Posted on 05/20/2009 5:00:59 PM PDT by smokingfrog
Every day, Darren Newsom's three Bitterroot Valley Ammunition facilities crank out 300,000 rounds of ammunition.
It's not nearly enough.
“I'm going about 100,000 rounds in the wrong direction every day,” Newsom said. “We probably have about six months of back orders right now.”
Newsom has been in the ammunition manufacturing business for more than 20 years and he's never seen demand this high.
Fearful of the Obama administration's potential to tighten gun control laws, people from all over the country are stocking up on guns and ammunition.
“I went through the Clinton years and there was a bit of a scare then,” Newsom said. “This is like the Clinton years on steroids. � On the day of the election, our phones started going nuts. It hasn't stopped since.”
As a master distributor for ATK - the world's largest ammunition business - Bitterroot Valley Ammunition supplies other ammunition manufacturers around the country with the components needed to make bullets.
“I get a million primers in every other day and most are shipped out the very next day,” he said. “I have 100 million primers on back order right now. We just can't get enough of them.”
At a recent gun show in Salt Lake City, Newsom sold somewhere between 300,000 and 400,000 rounds in the first two hours.
“It's just unreal,” he said. “Somewhere in lots of basements around the country, there are millions of rounds of ammunition being stored.”
Local businesses have felt the ammunition shortage.
At Bob Ward's in Hamilton, Mike Matteson said there has been quite a run on ammunition and reloading supplies like bullets and powder since the election.
“We are especially low right now with pistol ammunition,” Matteson said. “There are four or five calibers that we don't even have on our shelves.”
(Excerpt) Read more at missoulian.com ...
I got some spare pins for just that reason.
If kel-tec made a 7.62X25 version of their 9mm folding carbine, it would sell like crazy.
Just trying to spread the love.
The local WalMart is using the ammo shelves (cases) to store hand warmers or something like that now. “Old mother Hubbard...” time.
All you say is fine and I don’t have a deal with it.
I am just saying what people are doing now does not fit the definition of ‘hoarding’.
What it clearly represents is a number of people whose eyes have opened and thought that perhaps they need to make sure they have some ammo for their weapons, because many people don’t normally buy ammo to last them very long. Just enough to have a little extra around after they burn through what they have at the range.
It’s not hoarding (AFTER trouble occurs). It is stockpiling (BEFORE trouble MIGHT occur). Hoarding has an impicit negative connotation, like you’re trying to get more than you are allowed at others’ expense. Stockpiling, aka ‘preparing’ has a positive connotation because you’re getting things ready before there MIGHT be trouble so you won’t be a drain/dependent on anyone else.
I make this distinction on purpose because people have in the past demonized those that planned ahead as hoarders, when it simply isn’t true. Everyone else could have saw what was going on beforehand, and we warned some, and they either laughed or thought we were nuts, or they too put some things aside.
But I follow the boy scout motto - be prepared. I will be damned if anyone is going to portray me and others who prepare for worst case possibilities into villains to focus hate upon, just for being personally responsible for my family and spending my money on supplies my family and some friends might need if an emergency situation arises.
I read somewhere that elections are a proxy for civil war. In a conflict between two groups of people, it's likely that the side that would win an election would be the side that would win a civil war. So have the election instead of the war and everybody comes out ahead.
Such a proxy only works, however, as long as things remain civilized, and so long as (1) both sides realize that if they don't remain civilized a real civil war could result, and (2) neither side makes overly aggressive move to pre-checkmate the opponent should civil war become necessary.
I think she would find the carbine more pleasant. The CZ-52 round is long, and so is the grip, so I’m not sure how her short hands would do. I don’t find the recoil a problem, unless I don’t have hearing protection on. It’s a LOUD pistol/caliber combo.
That’s why there are so many new laws being passed that turn you into a felon, even if they have nothign to do with gungs. It’s so they can disarm you.
There is no conspiracy here.
