Range Report Anybody heard of "dispersing" .308 MG ammo?

[Altnews]

So, I go to Knob Creek in April for the machine gun shoot and find a seller with a pallet of "NATO .308/7.62 147gr. ball" ammo for $180 per 200 round box. Since I haven't been able to find ANY ammo for my .308 of late I bought $3500 worth of this ammo, which was advertised as "Lake City". Headstamp says "CAVIM 91"

So today I go to the range to set up a night shoot and try to zero three different rifles and not one of them will shoot within 2 to 3 MOA at 400 yards. Bullets go all over the place with no predictability whatsoever.

So my Reservist friend tells me he thinks it's delinked "dispersing" machine gun ammo.

Needless to say I'm highly embarrassed and we had to scramble to get someone to bring some usable ammo to the competition. Shooting this crap would be totally unfair and would turn it into a game of chance.

Anybody have good information on this ammo?

Looks like I need to peddle it at the next gun show and try and find some more Gold Medal Match...I've only got a thousand rounds of that left.

 

[ksthomas]

altnews,

Lake City used to produce 50 BMG ammo that had a particular maximum accuracy threshold, that is, the lot would be rejected if the ammoe shot groups smaller than the specified limits. This was intended for use in aircraft, where a wider dispersion of the group was a desirable characteristic. I'm not aware of anything like this having been done with 7.62 ammo, but the military has done a great deal of work in obtaining wider dispersion through other means, including modifications to the weapons themselves. For what it's worth, I've never seen the headstamp you describe on anything coming out of Lake City, and the vast majority are the standard "LC", date and NATO cross markings.

 

[BGE541]

I have only shoot 147gr LC through two guns, a 240B and an M14SSR. I can tell you from my experiance that it works well in the 240B from what is is designed to do... Hit down range. In the M14SSR which can hold 1 MOA in field conditions (with M118LR) things get alittle "loose" with the 147gr (say 2 MOA if that). So either sell it or shoot it but if you are trying to shoot sub-moa I would look else where.

 

[Rob01]

CAVIM is Venezuelan ammo headstamp. I would get ahold of whoever sold it as Lake City and raise a bitch.

Headstamp Codes - International Ammunition Association

 

[TiroFijo]

Cavim is indeed venezuelan ammo, most of it is not very good accuracy wise, and some lots are crap.

 

[Altnews]

Cavim is indeed venezuelan ammo, most of it is not very good accuracy wise, and some lots are crap.

This one sure is. So I don't sound like a total noob, the box he showed me when I bought the stuff WAS Lake City ammo, I checked the headstamp. It appears he switched that box out and I didn't check all the other 13 boxes.

My bad. Next time I'll check every freaking round if I have to.

Derp.

Anybody want to buy some short-range .308 plinking ammo? Only $200 a box ($1.00/round)