"Holds a girls hair back." Now that's an appropriate answer!
Posted on 04/28/2009 7:27:55 AM PDT by newgeezer
Life is good at Mid America Arms in south St. Louis County.
Traffic inside the gun shop has doubled in recent months. Sales are up a solid 40 percent. And they can't keep the shelves stocked.
What started late last year — about the time President Barack Obama took office — as a nationwide surge in gun buying has evolved into something much larger. Good luck finding ammo for all those guns. Or the components and tools to make your own.
At stores such as Mid America, empty shelves and disappointed customers speak volumes about a supply-and-demand equation that's been knocked off its fulcrum by changes in the political landscape. The most popular calibers — 9 mm and .380, for example — are difficult, if not impossible, to find. And new shipments don't last long.
"It's a struggle," said Al Rothweiler, one of the owners. "Where someone used to buy two boxes of ammo, now they buy four, five or six boxes."
Rothweiler and others say it's pretty easy to explain ...
Most of the fingers point to fears that Obama and the Democratic-controlled Congress eventually will get around to pushing for new laws restricting gun ownership and placing severe tax rates on ammunition sales. So people are buying guns and ammo before that happens.
"They realize this administration does pose a risk to their Second Amendment freedoms," said Alexa Fritts, spokeswoman for the National Rifle Association.
For its part, Obama's administration has been fairly quiet on the subject, citing the need to focus on the economy and other issues at this time.
However, the president's urban policy agenda, at whitehouse.gov, makes it clear that Obama would like to make permanent the so-called "assault weapons" ban that was signed by Bill Clinton in 1994 but allowed to expire in 2004.
(Excerpt) Read more at stltoday.com ...
The above was January. There is enough backlog to Start more production. Others are saying the prices are a lot higher in this shortage.
"Holds a girls hair back." Now that's an appropriate answer!
This is my Rifle. There are many others like it, but this one is mine.
Your local Walmart doubled prices on ammo?
Funny, I bought two boxes of 12 ga. 6 shot for $4.96 each. That about the same price I paid for shotgun shell over 20 years ago.
The empty shelf has the same label, $19.96 for the bulk box of 9mm I always get. Same label, same shelf, same location as always - just a perpetually empty shelf. The good man at the Sporting Goods counter says they have a limit of 100 rnds of ammo per customer, per day. As things are, they are getting ammo in 3x a week, but it’s sold out within hours. I’ve just been unfortunate in that when I’m there, the 9mm is gone.
I do, however have a nice collection of .22 and 12 ga. shells to chose from. A singular small hole for varmits and a large grouping of small holes for personal defence.
I recently picked up a nice Gamo semi-auto pellet gun for casual practice. I also got a bullet trap and I can shoot indoors.
The gun looks and feels like the real thing, it's accurate and fun to shoot. And best of all, it's cheap and convenient to shoot, so when you finally get some real ammo and get to the range, you haven't lost your shooting skills.
There are no “large” stockpiles of surplus ammo left; there’s just little bits here and there of things like corrosive 7.62x51, there’s plenty of ancient 7.2x54R, but there’s very little .30-06 left. The 7.62x39 stuff... that’s become very spotty as well.
What I see coming through now is very recent stuff. When you go to buy once-fired mil-surp brass (eg, 7.62 or 5.56 US mil-surp once-fired) it is getting more and more recent. I have some 7.62 that has headstamps indicating 2002, 2005, 2006 vintage. I’ve talked to other guys who just got lots of once-fired brass from 2007 - entire 1K round lots.
There isn’t a whole lot of slop left in the supply chain. What we need is a new ammo manufacturing business for components - especially brass made off a .308 case (.308, .243, .260, 7mm-08, etc). There is .223 brass available, but the supply of .308 is very scarce from what I see.
Bullets are easy to make. Powder is dangerous to make, but relatively easy.
Primers are tough. Brass is tough. I’ve been doing research on how to make brass in quantity, but I’ve yet to find the right equipment. Anyone here on FR who knows where to get the punching and drawing presses?
Local politics in play. I can get ammo, shotguns and rifles at mine. Unfortunately, I believe Walmart has dropped pistols entirely. That's where I got my Taurus 9mm. Too bad, they had great prices.
I just spent 600 bucks on 460 shells, wife actually let me do it; now peace of mind. Found it at Wally World & Fred Meyers, walmart like store. Corbon, 62 bucks a box & Hornady 32 bucks a box; but I got enough for a start, come what may. Ya know back when I thought the slickster was trying to take over the world, I bought like 8 cases of 223, around $170/case, now closer to $450. No regrets and my grandkids probably will be still burning it out; or prepared.
WWB 9mm used to retail for under ten bucks ($9.99) a year ago. I still have about ten boxes with the tags still on.
Same thing for every Indiana and Michigan Wal-Mart I’ve vistied on my “ammo quests”.
Shotgun rounds haven’t jumped much, because there isn’t nearly the demand for it.
I’ve been unable to catch any new 9mm on the Wal-Mart shelves.
It does sell out quickly.
What is corrosive 7.62x51?
