captianpattson
New member
I'm looking for my newest toy and I'm wondering what is cheap to shoot. I love my mosin at about .20 per round. I just don't want to get something I won't be able to shoot often.
Cheap C&R shooting
- Thread starter captianpattson
- Start date
ccSnoopycc
New member
Rather than look at weapons we must first focus on ammo. Look at ammo prices first, see what is cheap, then find C&R firearms that shoot that kind of ammo. A small list that I can think of off hand for cheap ammo are:
9mm luger
9mm Mak
7.62x54r
7.62x39
Wow guess I cant think of anything else!!! Most mil surplus firearms really are not cheap to shoot unless its in one of those calibers. For a little more you can add the cheaper surplus and russian made 30.06, 8mm, 6.5x55, 7.5 Swiss, and 7mm Mauser to the list. The Mosin Nagant is by far the cheapest thing to shoot.
9mm luger
9mm Mak
7.62x54r
7.62x39
Wow guess I cant think of anything else!!! Most mil surplus firearms really are not cheap to shoot unless its in one of those calibers. For a little more you can add the cheaper surplus and russian made 30.06, 8mm, 6.5x55, 7.5 Swiss, and 7mm Mauser to the list. The Mosin Nagant is by far the cheapest thing to shoot.
Not necessarily C&R and not necessarily milsurp, but don't forget about .22. I'll bet that I've put more .22LR rounds downrange than all of my other calibers combined. You can get a brick of bulk ammo for about the same price as 20 good .30-06 rounds.
Oh, and if you reload (or even better, if you reload and cast), almost any caliber starts getting cheap. I bought 400 rounds of HXP .30-06 from CMP a couple of years ago and I've been reloading that brass ever since...keeping in mind my first paragraph.
Oh, and if you reload (or even better, if you reload and cast), almost any caliber starts getting cheap. I bought 400 rounds of HXP .30-06 from CMP a couple of years ago and I've been reloading that brass ever since...keeping in mind my first paragraph.
carguychris
New member
+1 ccSnoopycc.
7.62x25mm Tokarev and 8mm Mauser are currently cheap to obtain, but the availability of inexpensive decent-quality milsurp ammo in both of these calibers is becoming spotty.
Keep in mind that 7.5x54mm French MAS and .303 British were considered cheap milsurp cartridges for years, but then the supply of quality milsurp ammo dried up, and many of the guns have been relegated to owners' safes. New-made factory ammo in 7.62x25 will probably never be as cheap as other common pistol calibers due to the complex and unusual bottleneck case; keep this in mind.
FWIW 7.5x55mm Swiss milsurp ammo is not as cheap as the others, but the cartridge has a big advantage- it uses the same .308"-caliber bullets as common .30-caliber cartridges such as 7.62x51 and .30-06, making it much easier to handload once the milsurp stockpiles are gone.
My next major C&R purchase may be a Walther P38 or a Luger P.08; the guns themselves aren't cheap, but I can shoot them for cheap because I've started handloading 9mm Luger in bulk.
7.62x25mm Tokarev and 8mm Mauser are currently cheap to obtain, but the availability of inexpensive decent-quality milsurp ammo in both of these calibers is becoming spotty.
Keep in mind that 7.5x54mm French MAS and .303 British were considered cheap milsurp cartridges for years, but then the supply of quality milsurp ammo dried up, and many of the guns have been relegated to owners' safes. New-made factory ammo in 7.62x25 will probably never be as cheap as other common pistol calibers due to the complex and unusual bottleneck case; keep this in mind.
FWIW 7.5x55mm Swiss milsurp ammo is not as cheap as the others, but the cartridge has a big advantage- it uses the same .308"-caliber bullets as common .30-caliber cartridges such as 7.62x51 and .30-06, making it much easier to handload once the milsurp stockpiles are gone.
My next major C&R purchase may be a Walther P38 or a Luger P.08; the guns themselves aren't cheap, but I can shoot them for cheap because I've started handloading 9mm Luger in bulk.
carguychris
New member
Also very true!
One of my all-time favorite C&R purchases was a Winchester Model 69- one of the early non-"A" 1930s models with the cock-on-closing bolt. It's pretty, it's refined, it's a tack driver, and it lacks the plastic parts and other cheap touches you find on new .22s. OK, you can't mount a scope on it without hacking it up, but it's a .22, who needs a scope?
kilimanjaro
New member
US ammo surplus is gone. The UK .303 and .308 is gone. The Romanian 8mm is gone. French 7.5mm is gone. South African 5.56 is gone. I don't see 7.62x54R and 7.62x39 going away for some years, but the good East German stuff is gone. The well dries up and fills up again with something else. A good reloading setup is a great way to go, you can pick up dies and brass over time, then enjoy to your hearts content. Reloading is cheaper than the current prices on surplus, once you reuse the brass once or twice. Lots of the surplus is Berdan primer pockets or steel cases, so it's use it once and send to the recyclers.
warningshot
New member
The 9x18 Makarov is more expensive than 9x19.
.303 Brit, 7.62x53 (762 Argentine) 7mm Mauser, 6.5x55, 30.06: money wise is gone, gone, gone and gone. A ~buck a round? KM double 'Ayes'.
8mm surplus and 7.5 Swiss is close enough in cost to .223 and .308, so why shoot surplus. 8mm was cheap for awhile, but when it was available is was 50plus years old and in cardboard boxes...not in sealed tuna cans.
5.45x45 is cheap, but what kind of milsurp gun shoots it?
7.62x25 is now well past .20 cents a shot. Plus it's such a high pressure cartridge that no one I know shoots it. Can you imagine shooting this round thru thouse cheap 1911 knockoffs! I think I'll be seeing half used ruski tuna cans of this stuff now that I'm on the look-out for it.
If there is any other milsurp cartridge other than 7.62x54R available that is inexpensive and half way reliable please let me know.
Oh yea, don't forget...If you are thinkning about reloading for berdan cases...this ComBloc Eastern Euro stuff has 4, that is four, known...berdan primer sizes. That's right. 4!
.303 Brit, 7.62x53 (762 Argentine) 7mm Mauser, 6.5x55, 30.06: money wise is gone, gone, gone and gone. A ~buck a round? KM double 'Ayes'.
8mm surplus and 7.5 Swiss is close enough in cost to .223 and .308, so why shoot surplus. 8mm was cheap for awhile, but when it was available is was 50plus years old and in cardboard boxes...not in sealed tuna cans.
5.45x45 is cheap, but what kind of milsurp gun shoots it?
7.62x25 is now well past .20 cents a shot. Plus it's such a high pressure cartridge that no one I know shoots it. Can you imagine shooting this round thru thouse cheap 1911 knockoffs! I think I'll be seeing half used ruski tuna cans of this stuff now that I'm on the look-out for it.
If there is any other milsurp cartridge other than 7.62x54R available that is inexpensive and half way reliable please let me know.
Oh yea, don't forget...If you are thinkning about reloading for berdan cases...this ComBloc Eastern Euro stuff has 4, that is four, known...berdan primer sizes. That's right. 4!
SwampYankee
New member
Reloading is definitely the only way to shoot battle rifles cheaply anymore.
.308 or .30-06 is probably your best best. You can get pulled bullets very inexpensively and machine gun brass is also cheap. And you can load the ammo as light as you want, so you can shoot all day long without getting too exhausted.
.308 or .30-06 is probably your best best. You can get pulled bullets very inexpensively and machine gun brass is also cheap. And you can load the ammo as light as you want, so you can shoot all day long without getting too exhausted.
boostedtt91
New member
get the .22LR Lee Enfield