Wolf .308

[Werewolf]

I've located a source of .308 for sale. $249 per 500.

It is Wolf steel cased polymer coated, 150g, 2800 FPS stuff.

I'm not one of those Wolf haters. I shoot it out of my CZ's, and 7.62X39 Saiga Rifle without issue (other than the occassional flier - which may be me but I doubt it).

I've never tried the .308. I'd be shooting it out of a .308 chambered Garand and occasionally, just maybe out of my CZ-550 (that'd be just punchin' holes in paper for fun though).

Anyone have experience with Wolf .308? Good/Bad/Indifferent?

Inquiring minds want to know.

[zahc]

Is that cheap?

[jackdanson]

Not that cheap.  You can get 150 gr. federal at wally world for $12/20.

I picked up a bunch of prvi 168 gr. match for $15/box recently.. it shoots pretty well.

[AZRedhawk44]

Only failures I've ever seen on .308 semiauto rifles could be possibly ascribed to Wolf ammo.

One was about 2 weeks ago at an Appleseed.  Guy put about 300+ rounds through his M1A before the chamber got gummed up by the Wolf polymer/lacquer coating melting off.

The other was about 2 years ago, also at an Appleseed.  Guy put about 250+ rounds through his M1A before the extractor broke.  He was using Wolf steel with polymer/lacquer coating.

Never seen a Garand go down using brass ammo, nor an M1A using brass ammo.  Always seems to be the guys shooting steel case stuff.

Anecdotally, my Mosin has a much harder time extracting fired surplus steel cases than it does with fired surplus brass cases.  I don't shoot my steel case surplus any more even with that.

IMO, not worth the price break.  Reload or buy new and accept the cost.

[AZRedhawk44]

Not that cheap.  You can get 150 gr. federal at wally world for $12/20.

I picked up a bunch of prvi 168 gr. match for $15/box recently.. it shoots pretty well.

+1 to the 150gr Fed softpoints.

Those feed just fine from my M14 as long as the sharp leading edge of the magazine gets filed to a rounded smooth profile.  10 seconds with a file does that just fine to my mags.

Your Garand has that mag well insert since it's .308, right?  Those have a feed ramp on them, IIRC.  Should be fine with softpoints.

[Brad Johnson]

Only failures I've ever seen on .308 semiauto rifles could be possibly ascribed to Wolf ammo.

One was about 2 weeks ago at an Appleseed.  Guy put about 300+ rounds through his M1A before the chamber got gummed up by the Wolf polymer/lacquer coating melting off.

The other was about 2 years ago, also at an Appleseed.  Guy put about 250+ rounds through his M1A before the extractor broke.  He was using Wolf steel with polymer/lacquer coating.

Never seen a Garand go down using brass ammo, nor an M1A using brass ammo.  Always seems to be the guys shooting steel case stuff.

Anecdotally, my Mosin has a much harder time extracting fired surplus steel cases than it does with fired surplus brass cases.  I don't shoot my steel case surplus any more even with that.

IMO, not worth the price break.  Reload or buy new and accept the cost.

The Wolf I've seen recently doesn't seem to have the coating.  Feels like it has some kind of dry protectant on it.

Brad

[Werewolf]

Not that cheap.  You can get 150 gr. federal at wally world for $12/20.

I picked up a bunch of prvi 168 gr. match for $15/box recently.. it shoots pretty well.

That'd be great - if it could be had. (Also at $12/20 500 rds cost $300).

There's not a Walmart within 30 miles of OKC that has any ammo except wierd calibers ever. Well - at least not when I go there. They get shipments a couple times a week, stock up in the morning and most of it is gone by 10AM or so.

To tell the truth even at $300 for 500 rounds I'd probably pay it 'cuz in my personal experience the federal is pretty good stuff.

[Werewolf]

Is that cheap?

Define cheap...

I can get 200 round battlepacks of South African 7.62X51 for $89 which works out to $222.50 for 500. Cheap? IMO SA 7.62X51 is practically worthless (well - it's better than Indian but that's not saying much). The SA mil-surp I've bought has oversized and overlong rounds at a high enough frequency that I just plain won't shoot it anymore.

Going rate now for decent milsurp .308 seems to be around $300 to $400 for 500 rounds of Lithuanian, UK, German, that Yugo brand etc. You can pick up Indian and I've even found some Indonesian .308 for cheap but I like my rifles too much to put Indian or Indonesian crap into them.

