Austrailian 7.62 F4 ammo

[mt3030]

Has anyone had any working knowledge of the quality of this ammo?  How about the Israeli surplus ammo? Or the Hot Shot line of 308 ammo. I have yet to try any of these items, but having recently starting to shoot 7.62 rifles, can see that the prices look good. Thank you..mt

[1911crazy]

I only shot South African 308 nato ammo so far and its good stuff.  I also heard the aussie stuff is good too. The FNM ammo is good too.  I believe the Hot Shot ammo is made by Igman ammo.         BigBill

The places i have checkout on the net for 308 ammo are;

AIM SURPLUS.COM         FNM 308    1,000rds   $149
Ammunition store.com   308 aussie  800rds      $129

You may want to take a look they may still have some or something different.

[chuckles]

I've never tried the Israeli or the Hot Shot. I have shot a fair amount of the Aussie and find it to be the best surplus I've used. Port, (FNM) is good too. A good rule here is "never buy ammo from a country where you wouldn't drink the water". It's not the only rule but it helps. Never buy Indian. It's real trash. :-)

[John Traveler]

I heartily second that!

Indian 7.62x51ammo is indeed TRASH!  It and bunches of Pakistani 7.62 ammo I've fired has got to be the worse quality stuff I've ever used.  We trained Kuwaiti gunnery instructors using that stuff, and it's pure crap.  Dirty burning, inconsistent velocities, poor quality control, whatever.

Please remember that NATO ammunition standards apply to European and North American made stuff.  Australia, part of the British Commonwealth, has always adhered to NATO weapons and ammunition standards.

I've had excellent results with Israeli surplus as well.  On the other side, Egyptian made ammo is not so good.

John

[1911crazy]

I've heard both good and bad about Indian 7.62 nato but the $50 a 50cal ammo(640rds) can full is sure attractive from Century Arms this month.  I was wondering is some who had split cases used it in fluted chambers and the ones who had no troubles with used it in solid chamders?? There has to be a reason why some can use it and some can I'm just baffled by the two different reports I've read.                              BigBill

[John Traveler]

Big Bill,

India and Pakistan have never produced 7.62x51 NATO ammunition.

They produced 7.62x51 ammunition, but without the certification that the ammo adheres to NATO quality standards.  This ammo was intended for their service rifles and machines guns (MAG58 copies and MG42 copies).

The Indian service rifle is an unlicensed copy of the British service L1 series (itself a licensed copy of the FN FAL).  It's a poor quality copy, and parts do not interchange with either the British L1 or metric FAL.  

The Pakistani service rifle is a locally produced copy of the H&K G3 built on German machinery.

The reason for going into these details is that the FAL type rifles use tilt-lock breeches and adjustable gas regulators, and can tolerate a wider range of ammunition variables and still function reliably.  The G3 design uses the Stecke hesitation lock, has fluted chambers, no gas pressure regulator, and is much less able to handle ammunition variables.

Hope that explains the different ammo results that have been reported.

Yes, the Indian surplus ammo is cheap, but I would much rather pay more and use quality European NATO surplus than the poor quality Indian/Pakistani stuff.

John