(Not to be confused with anus horribilus, which is the Latin name for Nancy Pelosi.)
One thing about running around all the time yelling that the sky is falling is that, on a long enough timeline, eventually you’ll be right.
This year has been an unholy trifecta of factors that make the guns and ammo market a bit…challenging…right now.
- Pandemic
- Presidential election
- Race riots
Other than an invasion by Communists or the election of a Democrat President (But I repeat myself), I don’t think you could do much more to generate demand.
I keep an eye on the gun and ammo markets and right now it’s readily apparent that prices and availability have changed dramatically from what they were at the beginning of the year. This is, pretty much, one of the worst times to get into guns and shooting in recent memory.
Remember the gun-glut hangover after Trump got elected? You could practically get an AR free with an oil change at most garages. Rather a different story now.
What I’ve seen so far is availability of guns, when they’re not out of stock, is light and prices are a solid 25-50% higher than what they were at the beginning of the year. Ammo is, especially, a bit difficult and pricey. The sweet deal on 9mm I got in January is now showing up at twice the price, when available, for the same ammo.
.22 ammo, which was starting to amke a bit of a comeback, is drifting back into unobtainium country.
But…after my years and years of non-stop Chicken Little-ing about looming gun bans, you’ve gotten your stuff squared away, right? You’ve got your thousands of rounds of pistol and carbine ammo, the couple dozen magazines, the spare and backup redundancy guns…right? Right?
I’ve been at this sort of thing for almost thirty years so I’ve had time to do it gradually…an AR here, a case of mags there, a couple cases of ammo here…that sort of thing. Stretch that out over thirty years and it isn’t difficult at all. But if you’re new to the game, or if you’ve been a tad lackadaisical in getting stocked up….well….you’ve got two choices right now and neither one is great: don’t buy it or buy it at higher prices.
“My VA check is late”, “I need new tires”, “The wife wants to go visit her sister”, “Rammstein is playing at the stadium”….whatever excuse you’ve used in the past to justify why you didn’t spend the $100 on mags, the $300 on ammo, the $750 on the AR…..they all seem a little small right now, don’t they?
Sure, life happens….hot water heaters fail, alternators crap out, plumbing does it’s thing….BT;DT…but those events eventually get resolved and you’re back to wandering around with an extra $20 in your pocket. And it’s those times when you’re caught up on bills, the truck is running, the job is secure, and all seems calm in your world when you think to yourself “Y’know, instead of buying that XM radio for the truck, I think I’d rather have a case of .223 in the basement.”
So, I hope all of you have, at some point, made the grown up choices to exercise a little restraint and hold off on the ‘fun’ purchases to fund the ‘just in case’ purchases. Right now, I can walk by the depleted ammo shelves at Cabela’s and the sparsely populated gun racks at Sportsmans Warehouse and be…unconcerned. And that feeling of being unconcerned makes the little sacrifices in the past worth it.
Thought I was all squared away until one of your post a while back. Rubber slugs and buckshot…hadn’t given that a thought. Went looking, found some slugs but no buckshot. Have some on back order with a delivery date in Sept. Oh well, will just have to use lead. Like you, I’ve been at this for long ages. Glad I got a boat load of those $49 receivers when they were on sale. Just looked and they are $69.99. Still a deal.
Sportsmans Guide has some. Listed in their summer catalog.
Days where spending <$500 for an AR off the internet with shipping, CC fees, and FFL xfer fees are LONG gone unless luck blesses you. Then again I stocked up before Seattle told me I had to take a suicide class and stocks were flush. And I had never owned an AR before. Mags, got 'um. Ammo, got enough to protect the homestead and maybe a neighbor. Glocks and compatible carbines, numerous mags and tons of ammo, got 'um. Lost Count of 10-22s and mags? Yup! 20K 22LR? Found it all when CIC '44 was restricting it. Still was cheaper then than now. I packed my 72 long gun safe as full as I could. Still hiding things away from the Mrs. around the house…Safe not sorry.
Side note, my beard net "masks" arrive today. Muahaha.
I don’t think I would quantify the riots as race riots. Oh yes it started as the result of a death at the hands of police as they all have since the arrival of the Kenyan on our political shores.
Actually this is an open assault on the country, our founding and on us. BLM is a modern day offshoot of the SDS and Weather Underground. In fact one of the founders of the Weather Underground is who trained these people. They are admitted Marxists. And oddly but still consistant with black organizations they were founded by White radicals. The NAACP was founded by 12 White people and one black.
This entire thing is organized and funded in part by the DNC/CPUSA. A lot has come out recently about how and by whom they are funded. They are organized and well equipped. Strangely Razz from Chaz was passing out AR and AK rifles. Washington State passed a law that prohibits that kind of transfers without a background check. Even letting someone hold a firearm you own is considered an illegal transfer.
