Possibility of banning importation of 7.62x39mm?

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Nugilum

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I was at the gun show in Hampton, GA last Saturday. Out of everything that I observed that day (besides securing all the mil-surp accessories I was after) was watching the AK ammo being purchased by the crate. It really wasn't "that great" of a deal. 1000 rounds for $208 including tax. but I saw people buying 3 to 5 boxes (one guy bought 10) of WOLF with out blinking. However, this is the first time I've paid any attention to this so it could actually be normal.

Is this panic buying due to the recent "high profile" events we all know about? A search of the forum both here and AKforum.net hasn't mentioned much on any ammo shortages or fear buying. We all take for granted that AK ammo is cheap and therefore it isn't cost effective to reload 7.62x39mm. But how hard would it be for those on high to stop importation of this ammo? It seems like this would cause havoc in the SKS-AK communities (such as myself). Why not expand it to 7.62x54R, 8mm Mauser or any other caliber?

What are the dangers of a importation ban on ammo?
 
What are the dangers of a importation ban on ammo?

Eventually there will be only domestic produced ammo (if any at all) for your firearms that are happily using the cheaper imported ammo, that means either you pay beau coup $$$ for domestic, reload your own.. etc...

Essentially banning the firearm since it will have no ammo... you'll have a fancy chunk of metal...
 
American businesses have been desperately stupid for many decades now and have a history of cutting their own throats. This is a disclaimer because you just can't count on them to do anything that makes sense.

Now that the disclaimer is done you have to consider what does make sense. Do you have any idea how many AK's, SKS's, CZ 527 Carbines, Mini 30's and who knows what else that chamber the 7.62x39 have been sold in this country? The total number of rifles in this caliber here in America must be in the hundreds of thousands if not millions. Heck WalMart carries 7.62x39!

There is a ton of money to be made selling this stuff and reasonably priced ammo will be blasted away creating a need to buy more ammo which means much greater profit over the years than trying to price gouge on this very common round. I have heard from someone involved that the Marine Corps exclusively uses Winchester manufactured 7.62x39 for training here in the US and I've seen big boxes full of the brass. There is no real reason that American made 7.62x39 should cost any more than 5.56x45 should the imported ammo be cut off because of the economies of scale involved.

I think what you saw was at the show was a mix of people doing panic buying because it is 90% certain we will get horribly screwed this election cycle, survival prep buying and avid shooters topping off their supplies.
 
I was one of those guys buying 7.62 by the case. I got 10 cases or 10,000 rounds. Mine was only $165/1000 out the door.

Why did I buy it like that?
1. I got a better price for 10 than 1.
2. I like to shoot.
3. The prices aren't going down anytime soon.
4. I'm paranoid. - some is for SHTF, some is because of the 08 elections, most is for fun/training.
5. I have the money now, won't later.

I don't/didn't consider it PANIC buying, rather SMART purchasing.
 
Don't sell the politicians short. I wouldn't be surprised if they started regulating ammo and banning the "non sporting" calibers such as 7.62X39, 5.45x39 etc.

That was one of my reasons for limiting my AK types to 7.62x51 and 5.56x45.
 
well, since you can hunt with an SKS, wouldnt that make 7.62 able to be called a hunting round?
 
Yeah... and .308 and 5.56 are both military calibers. You could argue that .308 is civilian caliber and 7.62x51 is the military version and you could do the same with .223 and 5.56 but no politician will draw that distinction and neither will the ATF. This has already been trialed in other countries, see the story of the development of the scout rifle concept for details.

I don't understand how anybody can still believe in the idea of the politically correct gun. There is no such thing. You don't own a bolt action hunting rifle, it's a high powered sniper rifle with a telescopic scope. It probably also has a tripod for firing from the hip and a shoulder thing that goes up.
 
I think it is a mix between ammo prices going up because of raw materials going up and panic buying because of an election next year. I don't see the prices of raw material going down, hopefully the panic buying will slow down when everyone is broke. Remember back in 99, you couldn't find a generator because of panic buying.
 
