Guns and Ammo Thread

[Beetlegeuse]

From the Cornell Law Review:

...Biden openly campaigned on a number of extreme anti-gun policies, including adding standard capacity magazines and all semi-automatic firearms to the list of items regulated by the NFA and banning online sales of firearms and firearm parts. In all likelihood, adding magazines to the NFA would require an act of Congress, but many other proposals would not. Instead, all that would be required is a reinterpretation by the ATF of certain concepts, most importantly, “readily convertible” NFA items. With one letter, the ATF could declare that all semi-automatic firearms are readily convertible to machine guns and as such must be surrendered, destroyed, or registered. After such a letter, any parts for these firearms could be considered the same, and that a person who purchased them had the intent to construct an NFA item....

You beat me to it!

[Ernst]

With the evil incarnate VP he's got standing behind him I'm hoping old Joe, for all his flaws, lives a good 4 more years.

Give us a couple of GOP Senators in GA to deny him a majority and keep him from f-ing up the courts too much and we just might survive this as a nation.

[Beetlegeuse]

The 1.4 TRILLION DOLLAR coronapanic stimulus bill just passed by both houses of the U.S. Congress contains $75 million in deeply-hidden allocations for MORE GUN CONTROL.

The bill also contains $250 for tighter border security measures ...
















... in Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Tunisia, and Oman.

But not a red fucking cent for border security in America.

There's also $15 million so Sri Lanka can refurbish a naval cutter.

And other worthwhile shit like granting amnesty to 800,000 illegal aliens, $100 million for food for American Indian reservations (wait, aren't they the people who first domesticated corn?), $1 BILLION for MORE OBAMAPHONES, $11 BILLION to the Post Office to retire outstanding debts, $75 million for the National Endowment for the Arts, another $75 million for the national Endowment for the Humanites, and, of course, $25 million in raises for the House of Representatives.

[Beetlegeuse]

BATF suspended the ruling on pistol braces. They didn't out-and-out kill it so it undoubtedly will rise from the grave if Joe Bite-Me gets immaculated.

[Beetlegeuse]

This is excerpted from an article that ran in the NRA's American Rifleman dated two weeks ago.

The Keefe Report: Where's All The Ammo?

... A friend at Hornady recently reached out to me to ask that I spread the word. What’s going on with ammunition is nothing sinister, nor a conspiracy. It is simple supply-and-demand. In fact, it's hyper-inflated demand like no one has ever seen. I certainly haven't in the 30 years that I've been paying attention to such things.

Much has been made of the fact that guns, especially guns suitable for personal defense, have been hard to find. It would stand to reason that, with gun sales at an all-time high, ammunition will not take long to follow. At first, it was 9 mm Luger and .223 Rem., with local outages of things like .300 Blackout and 7.62x39 mm. It is not because the ammunition makers are not working all-out. American ammunition makers have all increased output and productivity as much as they can. They are making more ammunition than they ever have before. As soon as it goes into distribution, it is gone.

Despite this, they are being hammered by their customers who ask, “Where is the ammo?“ It’s not being diverted to top-secret government contracts. It’s being bought by your friends and neighbors before you. Hounding manufacturers to the point where they have to pull guys off the machines to answer the phones helps no one. No one at all.

Your fellow gun owners’ buying habits have changed. I watched a guy who typically buys ammunition four or five boxes at a time take cases of Winchester White Box out of the Chantilly, Va., gun show with a dolly so loaded, the frame was buckling.

With the COVID-19 pandemic, protests, riots and then the most rabid anti-gun platform ever introduced being pushed by the Democratic party, it’s no wonder that people have increased their demand for guns and ammunition. When a candidate for national office—even a poorly performing one—utters, “Hell yes, we're going to take your AR-15,” what did you think was going to happen?

This is not even attributable to supply-chain problems, with the exception of the Remington ammunition plant in Arkansas. That plant was sidelined by the sale of the company by an Alabama bankruptcy court. Talk about a series of unfortunate events. One of the largest plants in the country couldn’t make ammo at full capacity because of the financial problems of its parent company. The good news is that Vista Outdoor picked up that facility, and the Vista team is very good indeed at making ammunition. I am told after the first of the year, ammunition will be flowing out of that plant, and many of its workers will be rehired.

