runco

Recommend doing it yourself. Its a fun experience, and does not require to much investment, <$100.

I may take you up on that invitation.  I have been in profesional purchasing over 20 years (large industrial scale), and I am quite frankly tired of the industry I am in.  Love to take what I have learned in that industry and apply it to another industry.  I do love purchasing!    There is a difference in between spot contract buys and weekly re-occuring contract purchases. Have you ever tried long term supply agreements? It works in my industry quite well, can work in others. But I also work in an industry where we expect the manufacturer to provide 1-3% price down each year. If they don't we go somewhere else?  How would you like to have that in your industry?   I think understand your business model, you likely buy in very large one time buys, but on an infrequent basis, and based upon product availabilty, am I right? I assume you may go weeks without buying something, then suddenly you buy in very large, and I mean very large one time buys? You likely pick up your goods yourself due to the nature of your product, and it saves you lot on freight costs (just your time, fuel, and maintenance). Your business model is different from what I am referring too, it likely has lower overhead when compared to brick and mortars, coupled with your own markup receipe, and your terrific customer service, is why you are very successful.  In my statements in this thread, I am referring to brick and motars that buy from the same wholeseller each week or every other week, they are consistent on their purchase pattern. They likely have an agreement or should have an agreement, i.e. we promise to buy 100% of X from wholeseller Y for a period of 3 years, in return they have a firm price of Y for that period of time. Both the seller and buyer have some level risk, but both have a firm commitment or partnership with one another. Of course there are other fine print and performance issues, but it does work, both parties have a comfort level. 

Those price increase letters work on non-supply agreement or non-contractural situations.  Also, those letters don't work to well when the intendend audience simply says no and pushes back. 

I don't buy into this theory too much.   Most wholesalers and I mean most, have long term supply contracts with manufacturers to protect pricing, so likely the wholesale market from manufacturing to the wholesaler, the wholesale pricing has likely not changed in recent months.  Allocation due to capacity has creeped in, but pricing hikes have not.  Now on the otherhand, if the local gun store does not have supply contract agreements between themselves and the wholesalers, then I would agree, but I would believe these local gun stores that have been around for some time, they likely have long term supply agreements too with the wholesellers (or should have) to protect against runs like this. If the theory was true that wholesale prices have gone up, we the consumer should not see much price difference between one local gun shop to the next, but since we do, then something is not right either at the retailer or the wholesell level. In any event, if I was the retailer, I would defend my pricing business model by blaming the wholeseller, and I must pass this increase on to the consumer.

toliet paper and went to the range to shoot my brand new never been fired......

For my birthday, my wife bought me The Duck Commander Family book.  I just finished it, and I highly recommend it.  I truly like the show and the book is very informative about their history.  I can relate to many of thier stories, and its very refreshing to have a good solid family oriented tv show.  I know their shows on A&E are produced, but after reading their book, I am not so sure its produced that well after-all.  :up:

Ole Milwalkees Best, that stuff gives me.....

A lot of truth in that statement.  Along the same lines, that is why I like this guys post, its 100% accurate:   http://www.tngunowners.com/forums/topic/63147-liberalism-explained-peanuts-style/?hl=peanuts

Not all retailers have the same targeted audience as others.  Through my many years of my gun obsession journey, for every 10 gun shops, you will see one like Bentons. They always have the largest selection of guns, largest selection of accessories, and the attitude of the counter help, is horrible. Their pricing is always like 25-50% more than their competition. And on top of that, they charge the 3-4% credit card fee.   I have come to realize I am not their targeted audience (happy, happy, happy). I am guessing their targeted audience is those professional men that are flushed with disposable income, that likely works in a white collar job M-F, and on the weekends, they dress up in their name brand outdoor clothes and over priced boots. You know the type, their blue jeans look like they came from the dry cleaners, and their hats always look brand new. These men will drive over 100 miles to go to Bentons, its an all day event, and they will buy something when there. Nothing wrong with these men, they just have more money than most, and they don't care what the price is. Then the other targeted audience is the much uninformed guys. You know the ones, they want a Glock or something, a buddy of buddy told them Benton's has them, and they go and see, and they buy ignorantly. And for the next 24 months or the next income tax refund or both they make payments on a 20% APR credit card. Then the other group is the window shopper that has no patience, you know the type, there is what I have been looking for, its in front of me, and I don't care what the price is. I know Billy Bob's gun shop has it or can get it, I can save $200 from Billy Bob, but hey I can have it now.    For penny pinchers like me, I am not their audience.  In fact, I probably don't fit anyone's targeted audience.  I much rather buy used anymore.

