Ammunition shooting off retailers’ shelves

Bluefield Daily Telegraph, Bluefield, WV - Ammunition shooting off retailers’ shelves
I went to Bi-Mrt last week to pick up a prescription. While I was there, I stopped by the Sporting Goods Department to pick up some primers.

The clerk was very attentive; he didn't have much to do.

"I'd like a brick of Large Pistol Primers" I said.

"Sorry Partner, I don't have any in stock" he said.

Before I suggestged that I could also use some small Rifle Primers, he continued:

"The fact is" he said, "All I have is three boxes of shotgun primers. Oh, I have more primers on order, but my supplier says he doesn't know when he wil have any primers available at all."

As I search for reloading components around the Greater Corvallis Metropolitan Area, I realize that this situation is endemic all over the country. Nobody has reloading componenets in stock, let alone "Loaded Ammunition" ... even in the most popular calibers.

I hear that Obama's espoused Anti-Gun Mind Set is driving this run on ammunition, guns and ammo components. Folks aren't convinced; they think he is going to enact laws designed to make at least guns, and probably components, less available than they are now.

Add to this the long-term effect of the War on Terrorism (lots of shooting in Iraq and Afghanistan), and it's easy to understand that ANYTHING related to guns is in short supply.

Sure, the manufacturers are working to increase their production rates. That's not enough to suply the high demand for firearms, ammunition and ammunition components.

In the meantime, if I were to schedule myself to shoot all of the three-matches-a-month which are available in the Columbia Cascade Section, I am limited by my personal stock on hand: about 700 primers for the 10mm, and another 800 for the (currently non-functional) .38 Super. that means my 1500 rounds will allow me to shoot another seven, maybe eight matches before I can no longer compete in USPSA matches.

Will this situation resolve itself in the next three or four months?

I don't think so. I has been a couple of months already since the American Public began to react to Obama's policies ... even though they haven't even been enacted (and we don't know what they will look like until then.)

I regret that I haven't been more inclined to post new articles to this blog for the past week or two, but who can blame me?? If this doesn't improve soon, I won't be the only person who cannot afford to shoot in competition, maybe even in practice.

The sorry fact , with Obama leading the American Nation, we don't know what to expect. The bes we can do is to expect he worse, which leads us to assume that our best practice is to conserve ammunition and their components.

At least that way, we won't find ourselves in the unenviable situation if having guns, but no ammunition to make them work.

A gun without ammunition is like a car without gasoline. Come to think of it, we're not all that far from that situation, either.

Remember, you heard it here, first.