We have been through conditions similar to this before, but nothing like this. It’s to the point that waterfowlers looking for ammo are having a hard time because people looking for defensive loads have decided that steel BBs are better than nothing.

A friend at a major retailer told me one of his managers was approached by a customer who found a box of .38-55 sitting alone on the shelf. He asked if there was anything in the store that would shoot it, as it was the only box of ammo there.

This is a great year to be in the replica-cowboy-gun business, but for entirely different reasons than usual. I personally watched a fellow who entered the gun shop wanting a Glock and left with a Uberti single-action revolver in .45 Colt simply because it was the only handgun in the store. Once that was gone, the shelves were bare.

I have spoken with representatives of every major ammunition company in the United States, as well as quite a few importers. It’s not that they aren't trying to meet the demand. It’s just the demand is so high that as soon as product enters commerce, it’s gone. There’s an insatiable appetite out there now, and once rumors about ammo being in short supply start leaking out, much like the many primer scarcities we’ve had over the years, the demand increases. Panic begets more panic.

You might ask, "If demand is higher, why can’t these ammunition manufacturers just add capacity?" They would if they could. Expanding an ammunition plant isn’t something that can be done easily. Not only are such facilities expensive to build and maintain, there are a lot of regulations surrounding the manufacture of ammunition, with zoning and environmental regulations being just a part of it. Would you want to live next door to a primer facility?

For example, when Winchester shifted its rimfire and centerfire manufacturing to Oxford, Miss., it literally took years. By the time any company could get expanded production into place, there may or may not be any additional demand. What most of makers have done is increase efficiency within their existing footprints, as well as making sure those machines are running 24/7.

Of course, there are speculators, those who use times like this to inflate prices and increase profit. There’s nothing wrong with selling things at a profit, but if speculators buy up the available supply, you cannot. The manufacturers are not the speculators. While there may have been modest price increases due to the price of raw materials, the makers are not gouging. It’s not Winchester’s fault a guy on GunBroker is trying to charge $5 a round for Ranger SXT 9 mm, so don’t blame the horse and rider.

How long will this go on? No one really knows. But it is unlikely to burst soon—especially as anti-gun bills are introduced at the state and federal levels. Even when the raging floodwaters of demand subside, we will still be looking at a completely empty distribution chain that will take time to fill.

[Honkey_Kong]

I'm sure the ATF is adding to the shortage by trying to buy up all the ammo they can. They did that before with the .22lr when Bathhouse was president.

[Beetlegeuse]

I forgot this earlier but it needs mention along with the article from the NRA (above).

America has about 8 million more gun owners at the beginning of 2021 than it did at the end of 2019. If they only bought two (50-rd) boxes of cartridges each, that comes to 800 million rounds. And I think it's safe to say, particularly since these new buyers undoubtedly were heavily influenced by the rioting anarchists, Marxists and other demoncrats, and they surely must have been anticipating a whole shitload of Antifa assholes offering themselves up to be killed, that the majority of them bought themselves not just two boxes but a small WROL stockpile.

But even the low estimate, 800 million, represents a little more than 11% of all the ammunition that makes its way down the food chain to the civilian market. 11% isn't enough to strip the gun shop shelves bare but it is enough to create spot shortages, and in light of the mess the professional politicians have made of the Constitution over the past 16 years, and the instability that has produced over the firearm and ammunition businesses in that same period, spot shortages is enough to cause panic buying. And panic buying begets more panic buying.

[Beetlegeuse]

FBI: 11 million more NCIS checks in 2020 than any previous year



40% more than any previous year. As much as any three years combined prior to 2009.


Ever since the Immaculation of Sheikh Obama (piss be upon him), this country has been preparing for war.

[Beetlegeuse]

Notice she says "Congress woman?" No "PC" bullshit?





I want to have her babies.


She should change her name. To Helen.

Helen Wheels.

[Honkey_Kong]

I lost interest in Lauren Boebert once she said she's married with 4 kids. That killed the fantasy.

