[kraigwy]

OK I'll give you my take on the subject.

Mil Surplus is fine. the M118LR (the current sniper 308 load) is standard and there are companies who make a civilian version. You also have M 852 which is pretty much the same thing on 168 grn SMKs (the 118LR is 175 Grn SMKs).

They had M118 Special Ball, which was the 173 Military Match bullet. Over the years tooling for this bullet has worn out and it isn't so hot any more. It use to be all right with they called it Match and came in White Boxes, but it started going south and the Army came up with the 852 stuff for matches and then put the M118s in brown boxes calling it Special Ball. Still sucked so the army developed the M-118LR.

Hornady as well as others make comperbal ammo to match the M852 & M118LR.

It's pretty standard. Most hand loaders try to duplicate those two rounds for their 308s, Tweaking them a bit for their individual rifles.

There is a lot of "surplus ball" out there made by the government and others, including other countries. Some is good, some isn't. Just shop around for what suits you and your rifle.

Personally I like to load my 308s to match the Lake City stuff. 168s for HP to 600 yards and 175s to 1000 yards.

As for the M16 series ammo, there are different loads for different purposes. If one is serious about duplicating 5.56 long range ammo then the 77 SMKs are what the Army uses in their SDM Rifles. This is also popular with High Power shooters up to 600 yards. Most use 80 or 90 grn bullets for 600 & 1000. The 80 & 90 grns are designed to be loaded longer and wont fit in the mag. That's OK for matches but the army has to load theirs to fit in the mag so 77s are the max.

Anyway, after having said all this. Find what works in your gun and use it. If you are going in the military they'll give you a gun and tell you what ammo to use.