Monday, March 23, 2009

Falcon to Falconer: "I Can't Hear You"

With apologies to William Butler Yeats, I wonder: do any of you enjoy the shooting sports? Do any of you reload ammunition? It is interesting, at least, to contemplate some prices: $80 for a box of 500 highly-generic .45 ACP bullets -- not ammunition, mind you, just bullets. Before you can fire the weapon, you'll also need brass $106 for 500; and you'll need primers (not expensive, but you'll note here that MidwayUSA, the reloader's supermarket, is "out of stock, no back-order"); and you'll need powder ($58 for 4 pounds, but admittedly 4 pounds will load a very large number of .45 ACP cartridges).

Well, anyway, you get the idea. Shooting supplies have become very expensive and, for some things, hard to find. Obama weapons-ban fever? Maybe. Bailout fury? Perhaps. Things falling apart? The center failing to hold? I dunno. I'll hope for the best ... whatever that might be.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think I saw the answer on page 849 of the stimulus bill:

"To foster compliance with federal regulations (and stimulate sales of Obama t-shirts), all sales of re-loading supplies shall be taxed at a 50% rate."

My uncle, who is probably a charter member of the NRA, re-loads for himself and all his friends, and has for decades. Haven't talked to him lately, but I bet he's found the best prices.

lemming said...

Is it too much to hope that these shortages are because we have sold all of these supplies to other nations?

probably - unless the govt is stockpiling arms for the war against the drug cartels in Mexico. International affairs through studying ammunition statements, I like it.

Anonymous said...

"unless the govt is stockpiling arms for the war against the drug cartels in Mexico"

Far more likely that they're stockpiling to get them out of the hands of citizens.

lemming said...

aka - I am trying to be an optimist. Emphasis upon trying. I'm just so tired of being cynical and depressed. There's just got to be a silver lining to all of this someplace.

Anonymous said...

I know how you feel, lemming. The only silver lining I know of is that the rapture has to be getting close.

Jim Wetzel said...

Sorry, I haven't been back here for a couple of days.

As lemming suggested, I forgot one of the more-likely explanations: between Uncle's explicitly military advantures all over the globe, and the ferocious militarization of "police" here in the Fatherland, the dearth and costliness of ammunition and its components may very well be explained by government's ravenous appetites distorting the market and displacing consumption by peaceable civilians.

It's a funny thing, how the government is always telling peasants like me that firearms of silly, silly things for us to be possessing -- comepletely useless -- while they seem to do nothing except acquire guns 'n' ammo. Odd, very odd.

And I certainly agree that there is hope; indeed, I'd say there is certainty that, at the end, all will be very well indeed. I'm reminded of one of my former Operation Rescue participants (all right, he was more of a ringleader), who was sued civilly, and successfully, by the holding company of the local abortion mill. After it turned out that everything that his judgement-proofed rear end nominally owned was owed to this fine cannibal outfit, he assured them that they need not worry, simply because he had nothing for them to take. "My Lord," he said, "owns the cattle on a thousand hills, and He is coming back here someday. And when He does, He'll settle my accounts with you." I'm not sure how happy that made them.