Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Run on Guns and Ammo

I haven't commented much on the current gun and ammunition shortage, mainly because I'm stocked up and haven't been paying much attention. Yesterday, I had occasion to go into a local Walmart that I don't frequent much anymore. I went by sporting goods and decided to check up on the situation. Plenty of shotgun shells if you want 12 or 20. Not completely full shelves, but plenty. Didn't check specific loads. Some 28 Gauge. NO .410. Only ammo was a couple of boxes of some big game round that I couldn't make out the caliber of and a box of 7mm Rem. Mag. NOTHING else. No .22. Nothing.

Gun shelves were empty. Dunno if this means Walmart is no longer selling firearms or if they were just out. There were places for a lot of guns along with prices, but they were devoid of merch. There were a bunch of inline muzzleloaders. Those were the only guns there.

Corresponded with another poster on here about it and decided to run to the localest farm store. These guys have just recently started carrying firearms. They have a nice selection. Better than Walmart, since they carry pistols too. I was in there about a month ago and checked it out. They were well stocked then. Not as well stocked last night but much better than Walmart. If you wanted a shotgun, you could pick from several different brands and models. One, I couldn't see what, maybe a Maverick, was a pump with plastic stocks...$199. They had plenty of Heritage Rough Rider .22's...serviceable. Had a Ruger Single Six, couple of SP101's...one or two Citadel 45 autos, some Taurus 9mm's. Plenty of deer rifles and 22 long guns. You could arm yourself if you had just dropped down from outer space and were concerned about Biden and ANTIFA.

Ammo was more problematic. Again...plenty of shotgun shells. Some .22's but no bulk that I could see. Just smallish 100 and 50 rd. boxes. No 9mm or 45 ACP. Some deer rifle calibers. 44 Spec. and 10 mm. 500 Mag. Maybe was some 38 Spec.

First mistake was going to Walmart.

Ain’t no way I’d step foot in there

I buy my groceries at Honey’s in Kanab.

Makes me wonder why Ruger and Smith& Wesson are down about 10% for the month. Looks like high demand would drive the stock price up.

You live in Utah?

I think there’s a second wave of ammo craziness coming.

VA background check approval number was A520xxx on Thanksgiving morning. This evening it was A522xxx.

In other words, 20k approvals in 8 days, or 2,500 approvals a day. Some number of those are multiple sales.

The fastest way to get Americans to do something is to tell them they can't do it.

An hour or so East of Ethan and all the Walmart’s have guns, assuming you want the low end typical Savage and various Turkish stuff they only carry around here. Was out in western Kansas a few weeks ago and they actually had some walnut, 700 BDLs and Rugers. Shells are shotgun only. Plus some .350 Legend.

Academy has been empty other than steel. Couldn’t but a lead she’ll with a shot size bigger than 8s a few weeks ago. Not that I needed any.

Local farm store (Atwood’s) had quite a decent selection of entry level long guns and a decent selection of polymer pistols. Their ammo was 12 and 20 gauge, 8s only. A few weeks ago they had Golden Pheasant 5s.

Dunham’s had quite a mix of guns. Shotgun ammo. No rifle except .350 Legend. Maybe I’ll build one? .41 Magnum pistol ammo was their selection.

Friend of a friend has a hardware/gun store. Saw today he had CCI small pistol primers. $150/1000. Gouging? Yeah. Or keeping some on the shelf for somebody that really needs it? Whatever.

A month ago he told me he ordered $40k of ammo. The ETA of the order was 1 year.

The same disappointing empty shelves here in the land of Enchantment.

Sportsman's Warehouse had an online ad, so I looked in on it, specifically for "Guns and Ammo". About 3 pages of guns pictured, with three hits for 12 ga shotgun shells. Then I noticed that a filter was available, showing only the stuff in stock, available to buy.

ZERO products were shown. Same for smokeless powder, zero availability.
And primers, the same.
Bullets were better, especially if you shoot 50 caliber or 32 handguns.

We have to hope that we put away a little extra when it was available. I already shared some primers with a 'Fire friend, but there is no way for the supply to match the demand for an unforeseen(?) spike in gun and ammo sales. Shortages have spread into the reloading community in spades, from what I have seen.

Mee-maw and Paw-Paw told me all I need is my single shot 16 gauge that their Gam-Gam left them before going off to the war.

Got any bullets that fit?

Plenty of primers, powder, components, and loaded ammo in Northern Colorado.

A bit surprising actually...

Not me, I go to Glaziers. Closer to the coffee shop. And Houstons!

Head on down to Duck’s!!!!

LOL

Where? I could run down there tomorrow if we are talking about bricks of primers. The last time I was foraging in FoCo the shelves were pretty empty.

Back in the day we would hit Honeys in the morning for fresh fried chicken before jeeping around So Utah, or heading to lake Powell.

Back in the day we would hit Honeys in the morning for fresh fried chicken before jeeping around So Utah, or heading to lake Powell.

A big yes on Houston's. Back in the.day, the Parry Lodge would fix you a nice box lunch in the morning
to take with you while exploring. It's all changed now but the Hollywood star pics are still there on the walls. Went looking for the.Paria movie set a few years ago but it had burned down. It was pretty cool and they made a lot of movies there.

You can thank my great, great, great granddad that there is a Kanab or Honey's. Lehi Stewart, pioneered Kanab, his statue is on the main drag.

Back in the day we would hit Honeys in the morning for fresh fried chicken before jeeping around So Utah, or heading to lake Powell.

A big yes on Houston's. Back in the.day, the Parry Lodge would fix you a nice box lunch in the morning
to take with you while exploring. It's all changed now but the Hollywood star pics are still there on the walls. Went looking for the.Paria movie set a few years ago but it had burned down. It was pretty cool and they made a lot of movies there.

Scheel's in Johnstown.

Fully stocked at normal prices.

Sportsman's off I-25 and Hwy 34 had good stock too. My club (Liberty Firearms) also mostly full.

Crazy guy on the end of town, old gas station. Makes glazed ceramic coffee mugs.

He wanted to show me his cistern.

I left, had to bum rush the Hampton inn for breakfast and ice for the coolers.