Putting away some mil surp ammo for hunting rifles

[Mannlicher]

I have been buying some mil surp ammo for my hunting rifles that are chambered in military calibers. 30/06, .308, 7MM Mauser, and 8MM Mauser.

I have not stocked up like I have for 7.62 Nato, or 5.56,but as bargains present themselves on the internet, I buy some. As an example, I got in 420 rounds of Turkish 8MM for possible use in my old Mannlicher-Schoenauer carbine. You just never know.....................

 

[AZRickD]

Not a bad plan, but I would try to stick with similar milsurp in each caliber. You'll have to spend some range time to see how they shoot (group, point of impact). Perhaps try to find one type that shoots reasonably similar to your hunting loads at some given range (out to... 300 yards, maybe?).

I would buy a small batch of each type (South African, Argie, Brit, Malaysian, Singapore, etc), to see if one of them has better accuracy), but perhaps more importanty, the same point of impact (POI) as your favorite hunting loads.

I did that for my FAL, and Savage 10FP and found that Portuguese shot .5MOA (scoped) on my FAL but only did 2MOA or so in my Savage which is a .5MOA shooter with match and handloads. However, POI was similar out to 200 yards as I recall, so Minute of Blue Helmet is good enough at this point.

Rick

 

[Art Eatman]

Some 20 years back, in the days of "Atlanta Discount Ammo", I bought some Czech-made GI Ball '06. 28 cents a round, delivered to Terlingua! While I'd mostly intended it for my Garand, I found I could get under one MOA in my pet hunting rifle..."Hansen" was the name on the boxes.

Wish I'd bought more!

Art

 

[DMK]

Are there any compatability issues with Surplus 7.62x51 and commercial bolt action .308 rifles?

 

[Sir Galahad]

No, it's compatable. My Ruger M77 International .308 has seen a few thousand rounds of South African and Portuguese military surplus with never a problem. It's fun to shoot. People are thinking, "How can that guy afford to burn through a hundred rounds of ammo?!" not knowing you're shooting milsurp.