Quote Originally Posted by ThatM305Guy View Post
Yes, due to sanctions....not due to lack of supply.
Let me summarise this very thoroughly. 7n6 was introduced in the 70s along with the 74 pattern rifles. They stopped making it by 1990 with the introduction of 7n6M, 7n10, 7n20 and 7n22.
Now, Im going to post one of many articles that discusses how Lithuania donated their remaining stockpile of 7n6 to Ukraine because their army *ran out of ammunition*.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-l...-idUSKCN1190F3

Why did their army run out of ammunition? They ran out because in the glory days of cheap parts kits and essentially free 7n6, it was coming from Ukraine during the 90s. They were selling everything they could for rockbottom including their aircraft carrier to China.
This was such a concern that they had to turn over their nuclear capability to Russia in 1997 I believe.

There was some talk about IMI producing a Tavor variant in 545, but it was cancelled well before the ATF banning 7n6 importation. There was some shots of ukranian guys showing early versions off but it obviously went nowhere. Obviously its a stupid idea for an army that finances itself through donations made in Ukranian churches, has its guys using Baofengs for comms etc.. to waste what little it has on pointless new rifles...but the real reason why it was cancelled is because they knew they didnt have any ammo to shoot out of them.

Lets go through the rest of the Warsaw Pact:
-Czechoslovakia never adopted 5.45
-Poland didnt even produce a 5.45 rifle until 1988 with the Tantal. They switched to the Archer when they joined NATO. Thats a production run of maybe 10 years and its highly unlikely they were cranking it out during that period.
-Bulgaria was always notoriously fussy about 545 and got rid of it immediately upon the dissolution of the Waraaw Pact in 1989. That stuff was sold off long ago.
-Dont know much about what happened to Hungary or Romania's stockpiles. For all I know theyre still using it.
-Germany had a policy of either retaining or destroying the old East German hardware and as such DDR parts and ammo are considered very rare and collectible.

For the sake of thoroughness I will also point out that Yugoslavia wasnt a member of the Warsaw Pact and therefore never adopted 5.45. That leaves North Korea....good luck with that.

Any of these hypothetical vast stockpiles of 7n6 that were waiting to be shipped to the USA arent still waiting in limbo.

Back when Peshmerga were the darlings of the world for a few weeks, reports indicated that 7.62x39 cost around $1 USD and 5.56 cost $3 USD locally. Regardless of claimed the 10 to 1 ratio of 7.62 to 5.45 guns, between the conflict in Ukraine and the circus in Syria, those dealers who still had stockpiles in limbo would have diverted it to one of those locations.

8 then 10 then 12 cents a round was a confluence of events where there was a glut of supply, no Obama to trigger a rise in civilian demand, and a relatively quiet international situation.

Any of these dreams of sugarplums and 7n6 free for the taking is just simply not taking any of this into consideration and playing make believe that we're living in 2008.