303 british surplus ammo
- Thread starter revolver_ocelot
- Start date
boltonscouter
CGN frequent flyer
- Location
- parts unknown
You might find some at a gun show. Very unlikely to find any in a store! Long gone!
I've seen two or three people shooting .303B surplus in the last year or so and they all said they found it at a gunshow. They still paid around $1/round so not much cheaper than regular ammo. Every so often they get a FTF too.
I found a bunch of .303B IVI brass at the range around a year ago. Was told they still make a run of it every year for the Canadian Rangers up in the arctic. I guess one of them "lost" some of their issue ammo.
7.62x54R is cheap now but not much is being made anymore (in terms of military ammo that may eventually become surplus) as there is only one common weapon still in active service that uses it. It'll dry up eventually too. If you want to go that route but don't want a Mosin you could try an SVT-40. Semi auto and can be found for under $300 as a factory refurb. Of course cleaning corrosive residue out of a semi is much more time consuming than a bolt action.
Even the 7.62x39 will dry up eventually. I've heard many times that there is "too much of it to ever run out" but since it's not being made in huge quantities anymore (pretty much everyone who used it switched to 5.45x39 decades ago), and there are millions of rounds of it fired every year due to SKS' being so inexpensive, it'll dry up eventually as well. It'll just take longer since there's so much of it.
I've heard people saying; "we thought there was so much 30-06 surplus we'd never run out" and now it's long gone too.
I found a bunch of .303B IVI brass at the range around a year ago. Was told they still make a run of it every year for the Canadian Rangers up in the arctic. I guess one of them "lost" some of their issue ammo.
7.62x54R is cheap now but not much is being made anymore (in terms of military ammo that may eventually become surplus) as there is only one common weapon still in active service that uses it. It'll dry up eventually too. If you want to go that route but don't want a Mosin you could try an SVT-40. Semi auto and can be found for under $300 as a factory refurb. Of course cleaning corrosive residue out of a semi is much more time consuming than a bolt action.
Even the 7.62x39 will dry up eventually. I've heard many times that there is "too much of it to ever run out" but since it's not being made in huge quantities anymore (pretty much everyone who used it switched to 5.45x39 decades ago), and there are millions of rounds of it fired every year due to SKS' being so inexpensive, it'll dry up eventually as well. It'll just take longer since there's so much of it.
I've heard people saying; "we thought there was so much 30-06 surplus we'd never run out" and now it's long gone too.
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I had to get my hunting/shooting stuff out of my dads basement, well when I went through the ammo I found about 50 rounds of WWII 303 Brit, it was like Christmas 
.
It is still around but tougher to find as everyone here has said.
You may be better off paying $1/round for PPU or Sellier & Bellot and not have to worry about corrosive.
I found that with PPU now it is not really worth shooting the old stuff, I have an 8x56R and at $20/10 rounds of the corrosive 1938 ammo I would much rather keep my stash to sell later and shoot PPU at $30/20 and end up with reloadable brass.
.It is still around but tougher to find as everyone here has said.
You may be better off paying $1/round for PPU or Sellier & Bellot and not have to worry about corrosive.
I found that with PPU now it is not really worth shooting the old stuff, I have an 8x56R and at $20/10 rounds of the corrosive 1938 ammo I would much rather keep my stash to sell later and shoot PPU at $30/20 and end up with reloadable brass.
In .303 British? I've never heard of 25 or 50rnd boxes at retail; only 20rnds. Even the old surplus boxes I've seen guys at the range with are 20rnd boxes (arranged 4x5 instead of 2x10 though so bulkier looking).
BullOnParade
CGN Regular
- Location
- Eastern Ontario
I picked up a plastic container with about 300 rounds of WWI and WWII surp a few years back. I don't shoot it often, gone through about 200 rounds and I'm going to sell some off soon, I'll break even on money, so I got a few hundred rounds for free!
Actually, there is a good deal of 7.62x39 and x54r being made as new production, some of which is pretty cheap (under 50c a round if you buy enough of 54r, and like 33c/round for x39)
The cheap corrosive milsurp ammo has created a market for slightly more expensive, new production non-corrosive ammo because people dont wanna deal with corrosive all the time.
My guess is the 303 surplus dried up before people started blowing through the volumes that they do now with x39 and 5.56, so nobody realized there could be a market for crates of ammo like there is now. With the increased recoil I sure wouldn't be blowing through 303 like I do x39... But I could be totally wrong on this, Im relatively new to the firearms community.
EDIT - on a side note, you might find some Pakistani 303 british surplus still. Problem is that #### is terrible - hangfires like mad I hear.
I never said x39 and x54R was no longer being made. I said it is no longer being made by state armouries in huge quantities that may one day become surplus.
The inexpensive, bulk, new production ammo being made is still twice the price of surplus.
So once the cheap surplus runs out we're still looking at twice the price for the next cheapest ammo.
The inexpensive, bulk, new production ammo being made is still twice the price of surplus.
So once the cheap surplus runs out we're still looking at twice the price for the next cheapest ammo.
Which is still half the price of everything else... My point is the days of cheap 303 may be over, but we should be able to get comparatively cheap ammo for the russian surplus rifles.
Eaglelord17
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Sault Ste. Marie
Like everything the ammo WILL dry up and when it does it shall get more expensive. It has happened for all the old calibers, 8mm Mauser, 7mm Mauser, .303, 30-06, 6.5x55 etc. It even happened to 7.62 Nato (and that is still a very popular round with many countries). It will also happen to 7.62x39 and 7.62x54r eventually as there is only so much out there. Remember they don't have to stop producing the ammo for it to become expensive, they just have to stop selling it for cheap prices.
antiqueguy
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- windsor ontario
its all gone anything left over is more collectable but that's said what's with all the threads lately about .303 surplus. and as for x39 and x54r surplus being cheap now it will dry up one day right now I don't think any Russian surplus is being exported/imported due to the Ukraine situation and BW not everyone switched over to 5.45x39 still plenty of 7.62x39 guns being used even within the Russian military
Depends on what kind of ammo it is. You can look up reviews of different surplus ammo based on the headstamps.
If it's good, reliable ammo; keep it and treat it like an investment. Store it properly (cool and dry, sealed ammo cans if possible).
If it's known problematic ammo it might be worth trying to sell it. Bad ammo generally gets worse with time (it degrades so you'll get more FTF's).
antiqueguy
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- windsor ontario
keep it if its old surplus(if its all the same year ect) or sell it off I have a old crate of the stuff two cans of mk7z ball unopened I know inside is bandoliers of 5rd chargers loaded with ammo
What I meant is it isn't their main-line cartridge anymore. The majority of their forces have switched over and their production will have done the same.
I mean, Canada still officially uses .303 British and IVI produces it in small quantities. Doesn't mean they have much of it.
