Tuesday, June 09, 2009

Overheard in the Gun Store:

Me: "Geez, I've got more rimfire ammo than y'all do."

SalesGuy: "That's not funny."

They had a few of the 500-round cartons of Remington Thunderbolt, but other than that it was onesy-twosies of shotshells, CB shorts, and one box of CCI SGB's.

19 comments:

BryanP said...

No kidding. In the past 3 months I've seen one, count'em, one box of bulk Federal. I'm almost afraid to shoot it.

og said...

yep. I've said that- in CABELAS, which was spooky. They're building back up, though.

Anonymous said...

If you don't count the one Walmart in my town that accidentally ordered 5000 bricks of Fed Champion instead of 500 back in November, I probably have more 22lr than any ammo vendor in my town. Certainly more than they are showing on their shelves. I have just shy of 9k rounds and I'm adding a brick or two at a time whenever I stop by that Walmart.

Why? I just picked up a K22 (already had a customized 10/22 and Single Six) and my oldest daughter has just started shooting. I might not use all of it quickly, but I'm sure prices won't drop dramatically over the next decade and it will get used eventually.

I could be like those scalpers on various gun boards and sell it for $30/brick, but I'm doing the right thing and pointing every 22lr shooter I know to this store so they can stock up.

Anonymous said...

Just goes to show ya, ya gotta buy it all up before the hoaders get it.







wv: galgall. What the gunshop guy was thinking. :)

Tam said...

"Just goes to show ya, ya gotta buy it all up before the hoaders get it."

Hoarders?

I use the stuff. Every weekend.

I do have a pretty good back-stock of target-grade stuff, subsonics, hunting ammo, shotshells, CB/Colibris, and what-have-you that I've accumulated over the years, but the bulk shooting stuff comes in only barely faster than it goes out.

My base stock is "At least half an ammo can full of loose rounds, plus two bricks", and it's a challenge to keep it at that level, given my abject poverty and the scarcity of ammo right now.

B.S. philosopher said...

Having lots and lots of .22LR isn't hoarding anymore than buying a 24 pack of Charmin would be.

That is to say, both are simply commodities that need to be used frequently.

The Armed Canadian said...

I could have made the same comment at most of my local merchants of defense. I picked up a case of .22LR early this year and I've had more available than they've had in stock since. They didn't have the 500 round bulk packs. Just expensive CCI 100 round mini-bricks. Perhaps 10 in total.

I'll have to try your line on my favorite and see what reaction I get.

wv: reepr

Anonymous said...

if i don't keep at least 10 bricks on hand i feel like i am out! Tam i agree with you I shoot as much as you do so 10 bricks just is keeping up with what i use.

Anonymous said...

Maybe >50k stuffed into various corners of the bunker. Last time I bought was about two year sago and that was ~35K.
Does that make me one of those evil horders?

David said...

I don't hoard ammo. I shoot it almost as fast as it comes in. Last week I was able to buy 200 rounds of WWB 9mm FMJ at Walleyworld. So my son and I headed out to the range and shot 200 rounds. We didn't shoot the 200 rounds I bought. It got added to the back of the queue of 9mm at home and 200 rounds we shot came off the front of the queue. My 9mm queue just happens to have 2k rounds in it. We're not hoarding, we just have a well stocked supply chain.

If we were hoarding I wouldn't have GIVEN a brick of 22lr to a coworker who bought his first rifle a couple months ago. At my urging he signed up for the Appleseed program that was being held here. He almost had to skip the class because no one in town could sell him the 400-500 rounds needed for the class.

When he offered to pay for the ammo I told him the price was that he had to let me take him out to the range and convince him that he needed a handgun now.

Les said...

Hell yeah about shooting it!

I just shot a .22 match with a conversion kit and went through ~ 300 rounds (with practice on the plate rack too!)

My weekly diet is at least one brick through a Ruger...

It used to be more, but time and $$ and ammo availability just aren't permitting it...

Sigh.

Ed Foster said...

Still no problem here in Connecticut. Specials on 500 and 525 packs of Remington and Federal at Cabela's. Riverview has plenty of .22rf, 5 or 6 different brands, usually 3 or 4 different bullet weights and types per brand.

Lots of that neat looking 60 grain subsonic Aguila and I still haven't gotten that 1 turn in 10 inch twist barrel for the 10-22.

So why is it that we here in the east are so blessed? It's not that the product isn't moving.

Everone I know is buying everything they can, and nothing stays on the shelf more than a few days. There's just more of the same when that runs out. Prices are up, I'm paying almost thirty bucks for a thousand primers or a brick of decent .22rf ammo, but supply and demand are balanced.

What vagarie of capitalism has all the ammo running east of the mountains rather than west? Mind you, I'm not arguing, but it does seem weird.

Wolfwood said...

I think we may have finally hit some kind of saturation point. From EVERYTHING being gone a few weeks ago, I'm starting to see occasional forlorn stacks of 9mm, .45acp, and .223. There are actually occasional heaps of .44mag, .357Sig, .357mag, and .40S&W. What I've noticed, though, is that a lot of places are simply putting the handgun ammo behind the counter; it took me a few visits to realize that Bass Pro was doing this.

On the other hand, I don't even reload yet and I've bought about 3,000 primers simply because I know they're hard to find.

kaveman said...

The local sporting goods store near me hasn't had a single round of .22 come through in close to 3 months now.

I still have 3K on hand but it's kinda scary when I can't restock.

Warthog said...

Th only thing I can't find right now is .45ACP. If I had the cash, I could get a pallet of .223.

Tam said...

Ed,

"So why is it that we here in the east are so blessed? It's not that the product isn't moving."

Shooting from the hip, I'd say that the more onerous gun laws in CT have had a deleterious effect on the number of shooters per capita versus gun-friendier states.

By way of comparison, I've heard tales of relative plenty in MA and NJ, simply due to less competition per unit of ammo.

Les said...

I spent most of the day driving around pluging the Chicago Appleseed shoot and trying to buy some ammo...

In the suburbs of Chitown, places known to be saturated with a shooting culture, North and Northwest of the city are totally tapped. The southern and western suburbs seem to have some ammunition.

Managed to score 10 bulk pack boxes of Remy Golden Bullet at two different Dick's stores. (Left the last boxes for other poor bastards)

Anonymous said...

The thing that makes me mad is that I've hoarded ammo ever since I got into shooting and try to keep 1000-2000 rounds of everything I shoot on hand. Now for some unknown reason (alot of talk of Obama causing it) all the johnny-come-lately's are making it hard on me and they thought I was crazy before.

Anonymous said...

You were crazy before, but you have company now.