Target .308 ammo?

[tobnpr]

but to know what your rifle can do good ammo is necessary, plinking rounds are good to get down range but I'm from the school of thought that says, have the best ammo to know what I'm doing wrong in my shooting form, or if it's my gun that's not holding true... you need to know the capabilities of your set up.

This.
While expensive match ammo isn't a real necessity, if you're shooting surplus that isn't minute of angle or close to it- you can never know if it's you- or the rifle. For an inexperienced, or "meh" shooter, it's best to have someone that can shoot determine the rifle's capability as best as possible, using some FGMM or Black Hills. Then, you know what the rifle can do- the rest is up to the human behind it.

Other thing is, the OP never told us what rifle he's shooting. Could be, the RIFLE is "meh"- and he's doing everything right.

Without knowing for a fact, that you have an accurate rifle AND ammunition, you have no baseline for evaluation. If a shot prints 2 inches left, you need to know it was YOU, and not the ammunition, or an inaccurate rifle.

 

[Gunfixr]

As mentioned, you will need to set up the rifle to remove as many human variables as possible for this "testing phase".
Personally, my savage really like the 168 fgmm. Its pretty fond of the remington 168 match also. It shoots the privi partisan (ppu) 168 gr match very good as well, but that starts really spreading out past 200yds in my rifle, whereas the fgmm (what i shoot most) stays good all they way as far as i want to shoot. Even the federal "deer thug" 165 soft points are quite good to 200 yds or so, very close to match. My rifle does not like hornady pretty much at all, although i can load hornady bullets myself to good results.
You will need to try different brands and weights, but i would probably start with fgmm 168 gr. It shoots very well in a lot of rifles.

 

[bamaranger]

+1

I'm with velocette. Get a .22, or a .223 these days, and shoot it alot. Ammo will be more affordable, and recoil and blast (to a degree will be less). Once the results you desire are starting to appear, move up to .308.

Much can be learned about trigger, hold, wind, etc, with a much less expensive, lighter kicking rifle.