Less than 60 days to a major election and no panic buying. I'm Surprised!

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Panic buying?
No, but I have made a few purchases over the last few months.
I have gone full bore into 8.6 blackout with an 8" and 12" ar-10 and a 12" Rem 700. I also have a 16" 700 barrel to swap out if I feel like it.
Also purchased an H&K SP5 that I have always lusted for.
In addition, I purchased 4 suppressors to mount on the above weapons.
Needless to say, I have approved form 1s and form 4s for all of them.
So, in the last 4 months, 4 sbrs, 4 suppressors, and enough powder, bullets, cases, and primers to last quite a while.
If that is "panic buying" so be it.
I prefer to think of it as "opportunity buying".
 
The end results sucked....

For a period of time, gun ownership was promoted so well that Walmart was selling ARs and one of the big three OTV networks were showing ARs being used in competition.

Then the anti-gunners caused Walmart to pull out and the broadcasting of competitive shooting ended.
Walmart, Sears, Kroger, and many others started to distance themselves from the firearm business. I agree that it sucks.
 
Walmart, Sears, Kroger, and many others started to distance themselves from the firearm business. I agree that it sucks.
Firearms are a tough thing for volume sellers like Walmart. There are a lot of rules that have to be followed and training up people to do it is not as easy as some might think. The typical turnover makes it tough to keep people and once trained does the guy really want to spend most of his time stocking shelves?

Plus it eats up a lot of floor space that more profitable lines could occupy.
 
Well, .22 LR dropped from insanely high to just high. Shotgun shells haven't budged from the peak, as far as I can see. As others have said, 9mm has dropped some too, as has .223/5.56.
blah, blah, blah...

Do you have any examples of actual prices and where those are? Give us some real information or quit posting these vague, non-information posts.

I never paid more than 6 cents a round for 22lr all the way through the Chinese virus and I guess I don't consider that "insanely high"
 
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Walmart, Sears, Kroger, and many others started to distance themselves from the firearm business. I agree that it sucks.
I didn't even know Sears was still in business and I sure as heck don't ever remember Kroger in the firearms business.
 
blah, blah, blah...

Do you have any examples of actual prices and where those are? Give us some real information or quit posting these vague, non-information posts.
No dog in this fight, but I mainly paid attention to AmmoSeek.com and Gun.Deals to gage prices nationwide. I sometimes might even search Gunbroker.com. 9mm ammo, for one example, was between 25-30 cpr during the pandemic shorage, but it seems to have dropped an average of 10 cpr since then. I just looked up 2.23/5.56, and that seems to still be high as is 7.62x39. I did not pay attention to 45 acp, shotgun, or other price points back then, so I couldn't tell you if the prices are the same or not.

I didn't even know Sears was still in business and I sure as heck don't ever remember Kroger in the firearms business.
Kroger owns several other grocery stores, but not under the Kroger brand name. Baker's, City Market, Dillons, Food 4 Less, and about a dozen more.... Some of those stores sold firearms.

 
The local farm and fleet still has ammo. I have not been in lately to see how much but they used to have as much as Walmart did in their ammo hayday.
 
blah, blah, blah...

Do you have any examples of actual prices and where those are? Give us some real information or quit posting these vague, non-information posts.

I never paid more than 6 cents a round for 22lr all the way through the Chinese virus and I guess I don't consider that "insanely high"
My local gun shop was getting $40 for a 325-round box of Federal Automatch at the height of the panic. That's 12¢ a round. Now it's $19.99 on targetsportsusa.com and $22 in Wal-Mart: about half, but still over the $14 it was pre-2016.

Shotgun shells went up to $10 a box for target loads -- Federal, Winchester, Remington -- pretty much everywhere, and haven't come back down at all.

Bulk 5.56 was $600 a case from targetsportsusa.com in 2020, and it's $460 now: https://www.targetsportsusa.com/fed...n-fmj-1000-rounds-bulk-xm193bkx-p-111531.aspx

You're welcome.
 
The traditional narrative might not hold - the pressure for buying guns as the election approaches is not always coming from where you think it might:

 
Firearms are a tough thing for volume sellers like Walmart. There are a lot of rules that have to be followed and training up people to do it is not as easy as some might think. The typical turnover makes it tough to keep people and once trained does the guy really want to spend most of his time stocking shelves?

Plus it eats up a lot of floor space that more profitable lines could occupy.

It's much easier and more profitable to sell shoes that cost $5-$7 for $25-$30. Frankly I am surprised they stock any ammo at all. When Drmocrats will get done with their policies and regularions there will be very few places where ammo and guns will be sold.
I believe latest victims reside in state of Washington?
 
The good news is that when either side wins half the people who hoarded in case their person lost will be dumping product onto the market.
 
I never paid more than 6 cents a round for 22lr all the way through the Chinese virus and I guess I don't consider that "insanely high"
In the late 90s, I bought 2 bricks of Winchester Wildcat .22LR that are LRNs and I paid $10 for 500 rounds. That works out to $0.02/rd. and I use that as my "baseline" for comparisons. I still have those bricks, wrapped in plastic and foil in a metal can with desiccant and glued/taped shut. That is because they are in the little 50 rd. boxes and I'm more into using the loose bulk ammo now more readily available.
 
Well, .22 LR dropped from insanely high to just high. Shotgun shells haven't budged from the peak, as far as I can see. As others have said, 9mm has dropped some too, as has .223/5.56.
I've seen many common handgun cartridges drop to what I would consider reasonable all things considered, however I find that .223/5.556 remains exorbitantly high except in the rare instance you can find a 1K rd case of steel case for $300 +/- and I also find prices for 12ga target loads, 250 round "flats" to be a lil easier to choke down @ $80/250rd but from what I've seen you can usually only find these prices in big box stores and the online retailers are still holding out for at least $95/250rd and a good many are still holding firm at the $11-$11.99 per 25rd box which i am simply unwilling to pay. Not paying $17 for one round of trap so when I have the $ and can, I'll buy at least a few flats for $85 but that's as high as I'll go and don't understand how clay shooters have tolerated it thus far.
 
The good news is that when either side wins half the people who hoarded in case their person lost will be dumping product onto the market.
The smart thing is to gin up hysteria on both sides and sell as much as possible to everyone.

It's almost as if the incentives are working in the wrong direction . . .
 
I'll have to disagree on the economy. Still more jobs out there than we can fill. Stock market is nuts and breaking records.

I believe the reason for no panic buying is because people realized it was all started by misleading news stories and people realized that SCOTUS is never going to allow a full on gun ban!
 
I shot a lot of that stuff.
I've shot 10's of thousands of Federal Auto match over the last 5 or 6 years, and a good amount of Remington Thunderbolts. I think the AM is more accurate but for me the "thunderdud" moniker doesn't hold up, out of many thousands of rounds fired I've encountered very, very few duds and both of those bulk brands are the cheapest bulk .22lr sold in my area. I buy most of it at a local lumber yard....... I have a few bricks and loose 50rd boxes of Wildcat and think it's alright. I really like the Aguila SV and Auto Match though....
 
I believe the reason for no panic buying is because people realized it was all started by misleading news stories and people realized that SCOTUS is never going to allow a full on gun ban!

SCOTUS can be packed or justices removed if they get in the way of Sauron's agenda.
 
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