The M118 Long Range ammo is supposed to be loaded with 44gr of WC750.

Velocity for both types of M118 was 2640 fps, measured 78ft from the muzzle.

 

I fired literally thousands of these rounds before we started getting the M852 round.

The Brown Box M118 replaced the White Box M118 sometime a few years before your ammo was made. The White Box M118 was always pretty good ammo and was loaded with stick powder. This was THE ammo for military National Match shooters when I was engaged in that activity. The White Box ammo also had un-crimped primer pockets, while the Brown Box Special Ball has crimped in primers. White Box M118 also was head stamped "Match," while Brown Box carried the NATO cross in a circle (the same as M80 or M62 Ball) as the OP notes.

The Brown Box (like the OP's) had the ball powder propellent and was generally despised by match shooters and sniper personnel for long range shooting. Some lots would shoot sub-MOA in our M24 SWCs and those lots were noted and preferred. Many lots would struggle to even hold 2 MOA and of course most lots were somewhere in between. Wide flyers were also common enough with the Brown Box M118. It's no wonder that the military dropped the "Match" designation and renamed it M118 "Special Ball."

As a side note to your ammo: The projectile is the same one that was used in the M72 Match ammo for the M1 Garand and the projectile's design dates to the M1 Ball ammo that was adopted after WWI. It will usually stay supersonic out to 1,000 yards when fired from either the M1 or the M14. I'd often use my carefully horded White Box ammo in preference to the M852 ammo at Palma matches or 1,000 yards matches due to this.

At any rate, you still have very usable ammo for general use in your rifle. As far as the misfires, no one knows how that ammo was stored. I can only remember two bad primers in all of the M118 of both types that I shot while it was still the issue ammo.

The predecessor to your Brown Box M118: A box of the White Box M118 ammo.

 

I shot NRA and CMP High Power for a couple years with an AR-15. I used my M14 at a local 100 yard reduced match a couple of times, but I never did any serious load development for it.

This M118 Special Ball has been stored in its original ammo can in a temperature controlled room since I bought it in 2002 or 2003. It looks as good today as it did the day I bought it. I figured the dud primers were caused by the Savage rifle.

I've shot the M118 Long Range ammo at 1,000 yards in a match grade M1A and in my Savage LTR, which has a heavy 20" barrel. There's a world of difference between the "M118 Special Ball" ammo and the "M118 Long Range" ammo.

I also have a sealed box of the M118 Match ammo. I'm pretty sure this is the ammo we used in the 101st Abn Div sniper school I attended in 1987. We used Vietnam era M21 and XM21 rifles with the Vietnam era Leatherwood ART1 scopes. We had to engage E-type popup targets out to 1,000 meters from the prone supported position. Prior to the 1,000 meter range, we spent a week or 2 on the KD range with iron sights, using sling supported positions. But we shot sitting slow fire at 200, then prone slow fire at 300 to 500 or 600 yards. It was a long time ago, so I don't remember all the little details, but it was the best 4 week course I ever attended in my 20 year career.

 

We have a lot in common Ballistics04. Fun times at the range and in Big Green.

 

Fairly typical for later production M118 Special Ball. WC846 propellent, black Lucas bullet sealant and crimped primer in ordinary Ball primed case, not match case. Hard primers are normal as ordinary Ball primed cases of that era were never intended for rifle pack, but for linked pack. Unless your rifle produces 0.020" copper indent you can expect misfires. Typical commercial bolt guns seldom produce more than 0.018" on copper. Many M1A commercially assembled rifles will also fail indent.

The stuff you have is much more effective at long range in chewing through masonry walls than M80 ball when linked up and used in the M240 machine gun.

 

I have 100 rds. (5 boxes) of this.
I have never seen any more since I got this, probably 20 years ago......

 

I have 100 rds. (5 boxes) of this.
I have never seen any more since I got this, probably 20 years ago......
View attachment 881627

First time I've ever seen those, very cool! I wonder if they are BTHP or just HP like the box says. They're probably BTHP.

 

They were sealed up in that plastic when I got them and I've never opened one to see.
Maybe I'll unwrap one to make sure I wasn't scammed!

 

If that plastic is still sealed, it's probably been a great moisture barrier to help preserve the ammo.

 

The Remington ammo is loaded with the 168 Sierra Matchking and is a commercial equivalent to the M852 Match cartridge. Federal produces a similar load #308M for contract bidding purposes. Depending upon contract requirements powder charge may be either RL15 or IMR4064 as needed to reach required velocity.

 

They use bulk powder lots, with each new powder lot shipment the loads are adjusted. So yes, the TM says what the original data was, but that was several powder lots ago. I also competed while in service but didn’t start that until about 95 and up through 09 (minus deployment time) earlier we got the 118 special (brown box). For rifle teams it was used for practice and exclusively used for sniper team training/competition. When we (rifle teams) attended matches we used the 852, it was the better of the two in our M14s (while we had them).
The end of the 118 special was exactly what you pointed out, it lacked in consistency/accuracy. LC claimed that it was due to worn equipment but the components were the problem. When 118LR showed up, shooting teams were low on the priority list, so we got “very” little.

 

I can honestly say that the M852 handload shoots great in my standard M1A. LC brass, 42gr IMR 4895 and a 168gr BTHP.

 

Go 7.62x51. My all time most favourite calibre. As I used to say, 'it will do the job if you do yours'.

 

I have a few boxes of this in the white box. I was afraid to shoot it in my M1A due to the 173 grn bullet so I tried it in my Rem 700 Police sniper special with 26 inch heavy barrel and 1-10 inch twist rate and the stuff is a tack driver in that rifle. I'm using a 3.5-10X Leupold LE Tactical scope on it which was discontinued a while back. I bought this rifle approx in 85-87 when Remington still had top quality.

 

Primers are pretty flat after firing these.

Those fired primers look totally normal.

 

Those fired primers look normal see attached pic for a flat over pressure primer. 2 shells on the right side are flat. Another indication of over pressure is "Cratering" around the firing pin indentation (3rd pic from the left)