BAD AMMO WARNING!!!.

If you shoot military surplus .308 (7.62NATO) ammo, STAY AWAY FROM INDIAN SURPLUS. Excerpt:

Currently there is .308 surplus ammunition on the market made in INDIA with the headstamp OFV M80 and then a date code (usually 97), and a headstamp of KF 762b and then a date code (usually 91). From my understanding this ammunition came from the factory installed in machine gun belts. The ammunition was designed to be shot in a belt fed machine gun. A rumor is that they removed the belts/links from the ammuntion, and during the process, many of the necks got crushed, tweaked, the bullets loosened, and the bullets pressed further into the case.

Having an inquisitive nature, i figured, i would try this stuff out to see if it was as bad as everyone on the internet was saying.

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Now, my initial test lot was 100 random rounds obtained by grabbing through the can after the obviously bad rounds were removed, and thrown away. I came up with 100 rounds that after a second look, showed zero signs of bad cases, crooked bullets, or anything

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(O)ut of the 100 test sample rounds, i found a mixture of ball and stick powder (ball is round balls of powder, and stick looks like little sticks - two different things all together). out of 100 of the test samples, 93 had disk or ball type powder and 7 of them had stick type powder. for those not into reloading, that means they dumped whatever they had available into the cases to get them done. usually a lot of ammo is consistent in powder type. not so with the indian i had.


(A)fter weighing each powder charge inside each individual case, and charting it on paper, there was a powder variance of 6 grains between the lowest charge, and the highest charge. 6 grains of powder is an unsafe variance.

I'd say so.

The post has pictures of a blown-up CETME, a blown-up MG42 (!), and a blown-up 1919(!!).

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls; CHEAPER AIN'T ALWAYS BETTER.

Apparently this is common knowledge around the "black rifle" crowd, but it's the first I've heard about it, and I thought it important enough to pass along.