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Ammo recommendations

Colonelhogan

Colonelhogan

Well-known member
Evening everyone,
I plan on shooting a vintage sniper match with my clone high turret with ajack 4x90. I picked up some 200 grain ppu match for it. I havent seen much feedback. Looking for ammo recommendations
 
I highly recommend hand loading if you can get into it. Hopefully ya saved all your brass as well from all the commercial ammo you used in the past, PPU brass has been excellent in my experience. Nosler, Sierra, PPU and Hornady all make bullets in .323" but I think Hornady discontinued or its not on there production schedule of there 196 grain HPBT that is used in there match line of ammo. Haven't seen that bullet around as a buyable competent for hand loading since 2018 or 2019 but have seen there vintage match ammo so could be just ammo production only component now like the Winchester PEP bullet.
 
PPU match has always been pretty accurate for me in 6.5x55, 7.62x54r, and 308. The 8mm PPU match offerings, while accurate, still suffer from the same underloading and slow FPS as their standard stuff. I'm talking about setting my irons to 400m to even get close at 100m. You'll have that issue with a scope too. Might not adjust low enough. I find S&B 196gr stuff is close to German WWII specs. The SPCE (soft points) actually do way better than the FMJ stuff. My LSR clone can easily do 0.5 to 1moa with it but does not do the same with the FMJ. I have also had fantastic results with some Geco 196gr soft points but have not seen it for sale in years. Only have 5 boxes so it's relegated to deer/hog hunting for actual usefulness. If the PPU is accurate for you and you are able to adjust low enough then just roll with it. I just don't find their 8mm offerings to be acceptable compared to other brands.
 
All commercial 8MM is underloaded . Anemic would be the best description. Seems like I chrono'ed some several years ago and it barely cracked 2k fps..maybe less .
As mentioned no 2 guns will necessairly like the same loads so it is trial and error . But I will say that every sniper clone I own has digested and shot well with M75 Yugo Sniper . If memory serves me correct it runs around 2300 maybe a tad less 2250.
Yes it has corrosive primers and you will have to clean your gun soon after but I have run 3 or 4 cases of the stuff through all of my guns and I have zero complaints and still have a supply .
I switched to handloads in search of ultimate accuracy and to cut back on the deep clean. If you can find some I would try it.
 
agalland said:
All commercial 8MM is underloaded . Anemic would be the best description. Seems like I chrono'ed some several years ago and it barely cracked 2k fps..maybe less .
As mentioned no 2 guns will necessairly like the same loads so it is trial and error . But I will say that every sniper clone I own has digested and shot well with M75 Yugo Sniper . If memory serves me correct it runs around 2300 maybe a tad less 2250.
Yes it has corrosive primers and you will have to clean your gun soon after but I have run 3 or 4 cases of the stuff through all of my guns and I have zero complaints and still have a supply .
I switched to handloads in search of ultimate accuracy and to cut back on the deep clean. If you can find some I would try it.
Click to expand...
Yes anemic would be the correct term. I used to chronograph stuff when I had more free time. The 8mm PPU WAS less than 2k fps. Totally unacceptable. The S&B was around 2500 and so was some "Russian" branded ammo using new primers but old powder and bullets. It always went bang and pretty consistent 2500 fps so I assume those were about as close as I'd get to military stuff without having to do a thorough clean. I've definitely shot FNM, M75 yugo, Romanian 8mm (smells like rotten eggs), Greek, and Turk stuff. All shot to consistent POA/POI. Turk stuff was hot, dirty, and thumped a little too hard so I quit using it. Surprisingly, 1940 Greek ammo has been pretty good to me but isn't "match ammo" by any stretch. These days it's really just S&B for me.
 
Ahh yes..the Romanian Green Goddess Ammo. I bought quite a few of those Spam cans. Seems like it came in 360 round ct or maybe 480..cant rightly remember. Advertised @ 199.99 with 0.01 cent shipping.
And yes, it did smell like rotten eggs , and smoked ,and when you looked down your barrel after firing 4 or 5 cartons it literally looked like it had gravel in it.
But oddly enough ,I have a G43 that I have installed an Accumounts Scope mount, loaded with a postwar ZF4 , and the gun literally loved that trashy a$$ ammo. I could shoot 1.5 moa @ 1 hundy all day long and my subsequent hand loads have yet to exceed that feat but G-43's arent exactly renowned for stellar accuracy anyway.

Fact is you just never know what is going to be a winner. No rhyme or reason.
 
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