Alaska / Canada guys - Ammo availability question

[DuckDogDr]

Thinking of worse case scenarios as had happen to a buddy of mine on an elk trip. He wound up having to use the outfitter's gun.
If I lost my ammo in transit or had to completely re-zero my rifle what are readily available calibers you can find at small local stores? Any chance of finding the short mags?
The 6.5 saum I was going to build is looking less appealing for this purpose

I have a 300 RUM..is that a common caliber up that way of should I plan on building a 300 winnie

One outfitter I've been talking to recommended the 270 wsm or 300 wsm

 

[gbflyer]

Ordinary you’d find 30-06, 270, 300WM, and .338 Win Mag in almost any small town or village in Alaska. The many random super magnums and short magnums not so much. Right now, probably not going to find anything really. The larger chains like the Sportsman’s I’ve visited I understand to be like everywhere else…wiped out of most everything unless it’s extremely obscure, a few boxes of boutique high end defensive pistol ammo, or an African DG cartridge at $150/box.

 

[long hunter]

Thats why I stick too the older cal. 30-06, 308, 300 win. mag, 7mm mag. especially if hunting out of country like Canada, chances are you can usually find ammo some place or a few rounds from a local, or fellow hunter in camp if you ask. Sometimes old school is the best school.

 

[wind gypsy]

Man, I wouldn’t modify a whole build based off of that concern. You’d be better off shipping ammo to your outfitter ahead of time and flying with more for backup than counting on any store to have what you need. If anything change that saum to a PRC for a little better chance of ammo in stock.

 

[Alaskan89]

Man, I wouldn’t modify a whole build based off of that concern. You’d be better off shipping ammo to your outfitter ahead of time and flying with more for backup than counting on any store to have what you need. If anything change that saum to a PRC for a little better chance of ammo in stock.

Only problem with that is you can't legally ship ammo to Alaska, otherwise we wouldn't have this ammo shortage problem.

I've been checking the stores almost daily and ammo is very scarce, 300 WM is non-existent and I was lucky to find a box of 270 a few weeks ago. Forget about Cabela's or Bass Pro, they don't have much at all. I'd call around to a few of the stores up here and see what's available. Crazy side note: I was looking on the Alaska List (another version of Craigslist) and someone was selling 300 WM ammo at $200 a box, prices of ammo from individual sellers is insane.

 

[thinhorn_AK]

why on earth would you ever put your ammo in a different location than your gun? Put the ammo in the gun case. I've seen this happen before and its 100% easily avoidable.

To answer the question though, I would not assume I'd be able to find ANY ammo in that situation. I was in a shop last night, if you didn't have a 270 or a 25-06, you would be SOL.

 

[Bambistew]

why on earth would you ever put your ammo in a different location than your gun? Put the ammo in the gun case. I've seen this happen before and its 100% easily avoidable.

Location of ammo is the airlines choice. Some allow it in the rifle case others do not. On international flights, some require it in a locked box. In most cases yes its avoidable, in others its not.

 

[thinhorn_AK]

Location of ammo is the airlines choice. Some allow it in the rifle case others do not. On international flights, some require it in a locked box. In most cases yes its avoidable, in others its not.

If it wasn't allowed to be with the rifle, I would probably try to find a way to take multiple lock boxes just in case. For Alaska Airlines, you can just put it inside the rifle case with the rifle. I've done it probably 25-30 times at this point with zero issues.

 

[fatbacks]

Thinking of worse case scenarios as had happen to a buddy of mine on an elk trip. He wound up having to use the outfitter's gun.
If I lost my ammo in transit or had to completely re-zero my rifle what are readily available calibers you can find at small local stores? Any chance of finding the short mags?
The 6.5 saum I was going to build is looking less appealing for this purpose

I have a 300 RUM..is that a common caliber up that way of should I plan on building a 300 winnie

One outfitter I've been talking to recommended the 270 wsm or 300 wsm

I would go with the most common caliber as possible. If it were to ever happen, you'd probably have more luck with a guide having some spare 300 WM than 300 RUM.

Ammo shelves do look a lot better up here than in the past. I've seen ammo for most cartridges over the past two months... just not at the same time. Comes and goes frequently.

 

[Marbles]

I would not change a rifle build for the current ammo situation. Just get a Tikka (if you can find on) in a comon caliber and build what you actually want.

