Heavy Metal Ammo

BUILD or BUY? Feeding the Heavy Metal rifle STORY AND PHOTOS BY PATRICK KELLEY TY-14401

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s your Heavy Metal rifle eating you out of house and home? Are you tired of loading bottle-necked cases? Need to work more with the “big rifle” but even with handloads practice is too expensive? Well, fellow heavy metalist, have I got a deal for you!

Up Close And Personal: The Reloading Option A quick perusal of online reloading component suppliers nets the following: bullets from $90 per thousand de-

livered for 147 FMJBT military surplus to $180 per thousand for Speer bulk 150 FMJs. These may not be your first choices for ultra match ammo, but let’s finish up assembling components and see where we go from there. The powder needed for 1000 rounds at 45 grains per shot (give or take) will require seven pounds of powder, with a little left over in the powder measure. If you buy surplus “Data” powder or your favorite name brand, you will part with $80 to $120 to make this work. Primers are cheap, right? They were. What was a penny apiece way

back when are now 1.8 to 2.2 cents per, so to make our 1000 loads go bang, another $18 to $22 are needed. Cases? “We don’t need no stinking cases.” Maybe not in the final analysis, but let’s keep $40 per thousand in mind for once-fired cases, amortized with three reloads each before replacement. You now have a shop full of low end components, so fire up your favorite progressive and turn that pile of parts into ammo. Tick, tock, tick, tock…ding! Two or three hours later you might have it all loaded and ready to shoot! With your time worth….. (Oh yeah, I forgot, it’s “relaxing”). OK, skip the time element. So you now have 1000 rounds of “less expensive” ammo in front of you that out-ofpocket cost you between $228 and $362 depending on your choices and how well you squeezed your nickels.

Don’t Drink The Water: Imported Military Surplus Now enter my zone where handloading is NOT required and your money goes further! Drum roll please… Try pre-rolled military surplus ammunition made by folks from countries where you might not drink the water! Since we are not drinking the ammo, read on, and you will probably find that military surplus will at LEAST take care of all your under-100-yard stage needs and makes for great practice fodder. Why practice hoser stages with your time-laden, carefully prepared match ammo when this resource is available? 10

FRONT SIGHT • July/August 2006

Magnet ammo. Some of the surplus imports have enough iron in the jacket to attract a magnet. They don’t damage steel (see above), but they flunk the “magnet test.”

When Front Sight’s esteemed assistant editor saddled, er, I mean offered me this assignment, surplus .308 (7.62 X 51) produced by no less than five countries was available from multiple merchants. At this point we are reduced to two, but we still have some price-competitive ammo to choose from that will easily run with our less-than-top-grade handloads. Included in my personal stores is the near-minute-ofangle Australian F4 ball that carries a 144-grain FMJBT to 2600 fps-plus in my rifles and was available delivered to my door for $200 per thousand. Another excellent variety, a 1980s vintage Argentine, is accurate, (minute of “B” zone to 300 yards), dependable, and at 22 cents per round delivered, IS my current match ammo. South Africa has created considerable ammunition stores during its history, and some of that ammunition is now available on the surplus market. For a shade less than 20 cents per shot, this 144-grain lead core boat tail FMJ is used by my fellow heavy metalist Robert Wright primarily on the aforementioned under-100-yard and hose-fest stages. The next two entries can alarm match directors because of the ferrous metal content of the bullet JACKET. The bullets are not steel cored, not armor piercing, and do no more target damage (as the photos prove) than non-magnet attracting bullets, but because this info cannot be easily foretold they remain, understandably, outside of major match use. These entries still available in limited quantities are the Portuguese and the Austrian Hirtenburger ball ammo. Both are loaded with 144-grain lead core FMJBTs that break 2600 fps and make for accurate practice and local match ammo. I have a clear conscience using them on any steel target upon which you would feel confident using your lead-core 223. At this time only the South African ammo is available from multiple sources, but if you are diligent in surfing the web HEAVY METAL AMMO continued on page 13.

