Bob2650

That was easy... HSM has great customer service. I called HSM and spoke to some cute sounding gal and once I gave her the lot number they said they will send out a new case. They are out of the brass that they use for the 175 grain match so I will get a case of 150 grain imitation M-80 ball which will be fine for my use. In the mean time, I realized that Indian M-80 comes in a 50 cal size can so I opened up the can I had ready to go to the range this weekend and discovered 180 rounds of LC-02 M-80 ball with strippers, cardboards, bandoleers and spoons (that does not fit my RRA LAR8 mags) So that Indian is still hiding somewhere. All is well at Bob's house!

The HSM is 150 grain FMJBT. More like plain ball imatation than anything worthy of long range. I remember it shooting about 1.5 minutes during barrel break-in. The Indian is OK. nothing special. It is also plain ball. Shot a few hundred rounds out of the cetme I used to have. No failures. Not accurate to my standards but that was a typical century cetme. After Sandy Hook I dumped it for triple what I paid for it. Sold several losers after Sandy Hook. The Indian ammo will do for now. I will probably seat them a few thou deeper to knock off the black tar. It is tempting to pull the ammo down and reload with varget. But that is probably a lot of OCD for little gain with the military projectiles.

Well, I am sitting on 484 of those beauties. I sent a question to HSM today before posting here, as a matter of fact searching for similar problems is how I found this forum. I was counting on those for long range set up and practice enough to get my feet wet in the new to me event. The only other M80 like ammo I have now is a thousand or so 1972 Indian. At least that was back when the British ran the factory. Not looking forward to buying reloading components in this market. Mostly I need SMK bullets. Have plenty varget and primers.

In a 308AR the bullet can be crammed down into the case causing serious overpressure. My ammo is unsafe.

That was 8 cracked necks in the first box I checked. Bob

Just discovered an old case of HSM 308 150 grain orange box with most/many split necks on the unfired ammo. I fired 16 rounds of it to break in the barrel of a RRA LAR8 some 12 or 13 years ago then foolishly got too busy with new responsibilities on the job. Just now I am getting back to that rifle with 16 rounds down the tube and wanted to sight in a scope for long range shooting. I am retired and joining a range that goes out to 1,100 yards 🤪. It is a pretty good brand so I am quite surprised. Looking at the fired brass, still have 15 of them, some of them are cracked too but much shorter cracks that look like scratches until I stick a screwdriver in them and gave it a little pressure. Bob