quote:
Originally posted by jljones:
Interesting that another 357 thread popped up so soon.
A few things-
ATK has informed the .gov that they are about to seriously retard 357 production and drop most of their offerings. The last major .gov agency that shoots a ton of it, are now dumping the caliber. Presumably, based upon that statement ATK offerings (Gold Dot, HST) will either cease or be done in extremely limited runs. That means those rounds will be extremely hard to get, if not impossible.
What does that mean? It means that if the demand is there, perhaps Winchester will pick up the slack. And there is always SIGs ammunition plant which is the most likely answer. Will the lack of supply drive up demand, and demand further drive up prices? Can’t answer on that. No rabbit, no magic hat, no crystal ball. But I think if you look at history, and look at 10mm supply and prices around 2002-2010, that is probably your most reasonable answer. The demand for 10mm in the last 7-8 years have risen, and more of it is in circulation and prices have softened.
From the aspect of training “issues” with the gun, I can tell you that right now the FAMS are turning out the best shooters overall that they ever have. But, none of their instructional staff will deny that the caliber is just harder to shoot. And shooting at lot of it will make you flinchy. So saying faster follow up shots is a training issue is true only if the training issue is working twice as hard to accomplish the same thing with other calibers.
Fun topic, though.
One correction: ATK is out of the ammo making picture after they were absorbed by Orbital Sciences Systems, who wanted Alliant Techsystems for their satellite/aerospace business. Orbital could care less about producing small arms munitions.
Vista Outdoors was spun off as a separate and wholly independent company and now own and carry on the Federal, Speer, Blazer, Independence and CCI ammo brands, Alliant powder, Hoppe's, M-Pro 7, Bushnell, Redfield and many other gun industry brands. They also own Savage Arms and Stevens, but put both up for sale recently. Fear of the left's boycotting tendencies is the accusation for this move; the company claims other reasons related to upgrade costs due to outdated manufacturing facilities in dire need of overhaul. All I know is Savage can be a PITA to deal with when it comes to ordering guns, and not much better in getting problem customer guns properly fixed without requiring a second return trip.
