Aaarrrgghh!
Dog-gone llllooonnnggg days dealing with what apparently is a 'panicked' public.
Here's the conversation held about 16 times EVERY single day I work my p/t 'retirement job' at the LGS:

Customer: :" Hey - I'm looking for (fill in with AR's, AK's, high-cap mags, certain ammo, etc.)"

Clerk (me): " No sir, that type of item is on backorder, and due to occurrences in the market, we don't have any way of knowing when we'll see it/them."

Customer: "Yeah, but when will it/they be in?"

Clerk (me): Sir, we really don't know. The market is very much un-predictable right now. The distributors are showing out of stock, so we don't know".

Cutomer: " But - really, when do you think it/they'll be in?"

And this goes on and on and on, ad nauseum.

This is while the phone rings incessantly with no one to answer it, as everyone available is doing sales work, paperwork, NICS checks, cash register, etc.
I have actually sold more than 6 or more ~$2K AR's and while completing paperwork the customer asks to see a 5.56 round, as 'they'd never SEEN one'.
Honest.

I, for one will be glad to see some return to normalcy again. This is not really all that enjoyable right now.

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Ret'd LEO
SWCA #2275

With the latest surge you have a life in the fast lane. Hope you can find some amusement seeing first hand what or who comes out to prove their ignorance.
By way how do you handle showing a 5.56 round with a stranger novice and weapon laying right there. I enjoy your updates on the "gun counter".

Seems like a good point to weigh in as a customer from the other side of the counter:

Was at a favorite haunt (this sentiment is fading fast....really fast) of mine last weekend (have been doing business with them for at least 15yrs). Every Saturday I go is like going to a gun show, counters 2 and 3 deep, etc. What really has been chapping my butt lately are the guys that bring the whole family with them and they ALL line up at the counter. Got the girlfriend/wife, the dad, son, mother-in-law, etc. all standing at the counter and only 1 person buying. Just a bit down the counter are three old dudes swapping stories about their latest surgery, then, a few feet down, the two or three that are there EVERY weekend to do nothing but talk to each other.......at the dang counter!!
This accompanied by the folks behind the counter proclaiming over and over, "This is what happens in a 'panicked' market" What the heck is the panick over. I figure if they chant it enough it will come true or enough green-horns will believe it.
The icing on the cake when I got to the counter..............only 1 box of .22 ANYTHING per visit. I was only asking for a few boxes of .22 short but nothing doing..... only one box of .22 ANYTHING per day.
Meanwhile, the local Gander Mountain has just run a recent ad. for lots of ammo on sale...........including 1,000 round and 1,400 round buckets of .22! GAD!!

Thanks to all who read this..........I feel much better

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"You're messin' up my Zen"

So from now on, just have some fun with them. Show 'em a box of .300 Rem Ultra Mag and say "There it is."

They may even ask to have their picture taken with it!

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"You're messin' up my Zen"

Y'all all just need to get over it, on both sides of the counter. The customer is always right. If he keeps asking when, give him your best guess . . . . "I don't know, but I figure in about a month."

The wife, girlfriend, kid brother, and old Dad have just as much right to belly up to the counter as you do. How do you know which one, or two, or even three they are shopping for? I have seen, within the last couple of weeks, groups like this making multiple purchases. The old dudes swapping stories about their surgery probably have bought thousands of dollars of merchandise over the years, some maybe even recently.

Just wait your turn.

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Georgia On My Mind

"Oh, 5.56 is obsolete, you new rifle is just for hanging on the wall."

We can keep a secret. You can tell us. When will it be in? Larry

Look on the bright side at the counter. It could be worse! You could have a couple dozen of us retired L/E's at the counter munchin on doughnuts and pullin up our shirts and comparing scares and war wounds!...right? Ah..we're just lookin sir. WOw look at all those finger prints on the counter. Do any look familiar to you Harry? I think I have seen this one before.

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Don't leave home without it!

Just don't confuse them and explain that .223 and 5.56 are not the same, except in some "cases".

Fixed that for ya...

I hear ya'.
My buddy who owns a small LGS has lots of rifles and shotguns
but the auto anythings are going, going, gone. And he also says
he has no idea when he'll be able to replenish them. He does'nt
carry nuch in the way of ammo so i don't look for any there.
He told me the same thing you mentioned, that it's just not fun
right now as he is doing paperwork until midnite each evening.
Hang in there and hope it gets better for all of us.

Chuck

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They hold no Quarter

You must have been sooooo tempted to say, "What part of I don't know do you not understand?"

I had a rant a while ago about why people no longer accept the reply, "I don't know". I think it is pretty applicable.

Saying "I don't know". A philosophical rant.

Whisper softly and say, "Can you keep a secrete? I'm not suppose to tell you this but yesterday, a guy from homeland security came in, all agent like, an bought every AR we had...he wouldn't tell me exactly why he needed them but he said something about uprisings."

