Why shotshells are still available (and 22 ammo isn't)

[varmintman]

For the benefit of anybody who may not have figured this one out yet...

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Not that there is any shortage of middle class people who are into shotgun sports... But shotgun sports (trap, skeet, sporting clays) ARE in fact also a major hobby of the rich. Were team Obama/Holder to touch or appear to be playing any sort of games with shotshell ammo, I would assume that a significant number of the fat-cats who fund the dem party, not to mention dem pols themselves, would come down on them like a ton of bricks.

Decent shotguns start around $1000 and good hunting guns like Beretta's Xtrema2 can be had for 1000 - 1600 depending on options, but I don't believe Beretta makes much money on the Xtrema2. Beretta makes its money on guns costing from 3k - 50K and on up and one of the more interesting gunbroker.com searches you can do is to search all double-barrel over/under shotguns, sort on price, highest first, and scroll eight or nine pages past the featured guns to the $50,000 - 200,000 guns for an idea as to what I'm referring to and see if you can picture the owners of any of these things tolerating a government assault on shotshells...

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A few samples...

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Of course, if you can only have/afford one shotgun, it almost has to be the Xtrema-2:

[varmintman]

22 Ammo, on the other hand, is the common, simple, and previously cheap stuff which EVERYBODY used to put food on the table during hard times. For whatever reason, team Obama doesn't seem to want people to have that any more.

[umgud]

Because Joe Biden endorses shotgun use.

[Nervous Tick]

If it weren’t for target loads, I’d have no loads at all. :-)

Tell you what though, target loads are cheap, readily available, and damn good for what they’re good for.

And defense-wise, they’re not double ought buck, but I sure wouldn’t want my center mass to be on the receiving end of a 12ga target load fired from close range.

[Resolute Conservative]

$1000 and up for a decent shotgun. Hooey, I have a good old 870 I bought for $250 in the day and it is deadly.

[ChildOfThe60s]

I see your reasoning, don’t entirely agree with it.

I don’t go to the range and shoot 250 rounds with my shotgun on a routine basis (ouch). OTOH, when I do serious target practice I rarely use fewer than 250 rounds of LR. And I do a lot more of that than shotgun practice.

[chris37]

Those shotguns images are just unbelievable!

[Secret Agent Man]

Infection and shock.

[digger48]

saw some in a gunshop last week.

$6.95 for a 50 count box of CCI

he only had 5 boxes.

He had lots of other popular ammo, but his prices were still panic driven

[x1stcav]

My Mossberg 835 was out of a pawnshop for about $395.00 .

The ducks in Colorado have filed a grievance with the UN Human Rights Committee.

Some nonsense about genocide, or something.

[Dead Corpse]

Last time I had my Browning A5 out, it ate through 200+ rounds.

Practicing my poppers for 3-gun.

Still wish I could afford a Benelli M3. Much better suited for what I’d use it for than my Browning.

[ponygirl]

It’s because of John Kerry. He’s got him a shotgun. And a huntin’ license.

[2ndDivisionVet]

Quit sneaking into my mega-mansion and taking pictures of my shotguns!

[Old Sarge]

And defense-wise, they’re not double ought buck, but I sure wouldn’t want my center mass to be on the receiving end of a 12ga target load fired from close range.

Absolutely. At muzzle-flash ranges, a 20 gauge will still blow a rat-size hole in some EBT bunny's chest.

[DannyTN]

What’s the possibility that they are giving them to Syrian Rebels?

[joe fonebone]

bought my bakuil double barrel for 200 bucks..

best field gun I own

[NonValueAdded]

I’m still waiting for the phased plasma rifle in the 40 watt range.

[Bryanw92]

I have a 100 yd bolt-action tack-driver in .22LR. I have a .22 rifle with multiple hi-cap mags. I have a .22LR revolver. I have a very accurate .22LR semi-auto pistol. And I have a pocket-sized .22LR semi-auto that I can carry anywhere.

There is no .22 because it is the most versatile ammunition on the planet and shooting 500 rds of it in one range visit is a good day.

[varmintman]

The 870 is good enough for many purposes.

By way of comparison, the Xtrema 2:

• Is much faster than previous semiauto guns; you can't pull the trigger fast enough to make it jam or malfunction.
• Has a heavy spring and bleedoff valve: you can shoot light target loads one day and geese the next, without needing to change anything other than the ammo.
• Has 3.5" chambers; i.e. can shoot any 12ga ammo.
• Is entirely stainless and man-made materials; you can leave it in water for a week, pull it out, and shoot it. Wet conditions in Md. or Delaware can't hurt it.
• Is advertised as self-cleaning and that isn't much of a lie. You still need to clean the barrel but the rest is very easy to clean.

The Xtrema 2 can serve any purpose there is for a shotgun.

By way of contrast, I've seen people going nuts trying to shoot target shells with Benelli guns.

[rsobin]

The domestic production capacity for 22ls ,with factories running 24/7 (which they are),is about 4.5 billion rounds a year.This is enough ammo for all of us,who would shoot, to have fun plinking at a normal pace.If you have 100 people in 50 states each purchasing 5 bricks a day it would equal the total production.The machines that produce this ammo cost millions of dollars each to purchase,tool,set-up and man.This explains the reluctance to add capacity.There are authentic conspiracies out there.This is not one of them.

[knarf]

.22 is the assassin’s caliber and obumbles ain’t takin’ NOOOOO chances.