With the ammunition import license freeze that the Biden administration put in place to punish Putin for being Putin (a KGB Op going to KGB), the strain to get the traditional Russian calibers like 5.45×39 and 7.62×39 and x54r are looking real.
Granted there are ways and opportunities for those not to vanish completely, but Russia is 22% of US ammunition imports so if it goes on long enough past current licenses it is going to hurt.
Me, not so much, and 9-Hole does a good job of explaining some of the why. Hit Play. Enjoy.
I have an RD NATO, a Rifle Dynamics done up convert of a Bulgarian SLR-106F 5.56 NATO AK. The long and short of it is that it runs an ammunition that is plentiful natively and the rifle runs great.
The problem, is that 5.56 AKs are not overly abundant. That might change since demand might change and we could see Radom, or Arsenal Bulgaria, or somebody else even get into the game and increase the 5.56 AK market share. It is unlikely to ever surpass the 7.62 AKs, but it could potentially edge 5.45. 5.45 is already the scarecest of the ‘Russian’ calibers and there isn’t really an alternative spun up source for it outside Russia the way there is for the 7.62 loads. Again, that could change, but that will be a slow and costly process for someone to undertake.
So, is the answer get a 5.56 AK?
Honestly, probably not ‘the’ answer. It will be a watching of the market and a shifting of demand. It will also not be an overnight process beyond the shifting prices of various ammos since those are on a whim almost as volatile as gasoline. But the ammunition itself will be slower to evaporate in the various stocks, even of the Russian inventory, so we will see.
But it wouldn’t hurt anyone to grab a nice 5.56 AK. 106F, Beryl, or RD NATO recommend most highly.
