Eight days ago I made a post which has turned out to be insanely popular, one of the most linked to items on this site. I decided to track the pricing and availability of a few popular guns, magazines and bulk ammunition directly before and after the election. It was just a fun exercise as I anticipated prices to rise quickly and availability to shrink almost immediately based on heavy demand (resulting out of speculation). I just finished updating the post, Election hysteria and skyrocketing gun and ammo prices, and have come up with a few observations.
- As predicted the AK47 and two AR15’s I listed are out of stock, the only gun to remain (with a price increase btw) is the Ruger Mini 14.
- Magazine prices have remained flat, expect that to change if we see legislation introduced to ban those evil “high capacity clips.”
- Ammunition prices have slightly risen, but the main trend I am seeing is that almost every retailer is having trouble keeping the stuff on the shelves.
Here is how I see this playing out. Gun owners who call themselves preppers *might* go out and buy another AR15 based on the hype, but most likely not. We have guns, we have ammo, we saw this coming and made our moves long ago. The majority of people who you see in the buying frenzy are those who decided to wait to see what the election results were and people who have never shot a firearm before (but are caught up in the hysteria). Thus the AK’s and AR’s of the world will fly off of the shelves but other guns like the 10/22, Mini 14 and M1A will still be available, albeit at higher prices. Ammunition will continue to rise in price but it will not deter people from stocking up, the higher the price and less inventory on hand will only reinforce the belief that one should buy now before it’s too late (kind of like those BUY GOLD NOW commercials on TV). Following this thought process Christmas presents will be a little less fabulous this year so daddy can add 4 more 1,000 round cases of 5.56 to the basement stash.
Here is what I suggest. If you already have a good supply of guns, magazines and ammunition don’t get caught up in the hype. We are facing some serious problems in our nation right now which we need to prepare for and in my opinion these are not problems which require the addition of another AR15 to your gun safe. However if you do find yourself on the short end and still need to make a purchase I would encourage you to do so sooner rather than later. AR’s and AK’s can still be had but the waiting list might be long and the prices are only going to rise. You might take a look at the Mini 14 as an alternative, and if you are new to buying guns I wrote a post about that as well which you might find helpful. Maybe all of this fizzles out and amounts to nothing and prices and inventory get back to where they once were. Somehow I doubt that will happen anytime in the near future.
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