[Beetlegeuse]

I lost interest in Lauren Boebert once she said she's married with 4 kids. That killed the fantasy.

You might still have a chance. Maybe she's not a "one-man woman."

[Beetlegeuse]

I'm always interested to see stuff like this produced from credible sources because the only piece of kit that shooters try to hang their hats on that they have less an ability (in general) to determine the accuracy of ... is a chronograph.

[almostgone]

The Vectronix models are rather impressive when compared to the others.

[Fluidic Kimbo]

I want a Lego Desert Eagle:

[almostgone]

Beetle, hope you don't mind, but I read this and wanted to share:

https://www.outdoorlife.com/story/gu...hunting-rifle/

Now I'm very interested in visiting FTW Ranch.

[Beetlegeuse]

GoDaddy has de-platformed AR15.com

[EDIT]
Arfcom's owners are saying their crowd got rowdy over the false-flag disturbance caused by the Antifa infiltrators among the peaceful conservative protestors at the Capitol on the 6th and were posting messages that neo-Bolshevik eunuchs might have construed as inciting violence faster than the moderators could delete them.

Arfcom is known to be most pugilistic website in existence, populated with more assholes than the demoncrat party (and that's going some), but GoDaddy is owned by Amazon. Half the demoncrats in Congress spoke in support of Anti-Trump Fascists and Black LIES Matter rioters while they were physically attacking anyone who wouldn't participate in their little Nazi salute and destroying hundreds of millions of dollars worth of private property. Yet not a goddam one of them got deplatformed. In fact most were praised by the media.

You do the math.

[Beetlegeuse]

I was at my LGS today and the prop showed me this:


click to embiggen

This used to be a Wilson Combat AR in 5.56. The owner was just minding his own bidness, shooting some Aguila factory loads when this happened. It's not a swell photo because I just clicked off a couple of shots and didn't check them for quality but I left it oversized so you still can make out the two biggest Uh-Ohs.

You can see that the bottom of the BCG is blown out like a partially peeled banana. And the billet receiver is fractured at the rear. I figure the fracture had to be either from an overpressure or the BCG slamming into something rigid at full recoil but I didn't see anything in the wreckage that might indicate which, but I'm pretty sure that piece is stout enough to drive a Mack truck over it with no more than cosmetic damage.

What you can't see is that the BCG is frozen solid. The bolt is unlocked but still in the breech. The dust cover is warped, bowed outwards slightly at either end. There are no "witness marks" on the face of the recoil buffer. And if you stick a cleaning rod down the bore you'll find the barrel is obsctructed about two inches and a bit forward of the breech. Meaning there probably is still a live round in the chamber.

And damned if I can piece together a sequence of events that would make it possible for all that damage to occur but end up with a fresh round in the chamber.

[Beetlegeuse]

The NRA has announced that they will be declaring bankruptcy and moving their operations to Texas. This obviously is a strategery to prevent the New neo-Bolshevik Yorkers from bleeding them dry.

Texas should insist they divest themselves of LaPierre and relocate to a third state for a period of no less than ten years first to give the New York stench a chance to dissipate before granting them entry.

[SampsonandDelilah]

I was at my LGS today and the prop showed me this:


click to embiggen

This used to be a Wilson Combat AR in 5.56. The owner was just minding his own bidness, shooting some Aguila factory loads when this happened. It's not a swell photo because I just clicked off a couple of shots and didn't check them for quality but I left it oversized so you still can make out the two biggest Uh-Ohs.

You can see that the bottom of the BCG is blown out like a partially peeled banana. And the billet receiver is fractured at the rear. I figure the fracture had to be either from an overpressure or the BCG slamming into something rigid at full recoil but I didn't see anything in the wreckage that might indicate which, but I'm pretty sure that piece is stout enough to drive a Mack truck over it with no more than cosmetic damage.

What you can't see is that the BCG is frozen solid. The bolt is unlocked but still in the breech. The dust cover is warped, bowed outwards slightly at either end. There are no "witness marks" on the face of the recoil buffer. And if you stick a cleaning rod down the bore you'll find the barrel is obsctructed about two inches and a bit forward of the breech. Meaning there probably is still a live round in the chamber.

