Sniper Ammunition Load Data, 30 caliber family

American military snipers have used all sorts of ammunition over the years. In WWII the 30-06 loads available seemed to do the job, but most often were just accurate lots of standard ball or armor piercing ammunition. It wasn’t uncommon prior to WWII that an accurate lot of M1 Ball (173gr FMJBT with crimping cannelure) was issued as the “National Match” ammunition with no special markings on the brass. It wouldn’t be until after WWII that Frankford Arsenal and later Lake City Ammunition Plant, began producing match ammunition for the 1903s and M1 Garand rifles used for service rifle matches.

Mil spec M1 Ball National Match
Bullet: 173gr FMJBT (with crimp groove)
Powder: IMR4895
Primer: Milspec Large Rifle
Brass: NM marked milspec brass
Velocity 2595 fps @ 78 ft.

Mil spec M72 Match
Bullet: 173gr FMJBT (M1 ball profile without crimp groove)
Powder: Between 46 and 50gr of IMR4895 depending on lot
Primer: Milspec Large Rifle (a CCI #34 will work)
Brass: NM marked 30-06 brass
Velocity: 2640 fps +/- 30 fps @ 78 ft.
Pressure: 50,000 CUP

M2 Armor Piercing
Bullet: 168 grain armor piercing (black tip)
Powder: IMR4895
Primer: Milspec LR
Brass: Arsenal and year marked milspec
Velocity: 2715 fps @ 78 ft.

The M72 match load came well after the end of major hostilities in the Korean war, but was just in time to see the beginning of Vietnam. It has been said that Carlos Hathcock used M2 AP ammunition in Vietnam as it shot very consistently when match ammunition was not available. At the same time the USMC and US Army were developing the M40 and M21 sniper rifles, which would serve alongside the older M1 Garand sniper variants, and the Winchester M70 target rifles pressed into service as sniper rifles in Vietnam.

The transition to the shorter 7.62×51 standard made it really simple to create a match/sniper round by slapping together the best components for the M72 match bullet gave the “XM118″ and then M118 load. The M118, M118SB, and M118SB, Match, were all essentially the same load with different labels.

Mil spec for M118, M118 Special Ball / Match
Bullet: 173 grain FMJBT (M1 ball profile without crimp groove)
Powder: 44 grains WC846 or 42 grains IMR 4895 (lot adjusted for velocity)
Primer: Milspec LR (#43 unstaked, #36, or #34 staked depending on year of manufacture)
Brass: Milspec marked M118
Velocity = 2550 +/- 30 fps @ 78 ft.
Pressure = 50,000 psi max average, copper (aka CUP)
Accuracy = Carton – 3.5” mean radius @ 600 yards

By the early 1980s the M118 load was starting to show the age of the production line, and accuracy began to drop off. So a true “match only” load was developed around the highly accurate Sierra 168gr Match King bullet (the same bullet Gary Anderson used to win a gold medal in the Olympics). It was in the 1980s that the US Army adopted the M24 sniper rifle system, the first non-service rifle sniper rifle mass fielded to the operational Army.

Mil spec for M852 Match
Bullet: 168gr Sierra Match King hollow point boat tail
Powder: 42 grains IMR 4895
Velocity = 2550 +/- 30 fps @ 78 ft.
Pressure = 50,000 psi max average, copper (aka CUP)
Accuracy = Carton – 3.5″ mean radius @ 600 yards

Unfortunately the international ban on “expanding or hollow point ammunition” made a legal ruling that M852 ammunition was “not for use in combat” until a further legal review clarified the difference between “open tip, match” and “hollowpoint” where M852 was authorized for use in war, so M852 was issued for competitive match use, and M118SB was issued for real world use. Unfortunately, even after the change that authorized M852 for real world use, the 168gr Sierra Match King bullet is not the best choice for 600 to 1000 yard work for snipers, and so development began in what culminated as the M118 Long Range cartridge, which has served the US military well in many different conflicts.

M118LR (best guess from pulled components)
Bullet: 175gr Sierra Match King
Brass: Milspec marked LR
Primer: Milspec LR
Powder: Reloader15 (reported 43.0 grains)
Velocity = 2580 fps (78 feet from muzzle)
Pressure = 50k psi, copper (aka CUP)
Accuracy = 3.5″ mean radius at 600

However, during the “War on Terror” the problem of consistent long range accuracy under wildly varying temperature conditions prompted a search for an improvement to M118LR, and the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane (NSWC Crane) developed the Mk316 Mod0 load for the special operations community to provide more consistent performance in highly variable temperature conditions. A complaint one sniper gave me was that he couldn’t leave a round of M118LR in the chamber of his M110 (the military designation for the Knight’s Armament SR-25) as it would cause the brass to get stuck (most likely due to the Reloader 15 powder getting hot and increasing chamber pressure to an unacceptable level).

