Posted on 05/11/2013 6:04:45 AM PDT by voicereason
Duluth, MN (NNCNOW.com) - A nationwide ammunition shortage has police departments across the country counting their bullets. It's no different in Proctor, where the Chief says he was told he'd have to wait months, even a year to get more ammo.
"I was really surprised, let's just put it that way," said Chief Walt Wobig of the difficulty getting ammunition.
Woberg says that when he asked suppliers for the 1,000 rounds of ammo his officers needed for training, he was told he'd have to wait months.
"I go, 'Do you have 40–caliber qualification rounds?' And they go, 'Well, no. It's going to take six to eight months [to get them],'" said Wobig of a conversation with a manufacturer.
Retailers say the nationwide shortage is due in part to people stockpiling ammunition in response to recently proposed gun legislation.
"It was getting a little short last fall, so they were already behind, but there definitely is panic," said Superior Shooters Supply owner, Pat Kukull of the shortage, "We've [the store] been here for 35 years and I've never seen anything like it."
With the Proctor Police Department in need of ammunition, the Chief sent out a call asking for help. Who answered? The very people his officers are sworn to protect.
"The citizens were like, 'If you need something, we got plenty here,'" said Wobig.
A citizen and a Proctor police officer loaned their personal ammunition to the Department, a total of 1,500 rounds. The Chief says others were willing to help too.
"I had several other calls from other citizens that said, 'Hey, if you need more ammunition we have plenty,'" said Woberg, "I know that if I need ammunition I have citizens out there that will gladly come forward."
The Chief says he still has ammunition on order and will be repaying the citizens for their contributions when the department is able to. He also sent in a request to Senators Al Franken and Amy Klobuchar for help regarding their ammunition shortage.
I wonder how many police officers he has on the payroll. 1000 rounds for training is not very much. I guess he means weapons familiarization and not real training. No wonder police in certain areas fire hundreds of rounds at one perp and hit him twice.
Supplying ammo to cops is like buying the executioner’s rope. Cops fill out reports and draw chalk outlines, so give them pens and chalk. Citizens defend themselves, so the cops should be giving us ammo.
Solution: Buy a good shooting SIG 229 in 40.
If I had .40 cal pistol ammo I guess I would feel compeled to help due to the fact local officers have helped me get lots of .223 American Eagle brass for 44.00 per 100 rnd boxes for the last year.
Now that is a great comment!
Most LEO’s do not practice with the rounds DHS is ordering. The +p frangible round is for the real meal deal.
I still can’t decide if I believe the DHS is trying to dry up the ammo supply or gun up for an inevitiable confrontation with the American public. Prolly both.
>>Solution: Buy a good shooting SIG 229 in 40.
I’ve owned two SIGs and two 40 caliber handguns. I didn’t like either.
Besides, if I bought a 40, the supply would vanish overnight. That’s just how my luck rolls.
1000 rounds for training is not very much.....Sure it is. You need only to train a cop how not to shoot his foot off, how to point it downrange and hit a target center mass with ONE shot. All the rest is just crap, with automatics, because I guarantee after the first shot from a bad guy all the extras fly out the window and you just lay down a barrage. I posted here that when the PD’s started handing out autos, there would be a waste of ammo because us old guys with “wheels” would fire six rounds with A HOLE in the middle of the target and during the same time the autos fired off three times as many shots with only two being killing shots. I knew it, I knew it, I knew it.
A ‘cut’ 12 gauge round will damn near stop a tank.
>>A ‘cut’ 12 gauge round will damn near stop a tank.
What is a “cut” 12 ga round?
Since Adam Lanza, I've probably bought at least 1000 rounds of ammo (various calibers, but not .40) without resorting to Gunbroker and without overpaying. (.40 S&W was offered online for as little as .36/round yesterday). Ammo is available with a little bit of effort -- but if he needs to have his small purchase go through the normal gov't bidding process, and isn't finding anyone willing to bother to put in the time and effort to make a $20 profit at the moment -- I'm not surprised.
Indeed. I think the decision would be on a city by city basis.
Chief valley dude, totally tubular, man.
Bingo!!
fer sure!
“A cartridge! A cartridge! A police department for a cartridge!”
(sigh)
What happened to having one of the armory crew do some reloading ‘for training rounds’???? Oh, I forgot! These are the days of the semi-automatics, with a ‘bucket of bullets’ underneath them, as Clint Smith has said.
There are so many semi-automatics, with so many having stnadard magazines of anything from 7 to 16, these days, that even those that have them have to use just one counting, and in multiples of that counting, just to keep things straight. “Uh, did I take the 13-round, or the 16-round?” Mind you, for folks that don’t know, the magazines have little peek-a-boo windows to show how many rounds are left in the magazines, on most newer pistols.
This is where revolvers fare a lot better. Unless you own an older “j-frame” design snubnose that has 5 rounds, or the old Colt models that have 6 rounds, MOST of your full frame models are 6 rounds, and then you have to “break the gun” to reload it. There is no confusion about which magazine of which count! You either have 5, or you have 6. I prefer to know that I shoot 6 rounds well, instead of many more rounds NOT so well.
A standard round-carry for a revolver is “full cylinder, plus 2 times more”. That is what the military manuals called out for their revolvers. Speed-loading devices, of all names, come into play here. They all work, and have earned praise and damnations, both. But they are an indivdual choice item. Look them up on YOUTube, and you will see what I mean.
For the semi’s, it was “Magazine in pistol, plus two”. The British made it “Magazine, plus 2, loaded one down.” Since until this year, that meant their Browning Hi-Power pistols were loaded with 13-round capacity magazines, carrying 12 rounds each, instead. (S.A.S. standard operating procedure) I own 2 Hi-Powers. I love the guns, and the history behind the models I own. Yes, I did shoot ‘buckets of bullets’ when I went to the range, at over-the-counter prices, too. But, I’ve since reformed.
For many years, the standard federal arm was a revolver, loaded with a lead semi-wadcutter hollow point bullet.
Go figure ... until the advent of the .357 Magnum cartridge in the 1930’s, the most powerful handgun was the Colt Walker Dragoon black powder pistol, firing 60 grains of powder to propel a .44 caliber lead ball, not conical, not a hollowpoint, just a round lead ball. The other gun of choice, was an 1851 Navy pistol, in the hand of Wild Bill Hickok, firing a .36 caliber ball, hitting a Mr. Tutt, in the heart, at more than 60 yards, killing him.
(And they say the .38 Special is an underpowered gun! Check the ballistics and you will be surprised.)
Remember, Janet the 2nd, wants all of YOUR ammo!!!
I would not. It is far more important that citizens protect themselves than that they enlist proxies to do so. And in my area law enforcement is overstaffed by several orders of magnitude.
.40cal and 9mm are 2 calibers I’ve never liked or owned. JMO.
The only way to disarm us is to first take away the bullets, then take away the guns. It’s interesting how this encourages us to turn them in willingly.
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