will lack of ammo deter gun purchase?

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coondogger

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I've got my eye on a Sharps rifle. Anticipating its purchase, I started scanning the internet for ammunition or reloading components. I found neither. Now I'm thinking, why should I buy a rifle for which I can buy neither appropriate factory loads nor components. Anyone else putting off gun purchases for that reason?
 
I absolutely will delay a gun purchase for lack of ammo. I passed on a Mini 14, Marlin 1895, Marlin 336 in 35 Remington and a few others. Now if the price on just the rifle was great, which they never are these days, I would still have bought them

Lately I look for certain ammo available and then buy a gun accordingly.

Here is a hint that I hope will make Target Sports sell out of a few types of ammo.

224 Valkyrie and 358 Winchester.

Guns are available The 358s tend to be very expensive. The 224s are only an AR upper away and can be had for $350-$400 from BCA.

The ammo is available from Target Sports for normal pre COVID prices.

I know this is not great news to many because most want high volumes of cheap plinker ammo like 223 and 9mm. But if you need a hunting rifle you could do a whole lot worse than these cartridges.
 
Without the ammo it’s just a paper weight. I would buy certain calibers right now if I wanted a replacement but shooting as a hobby is a thing of the past for me and availability of components are taking a toll on everyone slowly but surely.
 
A lot of first time gun buyers won't buy a gun because they have to search so hard for ammo just to get used to the new gun.
In fact a lot of the new buyers of last year are now wanting to sell the firearm they just bought when the covid panic hit.
 
I too have been considering a Sharps, particularly a Shiloh produced arm.

But .45-70 components (and all components) are simply not feasible to acquire at this time. Insane prices and pitiful availability.

Right now, I’m shooting nothing but the occasional .22. I’m praying this ends soon.
 
I've got my eye on a Sharps rifle. Anticipating its purchase, I started scanning the internet for ammunition or reloading components. I found neither. Now I'm thinking, why should I buy a rifle for which I can buy neither appropriate factory loads nor components. Anyone else putting off gun purchases for that reason?

"Anyone else putting off gun purchases for that reason?"

I wouldn't. If you have it in your mind to buy a gun, then buy the gun. Waiting until ammo becomes more readily available shouldn't change that desire, should it?

Ammo being hard to find right now was a predictable economic outcome based on the political scene. It'll recover.

In the meantime, you could have a nice Sharps rifle in your hands which you can enjoy cleaning and becoming familiar with, and in general just enjoying its beauty.

And there's the possibility that someone out there might have ammo they would give you...us shooters are a generous lot within our communities! If someone I knew were in your position and I had ammo in the caliber they were looking at, I'd happily hand over a box or two.

Because shooting is fun!
 
For new buyers no, this is all they know.

For me personally its not the ammo since I'm stacked about as deep as Infantry School at Ft. Benning. Its the simple fact that you are paying over MSRP for mass produced polymer striker fired 9mm's and steel 357's. The saturation point must be near on an item that will outlast the human life span. When the craziness stops I'll pick something up. Also, a year or two from now I'll drop a few G's to touch up the ammo supply.
 
Probably not. The only firearm out there that I'm really interested in is a .22 Hornet. If I were to find one I liked at a good price, I'd pick it up. Ammunition for those wasn't that common before the craziness. It hasn't changed that much. Since I handload and have components (except brass) being able to feed it wouldn't be too much extra work. All that said, I don't see another purchase for a while.
 
I guess in a way the ammo shortage did affect one purchase that I considered. A few weeks ago I went into my LGS and they had a Ruger SP101 in .327 Federal Magnum in the case.

I considered it but before talking to them about a purchase I looked up .327 mag and .32 ammo availability - Nothing. I looked up reloading supplies and dies - Nothing. I decided not to bother.

Last week that cool little SP 101 was still sitting in the case.
 
I wouldn’t let ammo stop me from getting a gun I wanted. It will be back. Components for most things are available if your willing to look high and low and use unconventional ways of getting them like posting in the buy/sell/trade threads on various forums.
 
