If the cheap surplus ammo drys up will the price of red rifles go up or down?
- Thread starter Nelson84
- Start date
It could go either way. Price could go up because a select few will control the ammo supply, or the price goes down because everyone starts jumping ship.
After all, there's still a market for the really old milsurps that cost ten bucks a shot.
After all, there's still a market for the really old milsurps that cost ten bucks a shot.
Leviathan024
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- GP Alberta
this!
I can remember when:
SKS rifles were quite uncommon. Price was a lot higher than it is now, relatively speaking. When these and AKs first appeared there was very little 7.62x39 ammunition available. Some folks were forming cases from 6.5x54MS to shoot the rifles.
SKS rifles are now widely available at very attractive prices - the prices having nothing to do with the quality of the rifles. And there is currently a strong supply of low cost ammunition.
This isn't going to last indefinitely.
SKS rifles were quite uncommon. Price was a lot higher than it is now, relatively speaking. When these and AKs first appeared there was very little 7.62x39 ammunition available. Some folks were forming cases from 6.5x54MS to shoot the rifles.
SKS rifles are now widely available at very attractive prices - the prices having nothing to do with the quality of the rifles. And there is currently a strong supply of low cost ammunition.
This isn't going to last indefinitely.
What if the next socialist party that comes to power, bans importation of surplus ammo?
Chinese will be worthless, select Russians will go up along with Yugoslavs and other rare models.
7.62x39 is still produced and is still the cheapest to produce, by virtue of iron being cheaper than lead and the countries of origin having the cheapest labour.
Unless steelcore surplus ammunition becomes restricted by the Crown, it'll be the cheapest centerfire for years to come.
7.62x39 is still produced and is still the cheapest to produce, by virtue of iron being cheaper than lead and the countries of origin having the cheapest labour.
Unless steelcore surplus ammunition becomes restricted by the Crown, it'll be the cheapest centerfire for years to come.
considering we are getting stuff dated in the 70' we still haven't tapped into the 80', 90' or 00' stockpile yet, not mentioned the fact that, so far we have only seen ammo from only 3 former Warsaw pact countries, it will be a long time before surplus ammo is tapped out. Also we have already seen the prices of none surplus ammo in Canada in MFS and Norinco, if the import volume goes up for them the price will come down.
There is a big difference between what's available, and what an importer can get into the country. All ammo needs to be approved by NRCAN before it can be sold. For that, they need information from the manufacturer (at least they used to) about the composition of the power and primers, and that information wasn't always forthcoming.
This approval process leads to other problem with surplus. If an importer is buying a "batch", either he has to buy that batch and hope it gets approved, or spend the couple thousand dollars for approval, and hope that the batch of ammo is still available months later if/when NRCAN grants approval.
