Another factor in the "mania" is that Obama's non military government agencies are buying up 5.56 ammo and ARs hand over fist. A recent build involving a Nitrided barrel was held up four months because the Nitriding guy was buried in orders for 1000s of 223 AR barrels ....... all for non military agencies.

Think of an armed TSA ........

Yesterday...in Melbourne FL I managed to attend a small gun show. Of course...the line to pay your money and walk in was around the building most of the day. At a couple of points...local code enforcement had to stop anyone from entering because the safe capacity limit for the building had been reached. The show promoters are having to re-route entry and exit to better track total attendees inside the building.
FWIW: it appeared the general asking price on most tables for generic .223/5.56 AR-type rifles is around $1600-1800. Genuine Colts a bit more.
30 rd mags for same: $25-30. There did not appear to be any shortage of ammo (or mags) whatever. A guy could purchase about all the .223, 9mm, or .380 he wanted. e.g.: BULK purchases of various .223 were running 1000 rds. for $1000.00.
By the box...import stuff: 25.00 per box

Supply and Demand at work. If people are willing to pay $1600-1800 for a $1000 rifle and a buck a round for 223.....God bless em'

The last 2000 rounds of LC/Federal 5.56 55 gr fmj I bought (before the mania) was 20 cents a round.

I can buy "white box" Winchester 270 130 SP for a buck a round at Wally World ..... nuff sed.

Gun Show I went to a couple of weeks ago had AR magazines at about $20, down from $50 in early January. Is it too soon to hope that things are returning to normal? Well, maybe a little too soon - AR's were still at about $1500.

Was in wally world yesterday not much ammo on the shelve.

IMHO it appears to be lessing a bit.

quote:

Originally posted by p dog shooter:
Was in wally world yesterday not much ammo on the shelve.

IMHO it appears to be lessing a bit.

I was in Sportsmans Warehouse Sunday and the ammo shelves were cleaned off.

Heres a link thats says cheaper then dirt has some 5.56 at 1495.00 a thousand

http5://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3001045/posts

I'm doing my little bit to help it subside. My BIL and sister were here last weekend from one of the socialist republics of the U.S.

I gifted him 450 rounds of .223, 150 rounds of .243 Win, 100 rounds of .270 Win, and 100 rounds of 9mm Black Talon from my own supply.

quote:

Originally posted by Alberta Canuck:
I'm doing my little bit to help it subside. My BIL and sister were here last weekend from one of the socialist republics of the U.S.

I gifted him 450 rounds of .223, 150 rounds of .243 Win, 100 rounds of .270 Win, and 100 rounds of 9mm Black Talon from my own supply.

You're a good man! I'm tickled to death that a friend of mine gave me 600 rounds of .22 LR ammo!

I was just through 4 St Louis area gun stores

I'd say the mania is far from subsiding....a small store owner talks of 2 year back orders

A data point from another forum that indicates that at least mags are not scarce any more. Guy is complaining about someone who backed out of a deal to buy some mags. Post date was 2/2/13:

This guy's a bum. He did the same thing to me. He posted an "I'll take it" for some AR mags I was offering while the market was hot, and after two weeks of no contact and no payment he took me right out of the frenzy. I could have sold them when first posted for my asking price, now even with the lower price there is no interest and the market is flooded.

Steel 5.56 and 30 round mags were in abundance at the STL Cabelas last night

Bass Pro today in Grapevine (DFW)

Shocked to see there was actually 2 lbs of powder available! Usually, there is none. No brass for anything common. They did have 280, and some WSM cases.

I called for an appointment for the shooting lane. They have only one lane. It was open pretty much all day.

Nobody has much ammo and if they do, they aren't shooting much. I was only there to develop a new load because I can't find my normal powder and/or bullets.

Nope, mania still "on". Guys who wanted ARs have bought them, for the most part. You see quite a few for sale, maybe guys who think they will be banned? The ammo demand is still quite high. Reloading supplies are tough to come by. Primers in particular.

IMHO, the mania is not subsiding. Popular internet retailers show common ammunition in the cheaper selections to be sold out (223, 7.62, even 8x57!). And as one example, Cheaper than Dirt is retailing the S&W M&P carbine (used to be a $850 deal) at $1795. So I believe that it is not over, yet.

around here the (overpriced) black gun craze is fading. Ammunition is the issue.

Gun show in Novi Michigan (March 30th): Lots of AR's for sale, new production stuff. One dealer had several entry level S&W Sports and Bushmaster Oracles/Carbon's in the $750-$900 range. Also lots of Magpul 30-shot mags for $20. He did not sell out.

Ammo is another story. What's particularly shocking to me is .22 rimfire. Asking prices of $70-$100 a brick (500) for .22 rimfire. CCI mini-mag $20 per 100.

AR and AKs all over the place in Central Florida - prices are $200 higher than before December.

SIG M400 enhanced for $1200 at a good local gun shop - was around $1000 before at Wal-Mart. Lots of mags - Pmags for $17-$18.

Ammo is crazy - 50 person line at Gander Mountain on Thursday - truck day. I was grabbing lunch at a place nearby and stopped in to check out gun safes. Picked up one box (max allowed per person) - I got 1000 brick of Winchester M-22 22LR for $55 bucks.