And damned if I can piece together a sequence of events that would make it possible for all that damage to occur but end up with a fresh round in the chamber.

Makes no sense at all, that’s crazy. Can see the markings on the steel where it was indeed peeled back. How it cycled another round makes no sense either, tough to tell though from the pic, but the bcg looks shredded. What in the world? Even with supped up hot home loads, that shouldn’t happen...especially with a Wilson. That’s whacky

[Beetlegeuse]

Dat rat dere is a gold-plated example of why I don't want anything to do with any firearm with the word "bullpup" in its name. I don't see any future in setting off fireworks that close to my face.

Oh what I would give to be a fly on the wall when Wilson opens the box and sees what's become of their rifle.

[Beetlegeuse]

Fakebook locked The Truth About Guns out of their FB page. TTAG is the second-most worthless gun blog in existence but I still bristle at somebody being deprived of their ability to reach their audience and make a living by someone acting to deprive other Americans of free speech in support of their advancing their Marxist ideology.

[Beetlegeuse]

Arfcom found a new domain registrar and got back online but not everybody is going to be that lucky.





In other "good" news, now it seems that the FBI is dicking with the NICS to turn folks whose political demagoguery doesn't align with theirs into "prohibited persons."

And you thought only National Lampoon did "double-secret probation!"

[Fluidic Kimbo]

My new Desert Eagle from Taiwan is currently being held by Customs in N. Ireland. They're reluctant to release it.

I had to email FedEx a photo of my airsoft membership card to try get them to release it. I really hope they don't send it back to Taiwan.

I really can't wait to receive this gun, I'm going to be shooting the hell out of packets of Weetabix in my kitchen. Green laser on the top rail, red laser on the bottom rail.

The gun already looks very real but I might even go a step further and use something like nail varnish remover to totally remove the paint from the metal.

[Ernst]

I used to have a real one in .44 magnum.

Absolute piece of crap.

[Capebuffalo]

I used to have a real one in .44 magnum.

Absolute piece of crap.

Absolute worst gun I ever owned. Bought it used shot it once sold it the next day.

[Honkey_Kong]

Absolute worst gun I ever owned. Bought it used shot it once sold it the next day.

I've never heard anybody actually say nice things about the DE. Even crappy Hi-Points at least a few people that say nice things about them.

[Capebuffalo]

I've never heard anybody actually say nice things about the DE. Even crappy Hi-Points at least a few people that say nice things about them.

It was a loose rattling jamming pos.

[Ernst]

Mine couldn't make it through a mag without a jam. Tried new springs, diff lubes, diff ammo-- nothing worked.

Rear sight drifted itself out of the dovetail...

Best part? It started doing this thing where on recoil the firing pin retainer would fall out and the firing pin and accompanying spring would shoot out and disappear somewhere on the range floor.

Sold it at a hilarious loss to some budding gunsmith as a project piece.

[Honkey_Kong]

So you guys would say that it was just poorly made in the factory? Or was it the design all together is just bad?

[almostgone]

^^^° Personally, I think it was a combo of an underdesigned extractor, inferior springs with inconsistent compression rates (particularly recoil springs), and very poor fit and finish in general. Cramming revolver ammo through an autoloader with all those problems was just asking for trouble, IMHO.

The initial runs weren't terrible, but the quality rapidly went to sh!t.

[Fluidic Kimbo]

If they're good enough for the fictional character Lara Croft then they're good enough for me.

[Beetlegeuse]

Wait. How does the FBI have a list of who the NRA members are?

NRA membership being used as criteria to identify soldiers as “extremists”…




... or maybe it's just that the FBI is spying on the nation's citizenry. After all, they spied on a presidential campaign ... and got away with it. So what's to stop them spying on Joe Sixpack?




First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—

Because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—

Because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—

Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

[Beetlegeuse]

Florida Gun Owners Camping Out for Chance to Buy Ammunition

Gun owners in central Florida began camping out as early as 2 a.m. Monday in order to enter Lake Mary’s Academy Sporting Goods for ammunition when doors opened at 9:00 a.m.

