Report from the front lines on the so called "Ammo Panic"
There is no panic here as best I could tell.
I spent the weekend selling ammo at a gunshow in Alabama
I was offering
7.62x51 South African @ $80 for a 140 rd battlepack
5.56 x45 M885 RadwayGreen om strippers $80 per 150 in bando
5.56x45 Gutamalan M193 $14 per 30
7.62x54r Chinese brass case lead core $5 per 20/ case of 440 for $110
7.62x54r Albanian brass case steel core $5 per 20/ Case of 440 for $110
7.62x45 Czech for the Vz-52 $6 per 15
8mm Romanian $6 per 20 /case of 380 for $110 came down to $100
8mm Yugo on stripers $5 per 15/ $300 and came down to $270
8mm Turk $25 per bando of 70
303 Brit WRA head stamp for the 40's boxer corrosive reloadable $15 per 50
303 Brit Mk VII 40's dates 25 per 100
303 Brit Prvi Partsan berdan $6 per 15
303 Brit Mk VII U 61 $15 per bando of 50
I sold 1 battle pack of the South African 7.62x51
1 bando of the RG M885
3 cases of Chinese 7.62x54r
3 cases Romainian 8mm
1 Bando of Turk 8mm
300 rounds of Brit .303 WRA
300 .303 Brit 40's date
3 boxes .303 Brit Privi Partisan
4 Bandos .303 Mk VII U 61
lot of people looking for 7.62x39, 30 cal carbine and 9mm which I didn't have , there was some 7.62x39 and 9mm available on the first day but not much and what there was was gone by 2 PM Saturday. had a couple of requests for 30-06 , 7mm Argentine Mauser, 8mm x56r and 5.45x39... but none at the show
Talked with a small scale 06FFL commercial reloader who said he was having trouble getting 45ACP Brass to reload
All told, I sold about 3600 rounds out of about 20 K I humped to the show... not counting what I paid for the ammo I had $100 table Fees $ 210 to rent the van for the weekend, $40 in gas, and about $60 in food for me and my helper ( incudes 2 Outback Babyback rib dinners saturday night). And I gave away .303 Brit striper clips and bandos with the WRA and Brit 40's dates because they were loose pack. most of the Chinese 7.62x54r sold as 20 round bundles , Most of the Romainian 8mm sold by the case.
The only other significant ammo seller I saw was the folks with the 7.62x39 and they had about 20-30 cases of both the 7.62x39 and Wolf 5.56 x45. I saw nobody else selling or offering any significant quanity of Milslurp ammo .. One person had several cases of Winchester White Box .308 Nato for $15 per 20 but some of that was still there when the show closed today.. I am guessing they sold less than 2000 rds.
I was surprised that the .303 and 8mm did as well as it did , just as I was surprised the 7.62 Nato and 5.56 did as poorly as they did... The area of Alabama I was in was definately starting to show signs of hard times.. I must have seen at least 20 Title Pawns and payday loan places just on the main streets of the 2 towns and 2 cities I drove thru inculding the City with the show.. I passed only 4 McDonalds on the same route just to give you an Idea. Alot of stores were very dimly lit on the main streets with little outside lighting.. the loansharks were the brightest shops on the street.
As Far the guns go, lots of pistols, mostly autos, lots of used hunting rifles , couple of AR focused booths , One full auto booth with sales and display peices. Got a nice side entry center pouch style CC Purse.. saw some nice Cowgirl Hats and belt buckles.. lot of knife booths.. A couple of vendors had 3-4 Garands and M1 Carbines a few '03's some real sad Enfields inculding a cammoed truckbed liner No4 Mk1 LongBranch. Very few Mosins.. Lots of lever actions.
Walk thrus were mostly hunting rifles and the odd chopped mauser, a few AR's, lots of long shotguns mostly semiauto duck guns.. conciderable number of revolvers looking to be swapped for semi auto's ... Lots of ( both Booth and walkthrus) SKS's .. Yugo 59/66's for $400-500 , even a few Chinese M's and D's for 800+ some FALs and Cetme's/ HK91 for $1000-$1500 , the only significant millurp Collector pieces I saw , both walk thrus were a Kynock converted Chasepot in 11mm Mauser, dirty and some surface rust but all there and a 1898 unconverted M91 Mosin Nagant Dragoon, SA stamped, with no import mark.. turned another collector on to the guy that was shiopping The Dragoon arround and he got it for what I thought was a very low price.
Most of the folks asking for 7.62x39 just called it SKS ammo.. didn't know the caliber numbers... I had some questions about why my 8mm was marked 7.92x57 and if it would really work in a 8mm Mauser... some were surprised that 7.62x54r came in brass instead of painted steel. Many reached for the Romanian 8mm when they wanted 7.62x54 because the Tin looked more like what they thought the Russian came in than the "strange" looking Chinese can.. many thought the 8mm Romainian was the 700 round cans of 7.62x39.
I think I am over gunshows.. to much work for too little money. Several vendors packed up and left Saturday Afternnoon because they sold nothing by mid afternoon.