Sunday, May 03, 2009

Notes from Gander Mountain...

1) .45GAP shooters are probably laughing behind their hands at people who mocked the caliber for being uncommon. It's a lot more common than .45ACP at big box stores right now. I briefly considered buying a couple boxes to shoot through my 625, but changed my mind...

2) .22LR availability seems to be a little better. I bought the last carton of Remington Golden Bullets to replace what I shot up today, but they had a fair amount of bricks of Federal Spitfire, as well as mid-price CCI and Remchester in the 50- and 100-rd packages.

3) There was plenty of .40 S&W.

4) .38 S&W, and .32 S&W Long are plentiful, and suddenly don't look so expensive relative to regular autopistol ammunition.

19 comments:

Mulliga said...

I am so glad I got into reloading before this ammo shortage. I've even been forced to handload my carry rounds. Not the best idea, I know, but I was sick of having the same 5 rounds of Speer's short barrel snubby Gold Dots in my revolver for months and months on end.

Anonymous said...

At our local Goose Hill, they wanted a buck more per 50 of .22 than Wallyworld was charging, and while they had a couple of boxes of .223 in stock, they wanted $150 for 200 rounds.

I started laughing uncontrollably, and had to leave.

I will grant that they actually had ammunition in stock, but the prices they wanted...

Cybrludite said...

On Friday, the local Über-Wally World had a ton of .300 WinMag, 1 box of .223, no 9mm, 40 S&W, or .45 ACP, and no .308. Pity I don't have a .300 WinMag...

atlharp said...

Local gun shop had 9mm PMC in stock for a premium ($16.99), but at least it was there. .380 is NOWHERE to be found! I don't care because I was smart enough not to buy one of those pistols (No offense Breda). The true magical thing was that I found 3000 Federal small pistol primers today! Now that was cool! No doubt that will come in handy down the line here soon. I think we are coming out of the shortage here pretty soon, or at least I hope so.......

Tam said...

"At our local Goose Hill, they wanted a buck more per 50 of .22 than Wallyworld was charging...

I will grant that they actually had ammunition in stock, but the prices they wanted...
"

Which is a better deal on .22LR: $2.99/50 or $1.99/0? ;)

Anonymous said...

Uhm, more like $6 for 50 (GM), versus $5 for 50 (WM), and I still managed to walk home with 250 rounds.

Yes, I buy expensive, brass-coated .22. Sue me. Cheaper than .223, and it makes less of a mess in my AR15.

Tam said...

Yes, I was referencing plated bullets. (Federal Spitfires were $3.99/50 @ GM and Remington Golden Bullets were two-and-change. Wally World had nothing but shotshells, last I checked...)

Anonymous said...

Cabela's in East Hartford has just about everything, in massive quantities. Except .380, the bastard stepchild of the ammo industry.

I wonder if Cabela's got a better deal than Wally World (i.e., perhaps they're not a bunch a haggling stingy bastards like the bean-counters who run the Big W since Sam croaked), or perhaps Cabela's National shipped more rifle/pistol stuff to Connecticut than this mostly shotgun toteing place can absorb.

Either way, we're rolling in ammo, from 9mm and .45acp to 30-06and .22 rimfire, although the heavier shotgun loads are a bit thin on the ground. And no 7.62 x 39 Russki. Go figure. Statistical anomaly, or the beginning of the end?

Anonymous said...

Strangely, our Wally's had better selections of .22 rounds than Gander did. Dunno. Gander had more of everything else, granted, but I came home and ordered ammunition online for half the price they wanted in the store :).

Anonymous said...

Cancel my last... $4 at GM, $3 at WM... Had to check the receipt :).

Caleb said...

I got shooting buddy's message a little late, so I ended up at The Mountain of Geese. I have to tell you, I'm kicking myself for selling that Webley Mk. IV I had - .38 S&W all over the place, I could actually feed it!

atlharp said...

Which is a better deal on .22LR: $2.99/50 or $1.99/0? ;)

Exactly, I see the complaining, but complaining doesn't put ammo in my gun. I can complain endlessly over Dick's Sporting Goods and their lack of service, but it does me no good. The best way to get even is to withhold them my $$$. I can understand some griping, but this is beyond that. The market is adjusting to this- Hell I got Federal primers today. I can't complain!

Anonymous said...

Midway USA finally shipped the 1000 .45ACP bullets i had on backorder for a month. i spent friday at my parents loading it along with the 400 left over from last trip when i broke the press. teach me to be ham fisted with the thing. luckily the Dillon guys sent me free parts. i have, in addition to the self defense ammo i only shoot on formal occasions, about 1700 rounds of .45 ACP.
sean

TJP said...

Anonymous said... "Cabela's in East Hartford has just about everything, in massive quantities. Except .380, the bastard stepchild of the ammo industry.That's because no one goes there, on account of the fact that they chose a location slightly worse than building atop a Millstone spent fuel rod storage pool.

On the other hand, everything west of Hartford has been wiped out, including my little secret location, which had maybe 50,000 primers one day, and about 5,000 the day after someone announced the cache on the Internet.

My large pistol primer supplies are starting to run low, but No.10 and No.11 caps are easy to find. Guess what I shot today.

T.Stahl said...

Must listen to Tamara this time and buy ammo while it's available.

Firehand said...

Yeah, I never thought I'd see .38S&W the same or cheaper price than 9mm or .45acp. Still glad I handload it, though.

Jay G said...

There's one unintended benefit to this ammo rush - I've actually been buying more .30-30, since it seems to be the only caliber on the shelf half the time I go in for ammo...

So the Marlin 336 gets some shootin' time. Lever guns need shootie goodness too!

Caleb said...

Speaking of weird calibers, I found a bunch of .455 Webley stuff the other day. Really makes me want a Mk VI so I can around pretending to be Indiana Jones.

Tam said...

If you're looking for .32ACP or deuce-five, Premier's pretty well stocked with S&B at the moment.