This is we’re owning and shooting the cheap military stuff pays off. I was buying cases of military ammo to shoot during the inbetweens. Just switch handguns to keep shooting. What’s nice is no reloading. The con is extra cleaning from corrosive ammo.
Get yourself some military stuff.
Back in 2000 I was complaining about rifle ammo being $24/20 magnum belted ammo, now it’s $70 if you can find it. Military ammo was 880rds delivered for $85.

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Plant garlic in the fall

Assuming you can find it these days. Kind of thin on the ground these days.

Not a lot of military surplus around these days except for some .308. Most military caliber is new manufacture for the American market.

1990s were the Golden age of surplus Ammo, it seems. 5.56 139.00/case and 308 189.00/ case....I suppose you could double that in todays money inflation being what it is, but still that would be cheaper'n hell compared to today's prices. Part of why I no longer own any FALs, G3s, M1As, CETMES, etc.
My only social rifle these days is an M4 clone.
If only I'd known....or thought ahead...
A friend who is much smarter than I, has at least eight or nine cases of 556, and as much or more 308 ( I always say 308, to differentiate from Russian rounds) from those old days. He had many more, but has steadily depleted his stock......too expensive these days, he says when he gets down to just a few, he'll probably concentrate more on his Civil War front loaders......

I bought cases of Portuguese surplus 7.62 in the early 90s from Century Arms for $134 delivered for my SA Supermatches. Have 2 full cases remaining.

That was the ammo of choice for my 7.62x51 HK 91. Went thru several cases of corrosive chinese 7.62x39 in my Norinco SKS, no rust. Just clean with hot soapy water, then oil.

In the past few years, I have found MEN (German) 7.62x51 NATO FMJ cheap, and very accurate, brass case, but Berdan primed, so I use them in my CETME, which is hard on brass for reloading.

Larry

I have cans of 7.62x 54R that I got when I bought Mosins.

I think if you bought a $79 Mosin you could buy 880 round cases for $44 in the deal. Up to 2 cases.

I bought the rifles, kept the good ones and the ammo and sold the others for a hundred bucks.

It's hard to shoot up all that ammo in a bolt action rifle but I try!

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SWCA #2420

Then there was CMP ammo back in the day……

Speaking of CMP ammo.When CMP sold the H&R Model 12`s if you had a junior shooter you could buy up to 5 cases of surplus Remington standard velocity match ammo for a penny a round.We bought it and shot it.

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SWCA#2288
SWHF#407

I still have about 3 cases of ammo ( Greek ) for the Garand . I don't shoot it much anymore so it should last .

I will let you have all of mine...............

Just not a fan of that "Other ammo" that is different from ours......

Glad to see that the price is not too bad for you, in today's times.

I used South African 308 for many years in M1A rifles. I have quite a bit left and it seems almost impossible to find to determine a fair selling price. I have it in my local gun store on consignment and the newer shooters don't have any knowledge or interest in this ammo. It's about time to bring it back home and shoot it or give it to my sons.

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LE instructor/Detective

We shot lots of “ furrin” ammo in this.3E61BDCC-EFB1-4226-A35D-BFBAEF310B8D.jpg

I still have two cases of Yugo 8x57 ammo from the 50s. I have pulled a lot of it for use in reloading commercial 8mm cases, as it tends to have 10% to 20% misfires. When I bought it, I am sure it was less than a dime per round. Also have quite a bit of the Turkish 8x57 from the 40s but it is almost too hot to shoot, very stout loads. Even cheaper than the Yugo stuff, and in clips. I have downloaded a lot of it. It contains 49 grains of powder, so I pull the bullets and re-use the cases, bullets, and powder. I cut the charge to 44 grains, much better. Back in the 1990s, the Russian and Chinese 5.56 ball ammo was selling for around a dollar for a 20 round box. The Chinese stuff was brass cased, and it shot very well.

My experience with 8mm is almost exactly the same as yours. I have a couple cases of the Yugoslav 8mm which gives a significant number of misfires on the first hit. The problem is loose primers which are fully seated by the first hit. Most will fire on the second try. The Yugo ammo is heavy ball copper jacketed corrosive primer ammo. The Turkish ammo is light ball, 159 gr copper jacketed ammo and is way hot at over 2900 FPS out of a 98. I have pulled the bullets, dumped about 4grs of powder and reseated the bullets for around 2700 FPS ammo.

I shot up a lot of the 50's Yugo 8mm. Had very few misfires in my guns. I had replaced the old firing pin springs in the three 8mm rifles I shot the most. That might have helped reduce the misfire rate. The best of the Yugo was the 70's dated stuff in my opinion. Still corrosive primed but seemed to be more accurate and leave less bore fouling behind.

I bought a lot of surplus in many different calibers back in the 90's and early 2000's. I still have a few unopened cases left, 7.62X54R and 8mm. A fair amount of 9mm, 45ACP, 7.62X39 and .556 repacked into GI ammo cans as well. I really miss the days when this stuff was pouring into the US and cheap enough to run through as much as I felt like shooting on a any given day.

What I have left should last a while as nowadays I mostly shoot old obsolete calibers that I have to load for. And my muzzle loaders. Still nice to have a stash just in case I ever need or want to use it.