As far as ammo. Yep. Every single one of my suppliers is out. Classic Firearms got a small shipment in last Friday and it was gone in 30 minutes. AIM Surplus likewise. I was on the website last night and everything 9mm is gone. I can’t even get 9x18mm Makarov. I should be okay there. Luckily I always have sufficient quantities on hand. But it never hurts to purchase heavily when funds and prices allow.
sgammo is where I make most of my bulk purchases…local (ish) here in Oklahoma, decent prices, ships fast even with the latest panic buying surge. Checking now, they have a fair amount of 9mm (Luger and Mak) by the box and case, cheap steel and fancy brass. Worth checking out if you can’t find it elsewhere.
Many thanks. Will give them a look.
Visited my FFL today & said I hoped business was going well. He said, “Nope. Don’t have anything left to sell and I can’t restock”.
Dead in the water.
One gun store near me has no ARs on the shelf. As for pistols, nothing but .22LR left and no way to get anything larger from his vendor.
A buddy was at another gun store near me. The owner said that the only pistols he could get were coming from prior owners and widows of prior owners.
There is an expression that comes to mind, “When you snooze, you lose.” Those who ignored the opportunity when ARs were practically being given away two years ago will pay for their lackadaisical attitude. I am not seeing any ARs out there now that aren’t at least $1,000.00, and often they are much higher.
I’m an FFL in Texas and I have four AR15 5.56 Rifles for sale and will ship to your FFL. Let me know if I can help.
Houstongundealer@gmail.com
Visited a GS latley– told the sales guy– business is good huh?
He said yeah, but I cannot replace it–
Think about that
The gun purchases ARE the fun purchases in my world! 😆
Preach it Brother!
With everything that is going on, people are looking for deals. When I them one, they go “Oh, okay.” and do nothing but complain. They took 3 days to react and are surprised that my information was “overcome by events”.
I’m done. I’m good. I’ve got other things to work on than people who won’t DO.
yeah, they want it cheap, one box at a time and local/no shipping. i just smile and sit back on my stack. glad to see you’re still kicking.
Here is hoping most Patriots have the guns, ammo and food stocks to survive if things get ugly!
With Leftsist leaning socialist like Nancy Pig-losi, it seems we are closer now to loosing this country than at the height of the Cold War, my twenty yrs in the military it
Kind of lived it first hand. I was close enough to northern Russia to hit it with rocks, something’s you never forget.
Yet theses demon-crap socialist keep driving its party nearer to socialism/Communism lite than I ever thought possible, I hope we have the time and balls to turn it around soon.
Keep your powder dry, it’s really important Patriots! Lock your doors and be ready.
The reason why 22 is so hard to find is because the Antifa and BLM affiliated groups think that scary rifles in .22LR are both cheap and effective. They seem to be especially fond of the Smith and Wesson M&P15-22. Check out the pictures here:
https://street-pharmacy.blogspot.com/2020/07/militia.html
https://street-pharmacy.blogspot.com/2020/07/stolen-insurgency.html
More than ever, it is time to think about logistics rather than “Ooh! Shiny new gun!”
Do you have enough food to keep you and your family — and anyone else you care about — fed for months?
Clothing and footwear to keep yourselves warm, dry and comfortable — -even if it’s not stylish?
The basic tools and supplies to keep your home habitable if there is a severe weather event or other damage?
And so far as weapons: do you have the ammunition and parts and necessary tools to keep your weapons operable for the next decade or more? Standardization is your friend. If you’ve got something oddball, either sell it now for as much money as you can get out of the late-awakening sheep, or stick it in deep storage — offsite even — with some ammunition and other vital accessories in the event of something taking out your “standard” weapon.
The time to do all this was yesterday. It’s only going to get more difficult to prepare tomorrow.
I guess at the end of the day, everyone is free to buy what they want. What I cannot figure out for the life of me is how you eat a 1400.00 cell phone? Maybe they think that someone will always be there to pay their bill or bail them out, hell maybe they are right. Seems the world is upside down and those following the rules are getting kicked down. Due to some medical reasons, I will be working from home for the foreseeable future. That allows me to focus on things during they day when the wife goes back to her job and our son heads back to school…hopefully. This summer has allowed us to witness our son really coming into his own. Taking on more responsibilities concerning our gardens, chores etc. As for resupply, there are vendors out there but you got to find them. Many of them appear to be simply going “dark”. No inventory, no reason to pick up the phone. I enjoy preparing, training and educating. What I find necessary may not be for others, but when you don’t have doesn’t mean I need to give. Again, it appears those are the ones trying to wield the big sticks. I guess people really do like those chains of misery. Stack when you can, even it is one or two more.
Tonight I saw 1500 rounds of Fiocchi 22 LR in a plastic ammo can for $150… Crazy!
The same place has 1600 rounds of Federal .223 for $800. 4 months ago, they had 300 rounds for $94.