Demand is simply outstripping supply. There are really only a few manufacturers of components (bullets, primers, shells, powder), there are really only a few manufacturers of completed ammo, and they are all running full-bore non-stop 24/7. There is only so much manufacturing capacity. Any attempt to increase capacity will probably cost an enormous amount, and only come on-line when the bubble bursts & demand settles back down to normal (if not much less, as personal stockpiles start getting used up & sold off). Between two wars and a large fraction of the population turning paychecks into cases of ammo, demand is simply huge. It’s just another economic bubble at work: demand & prices getting into a race until the bubble pops.
As for “why?”: ammo is one of the few durable investments one can truly own. There is inherent value therein, it has continuing demand (being a consumable), it is shelf-stable & durable, supply is fairly stable, the value per volume is reasonably high, it can easily be traded in quantities comparable to daily costs, and the price will likely continue upwards indefinitely. In a time when few other investments are viable, ammo will hold up both physically & financially in the long term.
Patriots know when trouble is brewing. Live Free or Die.
...and that meets only 75% of their customers’ demands!
A friend of mine at work has been trying to order ammo online and he keeps getting emails pushing the order back month after month...thank goodness I bought mine months ago. I’m ready.
Yes..the 870 is a great choice, I have two of them, one is my main hunting shotgun with beautiful walnut stocks, so I wont be cutting that one down. My second is an 18 inch 870 HD model. Box stock with nothing on it but a butt cuff with 4 rounds of Hornady TAP buckshot.
I also have a yard sale Savage pump gun that had the bbl cut down to 18 inches before I got it. I put a slip on recoil pad on it, and I keep it stashed on the first floor with buckshot therein.
As for a SAIGA 12, I think a lot of it, but I dont have the cash lying around to buy one because I need to spend my gun money on 45 auto ammo, 9mm and a lightweight 38 J frame model 642.
The saiga is well thought of on www.warriortalk.com by the folks who are trained by Gabe Suarez. I also saw a former member of the Spetznaz named Sonny Puzikas who really worked over a combat course with a saiga with a 10 round mag in it.
I may get the saiga this fall if I can get my other wants taken care of.
Gander Mt has some good deals on shotgun shells right now, but doggone if they arent cheating people on 22 ammunition.
The important line between good "stockpiling" and bad "hoarding" is not the occurrence of the event being prepared for, but rather the point where the normal price/demand relationship breaks down. People who started buying up ammunition in May of 2007 would have by their actions served to encourage manufacturers to produce more than they otherwise would have--a useful function. People who are buying in May 2009 have no such effect, because manufacturers are already producing all they can. Further, while rising prices normally serve to discourage people to refrain from buying things they won't need immediately, the scarcity of ammunition is causing to people to buy ammo if they think they might need it, even if they otherwise would not do so.
thats a perfect combination for 90 percent of homeowners in america.
You’re too hung up on this from an economic business model point of view.
Look, people are not ever in the same place in terms of preparedness, or thinking about how much they need at a given time. People come to the game late, some come early. The people in May 07 are early, the ones waking up now are a little late. But the market adjusts prices for it.
And there are other factors besides jsut wanting ammo that are driving the prices up. Foreign demand for metals is higher than it has been in awhile.
I have an uncle who is a dyed in the wool Barry supporter. He lives in Glendale AZ, and has a small business in the most heavily mexican part of phoenix, where he has a bodega with computers for immigrants to email home and send Western Union money orders back south of the border.
He got robbed and beat up last fall by a couple of spanish speakers.
Before then, he wouldnt touch a gun, but I was advised by another one of my uncles last week that this guy is now carrying a beretta 92F and 38 snubby.
He carries the 38 in his pocket and apparently puts the beretta under the counter in a hidey place when he comes in every day.
Well, at least hes taken SOME responsibility for his life.
What would the Jews of the Warsaw ghetto in WWII pay for a few functional firearms and cases of ammo? Why did they not forsee what was coming? I think that is the history the ammo buyers are trying not to repeat. Patriots taking a stand against traitors!
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