What I find interesting is the amount of 7.62X39 mm being sold. I don’t have an 5.56 platform, but lots of 7.62 stuff.
Maybe it’s like the movie “We were soldiers” when the Sargent major was asked why he didn’t have a rifle and just a side arm, the reply was “when I need one there will be plenty around to pick up.”
There’s a special reason on the 7.62 x 39 - last August Biden decided not to renew any Russian import licenses for whatever reason popped into his head. Existing ones were allowed to continue until they expired, which they’re doing. Now he’s added an embargo on bank transfers that essentially means that if it’s not already paid for it can’t be. Other Eastern European sources that started to pick up the slack now have the Ukraine invasion to muddy the water. 7.62 x 39 was going up as a result anyway and may start to get mighty scarce. U.S. factories are behind the power curve in picking up the slack because they’ve been running full bore on other scarcities in high demand, notably 9mm and 5.56 and huge government contracts that get first priority because they’re huge government contracts. That’s one reason we’re starting to see those calibers back on the shelves for the first time in a long time. The rest will follow...slowly.
7.62x39 is in trouble. Biden already banned the import of ammo and ammo components from Russia, which was primary supplier. The war is going to make it a lot harder to ever remove that ban. Outside Russia, one of the larger steel ammo factories was in..... Ukraine. d’oh. I think that only remaining major steel 7.62x39 manufacturer left is Belom in Serbia. Palmetto State Armory is apparently gearing up to make steel ammo, but unclear how long that will take, or if it will be affected by the current conflict and new sanctions.