Noooo!! Don't feed the tinfoil hat brigade or they will rush out out and panic buy what little stuff remains.

You could really mess with them and say the delay is because they are having trouble with the microchips staying in place under recoil. All the new PDWs have microchips so the Government can keep track of their location.

Now, I just started this rumor here. When you see it on another site post back and lets see how far it goes.

In the immortal words of the great Fats Waller, “One never knows, do one?”

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I like Ike.

Thanks for the update on all these people buying guns. I look forward to this spring when, at the range, they show up for the first time to "learn" how to shoot. (Last fall one of these new folks started walking down range to change out a target....while I was actively shooting) My only hope is they won't have much ammo.

SO, when is my (fill in the blank) coming in, you want to make a sale don't you?

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always trust your cape...

Please don't give em any new things to be afraid of....

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always trust your cape...

Ask the customer if he knows how long it takes to catch a fish.

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Back to back World War Champs.

If I were pushed to guess, I would say that pmags will be 9 months or more, .223/5.56 is available now but expensive. AR rifles come in from time to time. I don't know whether or not your GS will hold an AR for a customer or not. If not then it is first come, first served.

What this thread reinforces is that much of the panic buying is by people completely new to ARs and AKs. In fact, I see a lot of folks with "extra" black rifles selling off the surplus. My best guess is these newbies will not want to dump their $600 DPMS carbines, that they paid $1800 for, so when (if) prices come down ARs will take a while to get plentiful if they ever do. I do think we will see under $1000 ARs again.

I still do not think either ARs or hi cap mags will be banned at the federal level.

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Luke 22:36

Some people are just plain no good at this.

So has anyone heard of gunshops being picketed by CPFs? Can you just imagine the "outrage" whenever a terrible crime is commited using a gun with a LASER? How many times will noobs confuse 5.56 with 5.45X39?

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Wayne
Torn & Frayed

Thanks for those that really do seem to understand.
My LGS is also an indoor range, and it's attendance has gone from 'sometimes busy' to -slammed- all day, everyday. There have been several days when the wait to shoot was more than 2 hours.
DROVES of new shooters, who prior to taking a 'beginners safety course' had little to no knowledge of what they were doing.

So, now, as the phone call volume has quintupled or more, we get phone calls asking "I'd like to come shoot, when will you NOT be busy?"
or, another of our favorites "Will you be busy at 2 pm?"

Yep - I asked for this.
I'm confident that it will get better.
Still, I enjoy helping most of the folks. They can't help it that the world has gone crazy.

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Ret'd LEO
SWCA #2275

I think I have the answer to your problem

How do you expect new gun nuts to act?

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Doesn't hasta call me Johnson

When doomsday doesn't arrive before the money runs low....those 2k AKs will be right out there on the market for 5-600 bux.

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Halfway and one more step

A buddy of mine, retired PD near Atlanta, went to a pretty well known gun store on the Buford Highway, where he and I have done biz for years. He went in looking for some primers and a pound of IMR4350, which they had, and he purchased. Then he spied a couple of boxes of .250 Savage on the shelf and asked the clerk to add them to the mix, and the clerk said that he couldn't unless my friend bought a gun in the corresponding caliber. Evidently the owner has a new policy so that people who buy guns will at least have a few rounds to put through them. Seems reasonable, but when my friend asked if there were any .250 Savage firearms in the store, because he has a "thing" for that caliber, he was told no, but that didn't make any difference, he couldn't buy the ammo unless he purchased a gun in that caliber.

The point of this is to highlight out the utter stupidity that is being bandied about on both sides of the counter.

As a side note, I went to my local WalMart and the ammo shelves were literally bare. They had some .410 target ammo, and premium hunting ammo in three calibers, .243, .270 and .30-06, only two or three of them left. There was absolutely no handgun ammo, or .22's of any sort. The sporting goods manager was there doing inventory, and I asked him when he might be getting some 9mm or .22 bulk in and he said that corporate HQ was not allowing any orders for ammo, as their regional warehouses were empty, and they had no idea when the manufacturers would be restocking them.

Along those same lines, I received this from a friend who owns a shop in my area. Looks like a long drought is in store for us if it's true.

----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Doug Woodlee <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Sent: Wed, February 6, 2013 8:22:13 AM
Subject: FW: Status of the gun industry.

I received this yesterday from a Tennessee FFL. It appears he received it from a West Virginia FFL (see text). Personally, I have no idea whether this is an accurate assessment of the current situation with any of these manufacturers. Perhaps some of you have more current or more complete information on these manufacturers and on some of the other ones. If so, and you wish to share it, please send it to me and I'll pass it along to approximately 1,200 e-mail addresses for Tennessee FFLs. I hope we can keep the information sharing close to factual and not base it on rumors - there are plenty of those flying around already. Everything below the line of asterisks is verbatim what I received yesterday.

***********************************************************************************************






Subj: Status of the gun industry.









Read it and weep... Thought you might find this interesting. Depressing...but interesting. I notice there's no mention of GLOCK in their report; wonder why.
r.





