Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Will shortages kill “obsolete” cartridges?

With the shortages and backlog, will ammo/component manufacturers even bother supporting some of the more obscure or “obsolete” cartridges? Some stuff seemed to be hanging on by a thread before this lunacy took place. I should have bought more 7x57 brass!

Funny, but Graf & Sons shows 7x57 in stock. Its PPU, never used it before, but better than nothing.

In some cases it might do the opposite and convert folks to semi-obsolete cartridges. If I was really hard up for a do-all rifle with $22/box factory ammo that never went away during the panic, 7x64 is the ticket.

I’ve used PPU brass in several cartridges. Works just fine.

Far better than nothing. I've used it in a number of sorta obscure cartridges with very good results. Their 22 hornet is a favorite for my k-hornet. It fireforms well.

I noticed that. The local SW had 20 boxes of 7x64 on the shelf and it’s all still there!

Local Cabelas has about 8 boxes of Federal 175gr blue box 7x57. $55 plus tax though. I’ve seen it come through Sportsman’s Warehouse lately too. They got a box of Nosler 257 Roberts that was like $70 or something crazy like that.

I noticed they both have Hornady 6mm Remington brass in stock at $50 for a 50 count bag.

So I guess there will be runs of it but the price isn’t going to be great.

As long as you have dies and parent brass, you can make a lot of obsolete cartridges.

I load for the 256 Newton that hasn't been factory loaded since at least 1942 and the 219 Zipper that hasn't been factory loaded since at least 1970.

I just paid $37 a bag of 50 for 7x57. Got 3 bags. Some jerkoff opened a bag of 270 brass at the local GS so the store sold it to me for $10. There wasn’t any missing oddly enough.

I am not certain if the shortages will "kill" obsolete cartridges. However, the shortages have definitely put a crimp in the availability of less common cartridge brass. I recently purchased a rifle chambered .300 Win Mag with intention to rebarrel it to .300 H&H Mag. I sold most of my .300 H&H kit over the last two years to pay hospital bills. Now, trying to find large lots of .300 H&H brass is like pulling teeth. And when you do find a nice lot of quality brass, it is priced above what loaded ammunition was selling for just a few years ago.

At this point, I have decided to stick with the .300 WM barrel until I am able to put together a reasonable stash of .300 H&H component brass. So, to the original question, "Will it kill the cartridges?", probably not. Will the seldom used reamers see even less use, definitely...

Depends on your timing. At the beginning of a shortage, often the only ammo you can buy is the weird/rare/uncommmon stuff. Once you're a few years into it, you gotta wait.

If obsolete cartridges were going to be killed, they would have died that death years ago.

100% this.

I got a bunch of 303 Savage brass dirt cheap about a year ago, but I didn't snag enough 300, and I imagine I will be waiting a while. I did finally score some 250 brass last week, so I'm hoping 300 follows in stock soon.

I'm glad I stocked up on 7mm saum

Yep. One good thing is that folks like us can look at old-stock we're not using and sell it to buy stuff we need. I needed .35Rem ammo but found brass and bullets here, through some of the members. Good to have nice folks to buy/sell from or even to help you find items.

I don't know what the end result will be once all of the supply channels have been cleaned out and then refilled. However, during the height of the panic or supply crisis one thing I did note. The stores that had ammo had a ton of it for what I deem "more obscure" or maybe even obsolete cartridges/chamberings. In my own mind I chalked it up to people at storage facilities getting down to the bottom of the stack or the back of the room and coming across stuff that just wasn't being pushed hard into the supply chain prior to the shortage.

Interesting question.

I could hardly believe it when I made my weekly trip into town and stopped by the local SW. Their supply of 50 BMG had actually increased!

Stacked right next to the I-get-no-respect 7mm Brenneke

I wonder if the SW corporate ammo buyer is imbibing on the job...

Not likely, they’re already obsolete.

Obsolete brass will die out when parent brass dies out. And maybe not even then.

I load for of solute rounds such as 401 WSL, 351WSL, 25/30/32 Remington, 45/60 Win, 6mm Lee/Navy, 219 Zipper, 22 Savage High Power, and 303 Savage and the 303 is the only one I would have any concerns about as it is its own size. Everything else can be formed from a different, common case so I don't see any problem there.

Of those mentioned in previous posts, the 7x57 is a simple fix. 8x57, 257 Roberts, and 6mm Rem could all be easily formed to it. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised there wasn't a forming die or die set that one could use to form 30/06 , 270, or some such case into the 7x57.

I recently saw pictures of a 30/06 case being formed into a 300 Savage so that base is covered. The same process would work to make 250 Savage cases or one could run 22/250 cases through the 250 sizer as I have done more than once by mistake. I suspect 6 and 6.5 Creedmore cases would work too.

The only cartridges I own that I have any long term concerns about would be the 300 H&H, 35 Rem, 7.62x54R, 6mm Lee/Navy and maybe the 303 Brit and 30/40 Krag as they are all kind of unique regarding their cases and supply of brass has been limited for them. I have plenty of Brit brass but not much 30/40 though the Brit can be used for the Krag. Same for the 35 Rem though some of that is meant to make 401 WSL brass. Or, was.

I have had 32-20 brass on back-order from Dillon for over a year. Star-line shows it out of stock and says "no backorder"