WalMart, Ammunition and Disappointment

So, the cupboard is getting pretty bare. Between getting the new handgun and taking a new shooter out the other weekend, I needed more ammo.



Now, I'm not like the guys on the gun message boards who think you're woefully unprepared if you don't have enough ammo on hand to hold off the entire Chinese Army. Let me tell you why I don't subscribe to that theory.

When Mr. Abby and I moved down here, we sent...a significant number of fireams with the movers (in fact we sent all of them, because firearms are not allowed in temporary housing on base. So we didn't bring any. Got it?). BUT - we had a fair amount of ammunition and the movers won't touch that. So we packed it up in a big green footlocker.

That was one heavy footlocker. We hand-carried it into each hotel along the way (always, always on the second floor), into temporary housing (second floor again). Then, when Mr. Abby was out of town (in the military sense) and Hurricane Charlie forced me to evacuate, an Army buddy and I dragged that goddam footlocker out of temporary housing and to a friend's fourth-floor apartment.

Never again. The next time we move, we're fitting everything into two 5.56mm ammo cans. If it's not going to fit, it's going to range and getting shot up. I am not schlepping another 100lb crate.

But still, I like to have enough handgun ammo on hand for three range trips. Considering that I usually shoot about 100 rounds per gun per trip (sometimes more, very occasionally less), that's 300 rounds of 9mm, and 300 rounds of .45. It's physically impossible to ever have less than 1000 rounds of .22 around, so that's not an issue, and our household .38 survive with less.

As you can see from the picture, I need more ammo. Walmart is the place to get it. I've been shooting Blazer Brass .45 lately. My guns like it and it's $9.97 for 50 rounds. The next best deal is Winchester .45, which recently jumped from 22.95 to 26.97 for 100.

So I wandered up to WallyWorld today, fully intending to back the jeep up and call for a forklift. But...but...they had NO Blazer .45 and like two boxes of WWB. They had one box of Blazer 9mm, but the one box of WWB 9mm was open and leaking rounds.

So I ended up buying 100 of .45 and the 50 rounds of Blazer 9mm. This does NOT make me happy. If you're into centerfire handguns, you are aware of the great ripoff that is Gun Range Ammunition. I cannot afford my hobby if I have to pay a minimum of $16 for a 50-round box of ammo.

I don't have a Gander Mountain, Cabelas, BassPro, etc near here. The closest ones are in Orlando. But I think the Gander Mountain there is having an ammo sale, so I may have to plan a road trip. This is unacceptable.