Fair closes on lack of ammo

Daily Bulletin ^ | 4/24/2009 | Jim Matthews, Outdoor Writer

[Red in Blue PA]

The Raahauge's Shooting Sports Fair, a hands-on gun show where you can shoot all the latest firearms on the market, has been cancelled for 2009. The Sports Fair is normally held the first weekend in June each year at Mike Raahauge Shooting Enterprises in Corona. Mike Raahauge said the fair was cancelled because it had become impossible for all the firearm makers to get enough ammunition for this event.

"I just spoke with all of the manufacturers and none of them can get ammo," said Raahauge late last week. "We could hold the fair, but we'd probably be out of ammunition by Friday afternoon."

"Whether the shortage is due to the election of President Barack Obama or the economic downturn or fear of an increase in crime, ammo sales have been like plywood and bottled-water sales before a hurricane in Florida," Raahauge said.

Since President Obama's election, gun and ammunition sales have skyrocketed. Most ammunition manufacturers are operating multiple shifts on their production lines and still can't produce enough ammunition in the major handgun and military-style rifle calibers to meet demand. Besides ammunition, there is also a shortage of semi-automatic handguns, semi-automatic rifles, and reloading components.

[ozzymandus]

Must be some back-handed Obama gun control. WalMart had only .40 and a few boxes of oddball stuff.

[Red in Blue PA]

“If we’ve added over 7 million new guns to the streets, where’s the corresponding rise in crime?”

GOOD QUESTION!

So much for the “guns cause crime” theory.

[Red in Blue PA]

LOL!

[Red in Blue PA]

I’ll bet you that delivery time estimate will grow.

[phalynx]

Our stores in Texas are empty. Nothing except a few odd calibers. I can’t even find .22LR. I think all the gun rush right after the election has now got everyone enjoying their guns and now they need ammo.

[Patriot2A]

DUDE! You should really, really, REALLY! send GM a letter outlining a plan to save their plants! I can FREAKIN’ guarantee that if they can start producing .223 and 7.72, the ARMY will buy everything they sell, driving the price for civilians lower...and leaving some too....

Oh, and if you want cheap ammo, try sportsmanguide, AIM, Samco or compare ammo prices (real time) on ammoengine.com...

online is the best way to get ammo!

[Spktyr]

Would you *really* want to bet your life on ammo made by the modern UAW?????

[glock_fan]

I ordered a case of 9mm last week from Cabela’s. They gave me a one week lead time for shipment. That week is up - crickets are chirping.

[El Gato]

I read where most of the lack of ammo is in the East ....can’t fathom the difference between the West and the East ....

Maybe a higher fraction of the people in the West were already stocked up?

[org.whodat]

A bunch of cracker heads are now doing to guns and ammo what happened in housing, in a couple of years the stuff will be dirt cheap.

[Red in Blue PA]

DOn’t think so. Prices are still in line for most stuff. I bought .45 recently at Walmart and the price was the same (29.99), and I also bought a Kimber Custom II and the price of that too, was the same.

Before throwing ridiculous analogies, learn what you are talking about, or be more specific.

[El Gato]

Has anyone heard what the ammo/component makers are doing to aleviate the shortage?

It's right there in the story:

Most ammunition manufacturers are operating multiple shifts on their production lines and still can't produce enough ammunition in the major handgun and military-style rifle calibers to meet demand.

They are likely to be loathe to increase capacity by buying new equipment and/or factory floorspace for a couple of reasons. First, they think the "run" is likely to be of relatively short duration, with demand dropping back to something more reasonable before too long, as measured by their "payback" time line. Second, the Obamites in DC are likely to obsolete that equipment by legislative fiat, by any number of requirements. Green ammo, serialized cases, and even bullets, or just outright bans on some calibers, as in Mexico.

[struggle]

Get a CZ52

1. Cheap Ammo
2. Reliable gun
3. Bullets penetrate kevlar easily.
4. Light trigger pull, easy carry for the ladies.

[Red in Blue PA]

I’ve thought about that.....and they’re on sale at Cabela’s too.

[Desron13]

Just a thought here. Are there any statistics on how much ammo the Government is currently stock piling?

/tinfoil hat off ;-)

[Red in Blue PA]

There was a seller at a gun show yesterday who said there are no trucks leaving the plants at the big ammo makers. None.

I was looking for his tinfoil hat at the time.

[Covenantor]

GM already has corporate experience along these lines.

LIBERATOR .45 cal PISTOL

.

The pistol had its origins in the US Army Joint Psychological Committee and was designed for the United States Army in 1942 by the Inland Guide Lamp Manufacturing Division of the General Motors Corporation in Dayton, Ohio.

The army designated the weapon the Flare Projector Caliber .45 hence the designation FP-45. This was done to disguise the fact that a pistol was being mass produced.

The original engineering drawings label the barrel as "tube", the trigger as "yoke", the firing pin as "control rod", and the trigger guard as "spanner". T

he Guide Lamp Division plant in Anderson, Indiana assembled a million of these weapons. The Liberator project took about 6 months from conception to end of production with about 11 weeks of actual manufacturing time, done by 300 workers."

from: ....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FP-45_Liberator

The Liberator was shipped in a cardboard box with 10 rounds of .45 ACP ammunition, a wooden dowel to remove the empty shell casing, and an instruction sheet in comic strip form showing how to load and fire the weapon. Extra rounds of ammunition could be stored in the pistol grip."

IIRC It was said that a Liberator was manufactured faster than it could be loaded

[struggle]

I just shot one of my friends yesterday along with my now ultra-expensive-to-shoot SKS and Taurus .38. It’s a very easy to operate gun, and the light trigger pull will surprise you. Nothing is more attractive than the cheap price of the 7.62X25 and the penetrative power is remarkable even though it is the size of most .40 and .32 shooters.

BIG SURE TO BRING EAR PROTECTION WHEN FIRING. My friend had a Keltek pistol that shot 5.56 and it was louder than that.

[struggle]

>I just shot one of my friend*’*s yesterday

[Covenantor]

...and here's the instruction sheet. Designed for non English speaking peoples who might be illiterate in their mother tongues...hmm sort of like many of the folk congregating in front of Home Depots.