Go for the Russian Izhmash Saiga Sporter in 308win/nato with the synthetic stock with the 16" barrel. I'm shooting 1 1/2" groups on a good day using south african 308 ball ammo. I'm sure it can tighten up even better with better ammo. I have heard nothing but great things about the saiga's accuracy at 200yds, 400yds and even 500yds.
Its a whole different gun too if you lube it up with moly on the bolt carrier, bolt, frame rails, gas piston and gas tube and the trigger sear, it smooths out the trigger and lessens the trigger pull too. The saiga will cycle faster and smoother too. I get my moly at;
www.mcmaster.com just do a search for moly anti-seize and halfway down the page is the premium moly and it has a higher percentage of moly in it(%). They will send you TS-70 moly from
www.ts-moly.com thats the stuff i use.
I just found out the saiga synthetic stock 308 sporter w/ 16" & 22" barrels is no longer on the import list too so what ever is out in the dealers racks thats it. The only other 308 saiga sporter has the wood stock and i figure thats soon to go too. The only saiga left in 308win will be the model 100. I figure its because of the people converting them in ak looking rifles. The 308 saiga is very affordable at $359 too. It has a chrome lined bore and chamber too and the dependability and reliability of an AK47 in a sporter wrapper. There is no other 308 that can match the performance of this new saiga 308.
I have a spanish cetme and its one of the smoothest 308's i have ever shot but its the funky charging handle that sucks. Its very accurate too. There were many problems with these too with the rollers on the bolt carrier, front site being twisted off center so it shoots to the right or the left and the rear site needing adjustment too. I was very lucky i got a decent one while it shoots a little off at 100yds i can fix it very easily its only 2" off. I don't think its worth the $399 i paid for it and i should of went after an FAL but there a lot more $$ than i wanted to spend.
The other 308 is a French MAS Commando Rifle in 308nato. These can be found for $250 to $325. These were converted by Century arms bucthers and some worked great and some had problems. I have two and we have hammered them with south african 308 ball ammo with no problems at all. I heard there were leaks on the gas tube which is an easy fix if you get one that needs fixin.
A word of caution too these military 308nato semi-auto's were designed for "nato" / "ball" ammo because its a lower pressure round than the 308win ammo is too. There were also designed for a 147gr/150gr bullet too. I read were some were warned not to shoot bullet weights past 168gr too in the military semi auto's too. I only use CCI #34 nato primers and IMR4895 powder its the correct burn rate for the cycling of the military semi-auto's. The CCI #34 primers have thicker walls for the floating firing pins on the military semi-auto's that have them. Also we have to know what military semi auto has fluted chambers too thats made for less pressure on extraction and the thicker walled case of the nato ammo. This is were we get into trouble by using the thinner brass case in a fluted chamber some think its an out of battery firing but the thinner wall case can split in the fluted chamber with the higher pressure 308win ammo. I have seen cetme's in two pieces and its not pretty.
