Is it me, or is M80 Ball horribly inaccurate?!

[bfoosh006]

The "sanitized" DAG surplus is a great load out of my OEM PSA / DC Machine SS 18" barrel.

Not every surplus I tried shot as well ( shocking , right ? ).. the Hirtenberger '83 also did well.

The GGG 2003 ball ammo was very close to equaling FGMM 168gr group size. ( Sadly GGG altered the powder, and charge weights on the 2008 ? ball loads. )

While this era doesn't have as much readily available 308 surplus, a earlier era allowed shooters to find a surplus their barrel liked.

20rds , rapid'ish fire, 100yrds ,off the bench, scoped, bagged.. all the usual stuff.

 

[JMGlasgow]

What is sanitized DAG ammo?

I shot German DAG from several rifles and it shot very well. Easily 1moa on most days. My only concern was the cupronickel jacket being hard on rifling.

 

[thehun]

Not for me. Out of a Criterion 22” with M118LR chamber … AR10 …

 

[MadDuner]

I’ve decided that M118LR will be my go-to, while hoping it is consistent from lot to lot.

 

[bfoosh006]

What is sanitized DAG ammo?

I shot German DAG from several rifles and it shot very well. Easily 1moa on most days. My only concern was the cupronickel jacket being hard on rifling.

https://www.snipershide.com/shooting/threads/german-surplus-ammo.7014333/

 

[BCP]

I’ve decided that M118LR will be my go-to, while hoping it is consistent from lot to lot.

I used to buy it in bulk from unammo for a little under a dollar a round and never had a problem with it also the lake city brass lasts forever.

Almost all my 308 ammo is handloads using processed brass and blemished bullets and even then it's still kinda expensive. Powder, primers, brass, bullets, everything is crazy $$$ these days.

 

[bfoosh006]

Does anyone still "Mexican Match" their ball ammo ?

IE pull the 150ish gr FMJ bullet and replace it with a light gr bullet ?

And no offense intended to anyone... here is one of the given reasons it was called Mexican Match.

"One explanation given for the term “Mexican Match” is that the first use of the cartridges was by the winning competitor who used the cartridge (normal U.S. M118 Match Ball but with the bullet replaced with the Sierra 168 gr Match bullet) at the Pan-American Games of 1959 held in Mexico City."

 

[hlee]

Does anyone still "Mexican Match" their ball ammo ?

IE pull the 150ish gr FMJ bullet and replace it with a light gr bullet ?

And no offense intended to anyone... here is one of the given reasons it was called Mexican Match.

"One explanation given for the term “Mexican Match” is that the first use of the cartridges was by the winning competitor who used the cartridge (normal U.S. M118 Match Ball but with the bullet replaced with the Sierra 168 gr Match bullet) at the Pan-American Games of 1959 held in Mexico City."

I “Mexican Match” m855. JP rifles has a video demo by JP himself, going through how he does the same…

 

[Trigger Monkey]

"One explanation given for the term “Mexican Match” is that the first use of the cartridges was by the winning competitor who used the cartridge (normal U.S. M118 Match Ball but with the bullet replaced with the Sierra 168 gr Match bullet) at the Pan-American Games of 1959 held in Mexico City."

I found the source of the above quote and that explanation was debunked as inaccurate considering that the development of what would become M118 Match didn't start until 1961 and introduced in 1963. There doesn't appear to be a clear consensus on the etymology of Mexican Match but it's doubtful they were pulling M118 bullets two years before it went into development.

There was an interesting discussion developing and one possibility is that it could've been the T275 International Match cartridge that had the 172 gr bullet pulled and subbed with a 168 gr bullet.

M118 mexican match

One explanation given for the term “Mexican Match” is that the first use of the cartridges was by the winning competitor who used the cartridge (normal U.S. M118 Match Ball but with the bullet replaced with the Sierra 168 gr Match bullet) at the Pan-American Games of 1959 held in Mexico City...

forum.cartridgecollectors.org

https://forums.thecmp.org/forum/cmp-sales/ammunition/290272-7-62-international-match-ammo

Pretty interesting how fast one can go down the rabbit hole.

 

[BCP]

Probably not too common because of current surplus ammo prices.

 

[hlee]

Probably not too common because of current surplus ammo prices.

IDK. Have you seen match ammo prices? Primer supply is better than it was a couple of years ago, but if someone was hurting for primers, MM is a viable and less expensive option than buying factory match ammo.

I just saw federal m80 listed at $16.99 per 20. Pull the bullets, maybe dump and reweigh the powder, run the neck through a collet die, press in a match bullet. You’re it it for, what $1.20-1.30 per round with an eld or smk bullet. FGMM is running closer to $36.99 per box around here.

Of course, if you are set up to MM, you should be set up to reload.

Then again SGammo had winchester m118lr ammo recently, 500 for less than $600, shipped.

 

[tekmann2377]

My experience mimics most of the other posters here. Even with a fairly accurate rifle (20" Criterion M110 barrel in a large frame AR) the average group size is in the 2-3" range for generic ball ammo (ZQI, Federal, etc)

The Euro surplus (MEN and Hirt) are good stuff though, with significantly better accuracy.

I will say that not all FMJ-BT bullets are inaccurate though. Despite Hornady not being of the same class of consistency like a company like Berger, their 150 gr FMJ-BT bullets have consistently performed very well in my M80 clone loads (LC brass and a moderate load of H4895) for blasting.

 

[eastexsteve]

My experience mimics most of the other posters here. Even with a fairly accurate rifle (20" Criterion M110 barrel in a large frame AR) the average group size is in the 2-3" range for generic ball ammo (ZQI, Federal, etc)

The Euro surplus (MEN and Hirt) are good stuff though, with significantly better accuracy.

I will say that not all FMJ-BT bullets are inaccurate though. Despite Hornady not being of the same class of consistency like a company like Berger, their 150 gr FMJ-BT bullets have consistently performed very well in my M80 clone loads (LC brass and a moderate load of H4895) for blasting.

I have a couple of 7.62 rifles that like Privi Partizan non-magnetic M80. I have couple of .308 win rifles that don't. I have a national match M1A that loves M118LR from Lake City or IMI.