Gun sales: Best May ever, 2021 set to crush record, public ‘afraid of violence, tyranny’:
2021 looks to double the number of background checks and sales of 2015, when 23 million checks were conducted.
The View From North Central Idaho
Ramblings on explosives, guns, politics, and sex by a redneck Idaho farm boy who became a software engineer living near Seattle.
Any insights as to whether this is still due to first time buyers? (I’d guess yes, but would expect the mainstream sources to keep blaming supercollectors, or whatever the current term is.)
I also wonder what suppressor and other NFA sales are doing; a quick DuckDuckGo search didn’t turn up anything current.
I don’t think it matters. First time or no. The facts are that there out there to be had by the public. And already in the hands of the public.
And that puts Chipman and company in a very bad position.
And as Phil Collins sang; With not much luck to go round.
And there are what, four companies making primers in all of the U.S.?
It’s time to start thinking about making your own.
There was an interesting article (almost a textbook) referenced about that not long ago. I grabbed it, it looks pretty good (but note that I’m not a reloader). Either in there or somewhere else I saw a scheme for making the empty primer shapes by punching bits out of a soda can with a pretty simple tool.
So there may well be makeshifts that work, even if they are not ideal. For example, in the case of primers, while mercury fulminate is obsolete, it still works within its limitations, and it is utterly trivial to make.
How to make your own primers.
It’s not just guns that are flying off the shelves. I have recently been shopping for two way radios with an eye toward upgrading the ones I have been using during deer hunting season. It seems that good quality radios, the kind that one might buy for emergency use, are all back ordered or are being sold as soon as retailers can get them.
If you’re considering emergency use, personal-use two way band handheld radios are a nice option but ham radio gear is substantially more capable. The drawback is that you need to get a license, but that’s not a particularly difficult problem. Depending on the type you get, you’d be able to communicate either a dozen miles or so (VHF point to point), order of a hundred miles (VHF/UHF with repeaters — which requires a repeater that is still operational, but many are set up to work in emergencies) or globally (short wave). Many will run off a 12 volt battery, so your car can power them.
–ni1d
I’m studying for the FCC license exams. I plan to take at least the Technician in a couple of weeks, possibly also the General at the same time. Ham equipment appears to be selling very fast these days as well. I have a nicer GMRS radio on back order that will be compatible with the FRS radios I already have. Also looking at both VHF/UHF and HF Ham equipment.