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Beginning of deer season is probably a bad time to buy your first 308!

Academy & WalMart only have pricey hunting rounds available. Wound up buying $10 boxes of Monarch steel case 145gr to have *something* to shoot tomorrow.

Would rather get 168+ gr brass FMJ. Any suggestions for a local source, or head to the InterWebs?

I think the only way you will come by 168 gr. in factory ammo is to buy Federal Gold Medal match, and that will cost $1 plus per round... the standard 7.62 Nato load was/is 147 grain I believe. Not a whole lot of surplus out there right now, at least for good prices. I remember when I could buy 1,000 rds. of surplus 147 gr. 7.62 for $200.00 a case, those days are gone.

Cabela's usually has Black Hills .308 ammo in 168 and 175 grain BTHP bullets. That is pretty good ammo, and while still priced as "match" ammo, it is just a bit cheaper than the Federal stuff. Black Hills makes both a red box (new ammo) and a blue box (remanufactured ammo). The red box is a little more than the blue box, but it is still cheaper than the Federal.

I shot a lot of Black Hills ammo in my Remington before discovering the Lake City 175 grain Match, and then finally rolling my own.

Cabelas sells the 168 grain Black Hills for $29.99/box of 20. They sell the Federal 168 grain match load for $34.99.

Federal price from Cabela's

Black Hills Price from Cabela's

Yikes - I guess that'll drive me into reloading, then! Thanks for the pointers, guys.

I'm going to wind up reloading my .308 ammo, too. The only 'inexpensive' target ammo I found was S&B 147gr at Cabela's. I think it was about $16. Granted, I didn't even look at Bass Pro yesterday (just wanted to get my powder and get out - the Apple Store was calling!), but I think they may have some, too.

All the non-NATO ammo is for hunting usually and there for the price is high compared to the NATO rounds. Wal-Mart has some Federal ammo 160-165gr soft point that I bought for around $16-18 per box of 20. Less than a buck a round and still quite accurate. Anything less than 150grn are all going to be NATO cough cough...plinking rounds. I learned really quick if you want tack driving shots from a tack driving rifle its costs lots of money. Academy does sell Monarch .308 brass ammo that is manufactured by Privi and is quality cough plinking ammo. The steel cased stuff is all made in the Barnul ammo plant in Russia. Its pretty bottom of the barrel type stuff.

RECIT wrote:All the non-NATO ammo is for hunting usually and there for the price is high compared to the NATO rounds. Wal-Mart has some Federal ammo 160-165gr soft point that I bought for around $16-18 per box of 20. Less than a buck a round and still quite accurate. Anything less than 150grn are all going to be NATO cough cough...plinking rounds. I learned really quick if you want tack driving shots from a tack driving rifle its costs lots of money. Academy does sell Monarch .308 brass ammo that is manufactured by Privi and is quality cough plinking ammo. The steel cased stuff is all made in the Barnul ammo plant in Russia. Its pretty bottom of the barrel type stuff.

thanks - at least I know not to chase my tail trying to find stuff that doesn't exist. I wound up buying 5 boxes of the Monarch steel and shot it up yesterday. Other than determining that my 20 round FAL magazines are more like 19 round mags, they worked 'ok'. I'm still getting used to the rifle & recoil, so can't swear to how much of the accuracy (or lack thereof) was from me, or the ammo.

I did find a couple of boxes of the Federal 165gr @ Walmart a week or two ago, but last weekend they were out. Definitely going to be less frustrating to build out a reloading table & start DIY.

RHENRIKSEN wrote:

RECIT wrote:All the non-NATO ammo is for hunting usually and there for the price is high compared to the NATO rounds. Wal-Mart has some Federal ammo 160-165gr soft point that I bought for around $16-18 per box of 20. Less than a buck a round and still quite accurate. Anything less than 150grn are all going to be NATO cough cough...plinking rounds. I learned really quick if you want tack driving shots from a tack driving rifle its costs lots of money. Academy does sell Monarch .308 brass ammo that is manufactured by Privi and is quality cough plinking ammo. The steel cased stuff is all made in the Barnul ammo plant in Russia. Its pretty bottom of the barrel type stuff.

thanks - at least I know not to chase my tail trying to find stuff that doesn't exist. I wound up buying 5 boxes of the Monarch steel and shot it up yesterday. Other than determining that my 20 round FAL magazines are more like 19 round mags, they worked 'ok'. I'm still getting used to the rifle & recoil, so can't swear to how much of the accuracy (or lack thereof) was from me, or the ammo.

