German surplus ammo? Good or bad idea?

[Monker10]

Hello all. I wanted to pick up some target ammo for my recently bought DSA SA58 (.308) and I found a decent deal at the local gun shop on some German surplus ammo. This is what is printed on the box(AB 22, 20 patrone 7,62mm x51, DM 111, weichkern Los DAG94B0307). It is a soft core bullet with nickel plating on the bullet not the casing. The guy at the shop said the nickel was good at decreasing copper fouling in the rifling.

What I want to know is will the nickel plating cause an increase in wear on my rifle bore, what is the grain amount how can I tell the date of manufacture, and does it shoot good.

Any info on this would be much appreciated. Thanks!

[hirundo82]

Was it like this? German surplus is good stuff, although it is not easily reloadable since it is Berdan primed. Might have a problem if your range prohibits AP ammo, since the nickel will attract a magnet.

I don't know if a cupronickel jacket will decrease bore life, although Swiss issue GP11 is also cupronickel-jacketed and their surplus rifles have a reputation for having pristine bores.

[MoJo]

Nickle plating is what makes Winchester's Silvertip bullets "silver". Copper Nickel alloy hasn't been used for bullet jackets since shortly after WWI it would foul your barrel badly. Buy the ammo and enjoy shooting it.

[Monker10]

Yep that's the stuff! Thanks for the link it gave me alot of the info that I needed.

[PBratton]

I've used DAG ammo through my M1A for sometime with no troubles.

[Barbi Q]

Was it like this? German surplus is good stuff, although it is not easily reloadable since it is Berdan primed. Might have a problem if your range prohibits AP ammo, since the nickel will attract a magnet.

Great for ranges that won't let you pick up your own brass.

[Monker10]

I forgot to mention that my barrel is also chrome lined so I'm not sure if the nickel on chrome will cause damage. Also am curious if it's more difficult to clean after using these bullets.

[RECIT]

Buy as much of it as you can at a good price and shoot it till your shoulder hurts. Its great ammo with fair accuracy expected. The bullet weight is 147grn by the way.

[jeeperbryan]

Your rifle is a tried and true battle rifle. I wouldn't worry about ammo in that thing.

AIM lists this ammo as non-corrosive. Anyone know if that's true? I saw this ammo on their site a few weeks ago but disregarded it because I thought it was corrosive.

[RECIT]

Non corrosive and good to go...blast away