Archive for the 'Ammunition' Category

Shooting Illustrated.

Once the ammunition is purchased, where and how it is stored will determine how long it will be viable for its intended use.

Heat and moisture are the two most prevalent enemies of ammunition, followed by chemical contamination.

Temperatures consistently in excess of 150 to 170 degrees Fahrenheit tend to affect the propellant in a negative manner. These temperatures can be reached in car trunks, metal buildings or other uninsulated enclosures subjected to direct sunlight—especially in the southern tiers of the United States.

Anytime ammunition is subjected to continuous exposure to moisture, corrosion is likely to occur, which degrades the performance or disables the usability of the cartridges all together.

Chemical contamination is sometimes the silent killer of ammunition. Although much of today’s quality ammunition is protected by sealant-treated primers and bullets during manufacture, exposure to penetrating oils or cleaning solvents will degrade the sealants over time, thereby neutralizing the priming compound, the propellant or both, rendering the cartridge useless.

Ammoniated solvents used for removing copper from a bore are detrimental to brass cartridge cases, even with minimal exposure. Since brass is 70 percent copper (with the remaining 30 percent being zinc), ammoniated solvents can create a dangerous condition causing the brass to crack without having been fired. This could cause a hazardous pressure release during firing due to the weakened condition of the brass case.

Ammunition storage can be as simple as storing it in a safe area similar in environment to the office within which you work or the home in which you live. Keeping the temperature and humidity levels similar to what is comfortable for you and the family is an easy way to stay well within the range suitable for ammunition storage.

Many individuals who purchase and store quantities of ammunition are served well by storing it in sealed, military-surplus ammunition containers. Kept in a climate controlled, secure location, away from unauthorized personnel, these containers will preserve the ammunition indefinitely.

The reason there is no expiration date on a box of currently manufactured ammunition is because, when stored properly, it is projected to have an unlimited life span.

As an aside, I personally have fired ammunition loaded more than 100 years ago with excellent results. Advancements in primers, powder, cases, projectiles as well as in storage containers and accessories have improved the reliability of ammunition to a point that, properly treated, there is no reason for concern for your ammunition’s longevity.

Use of a sealed container (like a safe) along with desiccant would also help.

I have a problem with his conclusions because of the large difference in sample sizes between persons shot with the .357 magnum and .44 magnum.

AllOutdoor.

That’s correct. You are not seeing things or dreaming. Check out the photo once again. The price tag on that 38 Special +P+ ammunition is $110 a box of 50 rounds. Outrageous. This is just one example of current pricing of ammo at a recent arms show due to the ammo crisis.

At a recent gun show, I recently saw packages of 100 rounds of 22 LR ammo selling for $40 — and that was a good buy.

Ammo at inflated prices? That 22 rimfire ammo mentioned above only 9 months ago was selling for $15 a box. The ironic part is that any available ammo was flying off the tables once buyers got over the sticker shock and pried their wallets out of their pockets. Some buyers came by the tables two or three times before they bought. It took a while for the high-priced reality to settle in.

What’s the deal? To be honest, no one really seems to know. Dealer after dealer told me their suppliers and distributors were simply “out” of ammunition — and they were not accepting any back orders. Many felt like some suppliers were withholding stock to keep the prices high so they could cash in while the getting was good. We’ve seen that before as well.

There were no indications of when ammo supplies might be fulfilled in the future. Smaller dealers said they believed that ammo supplies were being allocated to their biggest dealers and the little guys were just left with nothing. It’s getting to be a dire situation if you are really in need of even just a few boxes of ammo. It’s getting to be the same with guns. One dealer told me he would be out of business in six months if firearms supplies did not open up.

Even common everyday hunting loads for the 30-06 Sprg, 270 Winchester, 30-30 Winchester, or the 243 Winchester were non-existent at this gun show. Deer hunting season is still open here and hunters were frantically searching for even one last box to close out the season. There was almost none to be had, and what was available was triple the price it would have cost twelve months ago.

The ammo crisis is hard to understand, given manufacturers’ reports that ammo production is at top capacity. There have been local news reports of the Winchester rimfire factory in Oxford, MS running full blast. If so, where in the heck is all the ammo going? Even the big box stores are out of ammo, too, including Walmart and Bass Pro Shops here locally.

