The ammo market seems to be back in full swing, finally making a bounce back from the Great Ammo drought of 2013. Those were some dark days, most ammo calibers were hard to come by in many parts of the country. However times have changed and scarcity doesn’t seem to be an issue for the time being. Well recently we got some ammo from Bulkammo.com to try out. We hit the range and did some testing with some of the common choices of 7.62×51/.308 on the market. Hopefully this helps you next time you’re shopping at your local gun store or when you buy ammo online.
The platform we used is our SCAR 17s, sporting a Geissele Super Scar Trigger. The optics we decided to go with is the Primary Arms 1×8, zeroed to 100 yards with .308 – 150 gr FMJBT- Fed American Eagle, as a baseline, with the SCAR’s zero being set with this ammo months prior to our review. The weather was humid with light rain. We started with a few shots to warm up the barrel a bit, and check our dope. Though we were shooting at 100 yard, we also chose to shoot unsuppressed to avoid the mirage interfering with the sight picture after shooting all day.
Below is the list of ammo we tested (all boxes came in a 20 round count).
.308 – 150 gr FMJBT- Fed American Eagle
.308 -168 Grain A-Max – Hornady Black
.308 Win 147gr – FMJ – Sellier & Bellot
7.62x51mm- 147gr FMJ BT – PMC X-Tac
.308 – 146 gr FMJ- Hirtenberger
.308 Win- 7.62×51 NATO-147 gr FMJ-BT -Winchester
.308 Win – 165 gr – Soft Point – TulAmmo
.308 Win – 7.62×51 NATO – 147 gr FMJ-BT-PMC
This is how each round stacked up.
Naturally the .308 – 150 gr FMJBT- Fed American Eagle held the best group, considering the SCAR was zeroed with that load months prior. The real curveball was that some of the higher end ammo had the bigger groupings.
As of the date this article was published, the American Eagle was priced at $18.50 a box, $.92 a round.
.308 -168 Grain A-Max – Hornady Black was the heaviest round we tested of the batch. This round also seemed to have the highest felt recoil impulse. The application of this round would work best as a hunting round, for medium sized game like Whitetail deer. I probably wouldn’t shoot this round in high volley, especially with the grouping we achieved.
A little on the pricey side with each box at $24.00, $1.20 a round.
.308 Win 147gr – FMJ – Sellier & Bellot. This round seemed like a good general purpose round that I’d probably take hunting. It wasn’t too smokey while firing, and the SCAR just seemed like it wanted to shoot fast with this round.
This box was $14.75 at $.73 a round.
7.62x51mm- 147gr FMJ BT – PMC X-Tac. Because this round is on the lighter side, I probably would not want to use this round for shooting past 200 yards. Moreover, I was not exactly stacking holes at 100 yards.
Price for this box was $17.25 at $.86 a round.
.308 – 146 gr FMJ- Hirtenberger. Though this is a surplus round, it is non-corrosive. This round was a little light, and as a result, the grouping was a little bigger than desirable for 100 yards.
Price for this box was $15.00 a $.75 a round.
.308 Win- 7.62×51 NATO-147 gr FMJ Winchester. This round was a bit smoky, even with a piston driven rifle. Moreover, with all the different 5 shot volleys, the grouping was a little inconsistent. I can’t stand the packaging, with a majority of the cost seemingly going into the styrofoam holding the rounds.
Price for this box was $19.00 at $.95 a round.
.308 Win – 165 gr – Soft Point – TulAmmo. Though I am not the biggest fan of shooting steel cased ammo, my SCAR really liked it and it gave an acceptable grouping. I wouldn’t have considered Tula as my first pick for a hunting round, if I could get consistent hits, then I would give it a try next time.
Price for this box was $9.00 at $.45 a round.
.308 Win – 150 gr FMJ – Tula. A good budget round, best in bulk. And though Tula is known as not the highest quality, it was surprisingly able to get a solid grouping.
Price for this box was $10.50 at $.52 a round.
.308 Win – 7.62×51 NATO – 147 gr FMJ-BT-PMC. This round has a surprisingly noticeable kick. With the round traveling at higher velocity due to the weight, the grouping was not sub MOA. With how solid the brass was however, I have been considering reloading the casings.
Price for this box was $15.85 at $.79 a round.
After shooting all these rounds, we surprisingly found that our best bang for the buck ammo (with accuracy) was .308 Win – 165 gr – Soft Point – TulAmmo. It was both affordable and grouped decently well. Better than some of the more expensive rounds. However our top pick overall was no surprise the .308 – 150 gr FMJBT- Federal American Eagle, though not the cheapest, this round was extremely consistent.