The Wolf coming out now has the polymer coating instead of the lacquer coating that tended to melt when chamber temps got high. Haven't heard any complaints about the polymer coating yet.

Wavering on rather or not to buy it. Don't really want to get stuck with the stuff if it turns out to be no good.

[Balog]

I've never heard anyone complain about surplus South African. In fact, I'd always heard it was among the best you can get. How odd you've had some much trouble.

[jackdanson]

Buy a little bit to test it out first.

I've never been fond of steel ammo, I have a massive brass collection for when I start reloading.

Yeah my walmart has been out of 9mm for months.  I can usually get 2-3 boxes of .308 every time I go in.. it adds up pretty quick.  They also have .223 in stock all the time, but I buy that online for cheaper.

[Werewolf]

I've never heard anyone complain about surplus South African. In fact, I'd always heard it was among the best you can get. How odd you've had some much trouble.

Maybe I got some bad battlepacks. Bought the stuff about 3 years. Still have 2 or 3 hundred rounds of it stashed away in a closet somewhere.

The specific problems I had were case diameters so large that the round wouldn't chamber or chambered only by forcing the bolt forward. The other problem was OAL long enough to jam the bullet up into the lands and/or push it further into the case (those were scary).

About 1 in 20 rounds had one or the other of the problem. One of these days I'll sort the bad from the good and just toss the bad.

Edited to add: Ya know. Now that I think about it maybe I ought to have a gunsmith check the chamber. It might have come from the factory on the small side or enough out of spec on the small side to cause the problems I am seeing. I never considered checking spec on the .308 case and OAL dimensions because I don't reload .308. I just checked the bad ones agains rounds that didn't have a problem chambering.

[Balog]

Sounds like a 7.62x51 vs .308 problem. The chambers are different.

[French G.]

I had some SA in '01 or '02 when it was $29 a pack. Shot great in a boltgun I had, madea few 200 yard bugholes. My M-1A was not a fan though, I stopped using it after a few extraction issues. Issues like the case still being in the chamber after the extractor ripped the rim off. I sold the rest of the ammo, should have kept it given the price inflation. I wish I could still buy Portuguese for $29/200, that is really nice stuff.

[zahc]

I must just be out of phase with how much it costs to feed major caliber rifles. I thought ammo was something like .33-.4 a round; maybe it's because I used to shoot a lot of .223. Have prices gone up 2x, or are these prices typical for even a couple years ago?

[French G.]

Prices have tripled. I remember the good old days six years ago, buying 1000 PMC .223 for $150, 1000 XM855 for 200. Or $70/5000 primers, or $13/lb of powder. Ahh, the good old days.

[zahc]

Wow. I guess I am out of phase. I had the opportunity to buy a case of millitary .308 at a garage sale a year ago for about .35 a round. I didn't, because I don't have a .308. Dumb, dumb, dumb.

[crt360]

I'd try it.  There's nothing on the shelves around here.  Academy has some high dollar hunting ammo and 0 pistol ammo.  The can't even keep the steel-cased .223 in stock at around $10 a box.  I stopped by a Wal-mart the other night that normally stocks a lot of ammo.  They had almost nothing.  No pistol ammo.  No .22 LR of any kind.  They had a few boxes of .270, a couple of boxes of .17 HMR and some buckshot.  I'm so tired of the ridiculous prices and lack of ammo that I'm not even going to worry about buying any for awhile.  As much as I enjoy shooting, I've got plenty of other things to spend my time on right now.  There's no way the people that are buying everything on the shelf are shooting it all and someday they're going to decide they have enough stockpiled for whatever it is they're waiting for.

[freedom lover]

Sounds like a 7.62x51 vs .308 problem. The chambers are different.

.308 is loaded to higher velocities too.

[Werewolf]

Sounds like a 7.62x51 vs .308 problem. The chambers are different.

A bit but just a bit.

SAAMI says the rounds are completely interchangeable.

But it is possible as you pointed out that the chamber in my bolt gun which is .308 is just enough smaller that it could be causing the problems.

Good catch Balog... 

[Balog]

  Glad to be of service.

It's a stacking tolerance thing. Although nominally interchangeable, a chamber that's cut on the small side of the smaller caliber combines with ammo on the large size of the larger caliber and suddenly they ain't so interchangeable. Also, iirc SA is loaded unusually hot so that's something to be aware of as well.