My New Supply of 7.62x54R – Cold War Surplus in Good Hands!

So what did I do with the money I got for Christmas, you ask?  I’ll tell you that it certainly wasn’t an easy decision as I stood in J&G Sales in Prescott the morning after Christmas.  My choices were ammo or another Mosin Nagant 91/30 to add to the collection for $79.95 or ammo to feed the beasts I already own.  And if I got the ammo, should I go for the sealed “spam can” of 7.62x54R with 440 rounds for $85 to feed my rifles or would a couple of 60 round battle packs of ammo for the K-31 at $36 each?  Decisions, decisions…

In the end I finally settled on the ammo   I figure I need to get some real practice with my Mosins and I already have a 91/30   I settled on one spam can of 7.62x54R and 20 rounds of 7.5×55 Swiss for the K-31 after much deliberation.  I swear it just followed me home

These "spam cans" of ammo sure ain't the easiest thing to open

Above you can see the spam can after I cut the top off of it.  The can is about 14″ long by 7.25″ wide to give you some idea of its size and the size of the big can opener they give you as a means of obtaining the goodies inside.  Don’t be fooled, this ain’t the easiest thing on the planet to open, especially with that tool they give you.  The darn thing really doesn’t want to work on the corners and take it from me – your hand will cramp up during the procedure.  The can full of ammo is rather heavy as you’d imagine, but what’s worse is that there’s no handles on the thing.  This particular can is from Bulgaria as denoted by the 10 in the circles, was produced in 1980, and contains 440 rounds of lead core light ball ammo (lead core bullets that weigh 147 grains) with sniper bullets.  You can also tell that the cases are copper washed steel by some of the other codes.  For more info on this ammunition and the case markings, check out the page devoted to them at 7.62x54R.net

But each of these 22 boxes of ammo holds 20 rounds of 7.62x54R goodness to feed the Mosins 8)

After opening this one spam can, I’m of the opinion that if the soldiers had to do this in their fox holes and on the front lines, the enemy would probably win   Assuming the user of this ammo is smart and resourceful enough to open it back in the rear area and get it onto stripper clips at the same time, it’s great ammo   These tins each hold 22 boxes of 20 rounds and keep them safe and well preserved as they’re pretty much hermetically sealed I’m looking forward to shooting up quite a bit of it in the near future

Something that still strikes me as funny is that I have two rifles which were made in Russia – the 91/30 in 1928 and the M-44 in 1946 – and ammo that was made in Bulgaria in 1980.  All of this would have been war materiel to be used against NATO if things had gone differently a few decades ago.  And yet, it’s now in private hands in Las Vegas for recreational use.

Yeah, I’m a fan of the fall of the Iron Curtain for more reasons than just the guns – I love freedom after all – but the guns are a pretty nice side benefit   Now if I could just afford a MiG and the gas and maintenance it would take to operate it