Farmall Cub

I got bored with the weather so i went out browsing my local haunts(gun shops) today. Not really looking for anything special. I did get an eye full on the sticker prices on guns and the ammo. Some of the magnum rifle calibers are $50 to $70 a box of twenty. The regular calibers like the 30-06 are $30 to $45 now too. Even the surplus ammo isn't so cheap anymore too. At one time i was purchasing the Sellier & Bellot ammo in 7mm mauser at just $9 a box. This is an excellent accurate european manufactured ammo. Now its $19 a box. Its very accurate too. The russian wolf ammo seems to be the most affordable.

About the gun prices forget it everything is $100 and up much higher than just a while back. There are no afforadle handguns anymore unless your into the surplus ones. The hottest buy right now is a Czech CZ82 in 9mm mak. Its a military surplus pistol thats similair to the CZ83 with the same double action first shot features. I also noticed the military surplus rifles were all up over $100 too. I was even up in Kittery at the Kittery Trading Post and the higher price trend has hit up there too. I guess its all over our country. In my local gun shops the cases were empty on the used handguns too there weren't many left its slim pickens if your looking for something special.

I don't know how it is in your area but there trying to close every public shooting range here too. We have two left in my area. I guess to shoot soon we will need to join a gun club.

How is it in your area?

Used handguns are real scarce around here too, new S&W revolvers are hard to find as well. Ammo prices have led me back to reloading and casting my own pistol bullets. Can't have much fun with my 44 mags at 6.00 everytime I load the cylinder with factory ammo

I also still like to browse the shops, there is no place I like better than the KTP. My son has a couple of small shops here in western Ma. that he likes to trade with, which he does as often as Ed changes socks, every couple of weeks to once a month. When I look in the cases I am glad I bought my Smith and Wessonss and Rugers a few years back. Now if that Smith and Wesson stock would just take off, good deal right now at $ 5.15 a share was better at $2. 30 about 6 months ago.

I been reloading since the 70's but the cheap affordable imported ammo has stopped me reloading for many years but the current prices on new ammo has me planning on buying the leadcasting equipment. I was given some reloading stuff and leadcasting stuff for free amd now i'm just missing some bullet molds and the sizers/lubers. Now i'm looking for a way to store gun powder too i'm thinking of an older fridge to keep my powder dry. And maybe a cooler for my primers.
Years ago they had sales on jacketed bullets and lead cast bullets so i'm stocked up too. But once i start shooting 3 to 4 days a week again it won't last long. I guess its time to purchase new brass too.

I did figure out one way to load my 38special, 357mag and my 44special and my 44mag. I load lead cast in my 38 special and in my 44 special. Mainly because i use almost the same powder load but i get a higher velocity out of the shorter special cases plus why waste the larger cases with special loads when they can be magnum loads.

BTW; It funny we really don't see any older large frame S&W's or Ruger Security six's in the used handgun cases that often. Right now there are none to be found used at all. A few years back we would see at least one or two on a visit. I seen a lot of 45acp auto's but not the choice ones i have seen before. Its been picked over for the better ones.

If you get your C&RFFL03 Curio & Relic Collectors license you can buy off the net surplus military guns plus older modern guns at affordable wholesale prices. This license also allows up to purchased discounted gun parts (numrich) and ammo at http://www.midwayusa.com at the dealer prices too. You can save more than the $30 the license costs us on your very first purchase. The C&RFFL03 license takes about 30 days to get it from the BATF.

Lets face it the days of the 4 of us going to the range and blowing off 500 rounds of every caliber are long gone nowadays. It was affordable at one time.

My story is I went from the high priced surplus ammo which was very scarce in the early 70's to the flood of surplus ammo in the early 80's to the flood of new imported ammo in the past few decades which is very accurate and very affordable. To the surplus military ammo drying up and the new ammo going thru the roof. We knew this was going to happen over a decade ago that the ammo would dryup first.

I was shocked to see my buddy shoot his grand one day and shoot up 6 boxes of winchester ammo priced at $27 a box. Thats a costly day at the range and now the ammo is even higher. My 338wm ammo is $40 to $70 a box now. I shoot one round a year before hunting season to check the scope. I haven't reloaded for it yet because i can put two bullets thru the same hole at 100yds using winchester super X 225gr ammo. But i did purchase the dies for it.

