Posted by
Catmman on Monday, March 23, 2009 10:43:34 AM
I noticed something this past Saturday while out and about with the Vice-Commander (my wife) - I can't find small arms ammo,
Anywhere!
I discovered that I couldn't find any 9mm, 45 ACP, .40 S&W ammo anywhere. When I say I couldn't find ANY ammo, I mean the plinking kind, just straight ball (full metal jacketed) ammunition; UMC, the white label Winchester brand, that kind of stuff. It is relatively inexpensive for a box of fifty for these types/brands of ammunition so this is the kind I try to buy to stock up or take to the range. What really surprised me was there was also a distinct shortage of the higher priced ammo as well, the home defense and specialty ammo for the above calibers was a box few and far between. Even more interesting was that rifle ammo (.223 in particular) was hard to find; not as hard to find as the handgun fodder, but it was scarce.
I live in San Antonio, Texas. We have several "Gun Stores" as well as uncounted Wal-Marts and some "outdoor" stores like Academy Sports. There is no shortage of places to go and buy ammunition. The problem is, none of these places has any (or has very little) in stock. We have a Bass-Pro Shops here as well (a GREAT store btw). Like I said, LOTS of places to buy ammunition are available here in San Antonio.
I was recovering from a migraine attack and the Vice-Commander got me out of the house on Saturday. It was cloudy and cool and I needed to get out of the house after being medicated for the better part of two days. We went out to "The Rim" shopping area where the BPS is located. I figured I'd get some ammo to stock up. We went upstairs to the Hunting/Firearm section and found the ammo racks. What did I find? Pretty much a bare cupboard. There were only a few boxes of .22 Long Rifle, some .22 Win Mag, and a few other specialty types types (like .357 Sig). No 9mm. No 45 ACP. No .40 S&W. No .38 Special. A few boxes a .44 Special, no .44 Mag. There was also no .223 caliber ammo of any configuration. Very little of other popular calibers of rifle ammo like 30-06 Springfield, .30-30 Winchester, stuff like that. What was surprising was this was at a Bass-Pro Shops! This is a BIG outdoors retail outlet across the country. I was kinda shocked. I did pick up a box of .22 LR, some .22 Win Mag and some 4Buck for my shotgun. On a lark, we went over to another sporting goods store next door to the BPS, a "Dick's" Sporting goods outlet. They have a firearms section in this store. It's not a big one, but I figured "What the heck, let's go check it out." They also had pretty much nothing. Now I was a bit concerned.
Our next stop was a Wal-Mart which is next to the Sams Club we shop at. They had two boxes of .45 ACP left (boxes of 100 rounds) for sale for $29.97 - the white Winchester brand stuff. Aside from a few other calibers of rifle ammo, some .270 and I think one or two boxes of .30-30, there was pretty much nothing there either. I grabbed a box of the .45 ACP. The Wal-Mart guy said they couldn't keep ammo on the shelves and it was hard to get any in. He was surprised the two boxes of .45 were still there. He was more surprised I only took one of the boxes instead of both. Had I not already bought some other ammo, I probably would have taken both boxes.
Now none of this overly excites me since I have a pretty good "stockpile" for my firearms on hand already. I look to add to that from time to time, a box here, a box there. But finding three places with little or no ammo in the calibers I've already discussed started to bother me a bit.
I thought back to the weekend before last. The Vice-Commander and I were out and about and I decided to stop by Sportsmans Wharehouse. A great outdoors store. I was upset upon learing upon arrival that the store was closing. We went in and they had nothing left on the shelves. I wanted to pass it off as them selling their stock off since the store was closing. But some people I work with who frequent the store have been saying they have had a hard time finding decent ammo there for awhile now.
My wife seemed more concerned about this than I, but I said I could just go online and order ammo. I said it may even be cheaper if I did that instead of tooling around town so much. So yesterday I went online to see what I could see. What I found, or more correctly, didn't find, bothered me.
The first place I checked was Cheaper-Than-Dirt. They always have all kinds of ammunition, shooting stuff, etc. I went into the ammo section and what did I discover? Almost everything for those calibers above was out of stock. Not just a few items, but page after page out of stock. I found the same thing at The Ammo Bank and Able Ammo. I also checked the website for Cabela's and BPS online - almost everything was on backorder, not in stock. Needless to say I was bothered by this.
I have read that people have been "stocking up" since Obama was elected. I've also read some stories about how people fear Obama is going to go after guns or even ammo at some point. In fact one could make an argument that he's already floated a few trial balloons on this. One would have to be some kind of extreme optimist to think he won't sometime before 2010. I'm torn. Going after "guns" is risky for the Democrats, doing what they did was the key to them losing Congress in 1994. Would the Dems do it again? One thing is for sure, the public seems to think so or this wouldn't be happening.
I remember some of the same thing happening back in 1994 prior to the "assault weapons" ban but I don't remember there being an ammo shortage like this, at least not for the length of time this seems to be turning into. I going to go out over the next few weeks, check some of the specialty gun stores and other outdoor outlets around town and see what I find out.