What do you feed your .308 for practice?

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epijunkie67

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Obviously your ammo selection for practical application will depend on what you are shooting at. A deer hunter is going to use different ammo than a target shooter. But it gets awful pricey plinking at the range using high performance rounds at $2.50 a piece.

What do you usually feed your rifle when you are just practicing? Just using the cheapest stuff you can find that day means moving back and forth between different manufacturers using different powders and different bullets. Not a great way to maintain consistent groups, but it is the cheapest route.

So what do you guys feed your rifle for range practice? Mil surp? WWB? Do you just find a good deal on something and order 2000 rounds up front? What's your system?
 
WWB seems to be the cheapest for my RRA AR-10 and then I can reload the brass...

running about .60$ per round buying 100-200 rds at a time.

There's cheaper out there, but I'm looking for quality brass to eject...
 
Remmington core-locts in my 06 for practice, and they work good on deer too, or so I hear, .90 to 1.10 per round and I don't need to adjust my scope :cool:

Like above, I save my brass. As soon as I can I'm going to start reloading my ammo, if your plinking with .308 bullets it is really the only way to go. For generic target practice I use the .22 :)
 
I don't see the point in practicing with one ammo and using something else for serious work. I practice with the exact same ammo I intend to use so I'll know exactly how it will perform.

I save money by reloading. If I just want to plink I use a .22
 
I'm sorry - but I fail to see the relevance of this topic.
If you want to shoot cheaper then factory loads, I will sell you a 8 lbs jug of IMR 4350 for $120 and you can buy a Hornady reloading press for about $250.00 and they will give you 500 bullets of your choice - just for buying their press.
Add in the price of primers which is probably $40 - a thousand these days and you can still load ammo much cheaper then store bought - as long as you are willing to spend the money up front and are willing to put in a couple of hours a week to reload your own shells.
Once you see all the work that goes into reloading - you won't be so quick to jerk the trigger a couple of hundred times a week.
You can thank George Bush and Obama for prolonging this war and making reloading components more expensive and your federal government for devaluing our dollar to the point of where it costs double or triple what it did just 15 years ago to fill your gas tank or your refrigerator.

They do not have to control guns - all they have to do is raise the cost of shooting to the point of where the average person cannot afford to do so anymore and they will have all the guns they want - cheap.
 
don't see the point in practicing with one ammo and using something else for serious work.
Click to expand...

I agree with that. And when I'm shooting a precision bolt gun I only shoot what I will use for "serious work". I was just explaining this to a buddy of mine who is beginning shooting that he should shoot the same ammo for practice as he does for "serious work" other than for just the joy of shooting. But, when I am shooting my PTR91 or L1A1 I will often shoot some lesser grades of ammo strictly for practice as the overall performance out of a rifle like that will not necessarily suffer to the same degree as a high precision rifle as a battlerifle is more of a blunt instrument, comparatively speaking. With a bolt rifle I may only take twenty or thirty shots in a day. With my PTR it could be a very different matter. In that case I have a preference for American Eagle as a less expensive yet quality alternative.
 
I have 2 rifles in .308. My Savage is used for 600 yard matches and I don't spend much time shooting it casually. I feed it my match load with 168 or 175 grain SMK's, depending on brand of brass. When I shoot my M1A, I use either Portuguese, South African, or Australian milsurp. I was fortunate to have bought a fair amount when it was still 15-20 cents a round. Having said that, a typical range session is now maybe 60-80 rounds, instead of 150-200 rounds before everything became expensive.

Will
 
EPI,
Most all of my shots have been load development & matches. I don't practice or plink with .308 too much. I also shoot .223 & .30-06 but now mainly as with .308 load dev., match & zeroing. Hand loads aren't bad price wise compared to decent ammo.
Most of my practice is on the cheap. I do dry fire, shoot air rifle & .22lr from bulk packs.
When I first get a rifle I shoot it a bit to see how it does.

As someone said elsewhere "Life is too short to shoot cheap ammo" & "I don't waste barrel life on bad ammo". At first I just took it as stupid comments, but now realize the context of where they were coming from.

I would either start handloading or just start trying some of the cheaper ammo to you find a price point where you like.

A while back my brother went to sight in someones .270 with some high priced ammo. I told him "stop at Academy" we go a box of cheap Privi IIRC and made sure it shot OK before using up the Federal Fusion that the guy seriously overpaid on.

I don't blame you for trying to keep some dollars.
 
My PTR 91 eats up wolf like it's candy. And at $8.88 a box from Cabelas, it's the cheapest .308 I've found per 20 rounds
 
In the days, long ago, before I reloaded, I too did this. Shooting the cheap stuff for plinking and practice, but since I started reloading, shooting the "cheap stuff" doesn't save you a whole lot. Besides, the barrel life of a .308 is limited and I hate the idea of shooting ammo out of it that doesn't allow it to shoot to its best ability.

I figure it's costing me $10 to $12 per box of 20 for 175gr SMKs. I can't see shooting cheap stuff to save a couple of bucks.
 
My handloads. 168gr Hornady A-Max, Winchester Brass, Federal LR Primers and BL-C(2) powder. May not be the best per se, I dont know. It was the first load that I tried, and it will shoot sun-moa in my gun if I do my part. Since I found a good load I just stick with it.
 
About nine grains of TrailBoss and a 165 grain cast bullet (plain base). A lot of shooting for little money. Use it to train kids from the church for their first deer season. Shooting a "high powered" gun but learning without much recoil.

A Ruger Compact rifle, 16 1/2" barrel, a short laminated stock with a scope mounted on the receiver dovetails and not on the fore rib.
 
I use the same loads I hunt with. I hand load all my ammo for my .308's. I see no reason to practice with something other than what I need for the rifles specific purpose. My hunting ammo is for all intents ans purposes target ammo.
 
MFR 7.62 Nato.

My Funky Reloads. Once fired LC case, CCI #34 primers, WC846 and pull down 147grn FMJ bullets.

WB
 
during the hunting season i use whatever i'm hunting with as i dont want to have to worry about checking my zero over and over.

during the off season i usually shoot PMC. $10 for 20.

just got into reloading so i may start rolling my own if i can find some good used dies.
 
WNTFW said:
AVS,
Is it brass or steel cased?
Click to expand...
steel...i tried shooting brass out of the gun once, but it wouldn't eject the spent casings. I was reading online and i guess guns with a certain range of serial numbers have a hard time shooting brass
 
My 700 is on a diet of high quality rounds, Federal Gold Medal Match (168 Grain SMK's) and hand loads using Federal Brass, 168 Grain SMK's and Varget powder. It's first shots where with some reloads my buddy did for his M1A at 39.5 grains of Ramshot and 155 Grain Hornady A-Max rounds.

Haven't had much time to dial in the reloads to see which will give me more accuracy due to the weather and the range closing early yesterday (didn't get to shoot sadly :( ) so I'm basically running around the FGMM rounds as the "baseline."
 
Mine is the Ruger Compact with the 16.5" barrel as another above. I hunt with it year rournd using it on feral hogs.In fact in the 10 or so years I ahve had it I have only shot one deer with it.

I was getting the standard Rem 150 CL's for around $10 a box and I would stock up on them usually getting 10 or more boxes at a time. I got some Federals not too long ago for about the same price, and they both shoot very well averaging around 1.5" at 100, easily minute of hog.
 
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