Foraging For Ammo

Went out trolling the Wal-Marts today for .22LR for an upcoming Appleseed. Learned many things.

1. Each Wal Mart store orders its products at the beginning of the year in anticipation of sales throughout the pending year. This means orders for ammo were placed in December for projected sales over the next 12 months. In the first half of December Obama was coming off a campaign in which he had repeatedly said he was not coming after our guns and was a supporter of the second amendment. This changed on Dec 14 with the Sandy Hook shooting, and became new policy with his inaugural speech Jan 22. By that time orders had been placed.

2. With the inaugural, all the election promises expired, and the rush was on. Small numbers of people were buying $500-600 blocks of ammo and squirreling them away, at least until the next gun show. Caught flat-footed, Wal Mart made the sales.

3. By now, W-M is on to this trick, and has instituted 2 box per customer limits to individual purchases. Hoarders are bringing in confederates to help them.

4. While I was there, I spoke with a Denver cop who told me that the DPD had insufficient ammo to allow for routine training, once every 90 days. One supposes the rest of the Colorado cops are in the same boat.

5. Shipments into stores coma at different times for different stores, and sales are regulated differently. At one, the trucks are expected around 9PM and ammo is immediately moved to the floor and rationed. At another, the shipment arrives at varying times at night, ammo is moved to the floor, and rationing begins at 8 AM. Neither store can predict shipment dates. Technique is to have evening coffee at one store, then plan on breakfast at the other one until you get lucky.

I suspect that the above story will be true weather you shop at W-M or Bass Pro. At this point the pessimists are expecting this to be the norm for the next 6-12 months.