Posted on 02/22/2013 1:04:11 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
The price of his store's ammunition has more than doubled since mid-December, says Larry Hyatt, owner of Hyatt Gun Shop in Charlotte, N.C., which bills itself "America's Largest Gun Shop."
I spoke to Mr. Hyatt today about the increase in the price of ammunition since mid-December (when the gun control debate began to heat up). Hyatt said that the ammo market is "very volatile" and that he "doesn't know when the next shipment will be."
His best seller right now is .22LR caliber. Gun owners like to shoot this caliber because it is typically a cheaper round and also optimal for target shooting, known as "plinking"
A box containing 500 rounds of .22LR was selling for approximately $20/box back in December. Today, Mr. Hyatt tells me he is selling the same box for $49. This represents a 145 percent increase in price.
We "immediately started rationing" as there are "a lot of unknowns for deliveries of products," Hyatt said.
The 5.56mm was selling for $0.50 a round in mid-December. Today it sells for $1.00/round; a 100 percent increase in price...
(Excerpt) Read more at cnsnews.com ...
65.4 Million Guns Bought Since Obama Took Office, 91% More Than Bush's First-Term Total
February 12, 2013
All you've got to sell.
Stockpile all you can, it’s a better investment than the stock market, more valuable than money.
Even higher on some ammo. 6 months ago, I bought a tin of Russian 7.62 X 39 for about $116. Today, you can find the same or equivalent going for about 4 times that. It’s crazy! I can’t find 22LR that doesnt cost a dollar a round anywhere. Most places don’t have it, can’t tell you when they’ll get it.
Yesterday at WM, I’d just bought three boxes (customer limit) of 45 ACP, 38 Special and 380 ACP. Another employee who’d waited for me to make my purchase then got with the cashier and told him he wanted three boxes of the shipment the guy hadn’t put out yet (presumably just arrived).
It was 4 boxes of 500 round (big ones) of 22LR...he bought three of them.
Many people are just waking up to what is happening. We can laugh at them for being slow learners but, at the same time, they're on our side. They are buying guns, but the ammo shelves are bare.
My wife unit looks at me the other day and said I take back all those a$$ chewings about the bullets you been buying since 2001 and all these gun safes and storage boxes.
I says to her first they ain’t bullets it is ammo and yes you was wrong as usual, now go and get me another scotch while I inventory the 5.56 AP rounds.....
It pays to plan ahead FRiend. I have some 5.56 rounds Lake City 855 that I think I paid 0.26/rnd in bulk, maybe less heck it has all run together. I have enough .308 147gr milspec for my M1A where I can still practice and not worry about running out.
Yessir, pays to be prepared.....think it is in my DNA or learned it somewhere.
Where would you be if every time you bought a new caliber you also bought a case or two of ammo for it?
Either divorced or sleeping in the basement.....
Last week I was able to buy 525 rounds of .22 LR from a sporting goods store nearby for $21.95 per box. Limit 2 boxes. You have to know when the truck comes in and wait in line. Yesterday there was actually .22 LR out on the shelf at the local farm supply store. It had been bare for months.
They had a couple of bricks of .223 as well on the shelf.
That’s a good way to look at it.
On the plus side, there will be increases in manufacturing capacity as a result of this. If things get back to “normal”, and I very much hope they do, it will mean lower cost of ammo on the back side of this event due to the investments made in manufacturing equipment.
If they don’t, I’ll have more ideological allies with ammo. This is not a bad thing if, heaven forbid, things don’t return to “normal”.
I have about 7000 rds of 22 on the shelf. Where I have a shortage is in the bigger calibers. When I have money I can’t find it.
I’ve been okay on ammo for the most part but I recently bought a rifle in .243 and went to try to find ammo. Tough slogging. All Wal-Marts, Sports Authorities, Dick’s and the like were flat out of anything. Interestingly enough, while their shelves were largely bare of any rifle caliber between .22 Magnum on up......most everyplace I checked had 22-250 and 7mm on the shelf. Hmmmmm....
I wound up finding some .243 at one local gun shop but not a lot of it. My dad is set up to reload so now we’re concentrating on that.
Maybe we should be asking some hard questions about the loyalty of the manufacturers of ammo. Are they playing footsie with the DHS? Tell them to limit their sales to the gov, or explain why nit!
Perhaps there is a room for a civilian market only ammo maker but I don't see how they will compete the large makers that sells billions of rounds (which the government will buy as fast as they make it). Nor does government care about cost, after all it isn't their money they are spending. It almost seems like intent (duh) that the government is driving up the cost and decreasing supply by going on a spending spree right now.
Republicans should put forward a plan calling for a moratorium on any new gun and ammo sales. Only replacements should be purchased for at least the next 3 years until the markets settle.
Walmart here hasn't had any .22LR since November. The only .22LR I've seen for 3 months is cheap 40 grain Wildcats at $5.00 per box at a local gun store.
If you bought low and have a stockpile good for you. But buying high just to have it for an investment didn’t work for silver and won’t work out for ammo either. Manufacturing will ramp up eventually. Right now it does keep be from practicing as much.
My gripe is that I have daughters that are now twenty-one, getting the CCW, and would like o have more range time with their rape whistles. It is hard to use up the stock on practice when you need it in reserve, but it is hard not to grant the range time when you need the time.
What to do? I don’t do my range time, but I still don’t replace what I have.
Try target practice with airsoft guns, cheap and does help with sight picture aquisition. Then you can get by with less rounds on a real gun for getting used to recoil and bang. Also Gander Mountain, at least here in Houston, has some great laser handguns with CO2 cartriges that give a little recoil. The laser replaces the barrel on a Glock 19 I think it is and you can fire at static or moving targets on a big screen. They also have a 320 degree tactical situation training room where computer generated bad guys jump out at you from all sides. Have your girls seen the concealed holster that hangs from the middle of a bra right up front. Works better than a purse.
Being a guitar player for nearly 55 years, it sounds like you're talking about Black Diamond Strings.....btw, I own a few guns too.
FMCDH(BITS)
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