee .312 mold that IIRC drops a bullet in the 180 grain range. I water quench these bullets when dropped from the mold and shoot as cast (I don’t size them). They are lubed with Lee Alox lube. I am loading these bullets in front of 4.5 grains of Bullseye. I have no idea what the MV is but guess it’s not much. I had to adjust my rear sight to the 800M setting to get them to hit the POA. Overall these loads shot pretty well. I was consistently hitting a small coffee can that someone had hung up as a target.
As soon as I can get my Lee lead pot fixed I’m going to cast some more of these bullet and plan on this load being what gets shot through this gun the most.
Good Shooting,
Rob
) And it isn't just one or two round out of a box...more like 60-70% have this entertaining variable ignition "feature"