Mk316 (data pulled from one lot label and DTIC data)
Bullet: 175gr SMK
Powder. 41.745 gr IMR4064
Primer: Federal 210M match primer, unstaked
Brass: Federal match brass
Velocity = 2640 fps +/- 15 fps @ 78 feet
Pressure =50k psi, copper (aka CUP)
Accuracy = 1 MOA out to 1K

The SOF community, wanting more performance than the 7.62×51 cartridge can muster, looked for a bigger option in the form of the 300 Winchester Magnum. At the time of development the legal review allowing open tip match projectiles in combat had not been signed, and so rather than reuse the old M1 Ball profile FMJ, they chose initially a 180gr Sierra Match King bullet with the tip burnished close, but performance was poor and since those bullets are not available on the civilian market anymore I’m not bothering to list that load data. However, to meet the requirements of no open tip bullets, the venerable Lapua D46 bullet. This ammunition appeared in the early 1990s.

A191 300 Win Mag load
Bullet: Lapua D46, 185gr bullet
Powder: IMR4350 propellant
Velocity: 3,000 fps (from 24″ barrel)
Brass and primer type unknown, but likely whoever HSM’s supplier was at the time.
Accuracy standard, no greater than 6″ extreme spread at 600 yards.

However, not satisfied with that level of performance, and with change of legal opinion allowing snipers the ability to use modern match projectiles without committing a war crime, NSWC Crane continued to develop a solution and came up with Mk248 Mod0 built around the 190gr Sierra Match King.

Mk248 Mod 0 300 Win Mag (duplication load from a source I trust)
Bullet: 190gr SMK
Brass: Federal Brass
Powder: RL-22 powder 73.5 grains
Bullet: SMK 190 3.465″ OAL
Primer: Federal 215M primer
Velocity = 2,950 fps
Accuracy standard, no greater than 6″ extreme spread at 600 yards.
*NOTE, THIS DATA IS HOT, ALWAYS BACK OFF 10% AND WORK UP IN YOUR RIFLE.

While the war on terror used a lot of the Mk248, working with allies who were armed with the formidable Accuracy International Arctic Warfare Magnum, Timberwolf, and Sako TRG-42 in the 338 Lapua Magnum cartridge, SOF got a case of jealousy and started looking at their own solution to a longer range sniper cartridge. NSWC Crane went back to the drawing board and came up with a solution that extended the range of the 300 Win Mag sniper systems in use, without the need to rebarrel to the 338 Lapua.

Mk248 Mod 1
Bullet: 220gr SMK
Brass: Federal
Powder: H1000
Primer: Federal 215M
Velocity: 2,830 fps
Accuracy: no greater than 6″ extreme spread at 600 yards
*NOTE: MK248 MOD1 IS OVER PRESSURE BY BOTH SAAMI AND CIP PRESSURE STANDARDS, AND SHOULD NOT BE REPLICATED BY HANDLOADERS AS BRASS FAILURE BECOMES IMMINENT.

So that brings us up to the present. 7.62×51 is still being issued, but now mainly to Designated Marksmen rather than Snipers who have universally swapped over to the 300 Win Mag. Except for SOF, which has now put out feelers for the 6.5 Creedmoor in a gas gun setup, because having ballistics similar to the 300 Win Mag with recoil less than 7.62×51 is a very good thing for a sniper to have in most cases. But since the 6.5 Creedmoor isn’t part of the 30 cal family, and since I don’t have any data on any potential loads to be accepted, I’ll refrain from speculating. EDIT: I have decent data for the 6.5 Creedmoor SOCOM load here: https://wanderingthroughthenight.wordpress.com/2022/09/29/socom-6-5-creedmoor-and-the-upcoming-277-fury/ END EDIT.

As a side note, the different accuracy standards in “mean radius” and “extreme spread” are two different ways to measure accuracy. Mean spread means the Army wrote the standard, and extreme spread means the Navy wrote the standard. In my experience it is much easier for handloaders to calculate extreme spread (just needs a ruler or other measuring device) rather than an excel spreadsheet to XY plot all the impacts.

EDIT:

Other countries have 7.62×51 dedicated sniper loads as well, I pulled a sample of bullets and velocities from various sources. I don’t have full data for case, primer, powder, and bullet manufacturer.

Austria, Hirtenberger AG
Sniper ball: FMJ; 11.0 g; MV 760 m/s
Match ball: FMJ; 12.3 g; MV 730 m/s

Finland, Lapua
Lock Base Sniper; 9.72g; MV 850m/s
Scenar HPBT Sniper Ball; lO.Og; MV 860m/s
Scenar HPBT Sniper Ball; 10.85g; MV 820m/s
Scenar HPBT Sniper Ball; 12 g; MV 760 m/s

France, Giat Industries
Ball BOPR (precision): HPBT; 9.65 g; MV 815 m/s

Norway, Nammo Vanasverken AB
Type: Sniper 9 AP: FMJ; 9.4g; 840m/s

Portugal, Indep
Sniper Ball, M359: FMJ; lead core; 9.45 g; MV 840 m/s

UK, Radway Green (Royal Ordnance Factory) (Operated by BAE)
Sniper Ball, L42A1/2/3, 10.0g/155gr FMJBT: 838 m/s (2,750 ft/s)

As you can see, most military issue “sniper ammunition” falls between 144gr FMJ and 175gr HPBT, only the Brits being Brits and using a proprietary 155gr FMJBT bullet (you can use a 155gr SMK or Lapua Scenar as a substitute for very similar ballistics). Velocities are “all over the place” as I suspect the listed velocities are specific to either the industry standard 24″ barrel (for commercial companies like Lapua) or specific to a weapon system (like Hirtenberger).