I thought that may be what you bought.  They are sometimes called the sport version or slim version.  My are bit bulky, in comparison, but after I tried them on, there was no comparison.  There was a post on this forum several months ago on ear muffs, I recall that some people had negative comments on the slim version which helped me out during my homework.  I am kinda of essentric on doing a due diligence homework when purchasing any purchase.  I have made too many mistakes or buyers remorse through the years.  Now adays, I listen and read many reviews, then I do the go and see thing, and then just pick the best retailer for the purchase, usually Amazon or Ebay.  It is vary rare that I buy from bricks and motars anymore for virtually anything (groceries the exception).

I think there are very many dynamics at play here that is compounding the problem, this is what Runco thinks:   A.) I believe there is a raw material or component shortage that is quietly impacting 22LR ammo, and most of these raw and component materials are being diverted to the government contracts of the pistol and rifle ammo.   B.) I believe the local gun shops have deployed many networking relationships (buddies, friends, bar stool sitters) that scour the earth (mainly Walmart) in search of ammo, and once found, buys this ammo at a retail level and resells it in their store. On the same line, Walmart sporting goods attendants and associates, they do have friends and cell phones. I think this happens more often than we think. Their friends are either hoarding, re-selling or are the mindless robots for the gun shops that are buying up this black market of ammo.   C.) The sheer magnitude of millions of gun owners and the need to seek out and buy 22 ammo is likely beyond most people's comprehensive. We can think about 30-50 people that makes comments on this message board, we think we understand the 100s of people that we hear about that stand in line at Gander every Friday, but the idea of the 100,000 to 1,000,000 to 10,000,000 of people looking for 22 ammo if not every day likely once a week, we just do not comprehend this level of demand. Just stand around the Walmart sporting goods desk or at a distance to observe, look at the number people who scroll by and looks in the ammo cabinet. In a period of 10 min. earlier this week, I saw roughly 20 people purposely glance at the ammo area, mainly where 22 ammo is stocked, and they moved on when they saw the empty space.   D.) Then there is the 22LR ammo black hole, we just do not have enough scientific studies or tin foil yet to comment on this matter.   E.) All of the above (mostly C though)

I was actually going to try defend this guy, when I googled on goole maps this Blairsville, PA Walmart, and see the aerial view. Before, I thought this might be a very rural area, and obviously he didn't hurt anyone, and took a prized trophy size buck, so what is the big deal other than being caught. But after seeing how big the highway was and that there are businesses across the road (looks like a McDees), yep, he is stupid. Not sure if this link will work, if it does, view it in satilitite or earth view.   http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&qscrl=1&rlz=1T4GGNI_enUS490US490&ion=1&bav=on.2,or.r_qf.&bvm=bv.44342787,d.eWU&biw=1280&bih=603&wrapid=tlif136447102004310&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=walmart+blairsville,+pa&fb=1&gl=us&hq=walmart&hnear=0x89cb36443495fbe1:0x4d9254da408cbeed,Blairsville,+PA&cid=0,0,15408529097761520214&sa=X&ei=8yxUUfabBpHW9QSj04HABw&ved=0CJIBEPwSMAA

I think the term is broadly used by the media to bring a high light to the story.  Examples that I have seen, felons in the possession of a gun, sometimes is referring to an illegal gun.  Any of the 4473 questions that you are on the wrong side of the fence can be an intrepretation of an illegal gun, and then the phyiscal and mechancial aspects of the gun itself may violate the federal gun laws, i.e. sawed off shotgun, removal of the serial number, etc.  I am sure there are many more, but these are a top of my head this morning.    Regarding inaminate comment, yeah I see your point.  The media often personafies inaminate objects to whip up the story, do draw attention, to stir up a contraversy.  Media is for profit, the more people reads/listens to thier stories, the more money they can make.  Some media outlets just whip it up to a puke point, CNN, MSNBC, big three, etc.

its anyones guess, so I quickly made a B line to the nearest.....

Which Howard Leights do you have, which model?  The reason I ask, I spent some considerable time on this subject a few months ago researching, because I too suffer from big head (litterally), and I found these to work perfectly for my head size, Howard Leight by Honeywell R-01902 Impact Pro Electronic Shooting Earmuffs.  The seal and fit are excellent. 

Bentons is the best free museum there is.  They don't charge to park or charge a entry fee (not yet anyway).  That is where I go to take tours of guns, fondle, touch and see many differnt guns, safes, and accessories.  Only a wealthy fool or a uninformed guy who is desperate and does not want to do his homework will buy from there.  That was long before Sandy Hook too.

