South African 7.62x51 any good?

[thorgrim]

What do you guys think? I have never been able to get any before. South African PMP manufactured 1981-1984.

[Fullpower]

No first hand Exp, but rumor has it as marginal.... if it's REAL cheep buy it to plink, have fun with. Not the good stuff you store away in cans with dessicant for future reference.

[MarinePride]

It is first rate surplus ammo, if you can find it cheap, buy all you can afford. I remember when you could buy a battlepack for about $25. They now cost over $60 if you can find them. .308 surplus has increased to the point that it's something to be coveted and not blasted away on a Sunday afternoon at the range. I bought a case 980 rounds of the stuff just over 2 years ago for $160. That case would now cost you over $500 if you could even find it.:shocked_ma:

[Dusty]

Hi all .
To keep them , fed..I would recommend,,
reloading ,,308 is a great round..
brass (can usually last 4-6 re loadings)
Depends if you are using a bolt or simi..
If a bolt ,think more ..
Just a thought..
Dusty...:D

[Mumwaldee]

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[rad]

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From ammoman.com did not fire any yet.
I bought a bunch of commercial ammo as well just in case.


I have been playing with beta 100 round magazines today. Would not feed well at first but worked OK after baptized liberally with graphite. Only went through one half loading after and seemed to work well.

[oz in sc]

The only surplus I have read bad things about is the Indian stuff and 'some' Israeli rounds.

Australian is looked at as very good as is the Portuguese,British,Austrian and South African...I bought a couple of cases of Port and Radway Green,didn't see the need to buy any of the Aussie when it was cheap,kicking myself NOW....

[eat_beef]

Is it South African military surplus, or PMP commercial?

The milsurp is packed in brown cardboard 20 round boxes, usually in 140 round plastic battlepacks. Headstamps are R1M1 and a lot/date code, usually A or B followed by a 80, 81, etc.

These are brass/berdan/nc. 147 grain fmj. Combat ammo, not extremely accurate, a little dirty, but surefire.

PMP should have a PMP headstamp, and all that I've seen were brass/boxer/nc. They come in several bullet weight/types and are rumored to be quite accurate.


I would guess you have found SA milsurp. It's about the only milsurp left around, and it's good stuff. The going rate is about 50 cents per round (although some sites are trying to scalp 65 out of it), but I would go with the Lithuanian for that price. I'd place it at about 40-45 cents per round.

[Maddie]

South African is good .308, though I've heard that there have been some really bad batches of it among the good. I have a few cases, but I haven't broken into them yet.

Aussie ammo from the 70s and Portuguese are also great ammos, but I doubt you could find any anymore, and if you can, you should PM me immediately. :D I'm kicking myself for not stocking up on more Port when it was available, but I was just getting into 7.62x51 at the time. I didn't make the same mistake with Aussie, but I still wish I'd bought more of it.

[Mumwaldee]

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[Mumwaldee]

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[thorgrim]

Is it South African military surplus, or PMP commercial?

The milsurp is packed in brown cardboard 20 round boxes, usually in 140 round plastic battlepacks. Headstamps are R1M1 and a lot/date code, usually A or B followed by a 80, 81, etc.

It is military surplus. I can get it for 50 cents a round. Which seems pretty good because I am in Canada and I think dealers have more trouble importing the stuff then their American counterparts.

[Maddie]

These guys have Australian.

http://ammunitiontogo.com/catalog1/index.php?cName=308-762-nato-military-surplus

*it's not cheap.

:shocked_ma::shocked_ma::shocked_ma:

Yikes! I'm glad I stocked up! It's nice to know it's available (I haven't seen it anywhere in ages), but I think I'll have to pass...

[Prometheus]

I love the SA .223 and .308 Top quality ammo. Sucks the prices are thru the roof.

[cugir321]

It is excellant ammo. The bullet's ogive is very similiar to a 155 gr palma.

There's is very little cheap 308 out there presently. I deal with ammo everyday. I listened to folks complain about indian 308 for quite some time....my standard answer was...sell it to me...I'll take it off your hands. (I saw it disappearing about 6 months before the price jumped) Now I have a ton of great ammo. You pull the bullet, clean the tar off, weigh the charge, inspect the brass, reseat the bullet. I get 1/2 inch groups at a 100 with it and the brass is excellant for reloading. There is an occasional bent neck....trash the round and move on....my 308 indian cost about 10 cents a round! :)

I payed for the reloading stuff in about 200 rounds of indian. It's too late now! It goes for 35 cents + a round if you're lucky.