I haven't tried to buy ammo in a few years (got plenty for the defense guns, and haven't had the time to hit the range), but I figured I'd drop by the local outdoor store and get some .44 special and .44 mag for my lever-rifle. No handgun ammo at all, and precious few boxes of rifle and shotgun. The ammo shelves were 80% bare. I'd heard there was a shortage, but fuuuuck! On the other hand, they sure were selling guns! I never even got to talk to a clerk, 'cause three of them were busy with the paperwork on three gun sales, another was on a phone call, and the other was running around taking care of other shit. The pistol case was almost empty, and the rifle racks too.
Buy all the guns your want, no problem! Ammo? Oh shit, dude, you didn't want to actually use those guns, did you?
In Vermont there is no such issue. We have all the ammo for whatever guns you may have. I just think it's funny that the right doesn't realize we own guns too and even know how to use them.
What's a good gun stock? And by stock I don't mean wood or metal. I suspect sales will be up for the next 8 years or so. SW not so much, looks like they've already peaked. Vista Outdoor looks like it has legs.
Bought 40 shares of VSTO. They own CCI, Federal, Alliance, to name a few. I'm in the gun biz boys! Buy them bullets and make me rich. bwhahahahahhahahahahahah
Similar experience here in California. Most popular handguns are in very short supply. I was astonished that I was able to buy a Glock 21 last weekend, even though I paid $100-150 more than what they usually go for. And ammo here? Fuhgedaboudit. Anything popular is long gone. 9mm? .223? One nice thing about the recent disorder: it's made several million new gun owners.
I'm working on it! And you're right: gun-related stocks might be good investments right now. Might check out Ruger; they just acquired Marlin from Remington's corpse.
While I was failing to find ammo at the Outdoor store, they were selling a Baretta 92 to a young guy who needed the full gun handling lesson from the clerk ( so obviously a new gun owner), an older guy buying a defensive 12 ga shotgun, and a middle aged guy buying a modern hunting black powder rifle. They had to apologize to the kid buying the nine that they had no ammo for him. They had three boxes of .45-70 buffalo rounds! I must be the only guy in the county who has one, but I have a box of those already, and nobody wants to shoot more than 20 of those at a time. Ouch.
ummm.....you're probably sitting on all the .429DE and 6.5 grendel in the country. Anyway yeah those home defense shotguns are kick-ass, especially the super short-barreled pistol grip versions. Super tight hallways and cramped rooms? No problem!
A few weeks ago I renewed my hunting license at Academy and bought a couple of shirts. I made a pass through the ammo aisle and it was very bare. Not as bad as the last time I was at one of their stores a few weeks ago (where 5.45x39 was the caliber with the most boxes on the shelf ) but still very empty. They had a few hundred rounds of 7.62x39, but there was a limit of three boxes and the price was close to $1.00 a round.
yeah Academy and Gander Outdoors (haven't been to Cabelas recently) and even Walmart have nothing but less common calibers on their shelves.
I was talking about this on FB, and somebody from my high school is sending me a box .44 mag gratis. At last a classmate is good for something! Meanwhile my wiseass liberal brother-in-law in Raliegh posted "and you need this ammo for...?" I wanted to say "when fired from my Winchester rifle, it knocks rioters over better than .223 FMJ," but I figgered I shouldn't say that on FB, so I just reminded him it's my hobby. And he reminded me that his hobby was jogging, and he has no trouble finding socks. I said that's nice. What a twit.
Is there any evidence to back that up? My understanding is that while the number of guns in circulation is increasing the number of gun owners is decreasing. You have less and less people owning more and more guns.
Sad trending, but those numbers end somewhere in 2018. What do the numbers look like this year, ya know, with the chinese bioattack and the political instability?
A Fox Business story about an NRA tweet, referencing an NSSF (‘The Firearms Industry Trade Association’ according to their website) press release that states: Not surprisingly, retailers reported an increased number of first-time gun buyers, estimating that 40 percent of their sales were to this group. With no info on how they came up with the 40% number, which they then multiplied by total number of FBI background checks conducted (even though some are checks for concealed carry and other permits). Seems totally legit. Much more trustworthy than Gallup or Pew. Thanks for the ‘data’.
Good point. As household size in the US is decreasing it is likely even a smaller number of individuals actually have access to firearms. https://www.statista.com/statistics/183648/average-size-of-households-in-the-us/
If you have better data, present it. This is, admittedly, an estimate, but it's certainly something close to that from what I've heard.
Been hitting the online catalog houses. Damn! Every stitch of handgun ammo ANYwhere is either "not currently available" or "backordered" til at least Feb. I picked a bad week to try to get back into the hobby .
