I am letting the pendulum swing for a bit. The last 8 years was harrowing and expensive. It caught me on my heels. I was not prepared for the assault on 2a. So I paid too much for some stuff. When things got quiet, I stocked up. Now I have no need to buy more at the moment. Likely will be a year before I resume and even then I can't imagine what I'd need. Urgency did play a significant role in my decisions.

I personally have not let up any.
In the months since election I've purchased 7 new guns and 4 new suppressors.

In the next month or so I expect to buy 2 more rifles, another suppressor (or two), and a new safe.

I guess it sucks for the OP, but personally I'm grateful that we finally have a POTUS in office where gun rights aren't under constant threat and people aren't panicking right and left and buying up everything they can find, along with gouging.

It's nice to walk into a gun shop now and see a nice selection and decent prices and not have people lined up like they were at the deli waiting their turn, which I actually did see on occasion.

Now is the time to be buying and stocking up especially if you have children and grandchildren...

...because it doesn't take but one election to get a democrat peckerwood into the bighouse to start fucking everything up again!

It is easier to punch your code safes in or turn them knobs to get what you need then to start scrambling later on when it starts back up.

These future bloodlines will thank you for it!

keep the faith. 2016 is a tough mark to beat


http://www.breitbart.com/big-g...ound-checks-history/

FBI: First Half of 2017 Saw Second Largest Number of Firearm Background Checks Ever

The first six months of 2017 witnessed the second largest number of firearm background checks ever recorded for the first half of a given year, according to the FBI.

According to FBI figures, there were 12,601,102 background checks performed January 1, 2017, through June 30, 2017. That is second only to the 13,829,491 conducted during the same time frame in 2016. It should be noted that 2016 turned into a record year for background checks, with 27,538,673 total checks.

2017 is on now within striking distance of the 2016 record.

background checks ran at a record pace from May 2015 through November 2016, then dipped below record levels in December 2016. However, even with the dip, December 2016 had the third-highest number of background checks for any December ever.

Moreover, by May 2017 background checks were shattering records again. There were more background checks in May 2017 than in any previous May on record.

June 2017 dipped below the record set in June 2016. There were 1,901,768 background checks in June 2017 versus 2,131,485 in June 2016, but June 2017 was still the second highest June on record.

Background checks are not a precise indicator of gun sales, because background checks are performed on the gun buyer rather the guns purchased. This means each background check could represent one gun sold, or it could represent three guns sold. Either way, it means Americans are buying guns and the Second Amendment is alive and well.

I haven't slowed down one bit. I'm on my 8 or 9th gun for the year. Its definitely a buyers market out there. I hope big retailers like Cabelas and Bass Pro get that and learn from Gander Mountain's mistakes. I also feel that online gun sales are eating into a lot of brick and mortar sales.

I have been running a small business for over forty years. Any business is cyclical. You need to position yourself to handle the downturns. I have to compete with the government and corporate America for business. It is not easy.

As a small business owner you offer good honest services at a reasonable price, people will come back. There have been numerous comments here about Big Box retailers and their arrogant counter jockeys who know little. JMO

Yes, definitely hurting but not for the same reasons that most retail sellers and FFLs are.

I'm into manufacturing and gunsmithing. Mostly I make suppressors, custom integrally suppressed guns like the Ruger MK3, and integrally suppressed AR rifles.

My business started to shit the bed when the State Dept decided to jack up the ITAR registration fees into the thousands of dollars. Annual registration fees, per model fees, all gunsmithing activities reclassified as manufacturing.

Things like threading barrels, chambering barrel blanks, making muzzle brake, drilling and tapping for scope bases, trigger work, etc. All now fall under the state depts ITAR rules and require hiring an entire staff of lawyers and accountants to keep strait. I can't afford it.

Untill President Trump's undoes all the State Dept. shit that Obama and Hillary assed up, I'm out of out of the manufacturing and gunsmithing business.

Obama was great for sellers, but horrid for manufacturers. Naturally, any Smith who chooses to stay in business will be requiring customers pay the fees in the form of much higher prices.

If you decide it's time to have your favorite Smith rebarrel your Remington 700, or build a integrally suppressed mk3, you may be in for a surprise.

The president has his hands full, he's got a very full plate undoing all the shit Obama did. He has my full support!

I just wish he'd have all those rotten commies still employed at the State Dept put against a wall and shot. I'd heard he even signed an EO to undo some of State Depts shit, and the commie bastards ignored it because the language didn't identify specifically, which rules were to be rolled back.

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:

quote:

Originally posted by kkina:
...but this is almost certainly an unfortunate downside to the new administration in the White House.