This is crazy no one is banning 22 LR ammo. But hell even I got a brick when I saw one available. Normally the sales guy told me the trucks come in the morning - but this one was delayed and I was lucky to get a brick.

Another six months and guns price will be back to normal. It will take another 10-12 months for ammo to drop though.

Looking in the "Cheaper Than Dirt" catalog and I noticed something funny. No prices for ammo or anything AR related. They list the items, but not prices.

Is this recent? i Normally throw it in the trash as I think print advertising is way behind supply, but happened to look through this one.

One more recent "development" anyone else notice that Midway USA is no longer giving you the option to be notified on high demand items? Primers, powder, bullets etc? You used to be able to sign up and be notified when these items arrived. Not anymore.

Wonder what the motivation was behind this move? I assume they were sending out thousands of emails and text messages with every arrival of these items.

When primers arrived, they would sell out within a couple of minutes. I tried so many times to buy primers the instant I received a notification. Almost without fail, they were sold out, even if I reacted immediately, I got lucky a couple of times.

Has the mania subsided? On guns, a little bit. On ammo ... not even close. With every passing day, this admin makes it clear they are threatening our ability to easily obtain ammo and guns. Until he's gone, people will scramble to stock up.

The Cabelas by me in Hammond racks are once again full of ARs and at or below MSRP. Less than 8 weeks ago a AR was gone moments after it hit the display rack.

Nobody wants to buy a gun they can't get ammo for. Here in Houston, same issues, all the AR's you want... very little overpriced ammo.

The 22 long rifle thing just amazes the hell out of me! Wonder why 22 long rifle?

I talked to the guys from ATK at the NRA show and they said they are making as much as ever????

22 LR. It's cheap, it's not perfect, but, you can kill anything in North America with it (correct shot placement!) it has been the poachers go-to round forever. In a "survival" situation, it's the perfect round. It's lightweight, you can "bug-Out" with 1000's of rounds and a small rifle and pistol both chambered for the same round. You can defend yourself, you can Shoot rabbits, Squirrels, Deer ... whatever a family needs to survive.

If you own any guns, I bet a .22 LR is one of them. No other caliber fits that bill.

If you have limited funds, and you want ammo, 22 LR is still the cheapest option around. Same goes for the guns they fit in. .22 rifles are inexpensive, .22 pistols are as well.

While it's not one I first thought of as an all around round, I guess it does make sense.

I purchased two DPMS Oracle 5.56/.223 flat tops Saturday for $689 each

The black guns are in stock again in southern Missouri but ammo will be an issue for a good while I'm afraid

By me again at Cabelas lots of .223 available, and at decent prices, but thanks mostly do to resellers, you can only buy 2-3 boxes ata time unless you wish to buy larger bulk amounts.

Im going to start reloading 223 as I plan on buying a AR as a graduation present for myself.
Will make sure I can aquier sufficiant components before I buy though.

Was just in my local Cabelas yesterday and thay had lots of 223 ammo and racks full of ARs and other similar rifle types like Sigs and Centry arms.

ARs and mags are everywhere now. And at pre panic prices.

Ammo is still hard to come by locally. And when you can find it, 223 is 45-55 cents per round!

The new retiree hobby is is standing around Walmart at 0700, buying the alloted three boxes of .22 LR and flipping on Craigslist for double or even triple MSRP.

Three months later, little has changed. In Kansas, I can find rifles and handguns all right, even powder and primers, but it's ammo that is the bugbear. Especially .22 LR; it lasts less than a day in any one place. And 223/5.56 is still 55+ cents a round, even in bulk (manuf dependent).

quote:

Originally posted by Antelope Sniper:
Stripped AR lower, went for only $365.00

Over the last few day most have been going for around $500.00

http://www.gunbroker.com/Aucti....aspx?Item=323722693

Are we past the hight point of the insanity?

A friend of mine pick up an assembled (complete) lower over the weekend for $325

Monday I saw an complete flat-top AR at Walmart
for sale for $617

So yes, the insanity is well and truly over

However I cannot find 22LR ammo OTC anywhere.

I consistantly use ~600rds a month (weekly pistol match 100rounds each, riddle match every 3rd week plus practice) and my supply is dropping real close to 3k rounds

22LR still cannot be found around here.

quote:

Originally posted by SR4759:

quote:

Originally posted by p dog shooter:

quote:

rownells Sells Over Three Years’ Worth of AR Magazines in Under 72 Hours

I would bet the mag manufactures are all working over time making more. I wonder how many millions of mags well be pushed out in the next 6 months.

If you can imagine the flat sheet metal magazine components are made on a auto cycling punch press hitting 60 to 90 times a minute around the clock. The can stamp out about 80,000 pieces a day. Making a million magazines will not take long if you have a dozen punch presses.

Plastic injection molding machines have an 8 to 12 second cycle time to mold a magazine body if the mold has a single cavity. If it have 4 or 8 cavities the cycle time is divided by the number of cavities. If you have multiple molding machines the plastic resin has to be purchased by the pallet load. Again it does not take long to make a million magazines.

I just read this.

I'm in the plastic injection business. 26 years now. Thee cycle time is not divided by cavities. Molding is fast but not nearly as fast as your numbers.
WOW

It's fast but not nearly that fast