That Norma ammo must be evil (eviler than most, that is)--the box art features (shudder) a cowboy!

Mmmm. Norma. Nice ammunition, but not cheap. I was lucky to get a stash of the 7.5x55mm Oryx long ago. It's only gone up 100% or so in price since.

Recently, I was very lucky when testing my .308 to discover that the hunting ammo it likes best (Winchester 180grain Silvertips print cloverleafs at 100 metres from a sandbag rest) was also the cheapest stuff available. I bought the gunshop's entire stock of it. Wohoo!

LOL when I bought my first Schmidt-Rubin K11, the dealer had no cheap 7.55 Swiss ammo in stock, so I bought two boxes of Norma just to have something to shoot (in case I was attacked by zombies on the way home).

At the time when you could get GP11 surplus for about $5.99 per 20, the Norma cost $27. I never did shoot any of the Norma off -- in fact, I still have the two boxes, virgin, in the old ammo locker, along with an undetermined amount (i.e. a lot) of GP11, which I purchased the next day at our local Academy. (Mr. FM, you will remember Academy, where you can buy as much ammo as you can carry just by sweeping it off the shelf into your shopping basket.)

I still shudder when I think of that spendy Norma stuff.

Kim, quit yer moaning! $27 indeed. When I got the *cheap* 7.5 Swiss hunting ammo, it cost fifty euro for twenty bangs. I think I bought four or five boxes, which was equivalent to about two-thirds the price of the rifle. A battle-pack of GP11 cost 250 euro, and I bought two. Now the Norma stuff costs double the old price, if you can find any, and the GP11 seems to have run out altogether. At least the rifles stayed about the same price, so I could still buy one and just shout "bang" as necessary :-)

Congratulations on the new "radio" show, by the way - I loved the trailer, but haven't caught the real episodes yet.

My 9.3x74R O/U double was factory regulated for Norma ammunition. It's right on the money.

More conventional calibers (.270, .30-06, etc.), more conventional hunting (deer, sometimes boar) I use either handloads or one of the conventional brands (Remington, Winchester, Federal).

And no, I never thought I would ever use the word "conventional" three times in one sentence.

Kim ...

GP11, 49 cents per round.

http://samcoglobal.com/Ammunition.html#75

Denis,

Remember that back in 1993, when the first rifle ammo went over $20 per box (20), there were riots in the streets.

(Actually, there weren't, but there should have been.)

Now we're faced with over $25 for .45 ACP PRACTICE ammo, when 24 months ago, it was less than $10. There should have been riots about this, too, but shooters were all too busy buying reloading equipment.