Plenty of other countries produce ammo. Quality 7.62x39mm can be found easily for $0.35-$0.40/round. Plus the .30 cal. mags are cheaper and more common.I appreciate it man and am definitely thankful thinking about getting something either at a gun show or used.
Small Arms Solutions is a YouTube channel. He reviewed the Zastava M91 a few months ago. It is a 5.56 AK and the current service rifle of the Serbian army.
He really likes it. I just picked mine up and will do have a range day with it on Tuesday.
Chris mentioned that it is a good AK to buy because of the ammo bans
I definitely want a more traditional style ak like a WASR, Arsenal, etc and not a zastava.I think you mean the M90. The M91 is a Serbian DMR chambered in 7.62x54r. Serbian forces use the M21 in 5.56 as their standard service rifle, but still wield the M70 in 7.62x39 as a backup.
OP, as @snorko said, 7.62x39 ain't going anywhere. Several countries export it. Several countries still make it. More are tooling up or dusting off existing tooling to fill the void left by Russia - that includes the United States. And there are billions upon billions of rounds already in the U.S.
For anyone interested in their first AK, I generally suggest sticking with the OG standard chambering of 7.62x39. These things tend to be less picky than 5.56 AKs when it comes to parts, mags, and ammo variants. If you find you like the family of guns you can expand from there.
Also, it's worth noting to those unfamiliar with the AK platform, that Zastava offerings follow Yugo/Serbian AK patterns, so they are not plug & play with standard AKs. I can pull furniture off a Romanian WASR and slap it on a Russian, Hungarian, Polish, Egyptian, etc. AK, but Zastava guns use a lot of proprietary parts. Just FYI.
Maybe I am a purist but I think ARs should be 5.56 and AKs should be 7.62x39. #oldschool