7.62x39 surplus gone for good?

We get Czechoslovakian in Canada as well as Chineese.

Wolf and Tula are so cheap (normally) that it wont really impact the market if the surplus stuff dries up.

I'd guess that the most popular military caliber of the cold war is plentiful in arsenals around the world and that if the world economy ever becomes better countires will replace stock which is fairly inevitable anyway. I'm a little surprised today's drought and the premium dollars searching for this ammo hasn't acted like a magnet on the steel cases to pull it out of the depots yet -- it is a seller's market and if you were thinkin' or roughly scheduled to be selling it, now is the time to push it.

It's available. It's just that the sellers are backed up who have it in stock, and its taking much longer to get.

I'm waiting on 500 rounds of WPA as we speak. I overpaid though.

FWIW I heard a large importer at the shot show lament the inability to find surplus over there, plenty of 7.62x54R but little 7.62 x39.

the commercial brown bear, tula, etc... will be easy to find and continue to flow.... you can get the surplus still, but not at such huge quantities and cheap prices...

FWIW I heard a large importer at the shot show lament the inability to find surplus over there, plenty of 7.62x54R but little 7.62 x39.

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Probably a lot more of the latter in demand to fuel current conflicts in Africa and the Middle East. What kind of cartridges would you suppose littered the ground around our consulate in Benghazi? Probably not too much x54R.

also dont foreget that a lot of the larger countries went to the AK74 which shoots the 5.45x39 ... so they have lots of that in surplus, but not as large an inventory of 7.62x39

7.62x39 has been used in a LOT of conflicts in the last four decades since Russia switched to 5.45x39. The surplus that America didn't buy went to Africa, the Middle East, Asia, etc.

I'm curious about the Russian 7.62x54R that's been hitting the market, though. Don't they still use that in the PKM? Bulgaria I can understand, joining NATO in 2004 they had to switch to NATO calibers, which is why we were able to buy 1080rd cans of 5.45x39 for stupid cheap prices. But Russia (as far as I know) still actually USES 54R.

Wolf and Tula are so cheap (normally) that it wont really impact the market if the surplus stuff dries up.

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Even in the heyday of cheap surplus, I never found surplus 7.62x39 to be much cheaper than the commercial Wolf/Tula/Barnual stuff when bought in bulk. Quality was about the same either way.

Then you add in the fact that you never know if the surplus is corrosive or not. Some was, some wasn't.

There are billions of rounds of surplus x39 in the former eastern bloc, as well as asian, and african countries. The problem is that most of it has a steel core bullet, and is not importable. Add that to the list of countries we can't import from beacuse of politics, and you see why there isn't much to be found in the US.

Russia has almost unlimited 7.62x39 production but it isn't as friendly as it used to be, and the prices have gone waaay up. Now they won't even export their orphan children to the USA. When I was there in ten years ago there was tour company which would arrange anything. Flying a Mig-25 or driving a tank through red square were not a problem - that company even put a couple people on the international space station.

Thanks to pistols being chambered in the round most surplus (having a steel core) is classified as armor piercing and can not be imported.

Right. All the Tula/Wolf, Barnaul, Golden Tiger etc. is civilian.

Nope. I just went to a local B&M today and they had case upon case of Made In Germany Surplus 7.62. They were asking $6 a box. Needless to say, I bought 40 boxes.

Bullseye in West Little Rock had a fair bit of Russian x39 two weeks ago, among other ammo types (and four ARs).

The price was either $8 or $9/box.

A large quantity of surplus has iron and steel core bullets. Federal legislation with ATF interpretation considers these armor piercing handgun rounds. So a significant portion of the existing surplus market is cut off from US civilians.

rule303 said:

There are billions of rounds of surplus x39 in the former eastern bloc, as well as asian, and african countries. The problem is that most of it has a steel core bullet, and is not importable. Add that to the list of countries we can't import from beacuse of politics, and you see why there isn't much to be found in the US.

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Steel core ammo not importable? Odd, just bought 880 rds of 7.62x54 steel core ammo and the dealer is awainting more being shipped from Eastern Europe.

hang fire,
If you noticed, the comments were about being able to use the cartridge in a pistol.

Who is making 7.62x54 handguns?

arizona98tj said:

hang fire,
If you noticed, the comments were about being able to use the cartridge in a pistol.

Who is making 7.62x54 handguns?

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The Obrez.

Are those classified as NFA?

arizona98tj said:

Are those classified as NFA?

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Yes, technically an SBR. But, looks pistolish to me. AND it fires 54R