I did find a couple of boxes of the Federal 165gr @ Walmart a week or two ago, but last weekend they were out. Definitely going to be less frustrating to build out a reloading table & start DIY.

I understand about the frustrating part. But keep in mind time is money and money is time. That is the reason I do not reload. With the expense of the equipment to reload, the learning process, and the time away from my family I can not justify reloading just yet in my life. I work 6 days a week and don't want to give up the time with my family to sit down at a reloading bench in my garage all by myself. My wife likes to shoot but both of us have more going on in our lives than we care to devote to reloading. If you have time to burn and not money then by all means have at it, but I am the other way around with money to burn and no time to do it. It is too easy to do a little internet shopping and make a purchase and just wait a few days for a present to arrive in the mail. On another note aimsurplus.com has cases of German surplus .308 for less than $400 right now-no steel and non corrosive

Oh since you and I have the same rifle aimsurplus also has FAL mags for sale as well. Did you have any failures while shooting, what was you accuracy like factoring your learning curve with a new rifle, and how many rounds did you let loose?

RECIT wrote:Oh since you and I have the same rifle aimsurplus also has FAL mags for sale as well. Did you have any failures while shooting, what was you accuracy like factoring your learning curve with a new rifle, and how many rounds did you let loose?

Man - I can't believe I didn't know about aimsurplus. Thank you! Just ordered 400 rounds. Believe me, I've stayed away from reloading for the same reason. That price on the German ammo is good enough to keep me out of the garage for a while longer.

I'm also kicking myself - I bought 5 used FAL mags from another site, and while they all worked last weekend, they're rather gritty inside. AIM's has *new* for about the same price :-( Oh, well.

The only functional problems I've had in 200 rounds of shooting so far are FTF when putting 20 steel case rounds in the mags. About a 40% failure rate. 19 rounds/mag works fine, and the 20 round loads w. brass cases weren't a problem - though the latter were with the two mags that came w. the rifle, not the gritty used ones I tried last weekend.

The two times I've shot have been been so windy that I've felt a little pushed around by the wind, and am not using match ammo, so my groups haven't been worthy of posting. Perhaps 2 MOA at best. I'm having fun, though. This is the first non-.22 rifle I've owned, so am starting from scratch w. manual of arms, getting comfortable w. the handling (and weight!), etc. Was with 6 friends last weekend, and everyone had a great time trying it out. Can't believe my petite wife actually put about 8 rounds through it. I kept expecting her to stop, and she kept pulling the trigger! She's 4'10", just over 100 pounds.

Awesome to hear. My wife is not scared of mine either. Mine wears a Trijicon TR20 3x9x40 in a LaRue mount. Its a dream to shoot.

I've started with a low end 4-16x power scope while I'm learning.

AIM tells me I have to send them my I'd to order from them? I'm not buying a firearm, just ammo. Never had a website request a scan or fax of my DL before...?

RHENRIKSEN wrote:AIM tells me I have to send them my I'd to order from them? I'm not buying a firearm, just ammo. Never had a website request a scan or fax of my DL before...?

Yep; that's their internal policy, seemingly for proof of age as much as anything else. Since they're in Ohio, I have no idea whether or not the policy is affected by Ohio law. I've purchased ammo from them several times before; reliable shipping and good customer service. You only have to provide a DL or government ID one time; once on file, you're good to go for future purchases.

Thanks for the reassurance

Yeah, I've found the ID for ammo thing to be relatively par for the course from multiple places online. I think it's simply to meet ammo sale laws, as others have stated.