I still think the elephant in the room is components to make 22 ammo to begin with.  There can be only so many brass sheeting suppliers and those guys have capacity issues as well, not to mention power, and etc.  The same similiar components that are shared with pistol rounds and 5.56/223.    Here is an exercise with numbers, there are 317,000,000 people in the United States, of this populous, this data source suggests that 30-34% of the U.S. population owns a gun, so roughly 100,000,000 gun owners.   If 100% of this group wanted just 1,000 rounds of 22 from CCI, it would take CCI  25,000 mfg days to provide this inventory, or 68 years assuming 24/7/365 mfg days in a year.  If CCI just quadruple production instantaneously, it would still take 16 years.  This assumes no one shoots up any inventory along the way causing more demand.   Now of course 317M people includes kids and the elderly.  100M gun owners do not all shoot 22.  In the scale of things, I can see that it will take some time for manufactuerors like CCI to catch up. 

After this video I was prowling around on CCI's website, just some FYI:   http://www.cci-ammunition.com/education/faqs.aspx   We are currently experiencing high demand for our products. We appreciate your patience and support and remain committed to serving all of our customers, from hunters and sport shooters to those who protect our country and our streets. Q: Why is ammunition in certain calibers so hard to find? A: The current market and environment is causing stronger than usual demand for products in our industry. Q: Are certain contracts taking ammunition away from civilians? A: No. We remain committed to serving all channels of our business. The majority of our product serves the commercial market. Q: Why can't you just make more ammunition? A: Our facilities operate 24-hours a day. We are continually making process improvements to increase our efficiency and investing in capital and personnel where we have sustained demand. We are bringing additional capacity online again this year. Q: What is your stance on the current gun legislation? A: We support the second amendment and responsible gun ownership. We remain fully engaged in the legislative and regulatory process to provide the most accurate and comprehensive information to decision makers. Like most major manufacturers in our industry, we are also members of the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF). This organization helps represent our industry and our customers before federal, state and local government entities. More information about legislation and our industry's positions can be found at www.nssf.org.

go shut the FRONT door, when.......

this monkey that....

Justin Bieber who had been arrested for.....

I have actually been reloading now say 2 months, and I have been a shooter close to 40 years.  I just finished shooting my first 500 rounds of both 9mm and 45auto that I re-loaded.  I had two non-fires, but when I rotated the round in the chamber and pulled the trigger they fired (maybe someone can share what happened).  Anyway, I have enjoyed reloading and I am using a single stage.  I am quite excited, I am going to have my first batch of 223 this week.  The labor and love I have poured over my Lake City brass has been tremendous, I am not so sure I can shoot them now, and I am for dang sure when I do, I am going to pick up my LC brass.    I wished I had made the switch to reloading years ago.  My problem, I was looking through the cost prism and drinking the cost factor koolaide, and not the availabilty of ammo prism and its nasty koolaide.  Once I switched my ammo model, around past Christmas, I have jumped deep into reloading, and I now reload 9mm, 45auto, 40S&W, and 223.  Later this year I will try 270 and 30-30, and then I am going to move to 12 ga shotgun shells.  I love to shoot sporting clays, I probably have spent hundreds of dollars on 12 ga over the past 5 years.  I have made a promise to myself, I want to re-load and shoot somewhere around 10K rounds before I move on to the progressive stuff for brass reloads.  And for sure it will be the big D when I make the move!  Dillon that is!

Lets try this again, it is a resolution and not an actual bill of law, but it is symbolic since the demorcatic controlled Senate votes to approve an amendment preventing the U.S. from joining the U.N. bill.   This is the amendment that was voted on and passed that was attached to S.Con Res.8 http://beta.congress.gov/amendment/113th-congress/senate-amendment/139   S.Con.Res.8 Senate Budget FY2014, passing the Senate on 3/23. http://beta.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/senate-concurrent-resolution/8

and Jimmy was arrested for having his dead corpse brother along for a ride (Billy died in 1988), and he was booked and locked up with.....

Just some other resources to consider, Craigslist has some reloading supplies from time to time, just type in the word RELOADING.  There are always someone selling brass.  Just be very diligent if its a good deal or not.  Also, I have had some success in buying Lake City brass from Gunbroker at reasonable pricing, just sort by listed first.  Usually it does not last long on GB.  Regarding finding brass at shooting ranges, there are some out there if you will just look.  I know of one that always has the common brass weekly at very reasonable pricing.