Supply and Demand Causing Pricing Bifurcation

[RJ]

I haven't been in a LGS for a while to look at guns. The last few I've bought were either online (GB) or at a specific store where the manager and I communicate by email. She's very good about remembering what I'm looking for and setting aside a gun for me. She knows I will make good on any open commitment.

At the moment, I'm trying to turn my regular G48 into an optic gun, either by trading it for a 48 MOS or getting it milled. I've asked her to keep an eye out, but there's been nothing available since the start of the year. She tells me she has no idea or control over what the distributor sends the store. I probably should stop in at the counter when I go to the range, "just in case" what I'm looking for arrived. But honestly I don't see paying $800 for a Glock 48 MOS either.

[xray 99]

I paid a visit to a small town lgs this weekend. Very little ammo but a decent selection of Glocks and even S&W M&Ps— in 9mm no less.

[Glockman9mm]

Last time I was in a gun store was early January. Scheels in Fargo,ND. They had no ammo but odd calibers but pretty good supply of guns. The Glock case was full of new Gen 3’s- must have been all they could get. Prices were slightly higher than a year ago.

[Cheap Shot]

No guns (excluding derringers and other scrap), no ammo in my area LGS's.

[OlongJohnson]

The local reloading shop is looking pretty much like a Soviet-era grocery store.

Academy put other stuff in what used to be the ammo section.

[ECVMatt]

Well....since I have not been able to buy anything lately.....this happened:

[Super77]

Holy cow - that certainly seems like an unreasonable de facto limitation on acquiring a handgun.
I wonder if it will prompt any legislative action to remove the requirement for permits in the future.

There was an effort to do just that in 2015 I think it was. The NC Sheriff's Association lobbied hard against it and it failed, barely. Pretty crappy considering the whole thing is a Jim Crow era law basically designed so the Sheriff could deny folks of a certain ethnic background their permits. How a law ENFORECEMENT agency thinks it should be in charge of law creation is a mystery to me, but I digress.

[fatdog]

Saturday was my first trip to a small LGS in many months to pick up a transfer. Very limited handgun selection unless you want a Springfield Bobcat.

Maybe 15 handguns in the cases where they used to have about 60-70 in normal times. One Gen 4 G17 for $699, not even certain it was new. About a case worth of 9mm Fiocchi and Winchester ball ammo on the shelf for .85 per round. Probably less than 500 rounds of PMC .223 55gr ball for the same per round price. Other than a couple of used low end AR's priced $1599.00 the only long guns were hunting shotguns, pumps and autos with 24" or longer barrels, and a couple of precision rifles that have probably been there a while.

A 20-something aged guy came in and inquired if they had any 9mm ammo, they directed him to that shelf and after looking at several boxes and the prices he quietly left.

Crossbows now hanging where the AR's and AK's used to be on the wall.

It felt like that soviet grocery or department store to me.

[Archer1440]

One of my LGS’s has plenty of HST 124 in 50 round boxes ($80), 9 mm ball (including lots of Lawman 147 ball) at $50, and a reasonable selection of other calibers at similar relative pricing. They have a good stock of Glock, Springfield, SIG and CZ pistols, all at the high end of current pricing, and a good supply of AR’s including Wilsons at higher price points. This particular shop has one of the better ranges in the entire nation (including 100-yard tubes and an indoor skeet range) and is right off a main interstate with easy access. They have friendly and helpful employees and do a good job dealing with new shooters.

They have established pricing that helps them maintain availability, and keep product on the shelves in the current environment, and they are doing about one inventory turn on pistols every week. Their business model also relies on the range and a restaurant that get lots of traffic.

Another LGS is in the very downtown of my metro area, inconvenient to visit, has no range, and has set prices competitive with some on line sellers (100 rounds of Federal LE 12 GA slugs for $80 recently, a case of HST 124 +P for $1K). They have tremendous traffic, lots of inventory from Nighthawks to HK’s to steel frame Walthers to B&T SBR’s and everything in between, sell ammo out within hours of when it goes on the shelves, and have the stereotypical “grumpy gun shop counter guys”. They appear to be prospering as well.

It appears that ammo availability has improved with the high price points, simple market forces at work. I really wonder if we will ever see $0.12 9mm ball ammo ever again, though.

[45dotACP]

Doesn't seem like the ammo prices are going to do much to encourage all those people who are new gun owners to stay new gun owners.

I expect most ammo companies are probably more afraid of a "Trump Slump" than they are of the current situation where they literally can't make ammo fast enough to sell it but damn, I would think that more availability and better pricing in ammo would be just to thing to encourage those several million new gun owners to keep shooting and purchasing their products.

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