How times change!

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JohnKSa

Administrator
I was just browsing an online ammo website and found some corrosive 1950s era military surplus 7.62x25 Tokarev ammo.

The price was 24 cents a round for bulk quantities (1000+ rounds) of the stuff!

Not too many years ago, virtually any corrosive ammo sold for under 10 cents a round and surplus 7.62x25 Tokarev was available in bulk quantities for 5-6 cents a round. Even at today's prices, I can buy new production, non-corrosive 9mm for significantly less than that.

Am I nuts to think that nearly a quarter a round for bulk quantities of corrosive, 60 year old pistol ammo is crazy high? There must be someone buying it at those prices or they would drop the prices to move the product--but WHO???
 
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Model12Win

Moderator
All the 7.62x25mm fanboys, that's who.

I USED to think it was a cool cartridge, back when it was much cheaper than any other centerfire ammunition you could buy. Now that it's notable more expensive than 9mm and some others like .40 S&W, the cool factor largely went down the toilet for me. It doesn't do anything better than a 9mm +P except maybe penetrating light body armor.
 
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Webleymkv

New member
Most of the 7.62x25 surplus has dried up. For one, it was, at one time, so cheap that people started making semi-auto PPS and PPSh clones and AR uppers for it. Also, a lot of so-chambered pistols like the Polish and Romanian TT-33 variants and the Yugo M57 came on the market in large quantities. Finally, I think the last big ammo scare was the final nail in the coffin of cheap 7.62x25 as the hoarders got in on the act.

At today's prices, I wouldn't bother with surplus 7.62x25. Back when you could get it dirt cheap, I was willing to put up with the occasional "click" instead of "bang" because I just considered it to be cheap range fodder anyway. With what they want for surplus these days, however, you aren't too far away from the cost of new-production ammo like Prvi Partizan or Red Army Standard. I've got a little bit of surplus ammo left, but I've already started building a stock of new production ammo for my CZ-52. Unless some really nice surplus like the 80's production Romanian stuff shows up at a very attractive price, I think I'll be sticking with new production from now on.
 
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