Ok Lets have a memory jogging contest here for the older guys/gals who can still remember what happened with the history of some of the military surplups. Do you remember?
1st. HISTORY;
Years ago, were going way back in time now, with the Swedish 6,5mm Mausers. I did some research and at first they had piles of these awesome rifles with no ammo available. It was said that they couldn't give these mausers away for $20 at the time. The sales were actually stalled for quite sometime until the ammo slowly became available for them and we know the rest is history. We can still find these mausers at Samco but there not so cheap/affordable anymore. Some can still be had at affordable prices too if we look for them. As far as the 6,5mm swede surplus ammo its just about dried up completely right now too but we do have the ammo manufacturers stepping up to the plate now and making it for us in both american and imported varieties.
2nd. HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF;
With the Swiss Rifles with no 7,5mm ammo available the swiss rifles were very very slow sellers if they sold at all. Again they were a quality rifle like the swede mauser but with no ammo what good were they if we couldn't enjoy shooting them. When the first swiss surplus ammo became available it was expensive and it still is on the high side but were buying a surplus match grade quality ammo. Now the sales of the swiss k31's are at an all time high and there selling out very fast. As the supply dwindles down were starting to see higher prices on the guns for sale sights already. We also have a Priv-Partizan in former yugoslavia manufacturing the Swiss 7,5mm ammo for us at affordable prices. We have had Norma ammo too for many years at $30 a box.
QUESTION??
Now with two very good examples of the past history do we buy a rifle that there is no ammo for it yet when its cheap or do we wait till there is ammo available and risk the higher prices what would you do?
3rd. HISTORY;
When the very first Chinese Norinco SKS's arrived here they were trying to sell them for $1,000 each at first. I'm not sure but i think it may have been two problems why they didn't sell. The first problem was its manufactured in CHINA. The second problem is were in the heck do we get this new 7,62x39 caliber of ammo when its not manufactured by any ammo companies here. If we runout of chinese ammo we have nothing but a spear left. After quite a while the sks didn't sell and the price was dropping and when it hit $59 they started to sell and then word of mouth took over. With no internet back them the sales were very slow but they were selling not at a very fast rate. The ban on chinese imports was put on and we lost the quality chinese guns and ammo. But on the other hand the ammo manufacturers stepped in and the cheap imported ammo kept comming from other countries and filled our need for the 7,62x39 ammo.
It was the Chinese also who manufactured the sks the longest and they manufactured many different versions of it too. They really paid attention to detail and stepped up there quality and they did surpass the russians in quality but again they manufactured the sks the longest so some improvements in quality had to happen in time.
4th. HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF;
We went thru the Russian, the Chinese, the Romanian sks's when we seen the yugo sks hit our shores for the very first time. The yugo's were priced at $1,200 at first and the supply of these was unknown or unannounced yet too so we had no clue if the market was going to be flooded with them or not. I guess as the supplies were piling up and they weren't selling only a few purchased them and had the bragging rights for a while. Then the bottom fell out in the high prices on the yugo sks and they were dirt cheap some grades were under $100 and the surplus life was good again for most of us. When some of the first 59/66's were around this yugo m59 started showing up and some were in poor condition and sold as ufixem's which i think to see if there was a market for them just a few were available at first. They did sell out very quickly too and the rest is history on those too. In the next shippment we saw a better condition M59 too at just over $100 price tag which was too bad either.
BTW; Before you whip me If i remember correctly the Albanian sks's came in somewhere between the shippments of the yugo's i think i can remember seeing them inbetween the yugo shippments at first. There was a very short supply of the Albanian SKS's. I have to add It wwas like the Albanian and Romanian sks's went under the wire like overlooked for quite sometime too by many of us. Both supplies came and went very quickly.
The history repeats it self on the supply of the 7,62x39 ammo too. Were in our third shortage right now. The only thing thats different if we want it was have to pay double for it right now too. With the first shortage of 7,62x39 ammo it hit an all time high of $125 for a 1440rd case if you could find one. The 7,62x54r dried up too and i found one half a case of chinese ammo at $99 it was the last box of ammo in my area to be had too. But we had norma at $28 a box of 20 too. "great?"
QUESTION??
Do you buy a new to us sks when it first arrives to our shores at the highest price or do you wait and see if the price comes down when it doesn't sell as they planned on selling it?
QUESTION??
We been thru 3 shortages of the 7,62x39 ammo now and its hitting the other calibers we shoot now too. If the ammo becomes available and if its ever affordable again what are you going to do;
A. Stock up on if its affordable?
B. Stock up on it even if its expensive?
C. Still buy a little as you need/shoot it?
D. Hoard what you have and not shoot it?
E. Just not buy it at all and not shoot so much of it?
F. If it stays at $4 a box of 20 or goes higher just start reloading it?
This makes me wonder if we will see any large value paks of the 7,62x39 ammo offered by the american manufactuers at affordable prices. I'm starting to see a price war happening with the 9mm luger ammo starting to happen too and it may bleed off into the other calibers too. Even some of the prices on the 45acp ammo is starting to drop too on the american made stuff.
The bottomline is I have no clue as to what the future holds but the past history does repeat itself over and over again. So what does it tell us so far?
Buy that new surplus rifle even if there is no ammo for it while its dirt
cheap.
An Affordable Military Surplus Rifle + cheap/affordable ammo means sales.
Don't buy that very first expensive over priced new sks.
Stock up on any caliber of ammo that you shoot when its cheap.
Buy more ammo than you shoot so you can hoard the rest that way your supply will always increase even if you shoot some too. My rule is if i shoot 500rds i buy 1,000rds and yes i'm replacing the 500rds i shot but at the sametime i'm putting 500rds in the bank too. So shoot one buy two ratio thats the key.
Hoard every caliber of ammo you shoot too. ("quote S.Sumner")
History is interesting isn't it?
Any thoughts?
Want to add anything to it?
