Sniper ammunition, RUAG vs Lapua 8.59mm
Over the last 5 years there has been a sharp decline in the quality of sniper ammunition. A large number of Sniper Platoons within Infantry are reporting issues with the RUAG. Breach explosive due to over pressure, destroying the percussion caps and hard extractions with a bolt action rifle. Which is almost unheard of. All these issues have been pointed at the user, “not cleaning the weapon correctly” Guys from accuracy international have said they test fire with 1000s of lapua rounds and never have this problem.
Units have ran internal assessments and fired RUAG ammo through the normal barrels and had over pressure and then swapped the ammo out to lapua ammo and no problems. The fear for most units is getting this RUAG ammo in Theatre. Units have done the correct things, reported it, got ATO involved, reported near miss, local ammo ban on that batch, it’s a lottery from tin to tin , if the ammo is going to work. Just seems like no one cares about this issue!!