Looking to buy .308 bulk ammo...opinions, experiences?

Bulk Ammo 308

308 Bulk Ammo

.308 (or 7.62 NATO, although they are slightly different, but can be used interchangeably) are almost impossible to find in bulk now. The import of them from the European suppliers dried up with some of the newer import restrictions (it's a military round and thus fell into the prohibited import list) The U.S supplies dried up many years ago when the M-16 replaced the M-14 as the standard issue rifle for the military. Today, only snipers still use .308 variants and even the M-60 machine gun is being replaced in most places by the 5.56 mm SAW variants.

Because of the number of M1A1(the legal semi-auto M-14 clone) and other guns that were chambered for it when cheap 7.62mm rounds were plentiful, the round is very difficult to find even in the 20 rd boxes from hunting suppliers.

I have my long range rifle in .308 that I built for myself. (Licensed gun smith who carried the M-14 back in my army days, so naturally the .308 was my choice!) Mine is a floating match grade barrel in a modified Kar 98 Mauser. Not really pretty, but with its old Tasco 3-9x range finder scope, I took an ibex in NM with a 440 yard single shot from one ridge to the next.

My father's DPMS LR-308 really likes to eat PMC Bronze with the 147 grain FMJ ball.

He also feeds it a M118LR clone ammo which shoots just the same for him and costs 2x more.

What you shoot will depend on what you want to spend. You can bulk buy lots of match ammo too.

My R700 shoots Hornady Custom Match ($1.50/round) just the same as it shoots Federal GMM ($2.50/rd near me). It hates PMC Bronze. I would suggest you first buy a few boxes of a few different brands and see which groups the best for you.

Try Cabela's or other sporting goods stores.

May look at 7.62 x 51 surplus.

I run silver bear through my scar 17s. At 50c per round, it's hard to beat.