303 brit ammo getting harder to find
- Thread starter Scots man
- Start date
touche'
The thing is, price is usually relevant to the times and I was ''dating'' the times, not dissing LawrenceN.
I could purchase a case of the ammo back then for appx the same amount of money I made in a day, less if I bought the pallet. If I bought 3 pallets, the cost came down to $18 per crate.
I could usually double my outlay on such buys in less than a month and shoot for free. Those were good times.
A case of ammo, if bought in the local outlet, like Army and Navy and a brand new, unissued, in the grease No4 or No1 for under $50, taxes in.
I seldom bought at outlets, unless it was something special, like those lovely little Springfield made 30/40 Krag Carbines.
I normally purchased both ammo and rifles by the crate or pallet, depending on now much cash I had on hand or in my account with Alan Lever and a few other distributors at the time.
Those were definitely interesting days.
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Oh that is painful, I missed those days. But I wonder if those days would still be here (at least somewhat) if it wasn't for our current legal and political regime.
I somehow doubt it.
We were only a few decades out from an all inclusive WORLD WAR and there were only around 3.5 Billion bipedal methane producers on the planet to take up the extra production that such large atrocities to humanity generated.
We've had several wars since, but nothing on such an all consuming level.
Shortly after those altercations proved to governments of all types that semi auto and full auto capable weapons were needed to maintain their status as nations, most of the weapons utilized in the two previous wars went either into long term storage, were re purposed in some cases and mostl just sold off for scrap metal prices to large dealers of such commodities all over the world.
Everything imagineable was sold off as nations struggled to rebuild and garner funds wherever possible. That included selling off everything needed to fight those wars, simply because it cost more to maintain and store them than they were worth and their values were steadily declining as the world moved on.
There are still entrepreneurs out there that purchase large quantities of more modern surplus, but such lots of those articles are getting fewer and fewer.
Just look at the weapons nations are currently using.
50+ year old planes, tanks, ships are the backbone of their defences.
Yes, there are new designs available to them, but at horrendous costs and maintenance is even more expensive.
As far as firearms go, I can see the bans on full autos, etc becoming a world wide thing, even amongst nations themselves. Same will go for modern aircraft, artillery, aircraft, drones, missiles etc.
That doesn't mean the superpowers won't continue to have and develop them.
Humans have become far to numerous for the earth to continue to support, without self destructing. They consume everything edible and destroy what they can't use immediately.
This seems to be the way things are going presently. Supposedly humans will reach a turnaround point by 2060 and populations will start to decline???????????
We were only a few decades out from an all inclusive WORLD WAR and there were only around 3.5 Billion bipedal methane producers on the planet to take up the extra production that such large atrocities to humanity generated.
We've had several wars since, but nothing on such an all consuming level.
Shortly after those altercations proved to governments of all types that semi auto and full auto capable weapons were needed to maintain their status as nations, most of the weapons utilized in the two previous wars went either into long term storage, were re purposed in some cases and mostl just sold off for scrap metal prices to large dealers of such commodities all over the world.
Everything imagineable was sold off as nations struggled to rebuild and garner funds wherever possible. That included selling off everything needed to fight those wars, simply because it cost more to maintain and store them than they were worth and their values were steadily declining as the world moved on.
There are still entrepreneurs out there that purchase large quantities of more modern surplus, but such lots of those articles are getting fewer and fewer.
Just look at the weapons nations are currently using.
50+ year old planes, tanks, ships are the backbone of their defences.
Yes, there are new designs available to them, but at horrendous costs and maintenance is even more expensive.
As far as firearms go, I can see the bans on full autos, etc becoming a world wide thing, even amongst nations themselves. Same will go for modern aircraft, artillery, aircraft, drones, missiles etc.
That doesn't mean the superpowers won't continue to have and develop them.
Humans have become far to numerous for the earth to continue to support, without self destructing. They consume everything edible and destroy what they can't use immediately.
This seems to be the way things are going presently. Supposedly humans will reach a turnaround point by 2060 and populations will start to decline???????????
I don't understand this.
If you are gonna reload for 303, why not just buy projectiles? That would have to be cheaper than buying and pulling 762x54 ammo apart?
If money is really an issue, why not buy cast lead projectiles? That would definitely be the cheapest option.
I've never done it and don't have a plan to, but I can see the appeal. I just bought an 880 round crate of 54r for $400. Makes them 45.5c per projectile, plus I've seen people even reuse the powder. Since CamPro stopped producing their 303 sized projectiles, it seems 50c bullets are about as cheap as you can find. Now, everything has gone up, but I'm sure some people are still reloading using 54r crates they bought for $200 'back in the day'
Eaglelord17
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Sault Ste. Marie
I made a thread on exactly this almost a decade ago. It doesn't have to be just .303 either, you could do 7.7 Japanese or 7.65 Mauser as well. It also works with pulled 7.62x39 as a cheap plinking round (last crate of 7.62x39 I bought I paid 13 cents a round).
I'm currently salvaging pill and powder from my Czech surplus 54r stash. Makes for about $0.65 per round based on current surplus and primer prices. Have to say those 147gr shoot quite well once I dialed in the powder charge.
There's still a fair amount of surplus 303 out there, the trick is finding it. Talk to the old timers at your range, you'd be shocked to find out how many of them are still storing cases they got from the DCRA for free back in the day. I bought a bunch of it - still sealed - from a guy for $1 a round. He was happy I was interested and he had no use for it any more, due to recoil sensitivity he couldn't shoot it.
The various Mosin Nagants are similar, not as fast, not as smooth, but with relatively abundant relatively cheap ammo. If you want accuracy the Finish reworks are some of the best.
Yes. If you are handy a regular Mosin can be greatly improved using techniques developed by the Finnish. I am talking trigger, bedding with the shims, stock fitting, chamber and bolt polishing. If done properly it wouldn't affect the collector's value. You can also order custom front sights for Mosin. It's extremely strong action. If you are patient and want something elegant look at the French rifles, but then again the ammo availability can be an issue. You can also find some nice surplus rifles chambered in 30-06.
$25 a box seems downright reasonable. Specially it they are boxer primed.
303 Britsh has been a bear to source reliably for many years , not just of recent.
Sure, it has been found on the shelf at many stores, but one just wouldnt walk into a store of choice and expect to the walk out the door.
Guys would buy it and stock pile it (pre-covid hoarding) for the eventuality of talking Grandpa's Enfeild out for walk behind the barn.
Again, my observations over many moons of hunting and shooting.
ymmv though.
