So with it looking likely that Sleepy Joe is going to follow through on his “promise” to restrict the Second Amendment liberties, so I decided I should buy something before it was “too late”. I gave my AR-15 to my older son a few years ago, so I figured I would replace it.

In looking around, I was shocked to see how few AR’s were available. Big stores like Bud’s had zero in stock (under $5,000)! Then I saw that Gilbert’s had the M400 TREAD available, but only 10 of them. It was a bit higher than “normal”, but not bad so I ordered one.

Here’s what I don’t get: with stock so low, they still have 4 available nearly two weeks later. And CDNN just included the TREAD in their latest flyer for $200 above the Gilbert’s price. Why are they still on the shelf? They should have flown off like the shelf like hot cakes!

I just don’t understand why, in such a tight market, a decent deal on a great rifle hasn’t sold out in a couple of hours. Am I missing something??

I can’t say anything about that particular rifle, but I disagree that ARs are in short supply these days. It seems that’s more true of the higher-priced spreads, but I believe that the demand in general has died down to a significant degree. It may be that some suppliers like Bud’s sell out faster simply because they’re the places people look first. For example, I’d never heard of Gilbert’s and therefore would have never known what they had in stock. And perhaps another factor is that many people are in the “I’ll never pay xxx for an AR” camp and are under the (delusional, IMO) belief that things are going to return to some sort of pre-COVID-19 or pre-Democratocracy “normal” and there will be a glut of the guns as there was four years ago.

If I needed another MSR and believed that I could own and use it without legal infringement in the foreseeable future, I would definitely be buying now—just as I did when I last thought I could predict the future.

I was in my local shop today and he had a rack of ARs. Including a couple of really cool AR shotguns. And several CZ Scorpions and some SA Saint pistols. He's had the CZs for quite awhile. He had a lot of magazines available, too, for ARs, Glocks and Sigs.

I agree with sigfreund. I think the demand is dying down, for both guns and ammo. I'm getting notices most week days, sometime multiple notices a day, for ammo. In fact, I've stopped buying ammo because I am well stocked now. I just bought another 3 boxes of .30-30 yesterday. If I get anymore anytime soon, except .270 and .45-70, I'll pass.

I went into my LGS last week, and it also seemed to have a decent stock of ARs. I think supply is catching up, and demand is dropping a bit because most people have what they need, plus you can’t find ammo for them anyway.

quote:

Originally posted by jimdick:
So with it looking likely that Sleepy Joe is going to follow through on his “promise” to restrict the Second Amendment liberties, so I decided I should buy something before it was “too late”. I gave my AR-15 to my older son a few years ago, so I figured I would replace it.

In looking around, I was shocked to see how few AR’s were available. Big stores like Bud’s had zero in stock (under $5,000)! Then I saw that Gilbert’s had the M400 TREAD available, but only 10 of them. It was a bit higher than “normal”, but not bad so I ordered one.

Here’s what I don’t get: with stock so low, they still have 4 available nearly two weeks later. And CDNN just included the TREAD in their latest flyer for $200 above the Gilbert’s price. Why are they still on the shelf? They should have flown off like the shelf like hot cakes!

I just don’t understand why, in such a tight market, a decent deal on a great rifle hasn’t sold out in a couple of hours. Am I missing something??

Handguns have been and remain the big sellers, over rifles and shotguns, so it's not necessarily out of the ordinary to see an AR or other semi auto rifles in stock.

I'm not seeing the numbers around here of guns in stock that others are speaking of in their areas though. For example, my LGS is the Master Dealer in area for DD and we don't have a single one on the shelf.. and they're just fifteen minutes up the road. We had two AR rifles and one AR pistol, a couple of SA SOCOM-16s and a CAI VZ58. One of the ARs went on layaway, while three handguns were sold.


What I can't understand is how people, particularly folks who've owned guns for a while, are only just now realizing the extreme firearms/ammo/accessory demand that's been ongoing for the better part of a year now. I had a customer yesterday who told us he was utterly shocked when he went to a range about two weeks ago and saw the empty gun racks/cases and shelves nearly bare of ammo. What's the address to the rock y'all have been living under?! I mean, seriously! Does the Pony Express not make it out there? Is the local telegraph machine down?

I was in a local shop yesterday to have some sights replaced on a pistol slide, and they had a Benelli hunting shotgun, half a dozen Savage Axis bolt guns, a couple of single action .22 revolvers, two Highpoints and half a dozen Glocks. The rest of the cases were empty.

The smith there was building two ARs for customers from parts.

I would agree with the proposition that things may be quieting down. Armalite carbines from their old Eagle Arms production line (but branded Armalite) have been floating around at $799, and a few S&W M&P carbines have been available lately as well. Some Glocks and P320s have been on ChodeChoker at anything from high to astronomical prices without any bids at all. Then again, I have been hoping for a return to what my cheapskate self considers "sanity" for a while, so that may be coloring my interpretation of what I'm seeing.

One of my favorite LGS had 3 different models of the VP9 in stock on
Tuesday, plus a P210, Shields, Hellcat, CZs etc. No ARs however.

Sportsmans Warehouse online has had the Colt M4 or 6920 Magpul in stock off and on about weekly, you just need to check often. They update their sites daily, sometimes multiple times daily. They also have the Sig M400 and even LWRC's fairly often.

The supply of ARs is catching back up, especially at the lower end (what would normally be your $600-800 M4 clone guns).

My shop recently got an LWRC DI gun and some Geisselle Super Dutys rifles and pistols.

The LWRC was one of ten that the shop placed an order for months ago. So things are coming back in stock.

At the beginning of the panic, someone asked SIG about MPX production and they stated that they'd refocused their production to items that weren't as niche as the MPX. Made sense at the time, so I would expect ARs to begin coming back. Cheap guns, then expensive guns, and finally parts.

Elk County Arms and Ammo has mil-spec Colt 6920s in stock, and has had them for months. Prices are a little high, but not terrible in the current environment. I've seen them much higher.

quote:

Originally posted by Micropterus:
Elk County Arms and Ammo has mil-spec Colt 6920s in stock, and has had them for months. Prices are a little high, but not terrible in the current environment. I've seen them much higher.

new roll mark CR serial or old style? new style is going for $1199 street....funny because the older style people didn't buy at $799 are now going for double. Gun buyers are a fickle bunch.

quote:

Originally posted by PGT:
new roll mark CR serial or old style?

Couldn't tell you. Just saw them and noted they've been there for awhile. Even at $1399, I would have thought the rubes would have snapped them up.