I know that in my neck of the woods it may be something, I don’t know what, alluded to in the article, but it’s something else too.

I dropped into my local Academy Sports a few days ago and talked to one of the guys behind the counter.

Buyers know when the trucks come, and when they do, there is no telling what they will bring, what caliber, or how much.  But it’s usually Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and he told me folks start lining up at around 0230 hours on all three of those days.

He said, “If you’re not here in line by 0600, you won’t get any ammo.”

It’s being hoarded for sure, but then, I live in a firearm friendly county.

I found this video very interesting, and he’s only discussing the engineering of outdoor shooting ranges.  Inside it becomes even more complicated with sound-absorbing materials, ventilation, filtration of hazardous materials in exhaust air (lead, copper, etc.).

So let me get this straight.  You want to produce ammunition because hunting is a sport in which social distancing is practiced and social distancing is a good thing.

Meh.

Who sent you out to say that – your PR team?  I don’t think you understand your clientele.  Fire your PR team, now.

People will keep buying good ammunition at the best price they can get, but not because you see hunting as a social distancing sport.

And now that we’re being honest with each other, I don’t really appreciate the insulting tone of your first video.

Link.

I’m guessing this is a Bass Pro Shop or Cabela’s.

From WiscoDave.

If anyone wants to know what the temperature of the country feels like at the current moment, we just sold 300,000 rounds of 9mm ammunition in less than 15 minutes.@Timcast @sourpatchlyds @philthatremains @IanCrossland @AdamCrigler @iansmithfitness @MLChristiansen

— Fenix "Kulak" Ammunition (@FenixAmmunition) January 15, 2021

This isn’t helping availability or cost.

I wouldn’t doubt it, there’s money to be made.  I’m not certain who’s declaring that no ammunition is being made, but I don’t think they understand basic supply and demand economics.

That’s not the name of a court case, but I expect it will be in the future.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has accused the Fort Worth-based website Cheaper Than Dirt, which primarily sells firearms, ammunition and hunting gear, of price gouging at the start of the pandemic.

The AG’s office identified over 4,000 sales that involved price gouging and has directed Cheaper Than Dirt to pay $402,786 in refunds to consumers, according to court documents filed this month.

Over 100 people have complained to the AG’s office about Cheaper Than Dirt, the Houston Chronicle reported earlier this year.

The same week that Gov. Greg Abbott made a pandemic-related disaster declaration in Texas, ammunition orders to Cheaper Than Dirt substantially increased. In response to the increased demand for its products, the website raised the prices on hundreds of its products, according to the AG’s office.

The Texas AG’s office has identified ammunition as a necessity and, as a result, is arguing that those price hikes were against the Texas Business and Commerce Code. The code forbids businesses from “taking advantage of a disaster” by selling “fuel, food, medicine, lodging, building materials, construction tools or another necessity at an exorbitant or excessive price.”

Additionally, the following weekend that Abbott issued the disaster declaration, Cheaper Than Dirt manually raised its prices outside of its normal schedule.

“Making these manual ‘real-time’ price changes caused confusion for consumers because the prices consumers saw on the website pages when selecting items for purchase were different from the prices that appeared in the final check-out cart,” the AG’s office said in court documents.

Some of the comments I’ve seen online point to declarations of guns and ammunition as being essential and necessary, and you can’t benefit from that in a time of emergency (not that I agree with Covid being an “emergency”) and then raise prices without running afoul of the law.

On the other hand, making stores and products available in an emergency isn’t the same thing as buying them for you, or even ensuring price controls.

I don’t believe in price controls.  No free market advocate believes in price controls.  I’ve seen the CTD ads in my in-box and if I stupidly open them, I usually laugh out loud at the prices.

You can find better ammo prices elsewhere by a large margin.  It just requires a little work.  I choose to ignore the CTD ads, almost never visit their web site, and just don’t shop there.  They’ll probably never get any business back from me.

That’s how it’s supposed to work.  Screw the customer, lose your customer base.  The government should have nothing to do with it.  However, I will say that letting people drop things in online carts and then raising the prices is pretty stupid.  There should be a time-out on carts, and users should be informed what that is.