Fox 11 reports that campers voiced concern over President-elect Joe Biden’s anticipated gun control push and wanted to stock up on ammunition while they still could....


This is bad. Berry, berry bad.

Because you might find die-hard "gun guys" who are willing to queue up at 2 am in January to buy some bullets, but not, I fear, so many 'casual' gun owners. Many (if not most) of them will just give up on it before they'll go to that much trouble.

The ammo mfgrs have been hesitant in the past to chase after temporary sales booms -- especially when they were sparked by fear of anti-gun politicians -- but this isn't a "temporary" boom. This started in November of 2008, and far from looking like it might soon improve, as this headline shows, it just. keeps. getting. worse.

But despite the amazing gun sales records, if the ammo manufacturers don't turn loose of some the the profits they've made over the last 12 years (and shame on them if they didn't squirrel it away by the armored car-full while they had the chance) and spend it on dramatic increases in manufacturing capacity, headlines like this are going to kill the gun culture.

The die-hards might weather the storm but just how many casual gun owners (who are the vast majority) will go to that effort? Who's going to give their 15-year-old son a Ruger 10/22 for Christmas when there might not be any .22LR ammo to be found until he's old enough to buy it for himself?

And if gun ownership as a tradition ceases to be, then gun rights and gun ownership in general will be at dire risk. And as gun culture contracts, so will the prospects for the manufacturers' future sales.

They need to wake up and smell the nitro (while there's still any nitro to smell).

[Fluidic Kimbo]

FedEx called me today to say that UK Customs has seized my Desert Eagle. I'm gonna send them 4 emails a week, and one letter per week annoying them to release my gun.

[Beetlegeuse]

The president of Federal/CCI/Speer/Remington says they're not going to be building any additional factories.

When was the last time you heard the president of Ford or Budweiser stating that they know they could sell more product if they made it, but they won't because they know that if they wait long enough, the demand will go back down.

He also says the primer shortage is caused by the fact that all of the primer manufacturers are owned by ammunition manufacturers. And the ammo manufacturers are going to satisfy their own needs first (because there's better mark-up on cartridges?), and the cartridge demand is so high that there's none left over for you sorry sots.

[Honkey_Kong]

The president of Federal/CCI/Speer/Remington says they're not going to be building any additional factories.

When was the last time you heard the president of Ford or Budweiser stating that they know they could sell more product if they made it, but they won't because they know that if they wait long enough, the demand will go back down.

He also says the primer shortage is caused by the fact that all of the primer manufacturers are owned by ammunition manufacturers. And the ammo manufacturers are going to satisfy their own needs first (because there's better mark-up on cartridges?), and the cartridge demand is so high that there's none left over for you sorry sots.

He's probably looking at it from a long-term perspective. Sure there is a high demand today (and probably for the next couple years), but it takes a massive investment in time and more importantly money to create more facilities to meet the new demand. What happens after they fill up everybody's cabinets with ammo and the demand goes back down to previous levels? They lose their investment.

Plus as you said, they're making a lot more money marking up ammo with the artificial rise in demand.

They could make things a lot easier on us, the consumers, if they would make available for purchase the chemicals we would need to make our own non-corrosive priming compounds

[Beetlegeuse]

St. Louis prosecutor Gardner loses second appeal to try Missouri couple who defended home with guns

She still has the state supreme court to appeal to but they're unlikely to pick it up because her case was tainted from jump street. The little Soros apparatchik already has been bitch-slapped once for initiating a "criminal prosecution for political purposes."

They also tried to have the McCloskeys charged with evidence tampering because when police confiscated their firearms, they found that her pistol had been mis-assembled and was incapable of firing. That they couldn't bring the additional charge shows that they couldn't figure a way to prove that the gun wasn't like that at the time of the incident. If they can't prove she was holding a working firearm then they don't have a snowflakes chance in hell of convicting her anyway.

[Beetlegeuse]

He's probably looking at it from a long-term perspective. Sure there is a high demand today (and probably for the next couple years), but it takes a massive investment in time and more importantly money to create more facilities to meet the new demand. What happens after they fill up everybody's cabinets with ammo and the demand goes back down to previous levels? They lose their investment.

