Guns and Ammo Buying Frenzy 2020 Style

By Glen Wunderlich

Charter Member Professional Outdoor Media Association (POMA)

If anyone has tried to purchase ammunition for their chosen deer gun recently, they’ve noticed a shortage on the shelves.  Firearms retailers have resorted to gun-purchase waiting lists for customers and have little or nothing on hand.  Although these conditions have become an annoyance in recent years, it’s gone far beyond that now.  Fear has raised its ugly presence, once again, and has materialized right before our eyes.

While the Left threatens gun confiscation by notables such as Beto O’Rourke and others suggest imposing mandatory gun buybacks, sales continue to ascend to unprecedented levels.

Consider the most recent National Instant Criminal Background Checks System (NICS) figures.  Although not an actual reflection of firearms purchases, the NICS numbers are the best means available to track the firearms market.

Cyber Monday produced some astounding numbers, with totals up 65.2% over 2019.   And, that was a record year!

Overall, November 2020’s numbers set another record with adjusted NICS figures: 1,949,141- an increase of 45.2 percent over 2019 – the previous record year.

Year-to-Date, there have been 19.1 million adjusted NICS checks.  According to the NSSF’s Retailer Surveys, nearly 7.7 million people were first-time firearms buyers in 2020.

Here is what the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) – the trade group representing firearms manufacturers – indicates according to its Director of Public Affairs, Mark Oliva. 

“November background checks are in line with what we’ve seen all year long. Americans continue to purchase firearms at record pace for a variety of reasons, including concerns for personal safety, onerous gun control plans by a Biden-Harris administration and for lawful purposes including recreational shooting, hunting and self-defense.

The fact that the pace of these sales hasn’t slowed since March shows Americans value their Second Amendment freedoms and will exercise the right to keep and bear arms of their choosing.

Politicians looking for a mandate on firearms should examine the record setting figures Americans are posting every month with firearm sales. Americans have told their elected representatives more than 19 million times exactly where their voters stand when it comes to their rights, more than 7.5 million making that declaration publicly for the first time in their lives.”

Like it or not, this is our reality.

If you are a gun owner and have a mind to rid your gun safe of some useless clutter, now’s the time to profit.  Based on sales prices of used guns I’ve tracked at Gunbroker.com, it appears as though just about any firearm’s value has skyrocketed– in most cases even doubled over their value a few years ago.

Of course, a firearm is of no practical use unless ammunition is available and it too is being gobbled up as soon as it is put on the shelves.  Production capacity of both firearms and ammo are at maximum levels, but you wouldn’t know it by visiting retailers.

Next week, I’ll suggest means for law-abiding Americans to combat the fear-induced shortages that are upon us.

Ammunition, Firearms

Track the Migration of Snowy Owls

Learn about the movements, migrations, and variety of wintering locations of Snowy Owls being tracked via satellite telemetry by Project Snowstorm (photo by Paul Konrad).

Project Snowstorm continues to provide exciting new information revealed by satellite telemetry that shows the movements of individual Snowy Owls. This includes a long-term study of a third-year female Snowy Owl referred to as ‘Stella’ that shows her movements from wintering areas to summer range in the high Arctic, including specific migration routes from 2018 through 2020. This fall, the updated map of her telemetry locations illustrates that this female Snowy began her migration south September 17 after spending the summer on King Edward Island, just north of continental Canada and west of the northern tip of Hudson Bay. After migrating almost directly south, last week her position was in the southeast corner of North Dakota, near the borders of Minnesota and South Dakota.

This interesting Snowy Owl spent the summers of 2018 and 2019 even farther north in Nunavut – on Victoria Island as a yearling in ’18, and on Lougheed Island as a second year bird in ’19 – not far from the North Pole! After taking a pretty straight line series of flights along the west side of Hudson Bay, it continued south through Manitoba, crossing the border into North Dakota November 24.

Where will “Stella” winter this winter? Although this owl migrated to the border between the Dakotas last winter too, for an unknown reason it doubled back north to spend the winter just north of the border in southwest Manitoba. In 2019, this owl wintered in northeast Montana, migrating through Saskatchewan during spring and fall. But to complicate the movement history of this individual Snowy Owl, she was originally observed and fitted with its transmitter in southern Ontario, adjacent to the state of New York. Read more

Wildlife

Stock Your Feeders for Winter Finches

Among the most beautiful of the larger “finches,” Pine Grosbeaks and other species prefer black-oil sunflowers and some fruiting trees (photo by Sparky Stensaas).

