Right now I shoot a mix of ammo, military surplus, new affordable imported ammo and reloaded ammo. The military surplus ammo is running out as we speak the 7mm mauser is all gone and the 6,5mm swede mauser ammo is just about gone and the military surplus 8mm mauser has been a roller coaster ride with its availability latey too. Lets face it this surplus ammo won't last forever and once the surplus ammo is gone then we will see the supply of military guns runout too. Which has started already with the swede mausers and some others. Right now in the past year i purchased all my military caliber reloading dies from Midwayusa in the LEE Brand for handguns and rifles a few at a time. Its time to plan ahead and try to see the future and how are we going to survive without military surplus ammo?
I have used FNM in 7,5mm French and its awesome for $8 a box and its accurate too. I reloaded it too using LEE 7,5mm French dies too. I have also purchased new 7,5mm French brass from Grafs too. The yugo manufactured boxer primed brass is great for reloading too. I was shooting the Sellier & Bellot in 6,5mm swede with great accuracy too and again were talking $8 a box. Its boxer primed and good brass for reloading too. I like shooting the surplus ammo and wolf ammo inbetween so there is no reloading to do too plus its so affordable its cheaper than reloading. I'm sure in the future it could change too. I'm sure the older collectors/shooters can remember when the surplus 8mm was very expensive back in the late 80's if you could find any too. We sure have it really made now too but it won't last forever things do change.
BTW; I have heard "rumors" of the 7,62x39 ammo going to be $200 a case soon too. I hope its just silly rumors and it goes back to $59/1,000rds when we get flooded with it again. But on the other hand things do change and we must be ready for it too. Did you buy a set of 7,62x39 dies yet?
Some guys are reloading the berdan primed military cases too now its the high prices of new brass thats causing this to happen. Plus the military brass is better in some cases too.
This new imported ammo is of a decent quality and its very affordable too its cheaper than reloading. I just reloaded 6k of 308win. and it wasn't cheap either. The cheapest part of it was my $9 LEE 308win Dies. I used the FMJ surplus bullets too for plinking. And 6k rounds doesn't last too long too the last trip to the range we shot about 700rds.++ too. I have to say each round is exactly the same their all clones.
If your on the fence about getting into reloading I hope i got you really thinking now too. I think using all our resources right now is the way to go so we can shoot more for less. I started reloading back in the early 70's when a RCBS Rockchucker was $59 and the RCBS reloading accessory kit was $59 also and the die sets were cheap too. I haven't purchased anything else in 25+ years I never added any new calibers till recently. I got sticker shock at the RCBS dies too that started me looking at Lee dies and other Lee products to help speed things up faster. I found the LEE dies in 7,5mm French to be
half the price of RCBS dies and being on a fixed income(retied) that really matters. So far I found the LEE Dies to be as good as the RCBS dies while there a little different, on the seater die the crimp is still adjusted by lowering it until the desired crimp is achieved just like the RCBS dies so you don't need the LEE factory Crimp Die unless you want a factory crimp. I did purchased the LEE factory crimp die for my 308 to see if there is a difference between the crimps. After loading a 308win round by using the seater die to crimp it i found out the factory crimp die doesn't add anymore crimp and my crimp looked better than too using the seater die unless you want those four factory crimp marks and not a full circle crimp the choice is up to you at the extra cost of course. Trust me i'm not expert but again i have to get the most out of my dollar and still afford to go shooting/plinkin/hunting too. And yes i know everyone has to eat too but sometimes its a difference between a $10 box of ammo to a $25 a box for the same ammo. I try to buy on sales and clearances too my last good buy was russian made barnaul 30-06 FMJ for $1.99 a box of 20. We can save were we can if we shop around too.
I seen a guy at a local range shoot like 6 boxes of 30-06 fail safe ammo at the cost of $27 a box WOW that sure was an expensive outing?
I'm sorry for the long post but i understand you guys know what i'm trying to say ahead of time but i try to reach out to the ones who read only and don't post maybe we can get them involved and find out what there thinking about this too or get them thinking too if there on the fence or never thought about it. I just want to raise an awareness that we have options right now.
