Milsurp or reloads?

[Gopher]

With milsurp approaching $.30/rd and reloading a milsurp equilivent costing $.20 to $.25 a round, less brass, is anyone thinking of saving their milsurp for a rainy day and using reloads for practice? Milsurp is probably going to continue to rise and is resaleable. On the other hand, reloads, unless you know the reloader and trust them, are worth the componets only.

[River Pig]

Interesting point. I've been reloading 30-06 to feed my Garands, but been shooting my stash of surp .308. This gives me an excuse to start reloading 308 now.:bow:

[chromestarhustler]

approaching 30 cents a rd. lol. check gun broker. good stuff is 40 cents a rd. lets see sa is getting 50 to 60 a 140 which is .35 to .42.
lc was getting .65+
hirt was .43
indian and paki were .22 to .30
aussie and port went high too. auctions went too high for me to pay anymore attention. and this is crazy cause i have been known to pay top dollar for ammo, but its getting out of control.

oh and then there was that half case of old russian 308 for .40

[Arby]

Some Port just sold on this site for $0.34/rd. You can load some expensive reloads at that price (if you already have the brass). Plus, you can tailor the rounds to your rifle(s).

If you already have the equipment I think that reloads are a great way to go given the present cost of milsurp. I reloaded for Garands some years ago, and did the same later for .308. But the cheap cost of surplus ammo made the effort to reload .308 less attractive.

All that seems to have changed. Reloading requires a fair amount of time, if you are going to do it right (trim & gauge cases, load in various powder increments and bullet weights/configurations for various rifles, etc.). But, faced with a cost of 34 cents a round for surplus, the advantages of having custom rounds for my favorite rifles weighed against the time involved makes reloading much more attractive than it used to be. Besides, shooting rounds that have been labor-intensive to produce tends to make one shoot more seriously, and waste less ammo in indiscriminate "blasting".

I'm even beginning to wonder if it isn't worth it to start saving Berdan primed brass, just in case the prices reach the stratosphere.

I'll save the battle packs for special occasions, and dust off the old press for now.

[chromestarhustler]

yeah i tried for the port but was to late oh well, now i gotta think about getting a real reloader and rolling my own. hell i thought 34 cents a rd was a good price.

[Deltaten]

Gonna start doing exactly that!

Save the "serius social work" stuff and plink/practice with reloads. Buying [somewhat] bulk and having a K or so brass saved up over the years; I can shoot for under $.14/rd. If I really wanna save $$, I could cast up my own slugs fer free..well, almost! Gotta pay for the molds;)

With the metals market going up and mil-surp doing the same; NOW is the time to lay in as large a supply of components as possible.
This dearth of mil-surp *might* be just a blip in the great scheme of things; but if it's not...........

Even IF I had the back-stock of decent surplus that I'da liked to have had....oh, say 15 to 25 thousand rounds of EACH mfgr and caliber, purchased when the proice was LOw-low-low; I'd still go this route and reload.

I mighta bought it for $.125 per, but as it's going downrange, all I see is a quarter, a dime and a few pennies. It hurts my eyes, sensabilities and wallet.

Best,
Paul

[daschnoz]

Honestly, I would feel more confident using my reloads in the event that SHTF. At least I know how old it is, how it was stored, and that it is what the box says it is - it really is BL-C(2), 4895, etc, not some screwed up lot with a pistol powder accidently loaded. I have only had 2 rifle loads misfire in the 5 years I've been loading, and I know exactly why - WD40 is not a good case lube and it fks up the primers.

[win308]

I will only shoot my factory/milsurp sparingly. Until prices come back down, I reload.

My only problem....I have 5 or 6 thousand tips, but they are all 168 MK's....bought years ago at 12 cents each. At todays going prices, pretty expensive bullets for practice. (Why oh why didn't I keep those cans of 7 cent 173 LC tips).

I got to find me some nice 150 gr GI tips to plink with.....as soon as Xmas bills are paid off, that is.

[michaelwaynew]

Originally posted by win308
I will only shoot my factory/milsurp sparingly. Until prices come back down, I reload.

My only problem....I have 5 or 6 thousand tips, but they are all 168 MK's....bought years ago at 12 cents each. At todays going prices, pretty expensive bullets for practice. (Why oh why didn't I keep those cans of 7 cent 173 LC tips).

I got to find me some nice 150 gr GI tips to plink with.....as soon as Xmas bills are paid off, that is.

I recently bought 2k 147gr pulled GI bullets from River Valley Ordnace @ $40/1k
they can fit 2k 308 bullets in a single flat rate shipper for $11. Therefore, 2k bullets delivered for $90 or 4.5 cents ea. best price I've found. The bullets do have some small pull marks, but for general plinking they shoot fine.

River Valley Ordnace
Contact Information
Telephone
636-926-3076
Post office address
3790 Harvester Road, Harvester MO 63303
Electronic mail
General Information: Tom@rvow.com
Sales: Tom or Nikki

[broncobisley1]

I actually contacted them through e-mail before Christmas and have not had a reply back. If someone else makes contact with them, let me know if they still have bullets for this price.
TIA

Originally posted by michaelwaynew


I recently bought 2k 147gr pulled GI bullets from River Valley Ordnace @ $40/1k
they can fit 2k 308 bullets in a single flat rate shipper for $11. Therefore, 2k bullets delivered for $90 or 4.5 cents ea. best price I've found. The bullets do have some small pull marks, but for general plinking they shoot fine.

River Valley Ordnace
Contact Information
Telephone
636-926-3076
Post office address
3790 Harvester Road, Harvester MO 63303
Electronic mail
General Information: Tom@rvow.com
Sales: Tom or Nikki

[Jon Frum]

Originally posted by broncobisley1
I actually contacted them through e-mail before Christmas and have not had a reply back. If someone else makes contact with them, let me know if they still have bullets for this price.
TIA




That site is DEAD! Need to shut it down. Insensitive-not really.
http://www.falfiles.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=186059

[USSR]

...reloading a milsurp equilivent costing $.20 to $.25 a round, less brass

$.20 to $.25 a round, less brass my ass. I'm creating ammo clearly superior to any milsurp currently on the market for $.15 a round, less brass.

Don

[brownknees]

I'm creating ammo clearly superior to any milsurp currently on the market for $.15 a round, less brass.
Ditto.
I've been reloading for years. MilSurp comes & goes, only brass lasts.
I've fired literally thousands of reloads in M1A's, FAL's, and bolt guns like Rem 700's and old Lee Enfields.
I'd trust my loads in any situation, based on experience & practice.
As an example of the fluctuation in MilSurp: Some years a go I saw LC '68 brass at a show. It was baggged into 100 round plastic for some (currently) ridiculously low price. I asked how much for the whole can. I used that .50 cal can of brass for years.

[gordonm1]

I am struggling to match the accuracy of my Port surplus with my reloading. I have Widener's "match FN" bullets and Pat's unfired surplus brass and Pat's surplus powder(WC 846) and Widener's surplus 4895 from this fall.

So far, I would say Port is hard to beat with surplus components. You have to enjoy the reloading process to get your satisfaction from rolling your own.

[shootist87122]

I'm at $.2240/round using Varget and Hornady 150 FMJs in surplus (Aussie) brass and about .26/ea using new Graf Brass (calculated at 5 loads per brass).