RIP 7.62x54mmR

The Ukraine issue couldn't put a dent in the hundreds of billions of rounds of 7.62x54 that were produced by the ComBloc. The round was superseded in the Warsaw Pact decades ago. Imports are on hold from Russia, the Ukraine would be stupid to export munitions right now
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Our guv halted ammo imports from Russia?
 
They said 7.62x54mmR ammunition would always be cheaper than .308 Winchester.
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Whoever "they" are lied from the get go. Or perhaps they are just young and never knew what the situation was back before the fall of the Soviet Union.

There was a time when Combloc guns AND their ammo were scarce, rare collectors items, with prices to match. The VietNam bring back SKSs were virtual wall hangers, no supply of ammo existed in the free world, other than what was captured or smuggled out. Mosin Nagants were a bit better off, because there was a limited source for 7.62x54R.

It had been commercially loaded in the US before WWII, but from what I can find, Remington stopped loading it around 1950. You could get ammo from Norma, but that was about it, until the "fall of the wall" (Iron Curtain".

Norma ammo isn't (and never has been cheap). MORE expensive than US made .308 Win sporting ammo, and way more expensive than 7.62Nato surplus.

SO, basically, from the 50s to the 90s, 7.62x54R was more expensive than .308 Winchester. Now, the wheel has turned full circle.

It won't be RIP for the Russian round, but it likely is the end of it being a bargain.
 
"Prices to match". Hardly. I bought my first deer rifle through the mail. It was an old long, hex receiver Russian. I was real happy I was getting rid of the 12 gage slug gun. Then I found out the only ammo (Norma) I could get cost as much a box as I paid for the gun. NOBODY collected them. Nobody wanted them. I used to see quite a few butchered examples at flea markets and auctions. There were plenty of them around, both from Korea and U.S. manufacture. People tried to make them into anything but a 7.62x54. The same with the auto pistols. The hock shops were full of them. If you don't believe that, look for some old gun parts catalogs. There is all kinds of stuff to convert and scope military guns to deer rifles, except the 7.62x54. Even the Carcano was more popular to sporterize.
 
Well, I guess I'll stop shooting the coffee cans full of 7.62x54r I've accumulated, and save it for my retirement fund.
As for GP11, if a bunch does come in, I'm buying.
 
not surprising. it always happens. the ammo comes over in droves, price gets set low, millions of guys rush out and buy guns so they can waste thousands of rounds for a penny a shot and then the import stops and price goes up.

5.45mm used to be 13 cents a round, then importation ban drove that up to about inline with steel cased 223.

7.62x25mm used to be 9 cents a round, barely above the cost of 22lr, then all the import ammo dried up, now it's about the same as 45ACP.

7.62x39 used to be 5 cents a round, then Bill decided he hated china and banned imporation of that stuff, drove prices up to about 15 cents a round, last nail in the coffin there was when the M67 yugo dried up and basically left everyone with wolf/tula/bear and now it's about 25 cents a round, could be much worse but could still be better as well.

nothing is permenant, especially in the import world. I picked up 1600 rounds of HXP 303 brit ammo on stripper clips in bandoleers in spam cans for $100 at one point in time... now that stuff goes for close to a dollar a round.
 
Just checked the prices.

.308 is a dime cheaper per round than 7.62x54, unbelievably. This is for the least expensive steel cased rounds in both option.
 
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