45acp? Really? I thought that was going obsolete. Have never seen it on law, just old timers and their 1911s! Like 44 mag.
Now that I have a 7.62 x 39 AR, I can't find ammo locally. I'll keep trying... Any pistol caliber is out, and out quickly. 223? still no sight of it. I can buy expensive 6.8 spc though, just not plinker ammo. I've got a gooder amount of the spc though.
Local ammo can always be an issue. 7.62x39 used to be everywhere. Esp if you had an sks or ak that you didn't worry about shooting steel case in. And 45 acp will never go away.
I get to mix it up with Police at State level and FBI guys through a friend that is an approved qualifier. From what I have been hearing, FBI and State have gone to 45s. The friend is an FFL and has said for a while that 45s are just plain gone.
My 7.62 x39 ar15 I just got apparently have zero issues cycling the steel cased rounds. I've seen the inexpensive steel stuff locally, but that was before I ordered it. Of course. I looked at duck'ssporting goods and Meijer today. None of that either place. I'll check Cabela's, and midwestern shooters supply. After that it's online order time. I just don't want to buy more than 40 rds or so and find out it doesn't like that particular stuff. I guess as long as I'm not buying 250+ rds of ammo it might not like, I'm ok with that. That's me being pessimistic about the cycling of a particular steel cased ammo.
So the steel ammo comment I made, it didnt have to do with cycling, it has to do with the chamber. When i bought my first ar, the builder (a small company) told me that shoting steel cased ammo would void the warranty. Brass cased ammo can flex and indent, steel doesnt. If you get a piece of "hard trash" in the chamber and fire brass case, the brass takes the damage. When that happens shooting steel case, the steel case doesnt give, and can cause damage to the chamber. At least that's how it has been explained to me by several "gun folks", and in some writings. I have some steel case, but it's in the "bottom of the can"...if I have to get into that, everything has gone south.
I don't know if I would purchase ammo in a caliber I don't have a firearm to use it with, but that's just me. I have traded ammo for log length hardwood before (well, technically the firewood was free, however I gave them some ammo as a thank you). One thing to consider is not just to look at what ammo is flying off the shelves, but also what weapons are common for your neck of the woods. Everyone around here has .22's going back generations, as well as .12 and .20 gauge shotguns. 30.06 and .240 were the common hunting calibers growing up. Some of that has changed with the times, obviously, but those used to be the most common around here. .45, 9mm, and .223/5.56 ammo is like money in the bank. I had a .300 Win Mag and a 30.06 on consignment for over 8 months at a gun store with no takers, and that surprised me. Larger calibers like the .300 Win Mag just aren't as common as I thought up here, and the 30.06 had a factory custom thumbhole stock, so it didn't appeal to the masses. At the same time, rifles in .22, .240, (standard) 30.06, and 6.5 were flying off the shelves. I never had a .410 shotgun growing up however those are big up here as well. I’m not saying I agree with purchasing ammo just for trading, however if one were to do so, talk to your local gun store(s) and find out what weapon calibers are most common for your area (pandemic panic sales notwithstanding).
That 7.62 stuff is pretty easy to find here. At least I’m only aware of one store that really is able to get it in bulk. But now there’s 2 box limit for any caliber. At 20 round boxes there’s a reason it goes out so slow. They got an entire pallet of cases. What I did read up that AK caliber or AR is not preferred during a pandemic basically was it being bulky and ammo is heavy. 5 months ago people were buying these guns and the ammo was ok. Now that .223 is ridiculously expensive, even the steel cartridges is mostly .50 a round and any reloadable ammo is .50+ even at a bulk. Online sites can’t keep up with the buying spree so they jack their prices . Yesterday I thought “wow! $600 for 5.56 Green tip“, and that was a 1200 pack. That’s a heavy price for plinker ammo. Well that was gone by the end of the day. I even wonder at this point if .50 a round for plinker/varmint ammo is worth pulling the trigger. Some of us who may stockpile( I’m not using Hawder here in a bad light) may have a serious investment. You could sell it online if you can in your state(via auction) I don’t even wanna know, it’s pretty high I bet. But shipping it is the biggest issue. Locally may be possible. .22 is headed to “gone“. I actually stopped buying it since I had about 6,000 rounds at a time. Folks must have more time on their hands so they plink and it is cheaper with .22LR. Whatever is next seems like it will be shotgun ammo. All the expensive hunting rifle ammo does is stay there but it’s price has been high as usual.
