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View Full Version : Miscellaneous ramblings upon gazing at the shelves in my nearest gun emporium.



sniper
05-10-2009, 09:05 PM
I visited my closest gun shop yesterday. O WOW!

Bare shelves! It looked like the locusts had landed, eating all the ammo, primers, powder and most of the bullets. :o

Soooo..home I went, and took inventory. I have sufficient primers for both rifle and pistol for the foreseeable future, Unique, Universal, and 2400 for pistol CB loads, and Reloader 22, H4350, H4831SC, 4895, and 4064 for my rifle, too.

.22 LR ammo is no worry, and I do have some factory stuff for my .357 put by, along with about a couple thousand cast and swaged swcs, not to mention a couple hundred CBs for my rifle.

My rifle "J" boolits are getting low, but I have my two RCBS SWC moulds, 25 lbs. of #2 alloy, and about 75 lbs. of "near #2" alloy that I made from a recipe on the forum: 9 lbs WW and 1 lb. 50-50 bar solder.

I smelted that stuff With a Lee 20 pounder, using Pat's handy-dandy double duty wood flake flux, and stirring with a paint stick. I see no reason to ever use anything else. The smell is great, even if the paint stirrer do catch fire on a regular basis. :mrgreen:

Altogether, not a real lot, but there is also about 150 lbs of WW and lead laying around if I run short, so it looks like I can weather whatever comes.

Onliest thing I found I don't have enough of is toilet paper. ;)

Other than being an NRA member and helping sign up people for the local Shooting Sports Association, I plan to just sit back and watch whatever happens next. 8-)

Newtire
05-10-2009, 09:21 PM
Today, I was in my local gunshop and the guy I do business with mostly told me he had some powder put back for guys like me because some guy has been coming in buying it all up as soon as the shipment comes in. The thoughts are that he's probably scalping or planning on scalping it. No primers at all of course and he said he heard the Nosler plant put on a ton of new guys to meet production demands.

This thing reminds me of when one car on the freeway hits the brakes and the chain reaction causes a big slowdown. He said he heard things like this will be lasting until January from someplace.

I put in an order to Cabelas to be on the wait list.

Rifle and pistol magazines from Havlin are all backordered due to demand.

I say, sit back and see what sorts out. I left with a couple of pounds of the powders I wanted.

monadnock#5
05-10-2009, 09:26 PM
I did the same thing. Primers in very short supply. Brass and bullets slightly more abundant. Lots of powder. The good news is lots of guns and loaded ammo in stock. He even had a brand new Armalite AR-15 with stainless match barrel for get this- $900.00!! Plenty of .223 ammo to go with it. A couple of bricks of SR primers would fit real nice in my larder right now, but other than that I have no pressing concerns.

No problems for the new shooter around here. It's the reloaders who are taking it in the neck for the moment.

stubshaft
05-11-2009, 12:20 AM
I find myself shooting the most economical guns that I own. Today I was shooting my Whisper. Cast boolit, 8.8gr AA9 and SR primer. The primer probably cost me more than the boolit and poweder combined!

snaggdit
05-11-2009, 12:22 AM
Am more and more convinced that it is a believed shortage that is causing the shortage. Joe sometimes shooter hears that ammo is hard to come by. Maybe he buys 2 boxes a year. He wanders through Wally World and sees 4 boxes of his caliber. He remembers the rumors and buys it up. Next week, same deal. Now he has 4 years worth at his normal consumption but I bet this doesn't stop him from buying more when he sees it. Most others, I believe, are doing the same. When the prices the scalpers are charging finally outweigh the demand we should see a return to normal. $70 a box for .380 and $100 for 1000 primers. Wow, guess the folks buying were never Boy Scouts... I'd like a bigger cushion but I have enough to weather the storm. And I still hit the range and fill my baggies with brass weekly. So there!

armyrat1970
05-11-2009, 01:40 AM
Went into my local Wally World just yesterday and passed through the sporting goods section and desk just to see what they had. Wasn't expecting very much but they must have just gotten in a small shipment of ammo. A lot of shotgun. Quite a bit of rifle in 243, 30-30, 308 and 30-06. Just a few boxes in pistol. 1 Blazer in 9mm, 2 in 40S&W and 1 in 45ACP 230gr.HB. I told the guy behind the counter I wanted that box of 45's. Didn't pay that much attention to it except for the Blazer name which I have fired a lot of the aluminum cases in both 38, 357 and 45. When I got home and opened the bag I was pleasently surprised to see they were Blazer Brass. Reloadable and boxer primed with CCI primers. Good target loads and reloadable. 50 rds. for just $14.97. Stopped passing by the sporting goods for awhile because they usually have a lack of everything but will every time I go in from now on.
Never used the Blazer Brass before. Has anyone else? I know their aluminum cased cartridges performed well and I expect no less from these. Just comparing some to the Winchester White Box 230gr. I have they are much more consistent in OAL only running an average of .003" from shortest to longest where the Winchester runs as high as .006" The cases run a little short but I have found most factory ammo does.

HeavyMetal
05-11-2009, 09:44 AM
Is it a "percieved" shortage? Possibley.

Are the scalpers and "oppertunist's" making it worse? Absolutely!

With the new "limiting" rule at my local wal mart I now see ammo on the rack I haven't in a while. 223 308 and 30-06. I also saw some 380 amd 38 spec., 357 box's but not many.

Dealer's that support the regular's are good guys and will be around for the future. They should also do a limited sales policy , six box's per person per day is wal mart's, and this will keep scalper's from having "flipping" stock and put an end to this issue a lot sooner than January!

Best advise? Refuse to do business with the scalpers! Then remember who they are and spread the word around.

I don't have an issue with a guy making a buck, I have an issue with guys that make a buck off the misfortunes of the average joe!

It's a fine line to be sure, but anybody asking $100 for a brick of primers he paid $15.00 for last yr, and has 100 bricks for sale, is going to make me wonder.

captaint
05-11-2009, 11:03 AM
I don't see this thing lasting a lot longer. Soon the hoarders are going to have their fill and things will get back to normal. Sure wish one of the hoarder types would offer to sell me some of their stuff. Wonder how they'll feel losing money on their "investment"? Maybe they'll leave us alone after a while. Mike

oldtoolsniper
05-11-2009, 11:17 AM
I wonder what is going to happen to some of these folks when the wave crests and people aren’t buying anything because they have piles on hand. Sales at a lot of these gun stores are going to trickle down to nothing and they still have overhead and payroll to meet. I drive 100 miles to a gun store because they have always taken good care of me. They are loyal to their customers and remember you when you walk in the door. I drive past Cabela’s to get to them. I fear that in the end this will hurt a lot of these smaller shops when the downturn in sales comes.

jonk
05-11-2009, 11:45 AM
I don't see the shortage ending anytime soon for 2 reasons.

1. There is a ton of stuff (mainly primers) on backorder. Probably a billion of them. Unless people cancel these any production will go to meeting existing orders first, meaning it could be years before we see any.

2. People are unlikely to cancel such orders as they got caught once, and plan to stock up with years' of supply as soon as possible.

I really think the primer companies should start building new lines now; I think that this run could go for a few years and it would be worth it for them to invest in infastructure.

runfiverun
05-11-2009, 01:47 PM
how can all these outta work in a depression type of economy afford primers?
let alone thousands of them at 35-40 per k?

oldtoolsniper
05-11-2009, 03:01 PM
Credit...After three missed payments the Messiah will pay it off for you! If you work hard and pay your bills on time you won’t benefit.