My next advice if you absolutely had to have a gun today would be to go and spend $100-125 on a Mosin-Nagant and grab a crate of the two spam cams of 7.62x54R that are still available everywhere with no premium.
On the other hand we are not living in normal times. I read the same sitrep that our friend LouAvul gave us an excerpt from above. Let me present the last segment of that report and highlight the money quote.
(Begin Quote)
It wasn’t just the AR-15s, the AK-pattern rifles, the M1As, and the FALs that were sold out. It really hit me when I realized that the World War-era M1 Garands, M1 carbines, and Enfield .303s were gone, along with every last shell. Ubiquitous Mosin-Nagants -- of which every gun store always seems to have 10-20 -- were gone. So was their ammo. Only a dust free space marked their passing. I’ve never seen anything like it.
Every weapon of military utility designed within the past 100+ years was gone. This isn’t a society stocking up on certain guns because they fear they may be banned. This is a society preparing for war.
(End quote)
So from that point of view you need to get get something and do it quickly. My advice is do not get a rifle that shoots 5.45x39. You are depending on Eastern Europe for supply and Obozo can cut you off with an Executive Order. Even if you reload you have to buy virgin brass to do it and that carries a whopping premium. And the round itself has insufficient stopping power (as does 7.62x39 and 5.56x45 IMO). My rule of thumb for cartridges is to avoid any whose product when case length in millimeters is multiplied by bullet diameter is less than 350 (e.g. 7.62x39 = 297.18).
However there is a killer deal (maybe a poor choice of words?) on a serious battle rifle still available, albeit with a littlebacklog.
Get your butt over to the Civilian Marksmanship Program and do whatever you have to do to meet the eligibilty requirements. They are not hard at all to complete and you can find advice in the forums there on how to most easily do so.
Fill out the paperwork and buy a Field Grade H&R M-1 Garand for $525 and $24.95 S&H. FedEx will bring it to your front door and drop it off. While you are at the CMP also order some of the Greek surpus ammo that comes packed loose in ammo cans, 200 rounds for $98 and $11.95 S&H (BTW, 30-06 = 7.62x63 = 480.06, a surfeit of stopping power). I'd recommend 5 cans and they have a limit of 10 right now. The only other things you'll need are some clips, they're about $1 a pop and easily found on many websites.
So let's review and count up, $549.95 for the rifle and $549.75 for the ammo. So for a total of $1099.40 you get a main battle rifle and 1000 rounds of ammo. That's gotta be hands down the best gun deal in America today. And there are no restrictions on resale of CMP Garands so if things coold down later you can resell it, most likely for a profit as the street price of Garands is well above the CMP price, afact that had always baffled me but nevertheless exists.
I’ll check it out.