All,
Wife and I ventured to Chantilly in search of the rare and never seen Small Pistol Primers and assorted mags for our pistols. We arrived around 1 PM on Friday, a full 2 hours before the doors opened ... the line was around the corner already. Luckily the Mrs. and I planned to join the NRA, get our free pass for the show, and avoided the line at the door at 3 PM.
We were one of the first 20 people in the place and had no idea where to go ... so we headed for the ammo piles in the back. Ammo prices were outrageous, some vendors wanting up to $20-$30 (yes! $30) for a 50 round box of 9mm practice ammo. People were still using hand carts and carrying 3-4 cases out of the place ... This show had plenty of ammo ... if you were will to pay up, you could get it.
I finally found a guy selling powder and headed over to his table, I asked if he had SPP and another guy held up two bricks in his hand as he was waiting to pay ... both Federal, one was match primers. He really didnt want the match primers so offered to give them to me ... I took em, and then looked around ... this vendor had plenty of other primers, cases of small rifle, large rifle, and all the magnums.
He had a nice selection of powders ... most of the usual favorites ... 231, Unique, Red Dot, etc. all 1 pound containers.
I paid and went looking again ... every other table that HAD SPPs sold them just before I asked.
What I was happy about is that my wife and I both found extra mags for her Sig Mosquito and my CZ 75B ... those are tough to come by ... the Sig mags were $40, the CZ mags were $45 ... a little more than I wanted to pay ... but they are finally in my hands.
Bought a range bag, a box of 22lr and a box of 9mm ... and a soft pretzel ...
I wasnt able to find the prize that I was really looking for (a case of primers) nor did anyone have the Kadet conversion kit for my CZ ...
All in all ... it was worth the trip ... but getting there early was definitely the key to getting that brick of primers.
Visited a gun shop on the way home, as well as a Gander Mt. ... both places had no primers ... The Gander clerk said they received a huge shipment of primers and 22lr ammo a few days ago ... it didnt last an hour. He said they had 10 cases of primers and 40 ammo boxes of mini-mags ... all gone in less than an hour.
Perhaps the best approach is to just backorder them ... and forget about it for a while. If Gander is getting an occassional huge shipment, perhaps there is hope yet.
Wife and I ventured to Chantilly in search of the rare and never seen Small Pistol Primers and assorted mags for our pistols. We arrived around 1 PM on Friday, a full 2 hours before the doors opened ... the line was around the corner already. Luckily the Mrs. and I planned to join the NRA, get our free pass for the show, and avoided the line at the door at 3 PM.
We were one of the first 20 people in the place and had no idea where to go ... so we headed for the ammo piles in the back. Ammo prices were outrageous, some vendors wanting up to $20-$30 (yes! $30) for a 50 round box of 9mm practice ammo. People were still using hand carts and carrying 3-4 cases out of the place ... This show had plenty of ammo ... if you were will to pay up, you could get it.
I finally found a guy selling powder and headed over to his table, I asked if he had SPP and another guy held up two bricks in his hand as he was waiting to pay ... both Federal, one was match primers. He really didnt want the match primers so offered to give them to me ... I took em, and then looked around ... this vendor had plenty of other primers, cases of small rifle, large rifle, and all the magnums.
He had a nice selection of powders ... most of the usual favorites ... 231, Unique, Red Dot, etc. all 1 pound containers.
I paid and went looking again ... every other table that HAD SPPs sold them just before I asked.
What I was happy about is that my wife and I both found extra mags for her Sig Mosquito and my CZ 75B ... those are tough to come by ... the Sig mags were $40, the CZ mags were $45 ... a little more than I wanted to pay ... but they are finally in my hands.
Bought a range bag, a box of 22lr and a box of 9mm ... and a soft pretzel ...
I wasnt able to find the prize that I was really looking for (a case of primers) nor did anyone have the Kadet conversion kit for my CZ ...
All in all ... it was worth the trip ... but getting there early was definitely the key to getting that brick of primers.
Visited a gun shop on the way home, as well as a Gander Mt. ... both places had no primers ... The Gander clerk said they received a huge shipment of primers and 22lr ammo a few days ago ... it didnt last an hour. He said they had 10 cases of primers and 40 ammo boxes of mini-mags ... all gone in less than an hour.
Perhaps the best approach is to just backorder them ... and forget about it for a while. If Gander is getting an occassional huge shipment, perhaps there is hope yet.