I’m sufficiently stocked with all the guns and ammo that anything short of an all out North Korean banzai assault can manage. However there are several cool new pistols and rifles I desire to get, but alas because of the aforementioned shortages are not available right now. Ruger’s new American Competition model 9 has my eye, along with a Marlin 1895 GBL in 45-70 ( not really a prepper caliber gun but cool nonetheless). But these are just wish list babes, certainly not essential for the coming apocalypse. I was at my Cabelas store last week and .22 was wiped out, and most .223 and 9mm also. I just smirked and strolled by. I’ve had a bunch for years now, and also have several thousand empty cases of both calibers to reload in my basement right now. Nice feeling that.
I grew up as a gun owner in the AWB era. Bought a .40 Glock cuz u couldn’t get real mags for G17. Thankfully it ended and I was able to get things like standard capacity Glock mags. Then people were very concerned as President Obama was elected which happened to coincide with me graduating college and getting a real job. I swore I wouldn’t get caught like that again. A few hundred dollars here and a few hundred there really added up. A few years ago I did a couple of iterations of streamlining. Sold some oddball guns to fund spare parts for core guns. Flipped a DSA FAL and bought a bunch of ammo.
I never had a ton of money to put into it in one shot but a few mags here, a set of springs or a case of ammo there over time really added up. Like most preparedness consistency over time seems key.
Incidentally I was talking with a friend who is moderately into preparedness. The kind of guy who consciously keeps a few weeks of food and a few hundred rounds per gun. Probably has a half dozen pistols, a half dozen rifles and a couple shotguns. Nothing crazy but a nice well rounded collection.
He made a good point that he had everything he needed but not everything he wanted. There is always something else you want but we have limited resources and energy.
That’s kind of where I am. I would like to have switched to a better duty load in 9mm and gotten another case each of buckshot and rifle ammo. However a scenario where that comes up as a critical issue is very unlikely verging on impossible.
Ryan, if we make it thru the rest of this cursed year & POTUS is re-elected, I suspect the secondary gun market will see a tsunami of barely-shot ‘used firearms’ in 18 to 24 months. Keep your powder dry.
Very true, plus all the spare parts that will be had. That is when I buy really deep.
I wish I was better armed. Unfortunately, the “good” years happened to coincide with me losing my job and having to get along on sporadic temp work for a year, followed by a hectic spring and summer cleaning, reorganizing and dealing with a mold issue in my apartment while adjusting to a new, lower-paying job, followed by simultaneously injuring my arm and losing my apartment due to a busted sewer system that the landlord couldn’t afford to fix. I wish I could do what you all do, but the money and space simply aren’t available.
On the plus side, I’ve been talking for years about selling off some of the old broken down vintage bolt actions that seem to stick to me like burrs – in this climate I might be able to actually find buyers….
been stacking since the cold war, picked up the pace after sandyhook. never let up. just a month ago i was decrying my mistake of investing in them. still the prices on gunbroker remain low. will it go up to sandyhook levels again? frankly i hope so, i have a few extra to sell. back then i was literally standing at the counter watching a guy buy a no-name ar15, he put a 500 dollar deposit on it while he went to the bank and second mortgaged is house. dealer told me the guy sold it back for 25% of what he paid couple months later. i’d sell about 20 at that rate and retire to the bol.
my ac took a crap this week. repairman told me he bought a 9mm but hadn’t shot it b/c they had no ammo. shoulda seen his reaction when i tossed him a couple boxes as a tip. you’d a thunk i saved his kid from drowning or something. priceless.
This far in the sticks life just keeps chugging along with barely a hiccup. The only exceptions really are the higher meat prices and periodic shortages in same. As well as continuing shortages in a few cleaning and disinfectant supplies. Everything else is actually back to “Normal (Abby Normal?)” way out here.
Funny thing, though WallyWorld here does not sell pistol or short rifle ammo anymore, the shelves are groaning with .22 (boxes, buckets, plastic) and shotgun shells all gauges (hunting season is coming up). Also amusing, they have a big stock of 7.62 mil rounds both NATO and x 39 … Apparently their system doesn’t classify this as a black rifle round… Hmmm.
Regards
I’m going to the Post Falls.gun show today. I don’t really need anything, I just want to see how much things have changed. if I stumble over a deal, great!
Im amazed that there is actually a gun show going on somewhere.
I sorta got deep on 10/22 mags dealing with you Z. One time I bought 10 hot lip mags from you and forgot I had them. Couple of years later I bought some more from you but they were the plastic lips which I don’t like, my fault, I wasn’t attending to details, so I bought steel lips from you. decided to organize and found the first batch. So now I have 36 of the 25 rounders plus a dozen of the original 10 rounders. With pistols I usually make sure I have at least 6 mags per gun and with defensive rifles 10 mags per gun.
“anus horribilus”.
Thanks for that! I don’t laugh out loud too much these days…
😀
I went to Wally World yesterday for a few things (I don’t go there very often, although I used to buy ammo there for cash regularly). I wasn’t looking to buy, but noticed that they did have some ammo but not a single firearm in the case. I thought that they stopped selling them, but apparently they are completely sold out. I’m pretty well set, but thankfully Ruger’s original manufacturing plant is just a few miles away, so some stuff is not unobtainium locally.