gun and ammo prices

GUN AND AMMO PRICES


As soon as wheat goes up a hundred percent, it seems my minions are busy stretching, yawning, scratching their junk and blissfully ignoring my calls to man the battle stations, gird their loins and prepare for their inevitable doom. I mean, hey, what’s so important about wheat, right? You only need it every day for the rest of your miserable existence. Wheat is a consumable, and you need lots of it for the apocalypse. However, guns, being a one time purchase, increase fifty percent and suddenly everyone is in a lather. They beseech me with e-mails and letters and fly in by private plain to all ask the burning question. What in the hell is going on. Okay, I might have exaggerated slightly on the last part. Most of my minions don’t get very bothered or ask a lot of questions. But, writing for a group of red blooded all-American studs such as yourselves ( with a few studettes thrown in to keep it interesting and to make sure I don’t start swearing too darn much ), I just naturally assumed you would all do that.

*

The Great Ammo Price Increase is a question we’ve all been asking. Well, we WERE all asking about it, then a few half baked answeres were thrown as pearls before swine ( I did my part in the charade ) and everyone forgot about it and went back to acting like they had all the answers about which pistol caliber is better or if thirty cal is better than a souped up rimfire ( most favored answer- whichever one is capable of wasting the most ammo the quickest! ). Let me just explain that I have all the answers ( how many Jim’s does it take to screw in a light bulb?- One. He holds the bulb and the world revolves around him ). So I can’t imagine why you all even bother to debate it. But sometimes the answer takes too long, and that really irks me to no end. Such was the ammo price increase. Here is my newest answer. I’ll wager that the price of ammunition went down right after the hostilities in Iraq were mostly ended, after all the factions were promised oil revenue ( yes, thousand year old religious differences can be paved over with black gold ). They didn’t drop to the same level as before, but if you compare the before and after prices to Russian ammo, I think the increases are about the same. Which would be accounted for by the increase in oil, hence smelting, manufacturing and shipping increases. All ammo went up due to petroleum price increases, but western ammo saw the spike due to too much demand in Iraq. Okay, honestly, I can’t remember my previous theories. I probably already said it was due to the Iraq War. But my new theory ties in the timing to both increases and the decrease of prices to the time intense combat halted. The supply of brass was too limited to not be effected by price when far too much was needed. Russian ammo, being enameled steel, didn’t face the same supply squeeze. It was only affected by increased fuel costs.

*

Now, how about that firearm increase? Here I think Obammy was the main culprit. Or, it could have been Clinton. Just the threat of her being elected, with her gun control stance being recorded already ( not just her blathering but her actions in her first two terms ), got every Tom, Dick and Paranoid Pete’s rushing down to the gun store to fill the arsenal ( my other theory being that the gun purchases tapped them out in the weak economy and they didn’t buy enough ammo to spike the price as much as the war did ). Previously, there were enough surplus war guns available for these kinds of surges. But now, the natural end in their supply was sped up and simultaneously several different kinds of guns shot up in price. The poor gun owners couldn’t afford anything but the surplus, and the entire inventory outside of Russian guns was squeezed. Since the Russian guns barely moved in price, and the semi’s that were not patented and still being manufactured quickly returned to the same price, to me it makes sense.

*

Now, I could be way off here. My time frame might be wrong by a few years. Hey, I’m not embarrassed to just throw a theory out there with little or no research. If I’m wrong, I go to another improbable answer. If I’m right, you all make approving sounds and we move on to another vexing question. Remember, I’ve been harping on ore and energy draw down for some time. I told you we went from six percent silver imports to satisfy our domestic market, to needing sixty percent today, ten years later, AFTER we no longer used silver in conventional photography. That alone should be enough to convince you that buying silver bullion is a winning strategy, regardless of what our economy is doing. Obviously the metals in brass, copper and zinc, are getting scarce and/or are getting much more expensive to process.

*

Also keep in mind that firearms values are all about trade offs. The perfect survivalist rifle, an H&K 91 ( or, probably more realistically, its generic quality version ), is a nice chunk of Benjamins. The Enfield, at the old price, had its virtues far outweighing its vices. Not at the new price. You are paying new price for a used gun. That isn’t all that accurate and used funny ammo. Before, you were buying a 80/20 battle rifle ( eighty percent of the performance for twenty percent of the price ). Sadly, no more. Sure, a great design. Just not worth the price anymore. And you know how I feel about the Russian gas bleed safety issue. Still not worth the cheap price. And my last firearms article, on small calibers to conserve ammo? Something you need to consider when ammo prices go up again. At surplus ammo prices, the Enfield’s lack of accuracy was not an issue. Pop two or three down range, you’ll hit something. At a buck a round, not a sound strategy.

*

I know we touch on sacred ground here. Homelessness, underwater houses, mass unemployment, no problem. But when you have to react and adapt at no longer being able to afford spray and pray, the sky is indeed falling. Just remember, it is usually cheaper to replace guns than stockpile their ammo ( if you are stocking up for doomsday ).

END
The Official Bison Web Site http://www.bisonpress.com/

*
My e-mail is jimd303@netzero.com
*
Anyone can submit a guest article. No minimum word length, no writing skill necessary ( just get the idea across ). You retain copyright ( this must be your original writing ) and I’ll just use the once. I’ve yet to turn down an article, just don’t use the N Bomb or libel another that can sue me. Send by e-mail ( please, label as “guest article” so I can find it easily later ). Payment will be your removal from my enemies list.
*
By the by, all my writing is copyrighted. For the obtuse out there.
*
Please support Bison by buying through the Amazon links in each article. You can purchase anything, not just the linked item. Enter Amazon through my item link and then go to whatever other item you desire. As long as you don’t leave Amazon until after the order is placed, I get credit for your purchase. Thank you.