Firearms supply chain woes....worst ever...

[Welder]

The most reasonable shop in town said people are going for the cheap stuff. Cheap AR's, cheap plastic handguns. Can't keep either of these in stock. His ammo stocks were basically gone. I did get a Geissele trigger and an LPK there, and he had carbine buffer assy's and an OD CTR stock still.

Most expensive shop in town has plinking grade 300 BLK on the shelves at $2/round and I bought the last 2 lbs of H110 powder from them at (GAG) $35/lb. I didn't look at their guns because it physically hurts me to buy stuff from them. They're the last resort for when you were too stupid to get into a new caliber while it was everywhere for cheap.

I was in Richmond the other day and dropped by Cabela's. They're periodically restocking their shelves through the day, trickling ammo out. I got all 3 boxes of Rem 125 OTFB 300 BLK at $17/box that got put out while I was there. I reload pistol ammo but was curious -- nope, no 9mm was on the shelf. Didn't see any powder for 300 BLK, and am stocked up on pistol powder so I didn't look for that.

Pawn shops' racks are about 2/3 of what they normally have, and it's mainly hunting shotguns/rifles and revolvers, plus a nickel CZ 75B at one of them.

[backtrail540]

It's working out for someone like me, who suffers from gun ADD and gets distracted by anything shiny(aka not in my safe) with supply being low in my area and prices rising, resistance is much easier.

[boing]

I think one concern I would have both for guns and ammo is that whatever is being shoved out the door in a hurry may not be ready for prime time.

This will come back to haunt the used market, too. Lots of first time buyers who aren’t really in the gun-owner game for the long term anyway, and then they get stuck with a lemon and dump it when the novelty wears off. Maybe if things stay sporty enough for long enough, the current crop of reactive buyers will just hold onto their new toys, even if they “jam every once in awhile”. Then again, it can’t jam if you don’t shoot it, so most of them will probably never even know they have a problem gun to begin with.

I cleverly waited until a pandemic was in full swing before shopping around for a pistol to fill a certain need, and then race riots became fashionable again. Even when supply starts coming back, I think I’m better off making do with what I’ve got.

[trailrunner]

The run on guns here was mostly pistols. I even called an LGS (Sharpshooters, for you locals) and asked if they would take a couple AR15s I wanted to put on consignment, and they said, "We got plenty of AR15s, I don't need anymore".

I was there two weeks ago and they had several ARs on the wall.

They also had two G19s. I was a little surprised, and said so. Turns out that the salesman didn't know they were there either, and he was surprised. He said he hadn't seen any for several weeks. I was very tempted to buy one, but I was already picking up four stripped lowers.

[Duelist]

My favorite hole in the wall friendly LGS has six used Ruger No 1s. Including 2 in .243. With good glass. Oof.

On the other hand, the last time I was in there, a lady was buying a 5.5 inch Ruger Vaquero for home defense, because that’s what they had.

A .243 No. 1 would be hard to turn down. Only one I’ve shot was a 6mm Remington, and super sweet.

[Totem Polar]

A .243 No. 1 would be hard to turn down. Only one I’ve shot was a 6mm Remington, and super sweet.

Which one do you want me to have them set aside for you?

[Duelist]

Which one do you want me to have them set aside for you?

Sigh. I can’t buy any more guns this year, unfortunately. Paid off a car, paying off some dental work, house maintenance stuff. Might have to buy another car. And the safe is stuffed at the moment.

Got to get a bigger safe, I know.

[delphidoc]

From what I can tell the firearms situation is worse than what it was in 2013, but the ammo situation isn't quite there yet.

My story:
I joined the NRA for the first time in either 2013 or 2013 because of Obama and his ilk. I didn't even own a gun yet. I got into handguns at the absolute wrong time- 2013. I bought my first pistol in May 2013, a SIG P229R. It was available at several places online. Prices weren't great, but the supply was there. OTOH Ammo was next to impossible to obtain. I remember scouring the internet for any 9mm ammo in stock. The first box of ammo I bought online was in May 2013- 4 boxes of Aguila 9mm 115gr for $35.99 a box. I remember paying a little more on at least one other purchase, but I don't have that receipt anymore. I even bought a few boxes from somebody at work who had been into guns for awhile and had a healthy stockpile.

I learned my lesson from that. Once the shortage subsided I started buying ammo by the case. It was good that ammo became more plentiful because at my peak I was going through about a case a month. Drove my wife nuts. In 2016 I started buying a case a month in anticipation of Killary being elected. At one point I had 16 cases of 9mm. Right now I'm sitting pretty good. 6 cases of 9mm, 4 cases of .45 ACP, lots of 5.56 with several dozen 30-round mags to stuff them in. My only weak point is 12 gauge shot shells. I bought two cases of 00 buck a while back and I'm down to probably 500 rounds. I still have some birdshot, slugs, and mini-shells to play around with. I've got enough ammo to last through this drought and then some.



The reason why I say the ammo situation hasn't gotten to where it was in 2013: Here's a screenshot from July 2013 (no I'm not Shawn Mulligan). I've never bought anything from them and most likely I never will.

[Paul D]

Hmm. Time to dump all my Gen3 Glocks that I never shoot. I have to strip off the connectors, SCDs, etc and get them back to stock. I bet I could hi-ball the price and they would sell on consignment at my LGS.

[HCM]

For those that haven't seen it, @jetfire posted this:

Re: Online gun sellers, many LGS in my area are not accepting transfers.