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Ammo you miss.

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Trent

Trent

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I was talking with a friend the other night, and we had one of those "guy moments" where you grow somewhat morose over the "good old days"... and the conversation turned from phones with cords, to ammunition and guns.

It was then that I realized that I have a particular fondness for certain types of ammunition that, when I was younger, I shot with great abandon and at stupid levels of volume .. and I REALLY wished that I'd kept some put back.

THEN I realized that was exactly what I'd started doing at some point, unconsciously. Looking in the gun room I have some ammo that I just WILL NOT shoot. Radway green 223. A little bit of South African 308. And so on.

I started thinking about why I have this hesitation to shoot certain ammunition, why I have that emotional tie to it, and it all struck me as somewhat curious.

When I bought it, obviously, it was dirt cheap. Some of this has to do with ammo prices today being so high. But then I was thinking how backwards this mentality I have is. I will shoot a case of EXPENSIVE ammo I just bought without giving it a second thought, but the thought of loading up a magazine of that South African 308 I paid 10 cents a round for just completely .. unnerves me for some reason. I can't do it. I can't shoot the old cheap ammo, because there's some really weird voodoo of emotion mixed in to the stuff.

It's almost like I'd be blowing away a connection to my past, if I were to do it.

Anyone else ever get strangely emotional over old ammunition? Or do I need to seek therapy other than the "recoil" variety? :)

Thoughts please.
 
I have a box of .223 my wife gave me for christmas once. Sold the gun it goes to a long time ago but will never get rid of that box (probably never shoot it either). I guess I need help since I have ammo with sentimental value :)
 
PMC Sidewinder .22lr. This stuff was cheap, accurate, and consistant.

Remington .22lr ammo. The box still says Remington but the product is junk. Used to be good stuff.
 
Paper hull shotshells...brings back lots of great memories from childhood.
 
2000 round cases of Norinco/China Sports 9mm for $125

1000 round cases of .308 for about the same

1000 round cases of 7.62x39 for $75

2000 round cases of Malaysian 5.56 for around $150

I really just miss buying surplus for less than I could buy components, and not having to bother reloading. :)
 
I miss $3.86/50 9mm Blazer aluminum form Academy, $110/1000 Wolf .45ACP from Sportsman's Guide, $90/1000 Silver Bear 9mm 147gr JHP from the local gun show vendors, $200/1280 SA surplus .308, amd $9/550 Federal bulk pack .22lr from Walmart. I won't go back to when the Chinese ammo was still being imported.
 
I miss factory 30-06 110 grain varmint loads.

And HV .22 Longs.

I didn't even realize they were on the endanged list until they were already gone.

rc
 
how about Super Vel and the Weatherby ammo in the cool boxes with the tiger on them.
 
What I miss is ALL that ammo that I have sent downrange for the last 40+ years.:eek: If I had just bought it and put it away for all these years I could now sell it and buy a little island in the tropics with my own rifle range and disappear there. :D I would have to defend it against pirates now, wouldn't I???:evil:
 
Paper-hull shotgun ammo. Didn't shoot a lot of it, because by the time I started hunting, the plastic shells were about all you saw on the shelf (1969 or so).

39-cent per 50 .22LR ammo.
 
Oh how I miss the days when a tin of 1260 round tin of Polish 7.62x25 cost only $90... even though those days were only a couple years ago.

It wasn't long ago when a brick (well, loosely packed but still 500 rounds) of Winchester Xpert .22LR HP could be had at any Walmart for $8 and were plentiful at that.
 
What I miss the most was the boatloads of dirt-cheap Chinese ammo we used to see before Clinton's executive order cut off imports of Chinese ammunition.

Not only was it good blasting ammo, its availability kept the prices of other practice ammo reasonable while it was on the market.
 
The one I miss the most are factory PMC 41 mag loads in 210 gr SP's and HP's. They were always cheaper than the other name brands, but shot well and worked just fine. They were loaded pretty hot as I recall.

I believe you can still buy factory HV 22 Longs.
 
Midwest: the "gun bug" first bit me well into middle age. Did Russian etc 7.62x39 quadruple in price over about six years due mostly to simple popularity of the (good value) guns, or did people simply stock up to avoid paying much more later?

Back to the OP's question. My surplus .303 ammo was bought right when it disappeared in April '09. It is nice to have something relat. inexpensive which is ready to shoot: 1/3 was mfg. in England during WW2. Some is POF which does pretty well, and the rest has codes which appear be Italian/Aussie, based on a "stickie" at Gunboards or Surplusrifle.

As all of it (?) has cordite, I plan to read up on it a bit more before using. Is the damage caused by many rds. per short session, or does cordite always "overtemp" the chamber/throat, even with ten rds. over ten-fifteen minutes? Simple cleaning with water-based solvents might not helps this aspect.
Frankly, one day whenever my eyes find it very difficult to use aperture sights, I will begin to gradually go through those 3,000 rds. of classic .303 (non-reload.).

My son so far has very limited interest in guns.
 
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I'm glad I stocked up on surplus 8mm when I did. Its really hard to find sometimes.

Though I don't shoot it anymore I suspect Remington's Bronze Points have lost popularity. I think I have 2 boxes of .30-06/180's on my shelf. I Went through MANY boxes of those in my 20's--sighting in for antelope with 150's then swapping back to 180's for Elk. Killed a lot of antelope with bronze points.

In fact, I think they should find a way to put those bronze point bullets in 30 carbine ammo.
 
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