New Mexicans line up outside Sportsman's Warehouse on the rumor of a shipment of AR15s.
Meanwhile, in the Palmetto State, the Myrtle Beach Bass Pro Shops has a line pretty much every morning in hopes of getting ammunition.
I don't think people are buying this stuff just in hopes that they'll have more to turn in.
All this queuing and panic-buying makes me feel like the Boston Brahmin in the old joke who, when asked by a friend from New York where she bought her hats, replied "Buy our hats? My dear, we have our hats."
.
I attended the show in Greensboro, NC this weekend. It was just like every show I've ever been to: peaceful and orderly. The Greensboro PD had a few officers present in lobby who looked about as nervous at being surrounded (literally: the crowd was like a New York subway at rush hour) by gun-toting RAAAAACIST survivalist psycho wannabe killers as if they'd been sitting in their easy chairs at home, beer in hand and watching a football game.
ReplyDeleteI also remarked at how polite the patrons were: "Excuse me", "Sorry", and "No, after you" were heard so often than I might have been in my grandmother's house on Easter Sunday.
Finally, despite being told repeatedly that "nobody needs" EEEEEVIL Black Rifles and high-capacity assault clips, they were selling like hotcakes and at prices that would have put my jaw through the floor a few months ago. A few thousand people in Washington and NYC say "you don't need". A few MILLION people are saying otherwise with their wallets.
It seems to me that it would do a lot of these soi dissant intellectual libs in Washington and MiniTru a lot of good to actually attend one of these shows. Sadly, I doubt that they would (unless it was to get footage of the guys selling World War II memorabilia so as to paint the show as a nazi love-fest).
I've been running the casting pot a lot lately. A friend and I are working together to build up 2k rounds of .45 auto.
ReplyDeleteI have 30 pounds cast. I need 40 more.
My friend has been seeking wheel weighs to replenish my stash since this project is taking a hefty bite but all his usual sources have either committed to sell to someone else and/or tripled the price from a year ago.
$25 for a 5 gallon bucket of weights is about my limit. Any higher and the $1 a pound stuff you see on eBay starts to look attractive.
Strangely that "You know you're in Massachusetts ..." book didn't contain an entry that possession of an expended .22 cartridge without a FID card makes you a fellon because everybody reloads .22 and everything. Must be that frugal puritan thing.
ReplyDeleteneed a barrel?
ReplyDeletebedlamite,
ReplyDeleteNah, I'm good. :)
bedlaimite: Tell me that barrel is a misprint and not price gouging.
ReplyDeletePlease.
Do our Prog rulers really understand HOW MANY people are buying HOW MUCH ammo and FIREARMS? (had to use caps, can't work italics)
ReplyDeleteI'm headed to Bass Pro after work for reloading supplies. I shall report back.
ReplyDeleteIt was pretty busy at that Sportsman Warehouse gun counter yesterday. Despite the lack of black rifles, almost no pistols, primers or ammo. Lots of wood stocked long guns, and enough customers buying guns to keep the 1/2 dozen salesmen busy.
ReplyDeleteMore and more I'm reminded of this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powder_Alarm
ReplyDeletePer the Gun Folk at Cabela's in Rogers, Mn. they(gun nuts, like me) are lined up when shipments of ARs are supposed to arrive (those gun nuts ya know) and it sounds like a head of enraged Bison headed towards the gun section and they are sold out in minutes..and nobody has been shot or injured..
ReplyDeleteAmazing..Unlike when some overpriced sneakers are about to be released..Go figure..
herd, not head, herd...geesshh
ReplyDeleteThe panic is in full swing here as well. Range is full and my next scheduled new shooter and CCH classes are full for February as of today. This occurred the next WEEK after the January ones. Never happened before.
ReplyDeleteOn a lighter note-
ReplyDeletehttp://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kvJ_Wpzvc5I/SZNBaGj4RhI/AAAAAAAABy8/z_ZjUjzY8c8/s400/arno007.jpg
Caption is,
ReplyDelete"Which one? Great heavens, are you mad?"
Fun show, Niles OH, Sat.: Lots of Evil Black Rifles and magazines dazu, new and used, a few even marked down from astronomical prices to aeronautical prices.
ReplyDeletethe Bass Pro in lower Alabama was not packed, but that was because there wasn't much left to buy. there was a gaggle of young women wanting to buy their first guns, an assortment of "typical white people" and some folks who simply looked dazed. there was no .22 ammo and they said the last time they had any they were limiting purchases to 4 boxes. there were no .30-30 bullets except some highly over priced Barnes copper solids. the ammo amd reloading shelves looked like a school of ammo eating pirhanna had swarmed them.
ReplyDeleteIt's not just reloading components that are hard to find, dusty old third-rate equipment itself is flying off the same dusty shelves.
ReplyDeleteYup we got hats out here too, but, you can't even find a hat band now if you were to want/need one.
ReplyDeleteAt brother-in-laws behest I went into our Sportsmans Warehouse here - the same place that had a pallet of 5.56 in cans and on clips a year ago Christmas - NO primers (making me glad I had a rule over the last couple of years of never elaving the place without a brick), NO rifle brass (had some .44-40) and pretty much NO ammo...
Yup, glad we got our hats long ago...
Our nearby Gander Mt. in Western NY has cupboards barer than Olde Mother Hubbard. A few boxes of bird shot in 12, 20 and .410. Lonely few boxes of .308, 30-30 and .17. Squat all else. Any firearm with a mag greater than 7 is AWOL...Long guns and Revolvers leaving the store at a brisk pace though.
ReplyDeleteI shoot a .22 match at the range on Friday nights. A few weeks ago we had such a large turnout that the match went on until almost 1am. Another club member arrived about 11:30 to use the range. He asked some of us: "where are you guys finding .22 ammo?" I replied "I bought mine during the Clinton Administration."
ReplyDelete