Plus as you said, they're making a lot more money marking up ammo with the artificial rise in demand.

They could make things a lot easier on us, the consumers, if they would make available for purchase the chemicals we would need to make our own non-corrosive priming compounds

That isn't "long term perspective." Long term perspective is that gun culture is dying on the vine. There's already going to be considerable pressure to give up shooting on account of the overt political hostility toward firearm owners. Add to that the hassle of continued ammunition outages (this isn't a "shortage," this is an "outage") and what they're losing now might not grow back for generations. If ever. If he thinks he's saving anything by letting gun culture wither, he isn't thinking at all.

Ignoring the anxiety your customers are experiencing now and expecting them to come back to you when the trouble is past isn't a business plan, it's a fantasy. Gun culture aside, the lack of ammunition on the shelves dramatically reduces walk-in foot traffic in gun shops. I haven't been in a gun shop in three months -- including a reloading specialty shop -- that I wasn't the only customer in. When all the gun shops have folded, who do they think is going to sell their ammunition for them? 7-11? Walgreens? Dairy Queen?

Last I looked you can buy the components for lead styphnate online but what you can't buy is the "proprietary" additives they use to enhance brisance and reliability.

[Beetlegeuse]

“Toilet Paper Effect”: Americans Scramble for Ammo Amid Shortage

…the shortage is “going to go deep into 2021. That’s a fact. This entire calendar year.”

Published on January 20, 2021
By PFW News
Michael Tefft/Flickr

It is certainly a sign of the times. In 2020, the FBI processed a record 39.7 million firearm background checks, the most recorded since the agency began keeping tabs in 1998. On top of that, checks exclusively related to the sale of firearms also reached a record high last year, totaling 21 million, according to firearm trade organization National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF).

The gun and ammo craze, which is being pinned on the COVID-19 crisis, the violent rioting that gripped major cities in recent months, and the new Biden administration, has anyone looking to get their hands on ammunition going to extraordinary lengths as a nation wide shortage strikes the market.

A recent report out of Florida highlights how far people are going for ammo, and why …

People started lining up in front of the door at Academy Sports + Outdoors in Lake Mary as early as 2 a.m. on Monday waiting for the doors to open at 9 a.m.

When FOX 35 News asked several of those in line what they were waiting for, they all answered “ammo.” Many voiced that they are afraid of what new gun laws could come under a new administration.

“I think we all believe Biden is going to take it away from us too,” David Godkin said. – Fox 35 Orlando

Similar stories are also coming out of Texas where empty shelves that once held ammo now collect dust as supply fails to meet the high demand …

“It’s been a nationwide hit,” said an employee at the Outdoorsmen. “We’ve been told that there is a nearly billion dollar backup on orders from manufacturers.”

He thinks that this backup won’t be resolved until the third quarter of 2022 and “that’s if we’re lucky.”

Even huge retail stores like Academy have had to limit ammunition purchases. “Ammunition Limits: Three Units Overall On All Handgun and Rifle Calibers Per Customer Per Day” states a large sign in Academy’s ammo section of the store. – San Angelo Live

Further highlighting the lengths people are going for ammo is Jordan Sillars of MeatEater.com …

Desperate gun owners have driven hours to pick up just a few boxes of .223 Rem. They’ve learned the schedules of ammunition delivery trucks and rotated between store clerks to purchase more than the store’s two-box limit. One of my relatives (who will remain nameless) even asked his friend to stash ammunition in a fishing tackle box while shopping at a local big-box store. When fellow ammo seekers asked my relative where he found two boxes of 9mm among the empty shelves several hours later, he just shrugged and walked away.

Perhaps summing up the ongoing scramble for ammo better than anyone is Mark Oliva, director of public affairs for the NSSF, who compared what’s happening to the hysterical rummage for toilet paper we saw at the start of the Covid-19 scare.

“You can’t discount the toilet paper effect that’s going on,” Oliva said in an interview with Meat Eater. “People are concerned they aren’t going to get what they need when they need it.”

