Yes, I've been slacking on the blog this week, partly because I be a busy little beaver. The Daniel Defense AR with the Aimpoint is sighted in for the CT Midnight 3-Gun, the VersaMax is running like a top and even the Ruger SR9 is happy...I do have to sight in the Streamlight laser on it, though...last year my slacking on that little point came back and bit me hard in the rump.
I've also been working with the Africa rifle, the Ruger Guide Gun in .300 Win Mag (with Rem 180s). I don't have the scope yet — I went with the Leupold VX-6 2-12 with the illuminated FireDot reticle and turrets cut for the Hornady 165-gr International loads — so I've been using the "express" sights that come on the rifle...a shallow "V" in the rear and a white dot front sight. I'm basically starting with 10 shot strings at 50 yards, then moving forward or sideways and firing from different positions off sticks...sitting, kneeling (right knee, left knee, both knees), standing, offhand. Keep all the shots in an IDPA target "zero down" zone. It's a pretty good drill for the rifle and it'll make you work. I figure if I can do this, say, 1000 more times, I'll be good to go for Africa! LOL!
Once again, the Ruger muzzle brake just plain rocks. I'm going to talk Ruger out of another one and put it on the GUNSITE Scout Rifle.
BTW, I'm hearing that the Great AR Bubble is in full-scale fizzle. Cliff's Notes version...back orders are vanishing faster than .22LR ammo at a Cabela's new store opening. Small to medium sized companies that bet heavily on their back orders — that is, they ordered components to fill the back orders — are up against the wall. The components are only now being shipped, but the back orders (at least between 50 and 75% of them) are gone baby gone. Essentially, at the height of the Bubble customers were placing multiple orders, intending the buy the gun that came in first.
I suspect the 7.62/.308 AR-10 platforms may be at the greatest risk... the market is simply not that large (unless you are of the prepper persuasion and looking for a quality major caliber semiauto rifle...keep your eyes on Colt or FAL, with a couple of other good alternatives on the way...more about that later).
I've said this before and I'll say it again...I think everyone in America should own an AR, and as prices plummet, it's almost time to buy. In the last week, I have seen "commodity" ARs at less than $700, and "name" ARs below $1000. BUY AT THE BOTTOM OF THE MARKET! I unconditionally recommend ARs from my sponsors — Ruger, DoubleStar, Stag, Daniel Defense — these guys build superb guns! I own guns from each of them and use them on a regular basis. I also unconditionally recommend JP Rifles, Spike's Tactical, Wilson Combat (I wish the Paul Howe carbine would follow me home!) and Carbon Arms. My next project gun is a .300 Blackout with a Carbon Arms upper and a Spike's lower. If we can ever get .458 SOCOM ammo again, I'd love to build one off a Wilson Combat upper. At least I can dream!
Michael,
ReplyDeleteYour comments about the AR bubble are spot on. I see the same thing here in my neck of the woods in N.E. Florida. I also see there are plenty of other guns on the shelf, but no ammo. That will definetely hurt existing and future sales.
On the .300 Blackout front, I haven't heard that much about it these days. Given you want to develop a project rifle around the caliber, that gives me a strong clue what you think about its future. But can you elaborate on it more? Do you think it will become the de facto caliber for the AR platform or does the 5.56 round still hold serve?
Thanks!
George
Didn't contribute to the panic (Thank you, Michael!), but I'll buy during the valley. I've got a couple of fun build in mind.
ReplyDeleteVery interested in the AR-10s. I'll watch with barely contained anticiapation what appears in the blog. As the AR-10 is not a mil-spec system, I'm looking to buy a complete rifle.
With any semi-auto's, I'd recommend buying a pile of spare magazines first, then buy the gun; even though mag' availability seems to be going up. Many recent buyers of the latest handguns couldn't get any spares and their guns came with only ONE mag' due to the "shortage". Michael's FN .45 acp is a good example. He mentioned this in an older post. I don't know if he ever got any that he ordered.
ReplyDeleteLife Member
Cancelled a few million bucks worth of AR & related merchandise purchase orders myself...not something I like doing, but that's reality. Suddenly in late June, vendors offering complete guns, stripped lowers, and magazines were burning up my voicemail and email with product for sale. Same bubble bursting killed KBI, Inc. (Charles Daley Defense) at the end of the last hyper-market in 2009.
ReplyDeleteOut where I live, I've noticed over the last month or so that lowers, ARs & M1As are starting to sit just long enough on a shelf where if you casually stop by you may be able to purchase one. For a while a local gun store used to announce what had come in and then did a lottery like system on Saturdays. They no longer need to do that.
ReplyDeleteNow, if 22 LR would start to come back. I have plenty but would like even more. My biggest learning of this event was that I have plenty of pistol and rifle ammo but I need to short up buckshot and even more 22 LR.
Did you ever think you'd see the day that an AK costs more than an AR???
ReplyDeleteCleveland, Ohio area also has plenty of Pistols and Shotguns to go along with the ARs. Prices are still on the High Side, but Availability is not an issue. And I can get as many Polymer AR Magazines as I want for about $15-$20 all day long. But It's the AMMO that still running tight.
ReplyDeleteAK prices are starting to return to more sane, reality based, numbers as Century is now lower their prices so as to allow wholesalers that have been sitting on big piles for the past four to six months to cost average their inventories. As Century rolled out higher and higher AK prices in Jan and Feb 2013, most all of their wholesalers politely informed them to go pound sand and canceled every PO they had with them.
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