The only thing I'm consistently seeing is 5.56/223 FMJ.

You can barge ammo up through Lynden Transport, but base cost is $180 for a pallet to Anchorage from Kent, WA; so one box or a pallet will cost you the same.

Talk to your guide.

Alaskaammo.com has live store inventory on their website, so you can watch that to get a feel for the situation. It has improved, but still hard to find.

I have 30-06 Nosler Partition 180grs, 2 boxes. I got them as backup hunting ammo and have since found more of what I prefer to shoot. I payed $52 a box, I'm not looking to sell them, but would let them go for the same if someone was in Anchorage and needed them to make a hunt happen.

 

[NorthCountryAB]

I wouldnt count on trying to find 300rum in Canada. Especially in a small town.
I shoot a 338 win mag and 28 Nosler, and I stock pile whenever I find the ammo I shoot.
Some of the higher end stores carry everything, but ammo is in very short supply right now up here

 

[rickiesrevenge]

Alaska Shipping Calculator: What Does it Cost to Ship to Alaska

Ship to Alaska without any surprises with Carlile's Alaska shipping calculator. Easily get an estimate of the cost to forward retail packages from the lower 48.

carlileconnect.com

You can ship ammo up to AK with this service

 

[z987k]

I also wouldn't count on anything being in stock. And my experience echos that above. Random calibers in stock. One week there's 50 boxes of 270wsm, next weeks it's 150 boxes of soft point 223. Or some 125gr 30-06. Then the odd box of some African dangerous game cartridge that almost no one uses.

If you count on buying ammo here, chances are you won't be hunting.

 

[z987k]

Alaska Shipping Calculator: What Does it Cost to Ship to Alaska

Ship to Alaska without any surprises with Carlile's Alaska shipping calculator. Easily get an estimate of the cost to forward retail packages from the lower 48.

carlileconnect.com

You can ship ammo up to AK with this service

Can you ship powder?

 

[DuckDogDr]

We're having problems here too with the ammo..but again I hope nothing happens and I'll have more than plenty.

My buddy's gun got knocked about 2 foot right and another foot low and by the time he got it zeroed and then he had to practice...only had 2 shots left for game

Outfitter stated 300 yard max shot...guide laughed when we got out in the woods told us to expect 500 min up to 800..so that was what had happened

 

[rickiesrevenge]

Can you ship powder?

They weren't able to answer that question for me when I called.

 

[madcalfe]

id say the most common ammo to find up in Canada would be 243, 270, 270wsm, 7mmRM, .308, 30.06, 300wm and 300wsm. whether or not its premium ammo that's a different story lol.
I can guarantee you that you probably wouldn't find 6.5saum, or 7saum sitting on the shelves in any small store. 6.5 anything up here is slim right now.

 

[22lr]

For Alaska, you have options if you fly into Anchorage or Fairbanks. Outside of that main corridor, you will have slimer pickings. There are plenty of shops between Anchorage and Fairbanks that have pretty robust selections now. The Three Bears up in Healy even had 30-06 core-loks for like $26 a box last week, which while not ideal. Is the first box I've seen in the wild in probably 2 years. They had all the common rounds in pretty healthy supply.

There is a saying, "there are few problems in Alaska that can't be solved with a stack of hundreds." But ya, I'd like to not put all my eggs in the "ill just get a box when I get there" basket.

If you were really concerned, look for a forum member in the city your flying into and ask if they would hold a box for you for emergencies, if you bought it. But ya, I've never had a problem flying with Alaska airlines and would never be really worried about that. I also shoot a 30-06 so if I ever lost my ammo, I could find enough people to sell me a few rounds at $10-20 a pop to salvage a hunt.

 

[22lr]

I also wouldn't count on anything being in stock. And my experience echos that above. Random calibers in stock. One week there's 50 boxes of 270wsm, next weeks it's 150 boxes of soft point 223. Or some 125gr 30-06. Then the odd box of some African dangerous game cartridge that almost no one uses.

If you count on buying ammo here, chances are you won't be hunting.

Its funny to see 30 boxes of 416 Rigby on the shelf in Alaska.

 

[z987k]

Its funny to see 30 boxes of 416 Rigby on the shelf in Alaska.

Ya, it makes you wonder why they'd even bother stocking something like that.