Came home this evening to find my most recent order of 54r delivered from Aim Surplus. I'll likely not buy any more
because of prices. That and I actually feel like I finally have enough. I'm "topped off." By the time I run low or out I'm going
to hate to see the price, assuming it is still available.

7n6 now banned from importation
M-67 sold out and mostly too expensive to buy privately
M-75 is history
Other 8mm mostly unavailable, and what's around is really pricey

I missed out on most of the other surplus calibers. Oh well. I guess there is always HXP M2 ball from the CMP- for now, but
that went up 20% this year from last.

Sort of felt like the end of an era. Sad in a way. Guess it is time to start shooting some of it!

I feel ya......I have a decent stash as well of the crated surplus.  I will shoot the commercial stuff the most, but from time to time I will open a tin and have some "reminiscing" range time to take me back to better days.

This administration, and society in general over the past several years have really been a downer.

Dupe

I got into the surplus game a lot later than most guys here. I ordered a crate of M-67 during the '08 panic because I was curious.
$350, and I thought I was paying way too much, but I wanted it. I was skeptical until it arrived, then I was floored by the quality.

Several months later I was on a trip and walked into The Armory in Virginia Beach just to look around. They had what seemed like
thousands of crates of M-67. I'd never seen so much of any one caliber in my life. Really should have taken pictures with my phone
camera. I "reserved" a few crates on the spot and had them shipped back to WY. $239 per when ordering from out of state (no tax).
Great deal. I thought they'd NEVER sell all that ammo. Now it is gone and sells for double or more what I paid when buying privately.

Not to reminisce too much here, but I grew really fond of milsurp- price, quality, long term storage. No down side. Learn to clean after
shooting corrosive- hot water, a turkey baster from the Dollar store, some Q-tips, a bucket and compressed air, then clean as normal.
No windex, no ammonia. Simple.

I enjoyed the "chase" too- who has what, where is the best deal, how much can I afford, where will that put me, what's next, etc.
I'll miss that.

I shoot 54R for 15¢ per while my friends buy the Bears locally and pay 70¢ per. I get a good chuckle over that every time. Can't get them
to try milsurp. Fear of corrosive ammo is something they can't overcome, even when shot through a Mosin Nagant they bought in 2009 for
$100. No getting through to them. Their loss I guess.

7n6 seemed like the saving grace because it is a modern cartridge in a caliber in widespread use. Done. That leaves us 54R for now.
I'm betting there's still a good amount of it out there, but prices are cracking $200 per crate- still not a bad deal compared to commercial-
but I fear for its future too. If the supply gets shut off, well, do the math.

Is there another potential candidate for cheap surplus import? I scratch my head and come up empty.

I'm done for now.

Stack it deep fellas.

you younger guys, you're livin' the "good old days" right now. Buy what you can when you can.

 

Yup. Ammo & mags. I had people with a lot of experience steer me in that direction. Sounds like you are off to  a good start.

I remember when turkish 8mm was like 4 cents a round if you bought it bulk. I shot thousands of rounds of it in highschool a lot of it was through a buddies semi auto MG34.

Well look around at all the "cheap" commercial russian ammo still available. Buy it now before you are reminescing about how $250 a case of 7.62x39 was so expensive at the time you didnt buy more. I regret not buying more of it when it was $75 a case and thought it was too expensive because of all that cheap 8mm mauser that was available. I know that was then, this is now but there are only three things for sure in life, death, taxes and ammo prices going up.

So true.

I dunno how much x54 I have but it's quite abit and I just bought another crate (cuz why not)  150 for the crate I still think is a deal.  All the surplus I bought super cheap the x54 is still a deal and 8mm  aint bad either.

where can you find $150 for a crate?  I can only find a 7.62 crate for $200+

I'll miss buying the 5.45 for 9 cents per round, but I have a good stock of it.
The 54r keeps going up, I remember buying it for about 12 cents a round when I got my first Mosin.
The lowest I can find it now is $189.00 for a case here.

https://www.wideners.com/itemdetail.cfm?item_id=8736&dir=18%7c830%7c853

Is Wideners safe to buy from now?

I've made about 10 orders with them spread out over the last 2-3 years and have never had an issue.