A status report from Valley Guns in West Virginia :



Status of gun industry Attention F.B. fans: to follow will be several IMPORTANT Info updates about the status of the gun industry currently, followed by an INVENTORY UPDATE: We traveled to Texas for Industry meetings concerning the shortages, here's what we were told.



Smith & Wesson-is running at Full capacity making 300+ guns/day-mainly M&P pistols. They are unable to produce any more guns to help with the shortages.



RUGER: Plans to increase from 75% to 100% in the next 90 days



FNH: Moving from 50% production to 75% by Feb 1st and 100% by March 1.



Remington-Maxed out!



Armalite: Maxed out.



DPMS: Can't get enough parts to produce any more product.



COLT: Production runs increasing weekly...bottle necked by Bolt carrier's.



LWRC:Making only black guns, running at full capacity...can't get enough gun quality steel to make barrels. (I assume they mean black powder guns)



Springfield Armory: Only company who can meet demand but are running 30-45 days behind.



AMMO: Every caliber is now Allocated! We are looking at a nation wide shortage of all calibers over the next 9 months. All plants are producing as much ammo as possible with roughly 1 BILLION rounds produced weekly. Most is military followed by L.E. and civilians are third in line. MAGPUL is behind 1 MILLION mags, do not expect any large quantities of magpul anytime soon. RELOADERS... ALL Remington, Winchester, CCI & Federal primers are going to ammo FIRST. There are no extra's for reloading purposes... it could be 6-9 months before things get caught up. Sorry for the bleak news, but now we know what to expect in the coming months. Stay tuned, we'll keep you posted...

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ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ

I tried to keep my visit short when i went in, could tell the guy behind the counter was tired, he had probably been there all day back to back customers.
I've made sure to read all these kinds of stories for a long time to drill in my head things to not do so I hopefully don't end up being one of those stories
I admit I do take the wife and kids. I test stores to see if they are family/kid/future customer friendly. Now i am respectful, i didn't take them recently just because of the crowds but during normal times i like to involve them and will come back to make future purchases for them if they are treated well.

On the bright side, I have heard of some antique guns being traded on the newer stuff. AFAIK, there is not a run on antique Colts or S&Ws. Keep your eyes peeled.

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Luke 22:36

Old Corp, I know what you are talking about. Our store has been crazy busy. Long lines of sometimes seemingly desperate and occasionally surly customers. Phones ringing off the hook non-stop and we have little time to answer them, some callers will hit speed dial every 30 seconds over and over again and when you do have a chance to pick up the call chances are you may receive a verbal lashing because you were were not able to answer his other 43 attempts and the AR he is looking for is out of stock.

I certainly understand the situation is frustrating but as retailers we do not control the manufacturers, supply chain or market demand. We are as much at the mercy of those factors as you are, retailers are customers also and feel the frustration equally as much. Remember, these are guns and ammunition, not artificial hearts or medicine you need to stay alive for the next 24 hours, have some patience and you will probably find what you need.

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John. SWCA #1586

How people view things is always entertaining...

I was reading comments from a LGS owner on another forum this morning. He said that his customers were paying $2k for ARs and were relentlessly bugging his counter help to know when the next shipment of $1/rd .223 practice ammo was going to be back in stock. His final comment was.... I, for one will be not be glad to see a return to normalcy again. This is really enjoyable right now. But I know this can't last forever and I'll have to lay off some counter help.

Phil, don't be readin' them other forums, it'll make you go blind.

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Halfway and one more step

Totally agree with your statement.

Eventually when the plastic pay back amount is noticed, then the eyes of the card holder should pop out about 3 inches.

And then it will be a Bargain Bonanza for the rest of us.

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Doesn't hasta call me Johnson

Yeah, 'cause there ain't gonna be an armed confiscation. The stormtroopers aren't marching down suburban streets to search and remove firearms. What happens is an economic downturn continues till somebody has to sell the extra car, the extra TV, the guns we never use, the cable gets cut off, the steaks turn to spam and the generic beer replaces the Lowenbrau or Sam Adams. Oh, and the bus. Somebody that used to drive has to ride the bus.
That's when the bargains appear, when there's no money to buy them.

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Halfway and one more step

I was talking with a friend recently & he pretty much said the same thing. He was nice enough not to point out that he had
recommended several months ago that I get an AR(so sorry,
Modern Sporting Rifle!)then. I was so wrapped up in finding
more 3rd Gens that I put it off. Sigh...

As far as visits to the LGS, Even back before all the events
driving the current buying craze, the LGS that I like was always busy. Now? Fageddaboutit! When I go in to use the
range, I don't even try to engage the store personnel in
conversation, because its easy to see their plates are
overflowing. Just a smile & a nod. Hopefully if & when this
madness ends we'll all have the time to be friendlier.

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Lounge Lizard Extraordinaire

I'm not so sure. People can be bloody minded about letting things go for much less than they paid.