I have been reloading since the sixties and i have saved a lot of money and i enjoy working up different loads in my rifles i noticed at Gander Mt.some of the weatherby ammo was over a hundred dollars a box.i went to a gun auction last week and we may be in a recession but the people at this sale had not heard about it a pre 64 model 88 winchester in .284 cal.brought 2,400 the Smith & Wessons were also bringing top dollar Mama Viv asked me what i bought when i got home i told her a hot dog was all i could afford.
Jim

I love the .22's because they are cheap and much easier on the ears...at least they USED to be cheap. Now you can hardly find the 550 ct boxes anymore, and the price has nearly doubled. Local Walmart used to have Federal .22 for $8.95.... yesterday I saw the same box for $16.95. Fortunately, I stocked up about 20 thousand rds..... should last me next yr:)

sgtbull wrote:I love the .22's because they are cheap and much easier on the ears...at least they USED to be cheap. Now you can hardly find the 550 ct boxes anymore, and the price has nearly doubled. Local Walmart used to have Federal .22 for $8.95.... yesterday I saw the same box for $16.95. Fortunately, I stocked up about 20 thousand rds..... should last me next yr:)

A while ago at walmart i seen a guy buy all the bricks of 22lr ammo he could carry. It was on sale that day. They seem to have 9mm & 45acp ammo time to time too priced right but its long gone when i get there.

Onetime in my home state i went looking for 8mm mauser soft point ammo to hunt with. The guy barked at me saying thats military ammo and we don't stock it. Then i seen the pile of 7,62x39 ammo sitting there thats for sks's and ak47's. Soon after we were up in Maine at the super walmart above Kenebuckport and they had plenty of new 8mm mauser soft point ammo. I found the PMC 8mm 170gr soft point ammo to be very accurate. Most of the new 8mm ammo is loaded on the low side. If the 8mm ammo is reloaded right to spec it has the same power as the 30-06. The germans used a gun powder in there 8mm rounds that was more powerful than the 30-06 but the gun powder isn't manufactured today.

I just paid $21.50 per box for 30/06 150 gr remington at a local shop in Hardwick. Is that a reasonable price? None of my friends reload, are either of you interested in brass? I don't shoot much but could start saving 38 and 357 and 30/06 brass. What does a block of 22 lr go for lately? I used to shoot my S&W Model 41 often and am thinking of doing more.

I forgot to mention. I used to do quite a lot of reloading a couple of year ago but they were beer bottles. Too busy, I haven't had the time to brew since I retired...

vtwarthog wrote:I just paid $21.50 per box for 30/06 150 gr remington at a local shop in Hardwick. Is that a reasonable price? None of my friends reload, are either of you interested in brass? I don't shoot much but could start saving 38 and 357 and 30/06 brass. What does a block of 22 lr go for lately? I used to shoot my S&W Model 41 often and am thinking of doing more.

I've seen Blazer on sale for 20 bucks, Rem & Win are about 28 for std velocity LR. If no one else wants the 38 spl, I could reload them for my wife.

There are plenty of handguns here in the gun shops but pricey, We never seam tp have a shortage of guns.
Boss

vtwarthog wrote:I forgot to mention. I used to do quite a lot of reloading a couple of year ago but they were beer bottles. Too busy, I haven't had the time to brew since I retired...

I did pick up some igman ammo, some priv-partizan and some FNM ammo when it was dirt cheap. I found some imported 30-06 FMJ ammo that was just $1.99 on clearance. Those days are long gone for sure.

Were just dusting off the reloading equipment right now to set up to run around another 6,000rds of 308 win. I have about 1 5 gallon bucket left to go. Running 1,000's at a time with my son on the press it goes pretty fast. I hope to shoot at least 3 or 4 times a week again to keep the edge.

I did find the sellier & bellot ammo very accurate in my 6,5mm swede mauser but its doubled in price now.

I was just browsing for ammo at my list of haunts on the net and seen they finally had some 9mm luger priced affordable like $179 for 1,000rds. I went back about a day later and its sold out already. This is the second time its happened to me at the same place. I hesitated and lost again. Its not important but i would like to stock up more.

Boss Hog wrote:There are plenty of handguns here in the gun shops but pricey, We never seam to have a shortage of guns.
Boss

I'm seeing less choices in the handgun cases and the prices are up a lot. At one time even the black eveil rifles sold out too.
For a country in recession the gun/ammo business is booming for some reason.

Well, In Northwest Florida, 12 ga.= about $13.99 20 ga.= $11.99 410= $16.99.. Dont know about anything else yet.

It's just my opinion but I'm convinced that the ammo manufacturers are holding us up.......just as the oil companies did a while back. They all claim to be running three shifts and cranking out ammo around the clock. If that is indeed the case, there's LOTS of ammo stacked somewhere besides on the store shelves. It's all smoke and mirrors guys and will turn around soon.