Ammunition sales hit record high in first year of Obama administration

Washington Post ^ | Nov. 2, 2009 | David A. Fahrenthold and Fredrick Kunkle

[Second Amendment First]

In a year of job losses, foreclosures and bag lunches, Americans have spent record-breaking amounts of money on guns and ammunition. The most obvious sign of their demand: empty ammunition shelves. At points during the past year, bullets have been selling faster than factories could make them. Gun owners have bought about 12 billion rounds of ammunition in the past year, industry officials estimate. That's up from 7 billion to 10 billion in a normal year.

[ExpatGator]

As a gunshop owner and a patriot, let me thank everyone for their astute and selfless support of AMERICAN business. You invested in freedom, both yours and everyone elses.

[GauchoUSA]

Need to stock up...

[DirtyHarryY2K]

People know we’re on the brink and TSWHTF soon.

Stay tuned and keep your powder dry!

[sam_paine]

I wonder how much of this commerce ironically helped Obama’s economic numbers....

[KoRn]

I’ve bought more ammo(and guns) during this year than every year of my lifetime... combined. Nearly 100% of my disposable income has gone to firearms related purchases this year. I’m almost at a point to where I’m sufficiently ‘capitalized’, but you can never have enough. :p

[Paladin2]

BLOAT

[Lurker]

12 billion rounds. I wonder what the US Military has on hand...

L

[Travis McGee]

The following is a public service announcement.

Here's a tip: there is still a great pistol and ammo deal out there waiting for you. If you have waited too long to arm up, or if you want one more, look at the excellent milsurp CZ-52 pistol and 7.62X25 Tokarev ammo.

You can get a CZ-52 for about $200 at any gun show or at many gun stores. You can also find them by googling around the internet. The ammo can be had for as low as 11 cents a bullet in any quantity you want. Extra mags are from $12 to $20 each.

The milsurp ammo is full metal jacket, firing an 85gr bullet at 1,600fps. These will go through car doors, kevlar helmets, kevlar vests etc like an icepick through butter. OTOH, they will also go through one bad guy and maybe hit a good guy behind him.

However, you can buy hollowpoints ("Wolf Gold" with brass shells) for about $19/50, or half the price of comparable 9mm JHPs. My test "Wolf Gold" JHP ammo expanded to .60 caliber, the same as my test 9mm JHPs.

So for $400, you could buy a CZ-52, 1,500 rounds of assorted ammo, and a few extra mags. OR, you could buy about 2/3s of a "brand name" pistol, and no ammo.

It's just a thought. This is a great bargain. The ammo is cheap and plentiful at all of the internet catalog sites. Don't wait, the libtards will soon slam the door on foreign gun and ammo imports, and the prices will go way up.

Another benefit of this pistol is that it is very accurate, with very fine sights. WIth this flat-shooting ammo, you can hit at 100 yards with ease. Downsides are brittle firing pins (buy a spare, and don't dry fire) and a decocking function that you should not trust. Just lower the SA hammer like a 1911. The safety works like a 1911, so if you are used to 1911s, it will be very easy to use the CZ-52

[manonCANAL]

One day it will rain lead

[randomhero97]

I would like to also add that Arsenal AKs (SGL-21s) are going for $499 at K-Var right now.

[Noumenon]

Black rain

[greatdefender]

[ExGeeEye]

Any thoughts?

[Doomonyou]

Just Doing my Part to help the economy.

BLOAT!

[Names Ash Housewares]

They will never make an all out grab for our guns.

But they will try to legislate them away.

Where do we draw the line folks????

I suspect if they overplay their card, they will see exactly how much ammo the citizens of this nation have.

[Eagle Eye]

Said it before, I’ll say it again, that six thousand rounds mean nothing if one won’t use six.

[Eagle Eye]

Said it before, I’ll say it again, that six thousand rounds mean nothing if one won’t use six.

[Cobra64]

Journalists...

[300winmag]

Any thoughts?

Firearms and ammo sales are now reaching a plateau after the initial (and well-founded) panic. This plateau is far higher than in the past. Prices have come down a bit, and firearms supplies are moving back up. Ammo supply is still tight, but not as bad as before.

Personally, I'm just about all "centerfired-out". Unless something amazing comes along, I don't see any more centerfire purchases in the near future.

Let me rephrase that. I've enough "militia gear", so I'm indulging in a long-denied luxury of rediscovering .22 rimfire. And while I like "buying American", my distant Slovak cousins make some fine products, too. My current pet weapon is this CZ 453 "varmint" model with a Leupold (American) 3-9x scope.

Now if they had just mentioned what ammo they used to make this test target, I'd be further down the road to getting the accuracy I know is in there.

0bama should have tried to grab all the guns the moment he took his hand off the Bible. Instead, he helped build a politically-activated user base that has an especial interest in militia weapons comparable to the ones our military regularly uses. There's a whole lot of people now who are familiar with the AR-15/M16/M4 thanks to him.