Raw materials is a very small component of the retail price of any manufactured item. There is roughly 2 cents worth of lead in a 124gr bullet for instance(lead is under $1.40/lbs right now). Merchants will charge what the markets will bear and keep in mind that the dollar is worth 25% less now than it was in the year 2000 and that is according to officially reported inflation figures. Real monetary inflation is running 50% since 2000 and maybe higher. Some of this can be hidden from the consumer like cheap plastic goods at WalMart. Some of it cannot be hidden like valuable commodities in foreign trade such as oil, food and ammo. Don't hold your breath waiting for those prices to come down. I bought most of my 7.62x39 at under 10 cents a round a few years ago so I felt like I could afford to sit by and watch a while before I bought any more. Prices have steadily increased.
 
Actually, I'd be surprised to see the anti's go after rifle ammo, because well... the recent events haven't been executed with a rifle (come to think of it, they were executed by nutcases that could have been stopped by a CCW holder, but that's another topic altogether). Sure, they're nuts, and they'd ban the rifle ammo if they could, but they also know they need to get their proposals through the legislature in a way that isn't up to too much pro- gun scrutiny. If the "problem" is with shotgun ammo and not rifles, they aren't going to try and ban rifle ammo because the question will be raised, "Madam senator, haven't criminals weilding shotguns been the main problem here of late, and not rifles?"

They're crafty, but they's ain'ts stupid.
 
I agree that the "recent events" were done with handgun and shotguns.
However, where does logic fall in a politically manipulated emotional event? They can claim anything "for the children" and we're the bad guys if we disagree.
 
Well besides the "recent events" we've already seen the UN have an impact on surplus ammo.

Tried to buy any South African .308 surplus lately? You won't see it again, the UN threatened South African with economic sanctions if they didn't stop selling the stuff. Even if our own government doesn't do anything, the UN is still out there "serving humanity".
 
well, since you can hunt with an SKS, wouldnt that make 7.62 able to be called a hunting round?
Click to expand...

I hunt with an AK and a HK91, but that doesn't making them "sporting" in the eyes of the King and court. When it comes down to it, not much sense in debating what they'll ban, because the answer is "everything they can". If they ban x39 before x51 or 5.56, what's that really gain us?

Anyhow, I buy as cheap as I can, as much as I can. I'm buying up 5.45 myself right now and stacking it deep. Not for zombies, not for shtf--prices are going up, dollars goin' down.
 
I own a Mini30 and handload for it using 'premium' slugs - these are costly bought already assembled. cheap ammo doesn't shoot well in my M30. good ammo does. and yes I have a 'stash' set back for it and my .22lr and 12 ga also.
 
the fact that guns in general kill people is enough to make them want to ban guns of any kind, including ammo. They (the anti-gun dems) view hunting in general as outdated, so they dont see any gun as useful in society other than for killing. They go after handguns and AWs because they are the 'scariest' and 'most powerful', etc. Its honestly dumb arguing about what they will and wont ban, because we all know what they would if they could: all of it :p
 
Yes, but they can't pull the old "guns are bad" routine like they did in 1994. We are a lot more organized now. Pro gunners like ourselves have made use of the internet to organize and educate the public. Now... the only way they can really get to their end goal is through one bite at a time. It's a blessing in one way... and a curse in another.
 
With prices low and stable, people only tend to buy what they need but with prices rising sharply people tend to buy as much as they can afford before the prices rise even more, which increases demand chasing the price even higher.

I overheard "Big Dog" (the dealer who's ammo was flying off the floor at GRB Houston Gun Show) saying he's been in business thru the AWB, Y2K, and 9/11 and business has never been better than it has been lately.

Fortunately I saw the price increases coming, although not as fast and as high as has happened and stocked up about two years ago with as much ammo as I could find a place to store it, at one point I was literally parking my car over a row of ammo cases lined up to pass between my wheels as I pulled into the garage. Still wish I'd bought more though.

No doubt about it Hillary could ban all ammo imports with a stroke of the pen via "executive order".