I passed on a Ruger Bisley in .327Mag because of the ammo. Someone else picked it up and now I've seen some .32 ammo in a couple of stores.
 
I too have been considering a Sharps, particularly a Shiloh produced arm.
But .45-70 components (and all components) are simply not feasible to acquire at this time. Insane prices and pitiful availability.

Depending on which Sharps you are buying there may be a bit of a wait, especially if it’s a Shiloh.

I got my Shiloh-Sharps in 1998 - after a 2-year wait. Mine is a .45-110 (2 7/8 inch case), so ammo and components (particularly cases) have never been all that available for it, and they've always been relatively expensive. But I'll bet ammo and components for the venerable .45-70 will be back within the next 2 years.;)
 
Actually right now i'm in this dilemma too. There's a rifle I want to buy.. I can scrunge the money together for it but it'd be such a stupid decision financially to buy it because I don't even have enough ammo for all my other guns. Not that the rifle i'd be buying is one i'd shoot, but I know It'd be much smarter to save the money for enhancing what i currently have.
 
Wouldn't deter me at all.
It's like the Farmer's Insurance Commercial. I know a thing or two, because I've seen a thing or two. And one of those things is, there are ups and downs in this hobby. Right now we're down, but it always goes back up. I don't panic when things get bad and stop buying, stop shooting, or pay sky high prices during shortages........ because I remember the last ten times it's happened.
If I find a good deal on a gun I want, I'm not going to pass on it because I may not be able to find ammo or components for six months.
 
I generally buy guns and shoot a few hundred rounds through them and then sell them unless it is something truly special which many of them are not.

That is why I like ammo availability before a purchase.
 
It's a judgement call. In the last year I've bought a few rifles that were fairly .... "eclectic" or unusual, in that you don't really see a great many lining the shelves as they are favored by a "niche" crowd. With the ammo shortage those in common calibers are hard enough to feed; my last purchase was in .44-40, which is often difficult to obtain even in normal times. If I really want the rifle I'll buy it even if all the ammo I have for it is only what I have on hand.
 
I have enough to shoot, for now, that I can get a firearm, and wait for the ammo to come back in stock; IF the price is right. But, like many others, I don't see the point in paying full retail, now, when I could just as easily buy both the gun AND the ammo, later.
 
"The bargain is in the buy."
If the deal is good, the details will work themselves out.

Part of that is that you really aren't looking that hard for that .123grabazoid ammo until you buy that Gretzky SuprSlamr. Afterwards, you will really start to pick out those boxes.

Want to really notice all that 9x23win? Buy an arm that uses it. You'll be pawing in that pile next to the .38super and .38acp . . .

Now, in all fairness, my perspective is from a moderately full safe, too. Ok, I might reconsider something in 8mm nambu or .32 french longue--maybe. But, those are hard calibers to find in times of largesse.

Would I buy an Astra in 9mm largo? It would bear some thought, but it would fall on what the selling price was. A .276pedersen? Sure, even with nearly unobtanium ammo. Price comes back to the front. Somebody offers me a .276 Pedersen toggle lock for under a grand, it's getting the microscope treatment, but, I'm not passing on it without a great good reason. Five grand, maybe not so much.
 
I would bet most, not all, but most people interested in buying a gun for protection will still do so regardless. I think even though finding ammo is hard and expensive, most of these people don't have a strong frame of reference price wise and if buying a $400 gun, ammo being $50 a box probably isn't a deal breaker and likely wouldn't spend $50 on ammo if it was $10 a box, they just know they need a box of ammo to be "all set" for home defense. I would bet most gun owners have their gun sitting in their house, with a box or two of ammunition and rarely if ever shoot it. I know quite a few people like this and don't know many people like me who like to regularly go and shoot case quantity.

The new owners selling their new guns, probably has less to do with ammo scarcity than it does that they just need to put the money somewhere else and don't care enough about the thing that sits in the drawer and doesn't get used.
 
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