That sounds right. The manufacturers can maintain the same level of production and make massive profit increases. The retailers will get theirs too. It is not like the government will even investigate or threaten them like they would gasoline refiners.
“Your local Walmart doubled prices on ammo?”
Until about 3 years ago, FMJ handgun and rifle ammo were a bargain. For example, Winchester 9MM 100 count “white box”, a very good target ammo, almost military grade, was in fact $10 a box at Walmart.
Then the prices moved up, mainly because of the price of components. One year ago, that same box would have cost about $14.
Today, if one can find it at all, that same box will cost about $18 to $20.
Shotgun shells, except for slugs and anything below 4, are still very much available and a bargain. Shells for target shooting seem especially cheap; and I am thinking of buying a sport shotgun just because the shells are so cheap [and I always wanted to give the sport a try ever since I watched the movie Second Hand Lions].
Bears a striking resemblance to Lennin.
Something that will NEVER see the insides of MY M1A.
That sounds good!
One of my favorites too. Also humbly suggest 'The Dish', untold story about the Apollo lunar landing, from Austrailia's receiving station. Well worth the rental (I had to buy it...).
But, back on topic. Yeah, I got the green Remington 100 ct box of 9 mm for around $12 last year. It's priced at $12.96 last time I checked (the empty shelf) at my local Walmart. I wonder if transportation costs affect price. Ammo ain't light, and gas prices were pretty high a while back. For me, a hollow point is a hollow point. I have no intention of shooting my 9mm pistol at a range where the grade of ammo will make a difference. I make up for the quality of my ammo, with an extended 25 round clip.
I just need to be within 25-50 ft of my target, if the first round misses a critical organ, it will be closely followed by another series of lead - I'm not a bad shot; but you won't see me doing competition shooting any time soon. For me, a 6 inch grouping with a pistol is 'good enough'. I do not foresee a time when the need occurs for me to pull the trigger, where only a single shot will be fired. If I pull the trigger, there will only be one side to that story.
Be careful to hit the "manual seal" button well before the vacuum crushes the box, resulting in an eventual puncture, possibly a month later. (experience!)
It must really vary across America. Here in Alaska, 44 mag that use to be 17 bucks a box is now 30 some bucks. My Canadian buddies get me to pick it up for them. I hate telling them one price and then it goes up, even with receipt. Anymore, I just want it available. I have about 15-20 boxes in all calibers I own; probably never shoot it all just hunting.
The market for 7.62x51 ammo is so depleted of supply you’re starting to see third-world 7.2x51 ammo that is corrosive come into the markets. Usually it will have a potassium chlorate primer compound, and unless you clean your barrel promptly and thoroughly after using it, your barrel will start to corrode and pit.
OK, some history so you can put this into context:
100 years ago, most all smokeless ammo in the US was corrosive - they used a mercury-based primer compound, mercury fuliminate.
The mercury-based priming compounds would erode your barrel, not corrode them - but the brass was a throw-away after using a mercury fulminate primer. Very often, once-fired brass using a mercury primer would fail on the second or third loading. I won’t get into the metallurgy here, just suffice to say that mercury combines with metals like copper, tin, brass, etc under pressure and the fundamental nature of the brass changes as a result - it becomes brittle. The point being that mercury priming caps had been used for a long time with black powder guns and it worked OK - it was stable, kept in storage, worked pretty well. It was just the higher pressures of smokeless that caused problems with mercury fulminate. You could shoot mercuric primers and not lose your barrel.
Back then, the military was re-loading their practice brass on US training ranges. This business of the brass failing (resulting in injury and weapon damage) was very much annoying, so the Ordnance Dep’t found the problem and changed the priming compound: the military switched from mercury to potassium chlorate. By the post-WWI years, mercuric priming was history on most all US military small arms loading - but not on Communist Bloc stuff, because as we all know, the commies often used cheaper steel for their cases, which are not reloadable, and they don’t care if their primers compromise their cases.
Potassium chlorate IS corrosive to your barrel steel - potassium chlorate, under heat and pressure, would change into potassium chloride, which is a salt (it is actually sold as a salt substitute for people on low-sodium diets) and it highly corrosive to steel. Shoot a few rounds of potassium chlorate primed ammo, then allow your rifle to sit for a couple weeks. Your barrel will be wrecked. This is why our grandfathers were beat by the DI’s into cleaning and oiling their weapon every day.
By the late 1920’s, most civilian ammo was made non-corrosive by switching to lead styphnate. You could see in the old magazines of the day Winchester and Remington were advertising the fact that their ammo was non-corrosive — eg, the Remington trade name “Kleenbore” on their ammo - that was their non-corrosive primer coming into use.
The military was still using corrosive priming compounds into the early 50’s. The Commies were using corrosive priming compounds into the 1980’s.
Now the modern, non-corrosive priming compound lead styphnate has become cause for concern in indoor firing ranges, and there is another compound used in primers marked “lead free” but you probably won’t see those compounds on mil-surp ammo.
Moral of the story: if you get surplus ammo from some backwater country, even of recent (1980’s) production, CLEAN YOUR RIFLE AFTER SHOOTING THE AMMO.
That price may seem like a bargain in another year.
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