Read my last post. I ordered 1200 rounds of norinco from canada ammo lol. Pretty happy to find it!

Buggie,

Nice SKS. A long time ago a company called PMC use to manufacture a 123 grain soft point round in 7.62x39. It was like most other hunting ammo about $12-$15 for 20 cartridges. Now a similar box of ammo is around $22. Check with Wholesale Sports or any number of small town gunshops, if they don't have it they may be inclined to order you some.

As for firing a 7.62x51 NATO round in a weapons chambered for 7.62x54R, my best advise DON'T DO IT! First off the chamber is too deep for the NATO round, plus the bore is larger. Yes, it is called a 7.62, but the 7.62x54 is not a true .308" it is in the .310 up to .311". Read your reloading manuals, folks. Safety first.

There are some weapons that you can swap cartridges like a .357 magnum or .41 magnum, both of these will take their lighter version, .38 special fit s and fires in a .357 magnum, similarly a .41 special will fit and fire in a .41 magnum BUT not the other way around.

Now in a true emergency, you verse [say a] polar/grizzly bear, a one shot deal for survival....you might be able to make a 7.62 zip-gun out of an old Mosin-Nagant and slam fire a 7.62 NATO round but that would be it, one shot and throw away the mess of metal. I doubt you would have enough accuracy to hit much beyond 25 metres.

Just my two cents,

Mountainman.

Shoot only ammo that matches what is stamped on your barrel. Don't take the risk.

TOTALLY AGREE with MM and crashed. The 7.62 x 54 Russian and the 7.62 x 51 Nato are so different that if you tried to fire the Nato round in a Russian chambered rifle it would probably blow up the action. BAD BAD BAD !!!!!! Even though the case of a round contains the powder it is in no way strong enough to contain the explosive forces. It is the action that does that and has to be compatible with the casing. If there is too much free space you WILL have an explosion. Bad for the eyes / face / hands etc.

for now I think I am going to stick with the [pickles] russian and the .45 acpickles. The reasons being that the surplus ammo for the [banana] is cheap and readily available, but there are also more powerful round available if I felt inclined to use the [banana] for hunting. The .45 acpickles is also reasonable, and is a fairly common reload. I know that the Shooting Edge in Calgary sells .45 acpickle reloads for about $300 for 1000. Good enough for me for the time being.

Once i get comfortable with the [bananas], then I will explore different [pickle] types.

Good plan. You may be interested in exploring reloading. Especially for the pistol. You can't reload mil surp ammo but for regular cases it is a cost saving and you can custom load for purpose with different powder and bullet choices.

eventually I do plan on getting into reloading. thats farther down the road though. I plan on firing alot of rounds the next year (hopefully) and it will definatley start getting expensive. Id love to purchase the reloading gear, but I understand that it is fairly expensive, and space consuming.

Any recomendations on websites for reloading tips?
Also, If I wanted to reload large quantities (im thinking post shtf also... who wants to reload 1 at a time?), what exactley would I need? I know that I asked this elsewhere in the forum, but ive forgotten where it is. How much $$$ would I be looking at?

one more question... Does anyone on this board reload ammunition? If you do, perhaps we could meet up and you could show me the process... or maybe do some 7.62x39 reloads for me haha.

Pretty much all of the bullet and powder manufacturers have information on reloading as well as reloading tables. Hornady, Speer, Hodgson, IMR are a few. You can't reload military surplus ammunition unless you have very expensive equipment since the primer configuration is different than commercial. If you are going to do a lot of shooting prior to reloading SAVE YOUR BRASS. You can reload this multiple times and is one of the most expensive parts of a round. You can get progressive reloading machines for various calibers that are good for higher volume. There are also LOTS of acceccories that you can get that drive up the price. Generally once you have the "machinery" your only other expence is different die sets for different calibers. I reload rifle and shotgun but not handgun. The basic premice is the same. As for cost the spread can be quite a bit depending on what you want. Lamborghini or Lada ? Hope that helps.

You might want to check out the following websites for loading equipment:
http://leeprecision.com/
http://www.dillonprecision.com/

Both are available at local shops, and both can be mail-ordered. I have one press from each brand, both progressive. The Dillon can load 1.000 rounds/hr, less with the Lee. I also have a Lyman single-stage for rifle rounds where I load only a couple of hundred at a time.

Saving brass is almost always a good idea, except for your surplus 7.62x39. It will have Berdan primers, which most loading machines can't handle.

Some calibers are not worth reloading. 9mm can be bought from a couple of remanufacturers at a price that makes your time at the press worth about $1.75 an hour. .45ACP is also quite reasonably priced from BDX in Okotoks. They are a manufacturer so have a minimum quantity of 4 cases, so you are buying 3200 rounds at a time in .45. Their ammo is also available through several dealers.

my (limited) advice for new SKS users...

1. You can find schematics and diagrams and manuals online, you should print out a copy of the type for your rifle, Type 56 for the later Chinese versions.

2. Look up SKS "slam fire" on google or youtube - a dirty or greasy (from cosmoline) firing pin can cause unintentional bursts of full-auto-like firing, which is not as cool as it sounds. Down-right dangerous. The fix is to keep the bolt and firing pin clean and dry - no lubricants or cosmoline - and the pin should flop back and forth and rattle in the bolt without any stickiness.
I bought a new manufacture spring-loaded firing pin from Murray's Gunsmithing (online) which is the surest cure for slam fire. So far I really like it. They cost about $40. I'd look into it.

3. Assume all surplus ammo is corrosive. Learn all about cleaning corrosive ammo. It's not as hard as it seems. Basically you need to clean the barrel, bolt face, and gas piston (this is where the manual from piece of advice #1 comes in handy) with WATER or a water based product to clean the corrosive salts out, and dry completely. The continue with regular cleaning with bore cleaner and coat with oil. You could skip the bore cleaner once in a while, but why would anyone want a filthy bore?

4. It is definitely not recommended to reload steel cases. Brass only!

That's all the advice I have! I'm not an expert, so there might be things I'm missing. Anyone?

Buggie,

A long time ago a company called PMC use to manufacture a 123 grain soft point round in 7.62x39. It was like most other hunting ammo about $12-$15 for 20 cartridges. Now a similar box of ammo is around $22. Check with Wholesale Sports or any number of small town gunshops, if they don't have it they may be inclined to order you some.

I went to Wholesale Sports couple of times and asked about 7.62x39 for hunting but they were out of stock so the third time I went to Shooting Edge and bought it from there.

You guys know that there are better places to buy ammo than shooting edge right? I know you probably want to keep business for the locals but at canadaammo.com they sell a crate 1200rds of 7.62x39 for $299.00 with free shipping. 1000 rounds of .45 acp for $329.00
You cannot beat that.

The hunting ammo they are talking about is different than the Norinco stuff (even Norinco lead core) which is not legal for hunting. But yeah, hunting loads are pricey. However, when you consider 1 or 2 bullets can equal 100-200lbs of wild, free range, organic meat in the freezer, it's a bargain! (not including labour of course)