Why is 5.45x39 ammo still cheap?

The price increase is more significant than that.

I'm seeing 5.45x39mm spam cans at ~$160 right now. They used to be $109-$120 per 1080 rds.

Far fewer shooters compared to 7.62x39 and 5.56x45. Less demand.

The entire countries supply from Poland and Bulgaria came to us. They are moving to the 5.56 Nato and back to the 7.62x39 respectively. If you know anything about how communists stockpile, that is a LOT of ammo.

Russia also surplussed several million rounds at around the same time. Guess where it came?

Well RAAC is saying this is the month for the 5.45 Saiga, we'll see how that pans out...

Almost zero demand, possibly?

The entire countries supply from Poland and Bulgaria came to us. They are moving to the 5.56 Nato and back to the 7.62x39 respectively. If you know anything about how communists stockpile, that is a LOT of ammo.

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Neither of those countries are communist anymore... for about 2 decades now. They have both been non-socialist democracies since about '89. The only reason Bulgaria even joined the USSR was to get help fighting the Turkish invaders.

Back on topic... I assume it is due to less demand from military organizations compared to 5.56 and 39r.

Far fewer shooters compared to 7.62x39 and 5.56x45. Less demand.

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And the cheap stuff is corrosively primed which reduces its desirability.

--wally.

Nobody likes shooting corrosive ammo in a semi-auto. You'll notice that the price of Tantal rifles have also stayed relatively low. The caliber is sort of a black sheep, I think.

I'm waiting on that 5.45 Saiga... Second converted Saiga AK here I come...

I like the 5.45 very much but I hate opening that Bulgarian tin and I hate the kind of prompt cleaning required when shooting corrosive ammo. So I bought some non-corrosive Wolf 5.45. My WASR-2 is an excellent firearm and was a great value from Aim Surplus at less than $300.

Drakejake

When the Russian 5.45 first came in it wasn't cheap. ~$160 a tin? maybe $10 less than commerical (1000rds)? At the time 7.62x39 was still way less.

The bottom fell out of the price when there was 3 importers bringing in basically the same product that didn't/doesn't have the demand of 7.62/5.56. A metric a$$ ton of Russian and Bulgarian came in with a splash of Polish too. The sales began and all of the sudden you had Bulgarian and Russian 5.45 for $119 a tin (with free shipping from CAI for $500+ you saved a huge chunk in shipping). The very cheap surplus kept the commercial 5.45 ammo price down to where 7.62/5.56 passed it. For the time being, it's remain the most stable price wise too because of the surplus price check.

Make no mistake, when the last of the `70's Russian is gone, get ready. The price is going to jump. The `80 Russian that's coming will be the only thing coming from 1 importer and the price WILL be higher. As a side effect commerical 5.45 is going to jump to where the current steel 5.56 is/will be. If you ain't bought enough yet... i'm sorry.

Ignition Override said:

Was not aware that 5.45 ammo is corrosive.

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Not all of it is.

Wolf, Barnaul (under it's many names), and other 5.45x39 manufactured for commercial use is not corrosive.

The military surplus stuff, however, does use corrosive primers.

They might be cheaper but in my neck of the woods it is nonexistent so I sold off my 74 years ago. I know I can get it online but I found I wanted to dash to the store on a moments notice and shoot it up today