Everyone's forgetting 5.45x39 AR15 pistol/SBR barrels too.
The whole 5.45 pistol thing kind of went down like this over the past few years:
- Don't even THINK about it.
- OKAY, but only if it's an NFA SBR. That's it!
- I guess it's okay as long as it's a home builder, and they keep quiet about it.
- If some FFL or company/store starts selling them, we'll come down on them like a ton of bricks/Olympic Arms! (And truth be told, it wasn't ALL Oly's fault, despite the owner being WARNED IN PERSON at SHOT not to do it. There were B-West builds and the MARS pistol out there too...)
- These 5.45x39 AR short barrels are for SBR builds... (wink wink, nudge nudge)
- HEY, CHECK OUT MY 5.45 PISTOL ON YOUTUBE, BE SURE TO CLICK THE LINKS FOR MY 243 OTHER 5.45 PISTOL VIDEOS!
Doesn't matter really, it was only a matter of time. Other than not having the ban happen, or it getting overturned in court, the timing couldn't be better. AFAIK, the 5.45 N76 cans were going to dry up due to the recent unpleasantness in the Crimea anyway. Kinda/sorta makes it a Pyrrhic victory to a degree I guess. And N76 cans weren't just going to last indefinitely. I've not seen any recent dates on the cans to indicate that any newer than the late 80's have ever been seen. (Speak up if you know of any...)
There's Red Star Army from Romania, and Brown Bear, Wolf, Silver Bear, Golden Tiger assuming Russian commercial ammo imports can continue, or are able to start up again sometime in the future.