Sir,
Be advised, Cabela’s here in Fort Worth, Texas is sold out on all ammo except 22 LR and shotgun shells. A friend who went there today was amazed to find all ammo shelves emptied. The last time I went there (shortly before the election) the place was a mad house. Standing room only, many people turned down on their background checks (or delayed). I considered myself lucky to get in and out of there in an hour. I got my new toy, no problem and plenty of ammo “at sale price”. Cheaper Than Dirt’s prices have doubled or tripled. They will not honor their printed catalog prices and I consider them as garbage now. They have lost my business.
Thanks for your outstanding book. I am a Viet Nam veteran and have gained additional insight in what is to come and preparations to make. I lent my original copy to some younger Marines and it is still making the rounds. I bought two additional copies later. I check your site almost daily as do most of my friends who have awakened. Keep up the good work and God Bless you Sir! – Robert A.
Jim:
Reader David B. may boycott Cheaper Than Dirt for raising prices on full capacity magazines. But he has little understanding of basic economics. CTD would be stupid not to charge what the market will bear. Thanks for your great blog. I check it every day. – Ira W
Jim,
For many months, I have been imploring family and close friends to get prepared by stocking up on items likely to be banned under and Obama Administration. Folks like Diane Feinstein will be energized and empowered under an Obama Administration to do what they tried to do but couldn’t with the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban.
The chickens have come home to roost and as you pointed out in your recent post (11/7), supplies of ammo and magazines are drying up fast. I purchased a few “top-off” items late last week and even today. But what I’m seeing from some of the traditional suppliers is truly frightening. For example:
AIM Surplus – 10-to-14 business days for them to process orders received today. Who knows what will be left by the time they get around to the newest received orders.
Natchez Shooters Supplies – Rationing Glock full/high capacity mags.
Several local friends have told me of long lines at traditional brick and mortar stores that sell these items.
In order to help out fellow SurvivalBlog readers, may I suggest they and their friends look at alternative source suppliers? For example, there is a goodly supply of ammo being sold on forums such as AR15.com, GlockTalk.com and similar forums. Find a nearby seller that has what you want and buy it. Similarly, online suppliers like LA Police Gear, 44Mag.com and OMB’s Express Police Supply are excellent and dependable sources. I bought 10 Glock M18 33 round.mags for under $27 each delivered from OMB today. That won’t last long! On AR15.com, there are a number of reliable suppliers advertising in the Ammunition forum. For past experience, I have found G2GTactical.com to be a fast, reliable supplier with reasonable prices.
I could go on but you get the idea and I hope your readers will to. The clock is ticking and some folks are way behind the power curve.
All the best! – Jay in Florida
James–
My gun show report for today is as follows.
As a friend and I pulled onto Highway 2 from 9 heading to the Monroe [, Washington] fairgrounds we hit a terrible traffic stoppage. It took 35 minutes to travel the last six miles. Every east bound car was pulling into the fairgrounds–all of them. We get there and my friend who is not a club member has to wait to pay to get in the gun show. It was a 45 minute wait line to get in. The membership enrollment section was bang up packed.
I fought my way to the ammo department for X’s AK ammo. It was all gone except for some soft point. I called him to see if he wanted some and when I went in to get it.But it had already sold. When I left the show, all battle rifle ammo was gone. It sold out in one hour.
I did not see many sporting rifles for sale for the first time in a long time.[ The dealers brought] nearly all battle rifles and semi-auto assault style rifles.
Magazine prices have already climbed by about 7 bucks per magazine with the average price now around 25 bucks. They were $13.50 each in June of this year.
There was a general air of urgency. You could feel it and it was hard to resist. It was soon evident that all the important stuff was going to be off the shelves and into closets around the county. I suspect it will be more then a month before factories can make up what has been sold around the nation in the last few days.
Even though magazines and ammunition was off the shelves and at inflated prices the rifles themselves. They were not marked up at all. I was happy to see that..
My friend C. bought an original late 1700s flintlock from middle eastern origin. Looked like it was on a camel’s back many times… It had an integral folding bayonet the length of a short sword. I told him the ATF would be grinding that bayonet off next year because it makes the old musket an assault rifle and the weird curving stock could be mistaken as a pistol grip –another evil feature that will call for men in black coming in the windows and doors next winter. He looked a bit like he was having a stroke and I remembered I should not speak to men in there 80s in so a casual and dry mouthed way. Think so? he asked.
I said let’s hope I really am joking and he sincerely agreed. So did the 20 guys who stopped to listen to the quick exchange and admiration of the ancient piece of machinery.
It was still a good day even though I bought almost nothing because everything I wanted was gone.
I found only two AK magazines made from steel, in acres of guns. I saw plenty of plastic mags but X. did not want any of those for his AK.
All the PMAGs in the world must be sold out now…. If it said “Magpul”, then it was soon sold.
Got some good books from the Militia Of Montana (MOM) table
All in al, this served as a first hand look at what is being reported on the news every night. Every round of battle ammo is now gone. Thanks Mr. Obama:. Look what you made us do! Think of the money being made. Let’s all hope our new supreme leader is busy messing with nationalizing the auto industry rather then dreaming of ways to pave streets with our liberty. – KT
Hi Jim,
While I completely agree that one should stock-up on full capacity magazines, I don’t think you should read too much into the “Cheaper Than Dirt” (CTD) prices. The company is just poorly/inaccurately named. It may simply be a coincidence, but MidwayUSA has many magazines on sale now.
Here are Midway’s prices for the items you listed:
Glock Model 20, 21, & 22 full capacity factory magazines: $23.99
Glock 33 rd. 9mm magazines: $34.99
I went directly to the Beta CMAG web site and found the Mini-14 drum for for less than CTD’s price–$260 directly from the manufacturer.
Deals can still be had if folks search around and act quickly. Regards, – James S.
JWR Replies: There are still a few bargains out there, but supplies are obviously getting spotty. The folks at CDNN mentioned that they have sold out of all of their Springfield XD magazines, with the exception of the .40 S&W magazines. Adam at HKparts.net said that they now have 200+ orders pending, yet they still have good quantities of HK USP pistol magazines on hand. I heard that .44Mag.com has had a huge volume of sales, yet they have not yet noticeably increased their prices. (But I did note they now have their CMI M14 magazines and all of their Saiga magazines on back-order.) Supplies are definitely drying up! I hope that people took my advice back October, 2007: The Falling Dollar–Sheltering Your Assets in Steel and Alloy Tangibles. In today’s world, any top quality full capacity magazines are a fine investment.