7.62x39 supplies dwindling? What?

sparq

sparq

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I've been seeing mention lately of cheap (read: by the crate) 7.62x39mm ammunition becoming scarce in some way, but it's never clear exactly what the other posters mean or how they might know - like I'm missing some unspoken detail everyone else is taking for granted. CanAm, I think, mentioned it specifically in relation to the Norinco stuff. I can't tell whether they're just talking about the MFS/etc non-corrosive bulk ammo, or if the corrosive surplus is included in that - so what's the deal? No one seems to be saying buying rifles chambered for it are a bad investment at this point...

Basically, I recently bought an 858 and a crate of corrosive Romanian surplus, and I'd like to know whether that sort of ammo is going to be hard to find by the time I blow through the 1300 or so rounds I have. I'll deal with corrosive stuff if necessary, I don't mind that nearly as much as I'd mind paying $15 for a box of 20.

Forgive me if this has been discussed to death, but it's not easy to find search terms that yield any decent results.
 
It will run out eventually just like 303brit and 30-06 did. As for ir drying up before you shoot your 1300 rounds depends on how long you take to shoot it. You could shoot that in a week or 30 years.
 
It may or it may not run out, depending on how much you shoot and how often.

Green wood crates of ammo were around $150 in 2008.

If you can find them they are now $240(ish). They are starting to be quite hard to find.....

What is available now is mostly re-packaged (by s&b) in cardboard boxes and priced around $200 for 800 rnds...... More if your local 'pusher' has any in stock.

I have six crates and several boxes...... If I find it "cheap" I tend to buy it.

The old adage "buy it cheap n stack it deep" applies!
 
1200 round non-corrosive 7.62x39 is back in stock at CanadaAmmo.com

I just bought a case. We should all keep buying - it's the best way to ensure there's continued interest in importing the 'good stuff'...
 
Guys, this thread comes up every month for the last five years. There is mountains, literally, of 7.62x39 around the world, and those countries either sell it , or burn it as it "expires", from a military point of view. Yes, prices will vary, and long term, it will increase, but the sky is not falling.
 
I had the green wood boxes of 1440 7.62 - They are quite smokey, no real muzzle flash or anything.
A friend brought a box of the norinco silver box -- non corrosive. Shooting that stuff in my 858 there is no real noticeable smoke and you get a fireball out of the muzzle. Recoil or noise doesn't feel/sound any different

Looking at the headstamps, I think how it works with the chinese stuff is its top number: factory bottom number: year (is that correct?)

If so, the stuff in the green crates are from back in 1972 where the silver 20 round box we had of the norinco was from 1996. I really don't know that much about ammo, is it possible that its just due to age that the older ammo is smokey - or is it that the older stuff uses corrosive primers which leave more soot? I just went to canadaammos site to see if could get the 'cleaner' stuff - turns out _all_ of it is sold out right now :(
 
There is Czech stuff out there for sure, but the days of $160 a case are long over. I use corrosive for practice loads and squirrel away the non corossive stuff.
 
Just took delivery of Russian Surplus 7.62 X 39 Ammunition in crates of 1400 rounds (2 X 700 Spam Cans)
Packaged in 1979 - Lacquered Steel Case, corrosive berdan primed 123gr soft steel core copper jacketed boat tail bullets.
HEADSTAMP - 711 - 79
$ 270.00 per crate (1400 rounds)
$ 775.00 for 3 crates (4200 rounds)
Prices are plus tax & shipping
 
sparq said:
That's the impression I had, which is what led me to be confused by the suggestion that it was "drying up".
Click to expand...

You also have to consider that NRCAN must give their blessing (approval) to all ammo before it can be sold. So you don't see smaller random lots of surplus ammo like you do in the US. The distributor has to buy the lot, then get it approved before it can be imported. So the distributor is sitting on his stockpile for months and months, waiting for approval. And they can't always get it approved before purchasing, if the approval takes a long time, the ammo could be sold to someone else, and the distributor would have wasted a couple thousand for the approval.

The reason we have lots of cheap, surplus 7.62x39 in Canada is, if you notice, it is almost all steel core. It can't be imported into the US since everything steel core is considered armour piercing. Same with the Chinese ammo, they can't import it to the US. Otherwise we would be paying a lot more.
 
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