High Planes Drifter "There are still a bunch of countries that can only afford Russian type weapons. AK 74 and the ammo it requires will be available for a long time."
They aren't changing the rifles just the caliber, those countries are still using the AK based rifle in 5.56, or they are using 7.62x39 versions as there are huge supplies of 7.62x39 surplus readily available to the rest of the world steel core surplus is only banned for import into the USA And actually Russia is the only country still producing 5.45x39 and that ammo is not leagal for import untill its been in a non-soviet country for at least 5 years as surplus cannot be exported directly from Russia........ what is currently in the USA is all thats likally to be imported as the BATF is dragging their feet on approving the form 6s for SURPLUS ammo imports, sporting commercial ammo is fine but nothing new in the way of Surplus for the past 12 months, if Hillary or Obama get in the whitehouse there will be no future surplus ammo imports which will drive up the cost of military caliber commercial "Sporting" ammo like Wolf, Golden tiger etc...
7.62x39 is still the most widely used caliber world wide and even the 5.45 never really quite matched it as far as number of countries using the 7.62x39....
If your going to go with 5.45x39 ya better start stackin up at least 50K rounds since there is no domestic supplier of the caliber (unlike 7.62x39 which is made by several domestic companies) if the UN and the liberals get there way there will be ZERO ammo importable in any military caliber within the next 4 years, I doubt they will succeed but...... having a rifle with no other option but imported ammo..... well take a look around at 7.62x51 Nato chambered rifles that were insanly popular just 2 years ago, once the surplus ammo outa Africa (the largest source for cheap surplus) got blocked by UN agreements the cost of feeding those .308 rifles jumped overnight as everyone is now dependant on what surplus is available at near commercial prices or high dollar commercial sporting .308 instead of the lighter loaded 7.62x51 ..... the result? I've been buyin up those G3s, PTR 91s and CETMEs for half what the owners paid for em and usually with a ton of extras to boot just so the owners can buy em a 7.62x39 AK or put the $$ towards an AR................ when the surplus 5.45x39 is finally dried up I will be buying up NON-WASR (ie actual military spec) AKs for a fraction of what they are selling for today........ I've got 2 pallets of ammo to feed em just sitting so it will be available... I'll then turn the guns around at a premium with 740 rnds of ammo included, they'll sell easy if the ammo goes with em...... ya know when that ammo is $0.60 per round or better
I'm saving the 7.62x51 stuff I've been buying up for the same kinda deal as I bought up all the South african battle packs I could when they were still $22 ea shipped to my door as well as Portuguese surplus ammo when it was $81 per 1000 rnds etc..... have watched it happen several times in the last 35 years, in fact buyin up SKSs and AKs back in the 80s and 7.62x39 was hard to find is how I funded a large part of the collection of NFA toys
during the AWB I was trading off Chicom preban AKs for Garands and all manner of other goodies..........
So ya'll load up on them 5.45 cal AKs, I won't be buyin any commercial built for export to USA only guns , but the ones that have actual military history.... they'll be worth exactly half what ya pay for em today, the 7.62x39s having readily available cheap ammo... they'll continue to hold their value