Neil Davies, marketing director for ammunition maker Hornady, says that the COVID-19 crisis was a “watershed moment” for his company that recorded their biggest sales month ever in March.

“When people started to wonder how COVID was going to impact their lives, they flocked to all kinds of things in order to makes sure they would be taken care of: toilet paper, ammunition, guns, hand sanitizer,” Davies told Meat Eater.

When social unrest began in major American cities, the demand for ammunition “hit third gear,” says Davies. He would add that the shortage is “going to go deep into 2021. That’s a fact. This entire calendar year.”

Adding to the struggle is the price of ammo which has soared over the past year …

Across town, at Volusia Top Gun, it’s a similar story. On Sunday, the staff showed up at work to find 60 people waiting in line before the store opened. Owner Ron Perkinson said his store is typically full of inventory — one of the biggest in Florida. While he does have some weapons on the shelves, the majority of his gun cases are empty.

***

He estimated that his business has been up another 100%. Ammunition is the biggest seller at Volusia Top Gun. Due to supply and demand, his suppliers have raised their prices so he has had to raise his too. A small box of 9mm ammunition that was selling for $14 maximum at this time last year, is now selling for $37.99 and he can barely keep it stock. He has had to limit the number of boxes he’s selling at times.

“I could have done 300% more if I had the inventory. I’m turning away a lot of people just for lack of inventory,” Perkinson explained. – Fox 35 Orlando

As we highlighted back in November, the Biden administration is eyeing gun control measures that could force millions of American’s to collectively cough up tens of billions dollars in taxes as millions of rifles and magazines now in their possession could become subject to a tax under the National Firearms Act.

The center piece of Biden’s gun plan is to place a ban on the manufacture and sale of “assault weapons,” while bringing the regulation of possession of such firearms under the 1934 National Firearms Act.

Currently, the NFA of 1934 applies to fully automatics firearms, silencers and short-barreled rifles. But Biden would drag “assault weapons”, meaning semiautomatic rifles, pistols and shotguns (think the AR-15) along with “high capacity magazines”, which have generally been understood to be magazines that carry more than 10 rounds, under the act.

According to a National Shooting Sports Foundation report on firearm production figures, Americans in total own at least 20 million rifles and 150 million ammunition magazines that would be subject to the NFA regulations if Biden’s plan were put in place.

Under the NFA, each rifle and each magazine would be taxed at $200 per item, costing American gun owners up to $34 billion dollars.

While Biden has not been very vocal as of yet in regard to gun control – but rather focusing on issues such as the pandemic, racism and domestic terrorism – one could suspect we are only one publicized “mass shooting” away from gun control legislation landing in the majority Democrat chambers of congress.

And as far as what new gun control legislation will mean for the supply issues related to ammunition, we likely do not need to explain what this means …

[Honkey_Kong]

That isn't "long term perspective." Long term perspective is that gun culture is dying on the vine. There's already going to be considerable pressure to give up shooting on account of the overt political hostility toward firearm owners. Add to that the hassle of continued ammunition outages (this isn't a "shortage," this is an "outage") and what they're losing now might not grow back for generations. If ever. If he thinks he's saving anything by letting gun culture wither, he isn't thinking at all.

Ignoring the anxiety your customers are experiencing now and expecting them to come back to you when the trouble is past isn't a business plan, it's a fantasy. Gun culture aside, the lack of ammunition on the shelves dramatically reduces walk-in foot traffic in gun shops. I haven't been in a gun shop in three months -- including a reloading specialty shop -- that I wasn't the only customer in. When all the gun shops have folded, who do they think is going to sell their ammunition for them? 7-11? Walgreens? Dairy Queen?

Last I looked you can buy the components for lead styphnate online but what you can't buy is the "proprietary" additives they use to enhance brisance and reliability.

I still make my rounds to my reloading shop. Usually to ask if they got any primers. I've been using that musket a lot lately though.

Likely, when the shops fold, they'll probably figure they could just do direct sales to the customers. Or use big box sporting goods stores.

I really don't buy their story that it's the new shooters and people buying out of fear that are causing these shortages. I'm of the belief it's the government buying up nearly all of the ammo. Nobody is getting shipments in.