Stupid Horders...

Went back to Green Top this morning, about 0830 and about half the powder they had yesterday at noon was gone. I picked up a keg of BLC2 (thanks for the suggestion, Pathfinder45) because I'm down to only 3 lbs of .223 powder at home. I grabbed another keg of Unique 'cause it was there. I was tempted to try AR-Comp, they had a bunch of that, but they had a 4-1lb or 2-larger jug limit.
 
If you want to blame somebody, blame the manufacturers. They should have adjusted to demand 100% a long time ago!
Click to expand...

Yes and no. I work for a company making AR parts. They geared up for the sale/demand boom(roughly 11 million investment), (out of pocket no loans) and when the bottom fell out 2/3rds of the employees had to be laid off. We went from 300+ to 70+workers and 2 shifts down from 3.
Now to play devils advocate, the ammo/component makers gear up,( no easy task) contrary to what we want to believe. From what we saw all parts of the industry got caught with there pants down. Really, who could have predicted Sandy Hook????? If we could have predicted that tragedy it would have been stopped and no ammo/component shortage, right??? Now my point all ammo related companies geared up meet production and market demands. Panic over and demand is back at pre -tragic levels. What do they do with the idle equipment now that demand is gone???????? As stated return on investment goes right out the window especially for the ammo/component makers being you won't make other products on that machinery being it is product specific. Almost a year ago one of our customers had some 19,000+ AR's boxed up on the warehouse shelf ready to go and NO WHERE TO SEND THEM. That's why just maybe the ammo/component makers did the right thing NOT trying to gear up. Just my take and opinion from being in the industry that took a hard hit.
 
When the first shortage occured (2008?) I already had a hoard, or stockpile of componants, rimfires, wheel weights etc. Didn't even notice a shortage. When things loosened up, I replaced what I had used plus. It didn't take Notradomus to predict what was going to happen if fearless leader was re-elected. Be prepared, that's the Boy Scouts marching song.
 
My ammo and reloading hoard is small next to my Military Surplus , mre/freeze dried survival food , spare batteries , candels and oil lamps and such .
There is more to the shortage than stockpiling . There are many more firearm owners buying ammo and many more ammo contracts . Im sure manufactures have thought that if they invest in more facilities and realy up production . What happens if some crazy laws are passed and they have invested in all this construction , personel , realastate ?
I also think that we are on our own with this because a solid 1/2 of the U.S could care less and maby even aprove if we cant find ammo . They drink the kool aid and it makes them feel warm and fuzzy .
 
I wish the companies pivotal to our sport would respond; but it would seem, they see it otherwise.
Click to expand...

First, this is not their first time at this dance, demand and drops in demand have been going on for a long long time. Just after WWII the market for ammo dropped like a rock, but then came the Korean War (police action, LOL) and then Vietnam. Now we have a much smaller Army and the federal budget is more of a factor than ever before.

Here is the long and short of it - it takes YEARS to ramp up production. Planning, getting permits, finding money and investors, ordering equipment that has to be build, staffing and training that new staff, finding suppliers that can ship more supplies in to meet new production demand, getting approvals from local, state and federal agencies. Go to a zoning hearing sometime for your local city sometime and you will see it can take years to get approvals.

So why doesn't the ammo manufactures just drop everything and do what you want? While you do pay their bills with your purchases, where is your order for 10,000,000 rounds of ammo and advance payments for the product or insured letters of credit so they can get the money to expand???

So get real, if you are having trouble getting 1,000 bullets to reload what problems do you think the manufacture has getting 10,000,000 for them to load or supplies of copper for cases or gun powder from the only TWO plants in North America or getting it shipped from overseas from Australia or Scotland?

This whole discussion sounds like the kid next door, who always blames someone else for his troubles and the way He acts. If you do not like the way things are done and want more ammo, "START MAKING IT YOURSELF".

jim
 
I also own an international operating company with offices and warehouses in North America and Europe. If we (as a company) would act as slowly as the US ammunition industry on increasing demand we would have been off the screen a long time ago.
Click to expand...

If you, as a single company didn't act, and your competition did, yes you'd be looking for work.

When the entire industry decides to wait out a bubble, rather than risking their businesses, you're not in trouble.

I don't mind "hoarders", people that buy things for themselves. Your idea of a "hoard" might be my ideal of an adequate supply.