I still have HXP 303British,,great stuff and reloadable.
I use the cases for forming to 6.5x53R.
Some I have used to form to 30Krag as well.
The 303 formed to Krag is a little short but shoots fine.
I still have real Krag brass,,don't really know why I do that sometimes...

I still have a pile of the Turk 8mm Mauser.
70rds in 5rd stripper clips packed in a bandolier for $5 per bandolier
What a deal,,free shipping too IIRC on case lots.
Quite a kicker in a Portuguese Vergueiro I can say that for sure.
Mostly 1943 headstamps.
Some I've pulled and knocked the load down a bit. But mostly just shoot the stuff for fun as is.
Hot load as most say. I get a few cracked necks upon firing, but it's berdan primed so scrap brass anyway.
Plinking ammo.
Just the bullets alone are more than worth it today.

Korean 30-06 packed in M1 clips
Came in 48rd bandoliers and packed in Military 50cal ammo cans.
I can't recall how many rds in a can,,I'm thinking 480rds,,10 bandoliers,,,might be wrong.
Those were $69.95 w/ free shipping if you bought more than one,,sure did! Some outfit in Ky in the later 90's.
Never had any issues with the stuff. Both headstamps are in the lots,,I clean the rifles including my M1 as if all is corrosive.
Still have a few cans left.
Saved all the brass,,handy for making other stuff as well as feeding the ever growing herd of 30-06 rifles that seem to stay around here.

SOG sold FN marked 32acp fmj ammo in 25rd square plastic boxes really cheap at about the same time. I have some of those left and they work fine in about everything I've had. A pre-war PPK and a Mauser 1914 are about it right now.
Slight flat nose bullet design I've not seen other places. They were cheap or I wouldn't have bought 'em! Non-corrosive but berdan primed.

Lots of the 7.62 NATO was around for cheap. I bought much of that for my 2A1 Ishapor Enfields. The 2A1 Enfields were $77 FFL price from SOG when they started coming in.

I just sold a 880 rd case / 2 spam cans, of Bulgarian 7.62 Russian.
Found it in the garage looking for something else. No M/Nagants anymore, so the ammo went to a gunshow.
Never did find the something else.
Got lots more for it that the $49.99 I recall paying for it originally.
Wish I had more of it!
But it was still just as heavy,,maybe more so!
I still remember carrying several of those cases from the middle of the OGCA hall in the IX Cntr Cleveland out to my truck in the parking lot.

I liked the South African, second to the Portuguese .308.

Don't use any surplus ammo anymore. Dealer had some 8 MM mauser for $25 per 100 rounds. God only knows how old or where they were from. Too many hangfires! Probably some junk from the 50s 60s

Buy cheap and stack deep!We traveled to Camp Perry for over 30 years,with 2 sons shooting and doing my best to attract juniors and new shooters we utilized ammo deals whenever and wherever we could.South African and Radway Greeen .308 ammo was a staple,it also made decent Mexican Match.Still have enough Greek 06 and South African 308 to carry us for awhile.The 1st tub of SA .308 we bought was $120.00/1280 rds IIRC.

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SWCA#2288
SWHF#407

I started reloading in 1971. Bullet prices back then were half the cost of a round, so in 1975 I started casting my own boolits. My cast lead projectiles work awesome fine.

In the early 1980's I got my 03 FFL and came across several deals at Century Arms for surplus Mauser and Mosin ammo for pennies a round. I put a bunch of spam cans in my locker. At the time I didn't know why.....LOL.

Now I know. That old **** dates from 1934 to the 1950's. It may kick a bit, but its all 100% fire. A patch of GI bore leaner followed by a patch of Hoppes and all is good.

I don't need no more stinking rifle primers. My rifle ammo supply will probably outlast me.....

The HK 91's perfect diet. Mine are "'81" with the NATO cross. I still have 4 sealed green 200rd battle packs (out of many cases). Those "mild steel copper jacketed" bullets will go through a bank vault door. Joe

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Wisdom chases me; I'm faster

My Yugo 8mm that misfires quite often on the first hit dates from the mid 50s. I have some Romanian light ball dated 1953 that is sure fire. And some repackaged 198 gr Nazi 8mm that is from 1934-36 that is sure fire also.

I bought into the surplus NATO when it was available.....three cases of Australian....ammo cans with high quality canvas bandoleers/stipper clipped....and boxes of plastic trayed (five rounds per pocket) that were so accurate...that I saved to shoot in my M70.....and bought two cases of the South African....which I still have one case left...

the Australian shot so well in my Winchester M70 heavy barrel...I stopped reloading ...

The SA 308 surplus ammo is my go to ammo for testing new to me rifles for accuracy.

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Plant garlic in the fall

I purchased numerous cases of the SA .308 over the years, great stuff, sealed in battle packs. Was about .12 cents a round at the time. Still have a couple of thousand rounds of it left. At the shows I've seen it priced at .70-.80 cents a round, don't know what it is actually selling for.

I personally wouldn't buy any milsurp ammo at this time, I'm not willing to pay what guys are asking for it right now.

1990's surplus era:

50 round belt of 8MM = $4.00
71 round drum on 9MM = $2.84

Pre pandemic

50 round belt of 8MM = $22.50
71 round drum on 9MM = $11.34

Pandemic assuming you can actually find/get it

50 round belt of 8MM = $35.00
71 round drum on 9MM = $20.30

The days of a 3,000 round weekend are long gone.