Collecting and shooting Milsurps on the cheap

[Colonel Enfield]

I think this discussion perfectly demonstrates the difference between countries regarding ammunition/gun availability

Ammo in Australia costs a fortune. Factory, reloading components, doesn't matter, it still costs the sort of money that would make our friends in the US keel over with an attack of the vapours.

My observation is centrefire ammo for the "mainstream" calibres I mentioned earlier is about $1.50/rnd, with deals available from time to time when someone imports a container-load of a specific calibre (or range thereof).

While I appreciate where you're coming from with regards to ease of reloading for some of the odd cartridges, in this part of the world the guns themselves are so uncommonly encountered as to make it a moot point. For example, I don't think I've ever even seen a rifle chambered for 7.65x53mm Mauser, except for a scant handful of Turkish Mauser rifles on display in museums, captured during the Gallipoli Campaign.

Back in the '80s and '90s someone imported vast quantities of Swedish Mausers into Australia - so many they're easily the second most commonly encountered Milsurp rifle here after the various .303s. Something similar is happening at the moment with the Swiss Schmidt-Rubin rifles; someone has imported a heap of them, they're on the market for reasonable prices, and they've suddenly become very popular whereas perhaps five years ago only serious military rifle enthusiasts would have even heard of them, much less own one.

I know there's a few Carcanos floating around for next to nothing at the moment; a friend grabbed one a year or two back for that reason but discovered the ammo and reloading components were so hard to get in his area that he's now stuck with a spectacularly average rifle that's a huge pain in the neck to feed, not cheap to run, and not especially accurate either.

I must stress that all this doesn't make your advice bad in any way - just illustrates the different experiences people are going to have in different areas.