Ammo cost & supply in the UK ?

[froggy]

Salut,

I am a newbie shooter in this country and currently filling-up my firearms application. I am pondering over which full-bore calibers I should apply for. I dont intend to do something too fancy, ie : 200 to 600 meters with both iron sights & scope. There is a very wide range of rifles stuitable for that purpose that I like . So ammo price & regular supply will be a strong decisive factor in selecting a couple of calibers as I do not intend to re-load.

I am looking mainly at 7.62x51, 7.62x54, 7.5x55 and of course your national 303 !! (I have wanted one of those "pig nose" smle since I was reading ww2 comics as a kid ...).
I dont know at all the ammo market and its suppliers in the UK . So concidering both the commercial manufactured & surplus stuff, can you please help me and guide me to what you think is the most economical & easily available caliber ?

In France it is very easy from a licenced shooter to obtain an authorisation from the Customs Office to buy & import ammo from abroad. Is it the same in England or a big no-no ?

Many thanks for sharing your experience.

[Mike357]

Most important question is where do you live? The further South you are the easier it is to get decent and cheap milsurp ammo. I've just been on a site that had milsurp 223 for £20 odd per 100.

[Tower75]

Hi Froggy

7.62x51, 7.62x54, 7.5x55 and of course your national 303

Where I am, those calibres are between £50-£65/100, and that's standard factory ball ammo too :cool2: Something clearly happened, because a year ago it was £45-£50/100

[Ovenpaa]

7,62x54R still seems to be cheap as a milsurp and Mosin Nagants are plentiful however I would look for something that will cope with 7,62x51 which you should be able to pick up for as low as GBP45/100 it also means you have a good selection of rifles to choose from. From memory I paid around GBP55/100 for .303 last time and S&B and PPV should be available and you have a huge choice of .303 rifles to choose from at some very good prices as well.

[Steve]

Check here for milsurp.

http://www.ammo-zone.co.uk/Home.aspx

[froggy]

Re-
That confirms what I thought.

In France I import my 223R from Luxembourg for €uro 179/1,000 (wolf or barnault) + a tenner for postage wich is enuf to bring in a 1K of 9mm in the same parcel.
It looks like 7,62x54 is the cheapest ard in the UK (?) and and the 3 others are in the same bracket +/- £50/100.

Many thanks for your help & info guys

[Ovenpaa]

At that price I would say keep importing into France and then bring over to the UK what you hold on your ticket. We came back from DK last month with more ammunition than we took over and just noted it in our logbook when we got home. It was not placed on my FAC because DK have no provision to do this and I cannot do it myself so I just write it down.

[rox]

At that price I would say keep importing into France and then bring over to the UK what you hold on your ticket. We came back from DK last month with more ammunition than we took over and just noted it in our logbook when we got home. It was not placed on my FAC because DK have no provision to do this and I cannot do it myself so I just write it down.

There are some pretty interesting component prices too. I suppose I could fill my boot with bullets and brass for the weekly channel crossing, as long as it's for personal use - is that correct?

..

[Ovenpaa]

As long as you do not exceed your legal UK holding then yes as far as I know you can do that.

[rox]

As long as you do not exceed your legal UK holding then yes as far as I know you can do that.

There's no limit on holding bullets or brass is there?

..