Are any of the original production types of ammo for the folloe=wing military surplus rifles rare or more expensive than other rifle ammo? Thank you for your expertise.

Swiss K31
German Mauser K98
Enfield
Springfield '03
M1 Garand

Genuine Swiss K-31 ammo is readily available. It's a bit more expensive than most surplus , but it's of excellent Swiss quality , of course.
Genuine USGI 30-06 M2 ball ammo is usually available from the CMP.

There's been tons of 8x57 Mauser ammo around lately. Pretty cheap too. Mostly Turkish , but other countries too. Not much German though.

The Greek surplus .30-06 ammunition that the CMP sells is also available from J&G and other retailers, though I think the price runs a bit more. Some of it is loose packed in boxes, and some of it comes on Garand clips. I think that I have about a 1000rds of it left. The Garand clips can be pulled apart and the ammo used in a Springfield or a 1917.

Garands are probably at their best with military style ammo, though I used to shoot my first one with PMC FMJs which mirrored the old specs for WW2 ball.

.30-06 hunting ammo can of course be had from any Walmart or gunshop in America.

I don't know what is available in surplus .303 as of late. I used to buy 100rd boxes of FN ammunition.

Prvi and Wolf are offering more and more military calibers.

Most (all?) of the 8mm floating around is corrosive.

There is still some cheap 8mm surplus around for the mausers, just search the surplus sites.

As far as 30-06, there is some korean and some greek available, prices are on the way up, though.

Every now and then some canadian 303 is available, but not much.

You didn't ask about 7.62 NATO, but it is over 50 cent a round now.

Brother Klintoon really put the hurt on surplus ammo in this country. Make sure you vote in November, or this bad situation will get worse.

I have copies off all those rifles and enjoy shooting them all. As mentioned, M2 ball ammumnition (U.S. or Greek surplus) is readily available for the M1 and Springfield from the CMP (best choice in my opinion) or other commercial sources. There has been a lot of 8MM around, but I bought several cases of it last year and haven't been keping up on current availability. Yugoslavian is fine stuff, especially the 1970s ammo, but I have cases of the 1950s vintage and it may require a stronger firing pin spring, but it shoots well. Some of the best I've had is 1940s vintage Turkish but there isn't much of it around anymore. Regarding the Enfield: good quality military surplus seems to be a thing of the past. There is some Pakistani ammo (headstamped POF)available in 32 round boxes...its notorious for its "click / bang" characteristics. Still seems to be lots of genuine Swiss stuff for those beautiful K31s, but it's more expensive then the rest. If you're asking because you're trying to decide what rifle to buy to shoot cheaply, I'd probably eliminate the K31 and the Enfield. Take a look at the ammo sections of some of the big on-line suppliers such as Aim Surplus and J&G. As mentioned above, Privi Partion (spelling?) and Wolf make new ammunition for all those guns, as do other companies. The cheapest of the surplus ammno is the one you didn't metion, the Russian 7.62X54R.

Just 3 years ago, one could get a case of 1,000 rounds of NATO-spec, non-corrosive, FMJ 7.62X51 (.308 Win) ammo delivered to their door for $150.00. Turkish 8mm Mauser was 3.00 a bandolier of 70 rounds.

Sob.......

I bought a metric shit-ton of the .308 but wish I had bought a lot more of the 8mm.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: BUFF,

I had a case of the Greek 30-06. Great stuff.


Okie John

quote:

Originally posted by BUFF:
Just 3 years ago, one could get a case of 1,000 rounds of NATO-spec, non-corrosive, FMJ 7.62X51 (.308 Win) ammo delivered to their door for $150.00.

Wish I'd bought a boxcar full of the 7.62 NATO ammo - Port, Aussie or SA.