Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire WTH?! .308 burns right thru 3/8" AR-500?!?!

Hey guys,

Thought I'd post pics of what happened out shooting with a friend today.

I had previously bought some of the AR500 steel plates for shooting and so far they have held up perfect and been quite fun to blaze away at. They've been hit to date with .22LR, .45 ACP, 6.5-284, 7-08, .308 Win, .35 Whelen and .375 H&H at ranges from 20 yds to 500 with no ill effects.

Today my buddy and I took his young nephew out for his first time shooting (he did quite well on the .22 and .45 ACP). We set up at about 100 yds with the .308 to see if he wanted to try something bigger but he wasn't down with that for today so we threw a few down range and then moved back to what ended up being 170 yds.

After my strap came loose on one side we walked down to replace it and noticed three clean holes right through the plate! Two other shots dimpled the plate significantly. They were not there from the 90 yd shots.

He was shooting that Australian ADI surplus ammo he picked up years ago on the cheap. It comes in little blister packs of 5 rounds and says "7.62 Ball, F4, AFF, 31.12.90AB" on the packs. I think they are supposed be in the 147gr range.

Anyway, after seeing the holes in my AR500 plates we went and looked at the bullets more carefully and could see what appears to be a slight visual difference in the tips. The only thing we could surmise is some type of AP round mixed in? Perhaps this is why the lots were sold as surplus? That's the only explanation we could think of.

We had fired about 50 rounds last week at ranges from 150-325 yds and had no dimples whatsoever with the same ammo from the same box; hence, our total surprise at the perforating abilities of said ammo!

Anyone had this experience with military surplus ammo? We were a bit bummed to see the AR500 plate pierced so easily (and cleanly) out of the 'lowly' .308 Win. I did remark that if "Red Dawn' ever comes to pass he has his APC ammo! Ahh, a child of the Cold War era!

We were shooting under high tension power lines so I told him perhaps it realigned the molecular structure in the steel and we best wear out foil helmets!

Seriously, anyone have any theories? It HAS to be different bullets even though they look, outwardly, almost identical, right?

Here are some pics--notice how clean they punched through-like a plasma cutter.

Note last pic--you can see this 'difference' in many of the bullets now that we are looking for it. We quit shooting at the plate so can't confirm if the different looking ammo is the culprit.