Am I the only one who can't find 30-40 ammo?

If you reload, it won't be hard to find.

Over the last few years ammo manufacturers have been selling common ammo faster than they could produce it. From an economic standpoint it made no sense to stop production of 223 ammo in order to make a small run of many of the less common rounds. I think that may change soon.

A few of our local shops have it in stock... though only 3-4 boxes.

No one is chambering a mass produced new rifle in the caliber so demand is low. I think at $40 a box you did ok for price. Save your brass.

As for reloading, a lot depends on your future plans. Dies sets obviously can be used with most any presses. A basic set up that will load perfectly good hunting ammo and last a long time can be put together for under $100. Just add primers (any store in central Illinois will have them around $5 per 100 or less), a pound of powder ($35 retail - will yield about 175 rounds), and whichever bullets you like ($25 - 30 per 100 for hunting bullets). Stick with a basic recipe like 4895 or 3031. The first 100 rounds will be about break even versus the cost of factory ammo. After that your sunk costs are covered and you actually start saving money, but more importantly your brass should be good for multiple reloads and components are generally available in most places.

tark said:

What has happened to 30-40 ammo on gun store shelves? Have all the Krags suddenly disappeared? I finally did find two boxes of Winchester 180 GR, at an obscure gun store in Petaluma, California. They were $39.95 a box and I grabbed them both, not the least bit worried about the obscene price.

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I'm amazed that they still have a gun store in Petaluma ?
30-40 used to be a popular caliber for deer hunting out in that part of California, wonder how old that ammo is..?

Yeah 30-40 was/is a great old round. But the last modern guns chambered for it were the Winchester/Browning M1895 lever action copies. Try finding the once popular 35 Remington. I have a Browning M71 .348 Win. Try finding that at a decent price. Luckily I put away brass and cast bullets. The ammo companies are selling all the .223/5.56, 9mm, .308 they can make with the love of black guns.

DELETED.

I order all my oddball stuff online, it's a necessary evil. In my opinion the 30/40 is a great cartridge.

Cooldill said:

Face it, the Kraig is dead.

Thank Adam Lanza.

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What? Stupid reply. He didn't use a 30-40 Krag. How does that relate to this question? Sure theres anti gun issues from that but not on old calibers. It would effect the common .223, 9mm more than anything that was used.

I can't usually find it online either. Got about 100 cases socked away, now I just need dies....
Ya, if ammo sales slump like guns we may see Remington and Federal run off a few rounds for deer season next year (300 Savage too....). If they do, be prepared to grab it up!

Remington used to make a annual run until about 2 or 3 years ago. Haven't seen Winchester in years. Grafs and sons had krag brass last year.

Brownells, gun shows.

No, you're not alone. Finding 30-40 has been a problem for some time now. The folks over on the Krag website have been discussing it and other than reloading, as the folks above have already mentioned, there doesn't seem to be much hope on the horizon. As someone else already mentioned, gun shows is another possibility. I know there has to be lots out there somewhere. When I was working for several of the national chains in the '90s and they moved away from in-store buyers (and before they all went bankrupt!) it was common practice to ship a case or two of 30-40 with every order. The result was lots of relatively low demand inventory in the stock room which was exactly the opposiite of what was supposed to happen. One store in just one chain that I closed, for example, had 14 cases of 30-40 on hand when the company announced liquidation. The worst case of dumping low demand ammunition was probably a wholesaler out of Chicago sending countless Tractor Supply stores, back in the day when they sold ammo, an entire skid of .454 Cas. Even though it was practices such as this that put many of these companies out of business or at least contributed to the problem, the practice continued. As recently as 10 year ago it was common to see boxs of 30-40, 32-20, and a handful of other low demand calibers arrive at Dick's with every ammunition shipment. Best of luck and let us know if you find any!

Krag dies, a way to prime, some Lee Dippers, and a Lee hand press, and you are in business...Powder and primers are easy...

Or...

A Lee whack-a-mole type loader...

https://www.midwayusa.com/product/742352/lee-classic-loader-30-40-krag

Not fast, but works fine for one caliber/cartridge...

ADDING: I see it has been discontinued, so you'd have to find one on eBay, etc....

tark said:

What has happened to 30-40 ammo on gun store shelves? Have all the Krags suddenly disappeared? I haven't seen any in the last few years. Oh, I know I can find it online, but I don't shop online. I have been to every big box store in my area, to include the Bass Pro Shops in Peoria, the Gander mountain( before it died) in the same city and the Scheel's in Iowa city. I even stopped off at Cabela's World Headquarters in Sidney, Nebraska on my way to California.

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I don't understand disdain for convenience and availability.

tark

Same problem here; can't remember the last time I saw a box of .30-40 Krag on any store shelf. When I need some nowadays (and that's not all that often), I just look for it online and can usually find a box or two that will hold me over til the next time I need some.

30-40 Krag ammo Cheaper than dirt. web site. If you haven`t looked already.

CDW4ME: I don't understand disdain for convenience and availability.

I try to support my local gunshops and the occassional gun shows before going online. If online shopping becomes the only convenient and available source for sports, self-defense and collector supplies, and kills off the LGSs and GSs, the online interstate legal supply system becomes easier to shut down via federal legislation.

Couple of weekends ago I helped a family member check the zero on her J.C. Higgins .22 rifle (by Marlin for Sears). Compare the original 1985 "Day of the Dead" to the 2008 remake. In the original the gunshop is in the mall; in the remake, the gun shop is across the street in a ghetto-like building.

I have no disdain for going online out of necessity for things like piston shock absorber for Howa shotgun, other parts for discontinued models, etc. but I am someone who figures price of product online + shipping and handling versus price local + gas mileage. I would prefer to keep shooting supplies as local and as mainstream as much and as long as possible.

"Face it, the Kraig(sic) is dead."

Didn't James Yeager say that?

Like 7.65 Belgian Mauser, that's not something I'd expect to find at most gunstores, especially around here. Cleveland is the land of the vanilla, in food, books, photography gear and shooting supplies. Want something even slightly out of the ordinary? You're going someplace else, ordering it online or making it yourself.

That's one reason why I started reloading in the first place.

During the Great Ammo Shortage of 2012, new LGS sprung up like weeds round here. One even had a few boxes of .30-40 (until I snatched it up) when they first opened. They never resupplied.
Now, of course, they are folding like cheap suits. One is doing quite well by not selling ANY new guns- thereby avoiding competition with Wackymart or the Interweb. I love that shop- its like a old school gunshow everyday, never know what you'll find!
Course, I know what I won't find: Krag ammo. But I still ask every time I walk in.

NIGHTLORD40K said:

During the Great Ammo Shortage of 2012, new LGS sprung up like weeds round here. One even had a few boxes of .30-40 (until I snatched it up) when they first opened. They never resupplied.
Now, of course, they are folding like cheap suits. One is doing quite well by not selling ANY new guns- thereby avoiding competition with Wackymart or the Interweb. I love that shop- its like a old school gunshow everyday, never know what you'll find!

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There used to be places like that here, back before Clinton.

They're all gone now, having all run afoul of Clinton's purge of small gunstores in the '90s.

Here ya go...in stock...
http://grabagun.com/ammunition/rifle-ammo.html?caliber=2739

https://www.budsgunshop.com/catalog/ammo_search.php/caliber/10000637/30-40 Krag

Buds is 26 bucks after rebate