Yup, I remember 8x57 at $27 a thousand.... when I didn`t have $27, mind you.

I think we can assume that Germanicon military production of the 8x57 pretty well stopped right around May 8, 1945. The single thing the Wehrmacht did not rn out of was small-arms ammo. But once the War was over, there was no need (and no resources and no money) for more, so production stopped. What was left over lay around for a few years, then got policed up and a lot sold on the surplus market. Guys bought it and shot it.

A LOT of guys bought it and shot it a LOT.

And then the well was dry.

Simple.

The only thing left was fresh hunting ammo that cost a lot more because it was NOT surplus, it was fresh production.

.577 Snider went from 2 cents a shot to half a dollar a shot.... and that half-dollar was a third of an ounce of silver. It is now 8 to 10 bucks a shot. MUCH cheaper to load your own.

Add to that the factories that just didn`t want to be bothered with stuff that didn`t sell millions. When IVI took over the old Dominion plant in Quebec, they de-listed more than 2 DOZEN cartridges which CIL had been makng money on, albeit slowly. I have firearms for a lot of those cartridges..... and I can`t find ANY shooting quantities of .25RF, .25 Stevens, .22 Remington Auto, .22 Remington Special, .32 RF, .32 RF Long, .38 RF, .38 RF Long, .22 Savage High Power, .32-40 WCF, .43 Mauser...... because they SCRAPPED all that was on hand, just to keep it off the market.

If they have another war, there might be some 7.62 NATO and 5.56 surplus, there could be some 7.62x39, 5.45x39, 7.62x54R..... but there sure won`t be any .57 Snider or .43 Mauser surplus.

It all got shot off, along with the 6.5 Dutch and 8x50R and .303 that all was so cheap.
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