And I do believe in capitalism. What I dislike is the opportunistic profiteers, who are either creating or magnifying the shortage, for profit. They are, essentially "cornering the market" so that you have to buy from them, at their inflated prices.

It boils down to greed, most of all, and our cultural obsession with instant gratification.

It is painful, but the only way to end this arrogant "claim jumping" kind of attitude is to simply not buy from the scalpers, and make sure they know why! Unfortunately, getting enough people to abandon the "needs" isn't an easy thing.
 
I just get up a little earlier. I have managed well through everything. I am not a large holder of supplies and really just buy what I am going to use in about 6 months. I have yet to not be able to get what I wanted. I have run extremely low at times with 22LR.

If someone gets up earlier than me any buys 50 pounds of powder good for them. Seriously through out the current hard times I have reloaded every month as much as I wanted and never went without.

I sometimes had to pay a little more, worked hard to find in stock supplies but I always found it when I needed it.

It takes some work to feed a 1,000 round a month habit and to date I don't think I ever kept more than a few months of supplies on hand. For certain I never went without finding supplies.
 
Imported ammo seems to help the center fire supply like PPU , WOLFE , TULLA , S&B , ZQ and others . Maby this could help with Rimfire too . Im picky about reloading supplys so I only buy certain brands . I know very few that admit to having bought from ammo flippers , scalpers but someone must be because its a thriving business . Im glad I have been stockpiling for so long I have'nt needed to go out of my way for ammo to shoot but I still buy it when I find it so I dont get to far into my stash . Powder is becoming a problem but I intend on fixing that shortly .
 
I started preparing for this 10 years ago on everything. I bought powder, bullets, primers, etc... I have plenty enough in everything but, I buy extra when it hits me to do so. You find times to shoot when you have got it to rol and shoot. I do watch what I shoot sometimes in the 22lr category. I have about 6,000 rounds of that and, I could easily shoot that up in one summer if I quit gardening and fishing.

The problem we have around here is no gun store or the big box stores are getting any 22lr ammo. NONE. Haven't for a long time, (5 years or so). I find that really odd and it gets irritating because that is the one thing you can't order either as no one has it. My brother in NC is rolling in it but, none here in Southern WV. If and when I do find it, I intend to buy as much as the supplier will allow. If that makes me a hoarder, than that is what I'll happily be. God Bless
 
McCarthy,

Technically, the line is spoken by Hans Gruber. McClain wrote it on Tonys' sweatshirt. I like attributing it to Hans because the way Alan Rickman says the line is just awesome.

On the subject of Die Hard, it is one my favorite movies. I bought a Steyr Aug because of Die Hard. The two stage auto trigger is a bit weird, though.

Behold, Karl's weapon of choice...



 
Last edited:
Nice little parody. There was an underage teddy bear in Die Hard along for the ride. He almost got Wills a date but that was cut out.

Machineguntony, I can perfectly impersonate Gruber since I can also talk German, hence with an accent.
 
There is one other thing that is going on is that there is more gun owners out there then before because of 2008 and the last one of what was talk about being done.Also talk about any kind of ban then that is just fuel for more to buy what ever there is out there and then you have more new reloaders and gun owner.This person in office in DC is the biggest sales man that this whole thing ever had.It looks like this is going to be the new way of getting what we want.Take it when you see it at the price that looks right.Or find some thing else to take its place.
 
With all due respect and cordiality, will you please stop turning every single discussion of guns into a political discussion? The right would like to co-opt the guns issue, but it doesn't belong to any political party, whether conservative or liberal.

And yes, that bear is very dangerous. Lol.

McCarthy, I can't believe you caught the bear reference! :)
 
Last edited:
On the subject of one of the coolest guy movies ever made (my apologies to the OP for hijacking the thread), in the movie, the film makers didn't finish finish out the MP5s, so they ended up using HK94s that were made to look like MP5s.

Small bit of irrelevant trivia, McCarthy, since I'm guessing that you're a Die Hard fan too.

Original HK 94 trigger pack and housing versus completed conversion in back, cuddled by Mr. Bear.

 
Nice job on that HK 94. I'm pretty much stuck in the 80s, early 90s, love the movies, TV shows and music. Heck I even miss the cold war :D

Because of Miami Vice I'll find me a BrenTen and a Mac-10 this year. Movies don't get any better than the first 2 Die Hard parts.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top