Toured Gun Shops Today
I visited a bunch of gun shops in the area today. I was curious about their supply situations given all that I have been hearing. What I found varied a lot from shop to shop. Universally, they all had plenty of traditional style rifles, ie no AR or AK styles, and lots of shotguns. Handguns were also quite easy to find unless you were super fussy about features. Available ammo varied tremendously, from one shop with essentially none, to a few others that had a fair selection. Shotgun ammo was everywhere. Shops with a decent supply of handgun and rifle ammo had purchase limits, typically one box of a caliber and 3 or 4 boxes total. Heavy caliber handgun ammo, .40 S&W, .45 ACP, .357 Mag, wasn't too difficult to find. But small stuff, .380 and 9mm did not exist in most shops. I did buy some .38-55 rifle ammo, but did not see .30-30 or .32 Special anywhere. Just about every shop had a good supply of .30-06, .308, and .270. Just like with handgun ammo, no puny stuff like 5.56 and .223 anywhere.
Comments
What area? Where are you located?
Time for a road trip??😏
No just curious, much different than my area.
what did you buy
Common handgun caliber ammo is non existent around here unless you buy a firearm you can get one box. You are fortunate at this present time to find calibers mentioned..
Locate. In eastern North Carolina Pretty much mirrors what I have seen . Two good sized gun shops and one pawn shop dealer in town . All three have approximately 1/3 to 1/2 of normal inventory . Fair amount of shotgun ammo but no handgun or 5.56 unless buying a gun . Very large regional sport shop about 30 miles away has even less inventory and even less ammo . Local Dunham’s is the same except they had 3 boxes of handgun Ammo in stock ... 41 long colt and some 28 gauge shotgun shells. That was it . Reloading components , powder is limited to one stock number per purchase . Selection is becoming very limited. There are NO primers available in a 50 mile radius .
The closest gun shop seems to get a small ammo shipment about once a week, reasonable prices, 2 box limit and it's usually gone within 10 minutes of opening, Next closest has a good selection of ammo, but they charge auction side prices.
Bullseye Shooting in Palmetto, Fl was asking $50 for a box of 50 9mm. Wow!!!
I plan to attend a small Texas gun show this weekend.
First the first in over a year. Should be interesting.
OK Guys, These observations are worthless without telling us where you are located. I'm located in the Spartanburg area of South Carolina. IF, notice I said IF, you are at Academy, Wal-Mart, a local independent gun store when a shipment comes in you might get lucky and buy a couple of boxes of ammo. Any shipment that comes in is gone in a couple of hours or less.
At my local independent I can tell them what I need. If/when they get what I want in they will put it back for me but that is because I was a good customer way before this mess started.
Just for total curiosity last week I hit multiple stores. There was almost nothing for sale in the way of ammo. No reloading supplies. Plenty of guns for sale. The problem is that without ammo those guns are real expensive ball bats.
Has anybody checked on the availability of ball bats?? Seriously. Those who can't get ammo, a ball bat in each of your vehicles, a ball bat by each exterior doorway and one ball bat beside the bed beats an empty AR or empty pump shotgun all to pieces. No waiting period if you live in one of the commie States so just walk in and walk out with your weapon. I think I'm joking but does anyone know for sure whether or not if there is a ball bat shortage??
If you have ball bat in you vehicle, it is a good idea to at least have a ball glove and a ball.
The bat alone could be considered as carrying a deadly weapon by an over zealous policeman.
All three items and you are either coming or going to a ball game with the gang.
Bat at home, that is a horse of a different cover.
You think you have problems with an ammo shortage?? You should try running a shooting range. We used to run through at least 5000 rounds of 9mm ball range ammo in a week, plus all the other pistol calibers and .223 for the AR-15's. It sucks trying to find enough ammo and having to pay crazy prices and pass those prices along to your customers. Sucks even worse having a range and no ammo. I don't miss that.
Regional sporting shop in Kinston , nc. Has an indoor pistol range with rental guns , much like Ricci’s old operation . They pulled all of the rental guns 4 months ago due to ammo not available . Can still shoot with your gun and ammo but they have none for sale most days . You have to be lucky and be standing there’s when it hits the shelf !
And with no rental guns to rent or bullets to sell a range is having a hard time. That's where the money is.
I wish I had a gun and a bullet for it but President Biden's minions would probably come and take it.
Ricci , it is Neuse Sport Shop in Kinston . I imagine you are familiar with them . The range was an add on several years ago . Nice addition but not their primary revenue stream .