Bulk .308 in the post-surplus era, SoCal

[Doctor Suarez]

I've bitten the bullet and decided that for my future .308 needs, I'm going to have to buy factory.

Does anyone know where the best place is in SoCal to buy Winchester White Box .308? Do any of the local Wal-Marts sell it?

Thanks.

[hybridatsun350]

Depending on how much .308 you go through you might want to think about reloading. The situation with .308 right now has made me think about reloading, but I don't know that I shoot enough to justify the initial cost. Your situation may be different.

[JOEKILLA]

You really have to dig hard to find good deals on surplus 7.62x51. You can still find them though. Not the deals like early this year and before though.

[Doctor Suarez]

Two things to clarify:

The rifle in question is a .308 Garand. Clint McKee of Fulton Armory insists with great passion that reloading for a military gas gun is going to get me mangled. Is he crazy?

Also, since I live in L.A., I'm pretty sure that I can't legally order ammo online or by mail. Is this not the case for rifle ammo? Does my C&R license change that at all?

Accepting that milsurp is an extinct species, I'm okay with stepping up to cheap factory, so long as it's brass-cased and NATO spec. (this basically means American Eagle or Winchester USA.) Do you know where to get the best deals on that?

[tteng]

I reload for my 30-06 Garand, but I haven't shot it enought to call it statistically safe (perhaps 100rd reload thru it). Since Garand has a free-float firing pin, as the bolt strips-off a round and chambers it, the forward momentum of the pin might cause it to bump the case before the bolt fully closes. If the primer is not fully seated (protruding from its pocket), and the primer is sensitive, the cartridge can go off and blows out the action (called slam-fire). Also, do not single load the round-in chamber- and allow the bolt to slam shut (another source of slam-fire for the same reason).

So for my Garand reloads, I
1. Make sure my primers doesn't protrude from the base, it's either flat or recess from the pocket (use harder primer if you can, CCI??)
2. Scale-weigh my powder charge for each cartridge (starting from minimum load and work up).
3. Inspect each case for impending failure.

I'm sure there are few other cautions.

The upside of reloading is, after the initial outlay of $250, the cost: about 10-15c/rd.

[EvolutionGSR]

I don't think there's a problem ordering Ammo online to LA. I don't live in the City of LA but I'm in LA county and have ammo ordered online all the time. Just call the online shop and see. Outdoor Marksman has .308 in stock

[hybridatsun350]

Many websites will not deliver to the city of Los Angeles. Same with other cities like Oakland and San Francisco. LA county is fine as far as I have seen though.