"Well, if you wait until the GP-11 dries up, some shooters might be putting their rifles up for sale"
Brass is available, new production ammo is available from multiple sources, and I've heard even the Swiss RUAG plant will be reactivating their lines for civilian production (Swiss domestic I assume, but potentially for import as well) once stockpiles diminish.
Hardly anyone got into K31's because they were cheap; unlike Mosins, the K31's are high quality rifles of exceptional accuracy, shooting an objectively impressive cartridge competitive with any 30cal ~1000yd capable offering available. Now that Americans have been exposed, the round will find a dedicated following just as it has in Switzerland.
"Once the surplus is gone, which it's starting to go now, all that will be left is commercial and to be frank I'd rather spend the money on .308/7.62x51mm NATO to fire in my PTR-91 and Ishapore 2A1 (when I get it fixed)."
Precisely. Lotta Mosins going to be getting converted by Bubba in the coming decades, I suspect (he's been hard at work already, there's just so darn many of the things)
"That's the thing with these surplus guns. They're cheap with cheap ammo, but when the food runs out for them... you're left with a white elephant."
You do realize these are K31's and not Mosins we're talking about
. One of few Berdan rounds people bothered decapping & reloading for. The number of guns stateside is more than enough to keep the market alive, and even new production ammo is not prohibitively expensive nor rare (it's not hugely different from new production 30-06 FMJ, in my experience, unless that cartridge is at risk of extinction, too
)
TCB