... and came back alive! Oh, big whoop. Everybody else that went also came back alive plus or minus a few heart attacks. For those of you who are sick of reading gun rants and posts, kindly push the back button on your browser. I'm not exactly a gun freak myself - I never saw a gun until I was 18... but it's worthwhile writing about the reality in Michigan which may be true everywhere else.
Gun shows now are PACKED. It's a sausage fest of people trying to buy AR-15 parts, the real deal, brass cartridges, .223/556 ammo and 20+ capacity magazines. There are some details about this frenzy that may make you happy... or unhappy if you actually want one of these things.
Mr. Gazer grew up with guns and was taught to be responsible for them. He has always wanted to buy a .308 AR-15 (and you can tell how badly I want to smack him upside the head). They've been around for some time and they were always on backorder. One place (deliberately not naming specifics) had 24 week standard wait time. Other places had longer waits. THIS caliber of gun always had up to a year wait time if you wanted it new, shiny and awesome. Yeah, it was like this even before the Aurora shooting.
.223's have been around some time so you can find used ones at gun shows. They are normally around 500-1.5k depending on how tricked out it is and how reputable the gunsmith is. At the gun show, a Michigan-based gunsmith was selling about 6 AR-15's. On his website, he'd normally sell an AR-15 he builds for about 1k and it includes accessories like a bag, extra magazine and whatever else. At the gun show, he was selling them for 2.1k a piece. Man is he making some fat cash. There was also some interesting things he said.
1. The parts for the guns he was selling at the gun show were backordered from APRIL of this year. The next time he's getting parts is February, which was backordered from October.
2. It's worse for 308's.
3. Most places are out of stock on 223 ammunition until February or later.
4. People were calling him from out of state like Utah and Oklahoma.
5. He builds guns for his son who does competition shooting.
6. Hopefully the fiscal cliff thing will keep attention away from additional gun legislation.
So in general at the gun show and when Mr. Gazer went to typical hunting stores...
Other vendors had 30 round 223 magazines for minimum $45. They are normally $20.
The 20 round magazine for 308 was $70+.
Most places were sold out of brass since (supposedly) the DoD isn't selling excess brass casings to civilians anymore.
223 ammo is sold out in typical hunting stores like Gander Mtn. 308's were cleared out as well.
Typical box of ammo is about $10 ($20 ish for 308). People that were selling ammo had $15-$25 on 223's. I didn't see any 308 ammo.
Many people would just settle for AR-15 lowers because that's the part you have to get registered -any other parts (uppers, rails, scope, trigger, etc) you can swap out at a gunsmith.
Individual people were selling (w/ the aid of an FFL dealer if they didn't have an FFL) their AR-15's both 308 and 223.
tldr version: Good luck getting anything high-cap capable AR-15 related right now. Anything available is fat dough.