Collecting and shooting Milsurps on the cheap

[Eaglelord17]

That is very interesting the differences your region can make.

In Canada .303s of many makes and varieties (though many of them sporterized) are the most common milsurps but are less and less common at the range due to the increase of cost for .303 British. Mosin Nagants and SKSs would be the most likely thing to see at the range at this point for military surplus, which is good but many people are missing on quite a fair bit of variety. There are a bunch of 8mm Mauser rifles and 6.5 Swedish rifles kicking around but again due to increase in ammo costs you see them less and less. The Swiss rifles seem to have increased in popularity here as well, but so has the price, which again makes it harder for people to get into it.

Often where I live (which is primarily a hunting town), I am the one with the diversity in milsurps/any milsurps at the range (many in this region see no need for them and would prefer the newest cheapest hunting rifle in some 'magnum' caliber).

The most interesting thing to me is ammo prices have jumped significantly recently. Two years ago I could buy new production (PPU) ammo for most milsurps for 20$ a box. Now those same boxes sell for 25$+ a box. No difference in ammo quality but a 25% minimum jump in price. Even .22 ammo is getting unaffordable, in my city 2 years ago it was 20$ a box of 500, now it is 40$ a box of 500 (which I refuse to pay). Most new people don't realize most the cost is in buying the ammo for the rifle, not just acquiring the rifle itself, and with the way the factory ammo is going, it is getting very unaffordable for all.