I’ll look in the ammo section at some of my favorite places to check out and its bare. It’s a joke. The buy low sell high mantra is too true in this situation and online stores must be laughing because they are the only ones able to legally sell it and ship it. Poor FedEx people. Lifting 30+ lb boxes with a black diamond symbol every day now. Having bought a 1000 rounds of steel case now that has nearly doubled, I’m glad but I haven’t shot any yet. Now I’m not worried about supply per se but the investment direction would be a bit silly at this point it seems. I only have two kinds of ammo for a gun I don’t have. Two boxes of 6.5 creedmoor and A bunch 20 gauge shells. Story? I bought a 20 gauge single shot shotgun and the company I bought it from seems to be on back order. Or may never open up again due to pandemic loss. Watching a couple of single shot shotgun videos, just seemed fun to me. Even one came up with .410 but the ammo is pretty pricy for that one. And finally the 6.5 Creedmoor is a caliber I’ve been hemming and hawing about between .308 for hunting with. Since I read more about accuracy with the 6.5, it’s looking favorably based on outside experiences with deer. The ammo seems to be in good supply too.
Since the 6.5 creedmoor is typically right next to my 6.8 SPC, I see that. A lot. There's a ton of 6.5 on the shelves, all high end hunting stuff though. I haven't seen plinking 6.5 at stores. Around here, it's a really popular deer Rd, although I don't know anyone that has a gun that shoots it. The 6.8 SPC right next to it is usually about 3 different kinds, all high grade. The creedmoor is a good 7-8 varieties. Here's some good reading on the 6.5's and the 6.8 SPC 6.5 Grendel vs. 6.5 Creedmoor vs. 6.8 SPC – Compared & Rated - Gun Mann
That's actually starting. Unfortunately. Aluminum cans are in short supply. A can shortage means it may be harder to find your favorite beer - CNN
I’d tie a bunch of different comments here but that would make each of my posts novels, so I try to avoid that. But I have been doing a lot of reading on Steel case: issues, no issues, “my AR cycled these rounds no problem, just a little dirtier ammo though so cleaning every 300-500 rounds is a good idea” “things were going well until about 100 rounds in, one steel cartridge damm near welds itself in the chamber, ruining a cleaning rod getting it out.” These were just some accounts I had read and some even included that a bullet got stuck in the barrel. No way of knowing if they had the wrong ammo but that was an even rarer occurrence in what I read. The most? Duds. Light strikes from the firing pin. Some treat their AR’s with breakfast pork oil in light of just saying you can run your gun light or hard in any way, it will function. But ammo in this case, steel has verifiable issues from here and there. The thing though, is it’s cheap enough to settle for using it for thrills but for real situations? I can only go by what I’m able to read and update on. I find myself kicking my azz though not grabbing ammo that was cheap to begin with, now it’s gone and until when.
That's good! I hadn't thought about that being a possibility. My ar I referenced was/is 5.56, and the chamber was not built for steel case ammo issues. Shhhhh! They'll hear you, realize they haven't addressed that, and there goes your beer.....
True. However the reality is that some beers will be difficult if not impossible to get until the can shortage is remedied.
FatBoy85 you can remedy the light printer strikes by using a better pin, designed for steel cased ammo, and or a different trigger. Skeletonized/ lightened hammer triggers are typically not good for delivering a hard enough punch to the primer. The bigger question is ar10 vs ar15. An AR 10 is heavy. A former co-worker of mine has a 308 ar10 as his deer gun. It's flipping heavy. For deer, an ar15 offers a ton of great chamberings that work well. My dad's Ruger ranch rifle in 6.8 SPC worked great for deer. When I have my at x39 built ( waiting on parts) I'll weight it. Then we'll have my buddy with his ar308 come over and shoot at my other buddy's that builds AR's. We'll compare 5.56, 450 Bushmaster, 308, the x39, and the ranch rifle in 6.8 SPC. I'm looking forward to this.
I’m looking forward to it as well. Will you be setting up a thread for it? While I’ve been able to on my own time, been looking at parts that I can swap out and use a more quality part on my AR and learn about it. By then, maybe I will have a better understanding what goes where and put together one on my own. Lots of parts aren’t readily on the market now. As far as I know, this kind of demand hasn’t been reached yet, of course it’s the timing of everything.
