I took the wife to the range yesterday to brush up on her techniques. We both have concealed carry licenses here in Texas. I have military experience and am very handy with a pistol. She doesn't and she's not.
Anway, we went by Gander Mountain for some ammunition and couldn't find any American made 9mm (her gun) or any 45 ACP at all no matter who made it. So, we picked up some Russian made 9 mm at Gander and I finally found some equally bad south american 45 ACP at the range.
The Russian ammo was pure crap and she had literally dozens of jams where we'd never seen jams before. The 45 ACP was not much better.
After our shoot we went from store to store trying to replenish out stock of handgun ammo only to be told time and again that there was a severe shortage of ammunition.
At Academy (a local sporting goods store) I saw a customer packing lots of boxes of shotgun shells into a cardboard box large enough to hold literally thousands of shells. Thinking he was getting ready for the imminent white-wing dove season here in Texas is said, "Now, there's a man off to do some serious dove hunting".
Without looking up from his packing, he said, "Nope, I'm not stocking up for Dove."
In response to me saying, "Oh, you don't like dove hunting?" he said, "I do like hunting dove. But these are all buckshot and that's not what I'm buying them for."
So, I went to the counter and inquired about full-metal-jacketed 9mm and 45 ACP with brass casings (my standard rounds) and, again, was told there was a severe shortage. I asked why and the guy behind the counter said, "Because Obama was elected and everyone's fearing he'll take their guns away."
He went on to say, "The shortage was very severe immediately after the election but now that nothing has happened the demand is beginning to taper off."
Recalling the fellow packing the box with buckshot shells I related the story to the clerk. He looked over at the guy still packing the box and said, "Yes, he just bought several hundred dollars of shells. He's one of those who've been buying us out. I think he's stocking up for a revolution or something."
Now, encountering just one paranoid in a gun or ammo shop is nothing unusual, that's for sure. I'm told even Charlie Manson was a gun freak and had thousands of rounds of ammo in the "community" (whorehouse by any other standard). But having to travel all over north Houston trying to find ammunition just to go to the range and finding only the crappie ammo left suggested that it was not an isolated phenomenum.
What's going on here. I'm NRA and I "tote" and I read the news voraciously. The only reporting I ever heard about guns after Obama's election was that some when on a buying spree. I never heard word one from anyone but Rush or Beck about the government actually setting us up to take away our guns.
Besides, it's take a constitutional amendment and I think I'd have heard of that, right? Wouldn't we all have heard of it? I sure didn't. So, it looks to me that this fear was manufactured out of whole cloth.
But in defense of those who don't trust government, I too think the government shouldn't be trusted one bit. That's particularly true what with sitting on their hands when they knew OBL was about to strike, doing nothing when Katrina struck, torturing Americans and all other comers, invading countries without cause (where's the WMD's) and then using backhoes to shovel money into the hands of the very punks who imploded our financial system (the latter transgression even Obama seems to want to imitate)...
...but are we really going to have a revolution? If so, who's the target? I need to know so I can make up a few appropriate targets for the range.
Longfisher
Last edited by longfisher; 08-31-2009 at 11:20 AM.
Suprised you're just seeing it now... It's been going on for quite some time... Smaller catalogs like cheaperthandirt.com and sportsmans guide have 6 month backorders... Even Bass Pro took 3 months on the 1000 rounds of .40 s&w rounds that I bought...
Seems like your best option is asking about them any time your around a gun shop or Dicks or the like... One of these times you'll get lucky and find 1000 rds or so that they just got in...
Actually, the big box stores (Gander Mountain, BPS, Wal-Mart, Academy, etc.) have to have huge amounts of ammo to be shipped out to their stores in the numerous districts. Support your local mom and pop hunting and outdoor outfitters who usually have more than enough to go around. I work at a gun store here in NC and we have tons of ammo coming in every week. I know of several other places that are the same way. The local Wal-Marts, Dick's, etc. can't get it in at all. With so many people coming in town to visit military family, we get a feel for what it's like in other states. Seems like if Wal-Mart doesn't have it, then alot of people just assume that no one has it.
Eastern Outfitters in Jacksonville and Hampstead, Sportsman's Lodge in Jacksonville, Flatwoods in Hubert, Shooters Choice in Wilmington, and Village Gun in Wadesboro all have plenty of ammo in all calibers. Hell, we even got a big load of primers in the other day finally. The paranoia has been wearing down and ammo has been easy to get.
I still don't get it... The shortages seem to be in hand gun calibers only... I walk inbto my local GM and they have palates full of shotgun shells and most notedly .223 rounds. When this all started happening the first thing I saw fly off the shelves was .223 AR 15 types... Watch a restock and sell out in hours!
Now overstocked at least on that ammo. Our local store though knows how to exploit a shortage. They're selling crap 45's for $75 a box!
I have heard so many stories of whats going on I can't pick one that holds water. Some talk of the govt not reloading or saving spent brass? Then the one that holds more water was some hint of a proposal that would tax ammo into like $100 a box range but no confirmation... I maintain a healthy supply of my own ammo. Don't need a mountain. 100 rounds each of 30-06, .380, .38+P is plenty. I don't do much range work any more. My shotgun ammo supply is heartier cause I get to cookin a bunch of it come blamathon time...
Been a while since I looked and kind of surprised to see it still going on. I shop a lot at Sportsman guide and I'm starting to see some of my at least shotgun rounds comming back into the blow out bin...
Damn Deep, for $75 a box, they better be bad ass rounds!!!!
A 100 round box of good .45's here is around $40 bucks. The only ammo that is hard to get is .380 and 10mm. Everything else is pretty good and the price of guns is ok also. The bulk rifle ammo (.308, 30-06, .270, etc.) has been plentiful. A few off calibers like .338 express, .300 Weatherby, and .264 Remington has been scarce, but that's about it. It'll get a little tougher once gun season gets here and everyone wants it. The cheap ammo for sighting in will be plentiful, but the good hunting stuff might get a little tight for a while.
Havn't seen a box of .380 on a shelf for months... No the 45's were not bad ass... They had Wolf and American eagle, take your pick $75 for 50 rounds...
I did see a fresh very big stack of .40 being set up for display but didn't stick around to see the price...
They have average amount of standard hunting rifle cals on the shelves but the cheap shooting types were scarce. The high dollar ones though were fully stocked... Cant say that I notice a double dollar difference in quality for some rounds but thats the way it is I guess. I doubt a deer can tell whether its a standard 150 grain from a $17 box or a silvertip 150 from a $39 box that just liquified its insides...
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