50 BMG

[gunner336]

?? What is the current going price for newer 05 to 08 US GI 50 BMG ball rounds. Not reloads but US GI rounds. I see overseas stuff for $4 and up is US Ball more ???

[1lostinspace]

man you need to start reloading

[CSACANNONEER]

My guess would be about $3.50/round. But, ball ammo is steel cored blasting ammo. For about the same amount per round (maybe a little less), you could reload top quality ammo that is capable of producing sub moa groups.

[Mssr. Eleganté]

?? What is the current going price for newer 05 to 08 US GI 50 BMG ball rounds. Not reloads but US GI rounds. I see overseas stuff for $4 and up is US Ball more ???

USGI .50 BMG ammo hasn't been available to the public for many years. Surplus .30 caliber USGI ammo is still made available through the Civilian Marksmanship Program. But for .50 BMG you are going to have to settle for remanufactured stuff.

[AaronHorrocks]

?? What is the current going price for newer 05 to 08 US GI 50 BMG ball rounds. Not reloads but US GI rounds. I see overseas stuff for $4 and up is US Ball more ???

It's not available to the public. The best you can do is find once fired brass from 05 to 08 and have it reloaded.

[SCMA-1]

For use in rifles, TALON remanufactured ammo is the way to go, NOT surplus machine gun rounds. Machine gun ammo is made to very loose specs and is seldom very accurate. Variations in charge weight can be huge resulting in poor SD between shots and accuracy. TALON remanufactures these machine gun rounds to tight rifle specs and the results are clear; many report accuracy of less than 1.5MOA at greater than 500M with Talon ball.

SCMA-1

[50 Shooter]

Talon went out of business a couple years back so you can't get thier stuff any more. Okay, you could if someone has had it stashed away and is now selling it for profit.

You can find surplus ammo that's new old stock, Ammoman has the Argentinian stuff for $3 delivered. There was a bunch of '52 stuff that hit the market last year.

I think Wideners had some surplus, not sure which U.S. stuff they have but they have some. They also have some South African ball for sale that's some decent stuff.

[SCMA-1]

Talon went out of business a couple years back so you can't get thier stuff any more. Okay, you could if someone has had it stashed away and is now selling it for profit.

Thanks for the update on TALON; I've been "out of pocket" for a number of years now and didn't know they went out of business. That's too bad as I used to buy their 150rd cans of 50BMG for around $165+tax from Miwall; great shooting stuff for the price. Still have a good stash of the stuff; I'll think I'll be frugal with it.

SCMA-1

[AaronHorrocks]

For use in rifles, TALON remanufactured ammo is the way to go, NOT surplus machine gun rounds. Machine gun ammo is made to very loose specs and is seldom very accurate. Variations in charge weight can be huge resulting in poor SD between shots and accuracy. TALON remanufactures these machine gun rounds to tight rifle specs and the results are clear; many report accuracy of less than 1.5MOA at greater than 500M with Talon ball.

Talon ammo isn't all that good. I've seen my fair share of dented cases, and wiggling bullets in thier batches. With a round this large, shooting them would be drastically unsafe and could damage your several thousand dollar rifle.

As far as Machinegun rounds being "seldom very accurate" I have to refference Carlos Hathcock:

http://www.grunt.com/scuttlebutt/corps-stories/heroes/carloshathcock.asp

Hathcock would eventually be credited with 93 enemy confirmed killed, including one Viet Cong shot dead by a round fired from a scope-mounted Browning M-2 .50 caliber machine gun at the unbelievable range of 2500 yards.

The problem with getting real military surplus machinegun rounds is that the powder burns faster, hotter, and dirtier than commercial ammo. This is a quite a problem if you're shooting it out of anything other than a military machinegun. Even on the bolt action Mosin Nagant, if you shoot MG rounds, your bolt will get rammed back so hard it takes a 2x4 to knock it loose. You could even damage semi-auto guns since the load is just "too hot".

Now if you want to argue that Talon ammo isn't that accurate, I'm all for that discussion. They're not high-end competition ammo. It's plinking ammo for the M2HB.

Talon went out of business a couple years back so you can't get thier stuff any more. Okay, you could if someone has had it stashed away and is now selling it for profit.

You can find surplus ammo that's new old stock, Ammoman has the Argentinian stuff for $3 delivered. There was a bunch of '52 stuff that hit the market last year.

I think Wideners had some surplus, not sure which U.S. stuff they have but they have some. They also have some South African ball for sale that's some decent stuff.

Talon was shut down by the government, being pushed by environmental whackos.

Wideners U.S. ammo is linked.

[duraglock]

Yeah well I think carlos took more than 1 shot and its always the shooter that factors more not the ammo. I have shot talon alot and its some of the better surplus. I would still just reload get the lee kit and you could load cheaper and better than talon.

[AaronHorrocks]

Even if he took just two shots, then it must have been very consistant ammo. Mediocre ammo at 2500 yards is going to be all over the place.
Talon isn't surplus ammo, it's commercial ammo made from surplus components.

[SCMA-1]

I have shot talon alot and its some of the better surplus. I would still just reload get the lee kit and you could load cheaper and better than talon.

That's been my experience with Talon ball as well as many other 50 shooters; nobody is claiming it's match ammo but at a buck and a quarter a round (back when I used to buy it) it yielded better results than any surplus mil ball (even costing more than that) I've seen and wasn't worth the time and effort to reload using the same surplus components.

The single anecdote about Hathcock does not qualify as a statistical sampling of any significance and is even less significant considering this feat of marksmanship was pulled off by one who may arguably be the most talented marksman of our time.

Doubletap

[AaronHorrocks]

The single anecdote about Hathcock does not qualify as a statistical sampling of any significance and is even less significant considering this feat of marksmanship was pulled off by one who may arguably be the most talented marksman of our time.

With inconsistant ammo, his feat would have been a statistical impossibility, where no amount of skill could overcome.

[50 Shooter]

It wasn't the enviro wacko's that shut down Talon, it was the stupid crap that they were doing that got themselves shut down. I was just letting him know that they aren't around any more.