They make up a new cartridge. It has power and speed improvements over the older stuff, magazine writers puff it up, and the first few fans gush knowingly over it. The lead gun nuts buy into it to see if reality is actual, but they have the money and it's just this year's New Cartridge of the Month, it's not really a commitment to them.
More hype, then some come out with real world results, the movement grows, the gun fans hear of it, read up, and they see it has advantages. They buy it - which is the first wave of acceptance, their purchases and testimony are a commitment, and they influence others. The second wave hears it, gets to try it in their buddies gun, and they buy.
Now it's rolling, and that's when the calls for bulk ammo start. Why? They are all high round count shooters, and ammo costs are high. Reality does intrude - and the benchmark of all cartridge popularity contests is military surplus bulk pricing. The problem? It's NOT military, there is NO surplus, and bulk pricing? They make enough in a few days to sell all year, compared to the machines at Lake City running 24/7 at the height of the Iraq conflict.
Everybody wants 10c a round when that can't even be done on contract to the military in million round lots. And that is because the demands for bulk are unrealistic. It's whining about cheap ammo from people who often won't even reload for themselves, and won't even consider buying in 50,000 round lots or pallet loads - where the bulk pricing really starts.
You don't get bulk pricing buying two boxes off the shelf at Bigbox. With no education in mass production, no background in economics, and no experience in doing so, the complaints mount until the backlash sets in - "I won't buy X caliber, you can't get bulk ammo!"
Well, duh. It's not military surplus.
"This stuff is too pricey, I'm selling my stick and shooting my GI cartridge!"
Well, duh. It's not military surplus.
"No of the ammo makers are supporting it, they won't sell bulk ammo!"
Well, duh. There's no contracts for 50 million rounds. A month. It's not military, there's no surplus.
It's been ten years since the introduction of the 6.5 Grendel, and 6.8SPC. Both are doing about as well as can be expected. Neither is a huge military supplier, and we have yet to see any overruns or surplus on 6.8, which is - albeit in a small way. As for .300 BO - guys, it's been around for over 30 years as the .300 Whisper and even before that, as a wildcat to get around the original Three Gun rules, which they outlawed. It's no game changer.
You won't ever see bulk ammo for these for another 5 years. All the foreign promises and the ramp up for military use are always long range, and nobody yet has followed thru on the promises of steel or polymer cased ammo in 1,000 round boxes in pallet loads at your local gun store. When it's cheap enough gun store owners to wheel the pallet on their show room floor, it will happen. That has been a long time since, even for bulk military surplus.
Why? Because we will buy it even if it's NOT cheap. Panic has intruded it's ugly head, common sense flew out the window, and the ammo makers know a niche cartridge when they tool up for it. "We can't get bulk ammo!" means nothing on the internet. Place a truck load order for 1,500 locations - a month - and see what pricing you can get.
The real problem is that a few whiners on the internet don't constitute real consumer demand. People waving cash and legitimate purchase orders wanting truckloads are bulk buyers - not the 1,000 round a month guys, who are actually few and far between.
Bulk orders = bulk transport. Scale is everything, if you want bulk you likely have employees, a dock, and a warehouse. Anything less is just piddling around.
. That's pretty crazy that 9mm cost more than .45acp. I never knew that. I was old enough to understand that the military switched from 1911s to M9s and then shortly after, the law enforcement community.
