Guns & Shooting
Where's the ammo
Check out gun broker. May not be cheap but plenty available. I have no idea what prices may be like if any normal retailers have it, but a lot of the price is going to be availability. https://www.gunbroker.com/.
Lol going through some boxed pre-2020 ammo. Stuff that is still in cardboard boxes and boxed up and put in the storage. Tags on the box are 799 for 50 9mm rounds of blazer, 8.99 for Remington, UMC and 9.99 for Meg tech. Some bad time we are living in now.
44/45,
I would think most any lead-nosed pointed soft point (PSP) would feed reliably in that rifle. Ammo today is built to much better tolerances that it was 20 or 30 years ago. My father-in-law has a 7400 BDL (beautiful gun) that will shoot Winchester 150/165 gr. PowerPoints into 1.5" at 100 yards. As long as the bolt is oiled, it will shoot all day without issue. The magazines on those rifles are generally more problematic than the actual rifles. I have a 760 Gamemaster pump in .30-06 that has 4 magazines. Only ONE of them feeds without issue and falls from the rifle without issue. One of the others feeds well but is a pain to get out of the magazine well and the other two are junk and just sit in the safe (I only keep them in case I need to replace a magazine spring or something). If you can find someone else with the same era rifle, try another magazine and see if it helps.
I have a Remington 7400 which I bought back in 1980. It will only shoot Remington ammo without jamming. The ammo has to have a blunt tip on it or it will jam coming out of the clip and sliding into the receiver because of it's length. The ammo has a serial number of 30000064. Haven't seen this ammo on the shelf for 15 year's. I'm just wondering how the newer semi auto's are working out.
I have a .30-06 and .270 Win and didn't have any problems finding ammo for either and I am fairly picky when it comes to ammo. I am a big fan of Hornady as well...my .270 loves the 140 gr. American Whitetail and my .30-06 likes the 165 SST Superformance. I saw both offerings at multiple locations. The 140 gr. American Whitetail I found for $24/box, so I bought a few boxes so I have extra. If you only look at Cabela's and Bass Pro, you're right...it seems like there isn't much out there. My dad also shoots a .30-06 and only had 4 of his Federal 150 gr. NBT's left after last season. He was with me when we saw the Superformance SST's and bought a couple boxes. I think they were $35/box, which I didn't think was out of line. The stuff is out there and yes, manufacturers are finally starting to catch up with demand. Hopefully that means prices will start to come back down. I will say this, if you have to buy a new rifle, a .308 Win would be a great caliber to buy right now. The stuff is everywhere...you could almost pick your brand, line and bullet and find some! I know several guys that checked their ammo box the week before season and then tried to find a common caliber (.243, 7mm Mag, 7mm-08, etc.) and didn't have any luck. That's what they got for waiting until the last minute...
Not a huge fan of RUAG/Norma, but that is me. Stick with American made....Rem, Hornady, Fed or Win/Olin. Their powders are blended far better, their primers are dependable/uniform and their projectiles are more thoroughly tested for penetration/expansion. Rem has increased their production under new ownership and you will see more on the shelves now. They have been running 3 shifts to clear up the logjams and meet market demands. That has taken a lot of pressure off of the other manufacturers.
Have long been a fan of Hornady for factory ammo and handload many of their projectiles, specifically for hunting..
I haven't been searching as hard as I could because I don't really have a true need at the moment, but I find it odd I can't seem to locate any 30/06 150 gr Remington CoreLokts in any store I've looked. I see plenty of 180 gr and a LOT of 125 gr, but 150s are almost like a unicorn these days. Don't feel I need heavier, and unsure what the benefit/detriment of using 125s may be. I did notice the Scheels in Appleton has a lot of Norma Whitetail 150gr 30/06...and pretty cheap too at $25/box. Does anyone use this in the field? I'd like to be able to shoot in the off season, but ammo preservation has been a must these last couple years.
Also of note, Scheels had a LOT of 140 gr Remington CoreLokt in 7mm/08 of all calibers.
As far as the gov buying up large amounts of ammo.
Comes up every year ... most purchases are on long term contracts. Funny thing what they don't use they sell at the end of the year because next year they get more. I've bought several lots of Wi state dept. training surplus ammo off a online auction house web site. They also auction off confiscated firearms and bows.
