7.62x39 has been popular in the USA for maybe 20 years, mostly because the rifles firing it are so cheap that everyone has one. .40 S&W has been around maybe 25 years, and is largely practical for law enforcement et al. The rest of the cartridges are old enough to fit the "always available" category, but I still don't get what you mean by "safe bets", given how simple it is to make ammo for cartridges most people haven't even seen. When you're talking about something like the .375 Ruger, which is widely available even on an island in Alaska, like where I live -- it's fairly hard to figure out what the issue is about. Certainly can't be whether or not they're available, because they are.
But hey -- use what you want. Just don't be fearful about acquiring ammo in the US...it's more available now than maybe ever. Certainly more available than 40 years ago.
Dennis
I'm just saying, it would be very easy to drop the .375 Ruger and have it become a nothing cartridge. Could someone make it? Sure. For the 10,000 rifles that have sold in that caliber? Sure. Will the price go through the roof? Absolutely.
Did I pay $200 for a box of .416 Rigby ammo once, which was available, but not everywhere I shop, and was very expensive? Yes. That could easily be the case with the 375 Ruger.
I'm just saying, in a nuclear holocaust/end of the world scenario, or even a gun ban or other less strange event, I'd rather have something chambered in, say, 40 S&W than 7.62x25, because I'll be much more likely to run across cartridges for it.
Look at the 300 Savage. That cartridge was the sh** for many years. Now, it's kind of nonexistent. They sold the heck out of .300 Savage rifles back in the day, though.
