BUILD or
BUY?
I
s your Heavy Metal rifle eating
you out of house and home? Are
you tired of loading bottle-necked
cases? Need to work more with
the “big rifle” but even with handloads
practice is too expensive? Well, fellow
heavy metalist, have I got a deal for
you!
Up Close And Personal: The
Reloading Option
A quick perusal of online reloading
component suppliers nets the follow-
ing: bullets from $90 per thousand de-
10
livered for 147 FMJBT military surplus
to $180 per thousand for Speer bulk
150 FMJs. These may not be your first
choices for ultra match ammo, but let’s
finish up assembling components and
see where we go from there. The pow-
der needed for 1000 rounds at 45
grains per shot (give or take) will re-
quire seven pounds of powder, with a
little left over in the powder measure.
If you buy surplus “Data” powder or
your favorite name brand, you will
part with $80 to $120 to make this
work. Primers are cheap, right? They
were. What was a penny apiece way
Feeding the
Heavy Metal
rifle
STORY AND PHOTOS BY PATRICK
KELLEY TY-14401
back when are now 1.8 to 2.2
cents per, so to make our 1000 loads go
bang, another $18 to $22 are needed.
Cases? “We don’t need no stinking
cases.” Maybe not in the final analysis,
but let’s keep $40 per thousand in
mind for once-fired cases, amortized
with three reloads each before replace-
ment.
You now have a shop full of low
end components, so fire up your fa-
vorite progressive and turn that pile of
parts into ammo. Tick, tock, tick,
tock…ding! Two or three hours later
you might have it all loaded and ready
to shoot!
With your time worth….. (Oh
yeah, I forgot, it’s “relaxing”). OK,
skip the time element. So you now
have 1000 rounds of “less expensive”
ammo in front of you that out-of-
pocket cost you between $228 and
$362 depending on your choices and
how well you squeezed your nickels.
Don’t Drink The Water:
Imported Military Surplus
Now enter my zone where hand-
loading is NOT required and your
money goes further! Drum roll
please… Try pre-rolled military surplus
ammunition made by folks from coun-
tries where you might not drink the
water! Since we are not drinking the
ammo, read on, and you will probably
find that military surplus will at LEAST
take care of all your under-100-yard
stage needs and makes for great prac-
tice fodder. Why practice hoser stages
with your time-laden, carefully pre-
pared match ammo when this resource
is available?
FRONT SIGHT • July/August 2006

Magnet ammo.
Some of the surplus imports
have enough iron in the jacket
to attract a magnet. They don’t
damage steel (see above), but
they flunk the “magnet test.”
July/August 2006 • FRONT SIGHT
When Front Sight’s esteemed assistant editor saddled,
er, I mean offered me this assignment, surplus .308
(7.62 X 51) produced by no less than five countries was
available from multiple merchants. At this point we are
reduced to two, but we still have some price-competi-
tive ammo to choose from that will easily run with our
less-than-top-grade handloads.
Included in my personal stores is the near-minute-of-
angle Australian F4 ball that carries a 144-grain FMJBT
to 2600 fps-plus in my rifles and was available delivered
to my door for $200 per thousand. Another excellent
variety, a 1980s vintage Argentine, is accurate, (minute
of “B” zone to 300 yards), dependable, and at 22 cents
per round delivered, IS my current match ammo. South
Africa has created considerable ammunition stores dur-
ing its history, and some of that ammunition is now
available on the surplus market. For a shade less than 20
cents per shot, this 144-grain lead core
boat tail FMJ is used by my fellow heavy
metalist Robert Wright primarily on the
aforementioned under-100-yard and
hose-fest stages.
The next two entries can alarm
match directors because of the ferrous
metal content of the bullet JACKET. The
bullets are not steel cored, not armor
piercing, and do no more target damage
(as the photos prove) than non-magnet
attracting bullets, but because this info
cannot be easily foretold they remain, un-
derstandably, outside of major match use.
These entries still available in limited
quantities are the Portuguese and the Aus-
trian Hirtenburger ball ammo. Both are
loaded with 144-grain lead core FMJBTs
that break 2600 fps and make for accu-
rate practice and local match ammo. I
have a clear conscience using them on any
steel target upon which you would feel
confident using your lead-core 223.
At this time only the South African
ammo is available from multiple sources,
but if you are diligent in surfing the web
HEAVY METAL AMMO continued on page 13.
11
 HEAVY METAL more available surface area, and OK, a heck of a lot of good this info
thereby speeding up the burn rate. does you now that the store shelves are
AMMO continued from page 11. While tumbling may be safe for some empty. I had the pleasure of shopping
you will turn up some of the others. A powders/loads, for others it is not. – for the good stuff while the getting was
word of caution is in order when surf- Editors.) good, so are what are you to do?
ing for .308 surplus ammo. I
personally would avoid any
ammo produced by Royal
Ordnance a.k.a. “Indian
ammo,” head stamped OFV.
This ammo carries a nearly
universal internet dislike.
Stories abound linking this
fodder to all sorts of rifle
malfunctions from failures-
to-fire and case separations
to pressure excursions that
result in firearm destruction.
The problem seems to be
tied to de-linked and tum-
bled clean ammunition. I
have NO proof, but web
opinions are very solid on
this warning.
(NOTE: Tumbling loaded
ammo can break down the
granular structure of the Group comparisons. These five-shot groups were fired at 100 yards from Kelley’s
powder inside, creating DPMS match rifle. Note the Georgia Arms 168’s bottom center.