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HEAVY METAL AMMO continued from page 11. you will turn up some of the others. A word of caution is in order when surfing for .308 surplus ammo. I personally would avoid any ammo produced by Royal Ordnance a.k.a. “Indian ammo,” head stamped OFV. This ammo carries a nearly universal internet dislike. Stories abound linking this fodder to all sorts of rifle malfunctions from failuresto-fire and case separations to pressure excursions that result in firearm destruction. The problem seems to be tied to de-linked and tumbled clean ammunition. I have NO proof, but web opinions are very solid on this warning.

more available surface area, and thereby speeding up the burn rate. While tumbling may be safe for some powders/loads, for others it is not. – Editors.)

OK, a heck of a lot of good this info does you now that the store shelves are empty. I had the pleasure of shopping for the good stuff while the getting was good, so are what are you to do?

(NOTE: Tumbling loaded ammo can break down the granular structure of the Group comparisons. These five-shot groups were fired at 100 yards from Kelley’s powder inside, creating DPMS match rifle. Note the Georgia Arms 168’s bottom center.

July/August 2006 • FRONT SIGHT

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Yankee Ingenuity: The MidPriced Options

Pat Kelley’s Heavy Metal rifle. Note the globe sights, turned-down heavy barrel, integral compensator, and military surplus ammo.

Earlier I established some price points for reloaded ammunition that work out to about 23 to 36 cents per round including brass. Remember, to get that price we are talking about using your free time to carefully shop for components in quantity and assemble handloads. Using this price point and eliminating the time involved in manufacturing opens up a wider selection of good ammunition.

Uncle Sam has been known to create some military surplus too, the latest manufactured by Lake City arsenal. Marked “for training purposes only,” this brass-cased, boxer-primed ammo ranks mid-pack among the “careful of the water” munitions that I have tested and can be counted on for “B” zones to 200 yards.

Montana Gold Bullet, Inc.

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Next up and within our price structure is the same ammo you manufacture at home but manufactured by Georgia Arms, Inc. This re-loadable, brass-cased .308 is topped with the SAME Speer 150-grain FMJ that we purchased in our example. And, while not “tuned” to your rifle, this ammo is accurate and reliable in all of mine. At $340 per 1000 with free delivery if you place a $1000 order, this ammo comes into your living room for about $20 less than the components alone! At this price you make money NOT pulling the press handle! Let’s be clear on something, I am NOT knocking reloading. I have looked at this from both sides and with prices like these, the budget-conscious heavy metalist CAN afford not to re-load. All the aforementioned ammo except the South African will hold the upper panel (“B” zone) at 200 yards with any of my Heavy Metal rifles from either prone or sitting on most any day my aged eyes can get a good visual on the target. That seems to be all I need to run with the pack at the major 3Gun events. This level of accuracy will

keep you on a MGM flasher to 350plus yards if target definition is good. So what more do you need? You say you are a threat to win the next Nationals and only the best will do? Georgia Arms offers a “match grade” 168-grain load that is MOA accurate to the length of my home range’s 450-yard bay. If we compare apples to apples, this ammo (with the $1000 minimum for free delivery) is priced $38 more than our ability to purchase all the components (including brass). So if you can honestly load 1000 finished, ready-to-shoot rounds in two hours (remember we are loading bottle-necked cases) then you are making $18 per hour for your efforts (not counting time spent shopping for the components). Pick up 500 “match grade” 168s and 2500 match-capable 150-grain FMJs and you have an easy season’s worth of match ammo for what you would pay for the parts! Please let me reiterate that I have nothing against handloading ammunition. I have more than 30 years’ experience in the field and even created a short-lived business, offering precision handload development services. The thrust here was to enlighten my fellow riflemen (namely those of the .308 variety) to the cost-effective alternatives to self-produced ammunition. So get on the web and surf your way to more free time and save some money feeding your “Heavy Metal” addiction.