7.62x39 surplus all gone?

I bought a SKS and a can on ammo plus two boxes of non corrosive ammo shot 18 rounds and was happy it shoots where I aimed plus killed a larger boar . Was amazed how sturdy it was made unlike it's grand daughter is.
 
Are you all talking about w-tax and shipping for 1K ? I see lots at sponsors for $6-700-ish and UP. Most are old russians in ATI stocks, which is a good deal unless they're 'shot-out' bores or 'rusted out'. My '51 Tula shot 'like an SKS' - 5-6 MOA, so it takes a really f-d up barrel to shoot poorly. My 1979 24M norinco FT does a lot better, but it looks like those are getting thin on the ground.
 
Are you all talking about w-tax and shipping for 1K ? I see lots at sponsors for $6-700-ish and UP. Most are old russians in ATI stocks, which is a good deal unless they're 'shot-out' bores or 'rusted out'. My '51 Tula shot 'like an SKS' - 5-6 MOA, so it takes a really f-d up barrel to shoot poorly. My 1979 24M norinco FT does a lot better, but it looks like those are getting thin on the ground.
I think it is more of a fast average of what is out there. French tickler and the more expensive folding stock. Also the price had been going up so fast it's a guess at next month price. Hehe
 
Lowest I ever paid was 16 cents free shipping for 1960’s Czech surplus around 2010. 2 spam cans in a wood crate with the can opener screwed into the bottom of the lid. It was all 19-21 cents for a very long time after that (until about 2020). The most recent batch of Chinese surplus (2023?) was around 35 cents. It’s hard to pay the going rate for non corrosive when you can get better quality 223 ammo cheaper
My lowest was 18 cents à round in 2015 and it was cheaper than the 22 ammo drought we had at that time. It stayed cheap enough for a few years that it made sense to buy cheap and stack deep. It should last me till I can’t shoot anymore with some left for the kids enjoyment !
 
Are there degrees of corrosiveness?
we go through ~2 crates a month at our range. We used to be able to get stuff from Lever Arms that was marked corrosive, but was actually not too bad. I did a nail test on it with some Norinco silver box and some Czech surplus for comparison. It took about a week for the "semi" corrosive stuff to show any rust, the Czech stuff started rusting within 2 days. We used to be able to get away with cleaning our SKS's once a week, but doing it every 3rd day now.
 
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this was a test a ran back in 2019. Number 1 & 3 were Czech surplus, 2 was the "semi" corrosive from Lever, 4 was Norinco silver box I got from Canada Ammo. I think this pic was after 1 week. Rust just starting to develop under the nail head of the semi corrosive

IMG_8017.JPG
 
^

every 3? eeek

What oil, lube? fluid film?

How many rounds in your highest round count gun? Any breakage?
We have used various cleaning CLP's over the years, and currently using Slip2000 Carbon Killer. It's really good for cleaning the fouling out of barrels and actions.

With the amount of rounds we go through, we eventually break everything. The SKS is probably one of our most reliable semi-autos. We get ~15k rounds through it before we wear out a barrel. Our range is only 15m deep though, so we only do that when we see the rounds start to keyhole.
 
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