July/August 2006 • FRONT SIGHT 13

Yankee Ingenuity: The Mid-
Priced Options
Earlier I established some price
points for reloaded ammunition that
work out to about 23 to 36 cents per
round including brass. Remember, to
get that price we are talking about us-
ing your free time to carefully shop for
components in quantity and assemble
handloads. Using this price point and
eliminating the time involved in manu-
facturing opens up a wider selection of
good ammunition.
Montana Gold Bullet, Inc.
LET’S DEAL
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ON PURCHASING AND SHIPPING
POSTAL PREPAID TO YOU.
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Check On-Line Ordering:
www.montanagoldbullet.com
14
Pat Kelley’s Heavy Metal rifle. Note the globe sights, turned-down
heavy barrel, integral compensator, and military surplus ammo.
Uncle Sam has been known to cre-
ate some military surplus too, the latest
manufactured by Lake City arsenal.
Marked “for training purposes only,”
this brass-cased, boxer-primed ammo
ranks mid-pack among the “careful of
the water” munitions that I have tested
and can be counted on for “B” zones to
200 yards.
Next up and within our price struc-
ture is the same ammo you manufac-
ture at home but manufactured by
Georgia Arms, Inc. This re-loadable,
brass-cased .308 is topped with the
SAME Speer 150-grain FMJ that we
purchased in our example. And, while
not “tuned” to your rifle, this ammo is
accurate and reliable in all of mine. At
$340 per 1000 with free delivery if you
place a $1000 order, this ammo comes
into your living room for about $20
less than the components alone! At this
price you make money NOT pulling
the press handle! Let’s be clear on
something, I am NOT knocking re-
loading. I have looked at this from
both sides and with prices like these,
the budget-conscious heavy metalist
CAN afford not to re-load.
All the aforementioned ammo ex-
cept the South African will hold the up-
per panel (“B” zone) at 200 yards with
any of my Heavy Metal rifles from ei-
ther prone or sitting on most any day
my aged eyes can get a good visual on
the target. That seems to be all I need
to run with the pack at the major 3-
Gun events. This level of accuracy will
keep you on a MGM flasher to 350-
plus yards if target definition is good.
So what more do you need?
You say you are a threat to win the
next Nationals and only the best will
do? Georgia Arms offers a “match
grade” 168-grain load that is MOA ac-
curate to the length of my home
range’s 450-yard bay. If we compare
apples to apples, this ammo (with the
$1000 minimum for free delivery) is
priced $38 more than our ability to
purchase all the components (includ-
ing brass). So if you can honestly load
1000 finished, ready-to-shoot rounds
in two hours (remember we are load-
ing bottle-necked cases) then you are
making $18 per hour for your efforts
(not counting time spent shopping for
the components). Pick up 500 “match
grade” 168s and 2500 match-capable
150-grain FMJs and you have an easy
season’s worth of match ammo for
what you would pay for the parts!
Please let me reiterate that I have
nothing against handloading ammuni-
tion. I have more than 30 years’ expe-
rience in the field and even created a
short-lived business, offering precision
handload development services. The
thrust here was to enlighten my fellow
riflemen (namely those of the .308 va-
riety) to the cost-effective alternatives
to self-produced ammunition. So get
on the web and surf your way to more
free time and save some money feeding
your “Heavy Metal” addiction.