So, you'd rather have a blatant, determined gun grabber in the Oval Office? Hey, plenty of business for you, right?

How is this Trump's fault? You're way off on this.

No to both questions. Sorry, Para, I worded this badly. Was dealing with financial stresses last evening and my thinking was off. I was mainly polling for business ideas, and it came off as a criticism. Feel free to lock or delete this thread completely.

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
So, you'd rather have a blatant, determined gun grabber in the Oval Office? Hey, plenty of business for you, right?

How is this Trump's fault? You're way off on this.

That's not what he said at all. He said it was an unfortunate side effect, not that it would have been better to have Hillery win the election. None of us wanted that.

It isn't Trump's fault and no one is saying that.

quote:

Originally posted by Cycler:

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
So, you'd rather have a blatant, determined gun grabber in the Oval Office? Hey, plenty of business for you, right?

How is this Trump's fault? You're way off on this.

That's not what he said at all. He said it was an unfortunate side effect, not that it would have been better to have Hillery win the election. None of us wanted that.

It isn't Trump's fault and no one is saying that.

Para knows what was posted and responded. Pretty sure he doesn't need a explanation of what he read.

quote:

Originally posted by smschulz:

quote:

this is almost certainly an unfortunate downside to the new administration in the White House

To me it is no downside, it is an "upside" to me to feel a bit of relief from the relentless Draconian attack from the left.

As for anyone in business you need to operate effectively and efficient in your business.
If you are relying on the political climate changes (no pun) to run your business then maybe you need to reevaluate. Just sayin'.

Yup. 100% SM.

Thank you, Cycler. That is what I was trying to say, but obviously I did a terrible job of saying it. Well, it's OK, Para has a point. The last thing the Commander needs right now is unnecessary criticism. I'd just assume the thread be deleted so as not to cause any more trouble.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: kkina,

For the record, of course I saw this coming. There still wasn't anything I could do about it.

Where in the Bay Area is your shop ? I'm good and stocked for any modern CA legal roster guns but I'm always hunting used racks. Can you encourage your clients to put stuff on consignment ? My local shop wants 30% commission. Most other shops want 20%.

quote:

Originally posted by David Lee:
Para knows what was posted and responded. Pretty sure he doesn't need a explanation of what he read.

Pretty sure Para doesn't need you to carry his water for him either, yet here you are....

quote:

Originally posted by ElToro:
Where in the Bay Area is your shop ? I'm good and stocked for any modern CA legal roster guns but I'm always hunting used racks. Can you encourage your clients to put stuff on consignment ? My local shop wants 30% commission. Most other shops want 20%.

We actually stopped direct sales a while ago, for the most part. In fact we've never had a physical shop, and we closed down the online store as well.

We now wholesale mainly to online retailers and verified gunsmiths (FFL not required), and don't do too much direct sales-to-client. Our main dealers are not here (CA), so us as the manufacturer being in a strangled state doesn't technically matter.

I think the OP actually has it backwards. The unfortunate effect of Obama's administration was artificially high gun sales caused by fears over the loss of our 2A rights. Of course it wasn't really a side effect, it was deliberate and intentional. But now we are back to a more normal market where people are making rational buying decisions based on their wants and needs.

My sales couldn't be better. Every single item made is sole before the machines finish running.

The problem is, that I gotta do all the labor for free, because the money all goes to the government.

Without giving up my full time job, working on weekends and a couple hours per day after work, I can make about 60 silencers per year, and somewhere around a hundred gunsmithing jobs. The issue is that the current workload just barely covers the governments cut.

If they went with a percentage instead of flat fees I'd be able to get by and actually make some money.

It's bad when you sell every item made, literally flying off the shelves, and still can't turn a penny of profit. It's definitely not set-up for a small time operation. Quite the opposite.

To price things in a way that covers all the costs would mean that I can't compete, as my prices are currently in line with the big guys, AAC, YHM, Silencercos wholesale prices.

My current costs are all materials, labor and government fees. No overhead. Machines, shop, tooling are all paid for from my full time job.

There's nowhere to trim any fat, period. It's already as efficient as possible. The only fat to trim is the governments cut, fed and state, and theyre having no part of it.

I can assure you, it's not a simple matter of us just coming up with a more efficient business model. And we don't even have to compete with China.

quote:

Originally posted by bigwagon:
I think the OP actually has it backwards. The unfortunate effect of Obama's administration was artificially high gun sales caused by fears over the loss of our 2A rights. Of course it wasn't really a side effect, it was deliberate and intentional. But now we are back to a more normal market where people are making rational buying decisions based on their wants and needs.

How is what I said "backwards" to what you're saying?