Stock Pile

G

George Hill

Staff Alumnus
Saturday afternoon I went to my nearest gun shop and found a great deal on .223 ammo. This was Winchester and not the cheap steel cased stuff.
I was feeling some cash in my pocket getting really warm... so I went to the counter to buy some cases... I was going to wait till the gun show. But this was here and now.
Well - I could not buy as much as I wanted. I was told I was stockpiling and they had to limit the purchase. So I bought 1/2 which was fine - took it to the car, and went back in and bought the other 1/2. I was given dirty looks like no other - but I was given the sale anyways... because when I left I was no longer a customer and when I came back in I was a fresh customer again. (Clerk told me this and it irked the manager to no end.) They also denied me the sale of some .40 caliber ammo as I had reached what the manager said was the limit. I think the manager was just being a jerk... What limit? There was no sign - limit 2 per customer or anything...
Any ways - My concern here is am I guilty of stockpilling? By the way - we are talking 6 cases. That's not too much is it? I thought 10,000 rounds was stockpilling.
Oh well. I had some empty room in my Bug-Out Bag that needed filling. (and a couple guys who told me to pick them up some if I found a good deal- they paid me back thank god!)

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"There is no limit to stupidity. Space itself is said to be bounded by its own curvature, but stupidity continues beyond infinity."[/b]
RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE
The Critic formerly known as Kodiac
 
I don't think you're stockpiling untill you've stacked it two high wall to wall. Then again that could just be your way of elevating your postion in society. ;)

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May your lead always hit center mass and your brass always land in your range bag.

~Blades~
 
Look at it from the dealer's point of view. If he lets someone come in and buy out most or all of his supply, it is going to take a while before it can be restocked. Until then, what do you tell all of the other customers who show up looking for the same advertised bargain? "Uh, some big wookie-like fellow just bought all of it. We still have Brand-X for twice as much." A certain percentage of your customers will then think you are a dishonest con-artist pulling a bait-and-switch scam, and the rest will think you are incompetent for not being able to maintain your stock supply. Unless, that one special customer can keep the store in business all by himself, you risk alienating the rest of your customer base.
 
Hey, I left 3, maybe 4 cases!
Okay - one was opened and missing a few boxes... :)

I know cash transactions over 8 thousand has to be reported - but what about ammo? Is there a magic ATF number?

You guys don't know how fun that was buying that much ammo all at once! :D

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"There is no limit to stupidity. Space itself is said to be bounded by its own curvature, but stupidity continues beyond infinity."[/b]
RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE
The Critic formerly known as Kodiac
 
if i was the manager of the shop as long as your money was green, we'd be there to serve. hell i'd even help carry it out. the manager was being a jerk IMO. money is money, sales are sales, he's in the business to move product.. if i go to my guy and don't buy a mess, he thinks i'm mad at him!! ;)

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RKBA
www.southernparty.org
 
If the manager of the shop is trying to liquidate stock then there should be no problem with whatever you buy. A lot of shops will put a lost leader Item in the paper to bring in customers that wouldnt normally shop there.

IE: He paid $5.00 a box for the ammo, and sold it at $5.00 a box and ate the freight. I can see why he got mad, but the clerk wouldnt even think about that. But the customers who came in for the cheep ammo will be so mad that they wont be back.

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10MM Magnum.... tried the rest, now I got the best
 
I'd be willing to bet that the Shop has been nailed by some Government agency or other for some infraction and decided to limit the amount of ammo you can buy in one transaction. Probably being "watched" by the Ges... oops the local BATF.

Some of you may remember my post of a week or so about my difficulties with a certain dealer, well I found out he had sold a handgun to one of the guys inolved in the WTC bombing several years ago. BATF watches him like a hungry Hawk.

This still does not excuse bad manners by gun shop owners. I would go elsewhere in the future.

Geoff Ross

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Damn!...I need more practice!
 
The manager could at the very least explain his position and why he didn't want you to run off with all the ammo. Seems weird to me. I don't thinkthere should be a limit to how much ammo you buy. That's silly. What if I won the lottery and decided I didn't want to buy ammo for the next 2 yrs? I'd need a lot more than 10,000 rds, I can guaruntee that.

It is fun to buy a lot of ammo. I like it when they start suggesting other calibres I might "need" :)
 
Ewok... it was cheaper than that and I did not have to pay shipping...

But TAXES... Ouch...

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"There is no limit to stupidity. Space itself is said to be bounded by its own curvature, but stupidity continues beyond infinity."[/b]
RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE
The Critic formerly known as Kodiac
 
I remember the primer drought of 1994, in which I found a shop in Mesquite, TX that had, huzzah! Winchester large pistol primers for "only" $17/box of 1000. Only catch was that he had a sign that said prominently "Sorry! Only one box per customer!" Clearly, he was just trying to help as many people as he could, with only moderate gouging (primers earlier that year had been about $12.99/box.) I ran to an ATM and pulled out $140, and told the guy I'd give him $25 a box if he'd let me buy 5 boxes. Well, greed took over, and I got my primers.

I was actually driving a schoolbus on a trip out there at the time, but, hey, the kids were all at their ROTC marching competition, and what's a poor busdriver to do? I went to a local gift shop to get a bag that would adequately conceal my purchase until I got it home. Guys, times were tough for a few months there, for the average reloader. We were even saving spent primers, on the theory that it's easier to manufacture new primers from the empty hulls of old ones than to try to create cups and anvils anew, should it come to that.



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Will you, too, be one who stands in the gap?
 
FWIW, the other day a customer at the local gunshop bought everything the dealer had in certain cartridges, amounting to 1000s of rounds. The dealer was glad to make the sale, and simply ordered more. That's all there was to it.

Anyway, I wouldn't say that it's stockpiling to buy a large quantity of ammo for personal consumption in order to take advantage of a good price. It's just sound economics.
 
As we get closer to the end of the year I am beginning to see less and less ammo, except for shotguns. Is there a pattern developing?
The manager should indeed have helped you carry it out.
The customer is always right.


H&K always...
 
nebob,

Is the customer right when he staggers around the store with his pants flapping around his ass and his wrists bent at anatomically inappropriate angles, saying "Yo, I need some bullets for my nine-gun!"? :)


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"Taking a long view of history, we may say that
anyone who lays down his arms deserves whatever he gets."
--Jeff Cooper
 
Coinneach... sounds like you have been visiting gun shops in Kansas City lately....
 
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