--wally.
 
The fact that most civilian crimes aren't committed with rifles hasn't kept them from targeting them in the past. It doesn't have that much to do with any sort of logic. It is more to do with scoring political points with those that they think matter.

With a growing imperial executive, it is correct that a ban could be imposed on the whim of the decider in chief.

Obama / Hillary / McCain will most definitely be an absolute disaster. I'm not sure what can really stop one of them at this point.
 
Folks the anti's have been wanting to ban "military" calibers since the 80's. It won't be logical or rational. What anti gun law is. The anti's just want guns gone by any means possible.

Now just think about what rounds have been used by the military. Not just our military but any military. The following calibers come to mind.

22 LR, 32 ACP, 38 Spl, 9 MM, 45 ACP, 223, 308, 3006, 300 mag, 50 BMG, 7.62x39, 5.45x39, 7.62x54R, 303, 30-40.

These or just the calibers of the top of my head that "CAN" be banned under such a ban. So vote and campaign wisely.
 
Obama / Hillary / McCain will most definitely be an absolute disaster. I'm not sure what can really stop one of them at this point.
Click to expand...


I feel that you're right about Obama and Hillary. However... I'm not so sure about McCain. Remember... He's a Republican, even if in name only. He has to work with the more conservative elements of his party, and gun rights could be used as a bargaining chip by the other side. It's not an inevitablility with him that guns would be restricted because he would lose some of the already feeble support of his party.


However, Hiram and Obama (I still think that it's a lie she's a woman...) have no such problems. Pressure like that can't be applied to them. The majority of their party does not like the 2nd Amendment and would be very quick to support a gun ban.

Unfortunately, this is going to be yet another "choose the lesser of two evils" election. McCain is the lesser evil.
 
The high price of ammo may be a good thing. Why? Because now everyone is paying attention to whats going on. Who doesn't belong to the NRA? I don't but thats about to change. I have noticed on profiles for posters here that a lot of us don't belong. Its time to join guys.

Maybe some of the cost of ammo is the ammo makers socking back money to fight new laws and foolish ideas like serial numbers on ammo and micro-stamping.

I think we've had an easy ride for far too long and the real SHTF situation is not the Zombies and an invasion from another army but a fight from misguided fellow Americans that think no guns or guns with no ammo will make us all safer.

The bottom line is that the world is going ape sh*t and gun owners are one of the toilets. O.K, Rant over.
 
I'm doubly in a bind right now because I can't afford to stock up on x39. I've got two rifles chambered in the stuff. Local prices are $7/box for Wolf.

But hey I've got two tins of x54 that I'll never use!:rolleyes:
 
here is the political thought; any pres at anytime can , by executive order, ban part of this, or a bit of that, or something of the other, almost anything for importation, with the stroke of a pen. Billary could just say, we ban foreign importation , from such and such country, becuase they won't do what we watn them to do, all their 762 ammo. Oh yeah, we also ban the same ammo from this that and the other country. Suddenly, you would have a bunch of show ak types of rifles over here, without them even having to attack a gun, start a gun ban, or attack the 2nd amendment!!! very easy.
 
+1 on Rangerruck.
One stroke of a pen, and a Presidential Executive Order stops all surplus ammo or gun parts from being imported again. It happened with barrels. It happened with steel core Norinco.
People buying up AK74's and 5.45x39...god bless you, buy as much as you can, because it's never going to be a US production caliber any time soon and the entireity of the ammo out there is cheap surplus... want to pay $.40 per round for a AK74? Why bother? Might as well buy 7.62x39 for that price.

It's all about what the .gov can get away with, and if enough people buy the "sporting purposes" limitation crap, then kiss off anything mil caliber, baby, because they will ban it all. Think MEXICO.

Read HR1022. Read it all, real closely. Especially the section about defining a firearm for a sporting purpose, and the fact that even if a firearm is suited for a sporting purpose does not mean it is a sporting firearm and exempt from the ban. And plinking is not a sporting purpose
 
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