Winter finches are always a big hit with birders, and to take advantage of this winter’s promise of a big flight of northern finches, you want to be sure you have all the right stuff in your feeding station and yard. If the birds come through, species by species or in mixed flocks, you definitely want to be ready. Overall, we’re talking about such exciting birds as Pine Grosbeaks, Evening Grosbeaks, Red Crossbills, White-winged Crossbills, Purple Finches, Pine Siskins, Red-breasted Nuthatches, Hoary Redpolls and Common Redpolls.

For most of these birds, it’s relatively easy to stock your feeders with foods that will attract them like a magnet – if they make it to your neighborhood. But if one or more of these colorful species stops by, you don’t want to miss the opportunity to try to make them stay, by making your own little oasis with a gourmet table setting. Actually, it’s not gourmet at all, and you may already be providing all they right ingredients. But first of all, a bit of nomenclature discussion. Read more

Wildlife

Congress Sends Driftnet Modernization Act to President Trump’s Desk

Key legislation also authorizes market-based transfer of Alaska halibut quota from commercial fishing sector to the charter fishing sector

Alexandria, VA – December 10, 2020 – The U.S. House of Representatives has passed the bipartisan Driftnet Modernization and Bycatch Reduction Act (S. 906) to phase out large-scale driftnet fishing in federal waters off California. Authored in the Senate by Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.V.), and in the House by Reps. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), the bill passed the U.S. Senate in July and now heads to President Donald Trump’s desk for his signature.

The Driftnet Modernization and Bycatch Reduction Act will align commercial swordfish fishing in California with other U.S. and international swordfish fisheries by ending the use of mile-long large-mesh drift gillnets. Phasing out this indiscriminate gear and replacing it with a more sustainable fishing practice will result in increased economic benefits and less bycatch, including marine mammals, sea turtles and many recreationally important fish species. Read more

Fishing

Walther PP from DOCTOR NO Auctioned for $256,000

Pistol icon achieves record sum:

Walther PP used by James Bond auctioned for US$ 256,000

The Walther PP, used by Sean Connery in his first Bond movie, Dr. No, was recently auctioned by Julien’s Auctions in Beverly Hills for over a quarter of a million dollars.

In the film, “M” (Bernard Lee) introduced the gun as Walther PPK. Still, in reality, Connery was carrying the Walther PP, which became the standard equipment of many Bond heroes.

In 1929 Carl Walther introduced the Walther PP – Police Pistol – to the public. Walther mainly manufactured the PP in caliber 7.65MM (.32 ACP). It was far ahead of its time in terms of design and ergonomics and thus the first world success of its creator Fritz Walther. Read more

Firearms

SAF Honors Jim Shepherd with Global Leadership Award

BELLEVUE, WA – The Second Amendment Foundation today announced the recipient of the Global Leadership Award for 2020 is Jim Shepherd, founder and owner of The Outdoor Wire digital network, which includes the popular Shooting Wire, based in Birmingham, Alabama.

Shepherd, the original executive producer for business news at the then-fledgling CNN and later a business reporter at PBS, has been at the helm of The Outdoor Wire for 21 years. A veteran broadcast journalist and producer, he also spent two years as an instructor at the University of Miami prior to moving to New York City, where he was news director for a financial news network. He began his career working at small newspapers and at one time he was the youngest daily newspaper editor in the country, at the Daily Statesman in Columbia, Kentucky. Read more

General

Nosler Reloading Guide #9 Now Shipping

Bend, Ore. –– Nosler, Inc. is excited to announce the release of their latest publication, Reloading Guide #9. This new guide is built upon thousands of hours logged in the Nosler Ballistic Lab and will be available for purchase online and at retail locations as early as this week.

Reloading Guide #9 consists of load data for 101 rifle and handgun cartridges with hundreds of new powder additions throughout the book creating a comprehensive data set for today’s reloader. This manual is current with every bullet that Nosler offers through 2020 from 17 caliber up to 458 caliber in the rifle section and 9mm up to 45 caliber in the handgun section. Nine new cartridges were added to this manual to include the 20 Nosler, 22 Nosler, 24 Nosler, 6mm Creedmoor, 6mm XC, 6.5 PRC, 27 Nosler, 7.62×39 and 33 Nosler. Read more

Ammunition

Faxon Firearms Hunting Giveaway

(CINCINNATI, OH) – Faxon Firearms has teamed up with a slew of excellent brands for their latest giveaway valued at over $5000.

The Sportsman December Giveaway started late last week and which will wrap-up on December 23rd, 2020.

The Sportsman Prize Pack includes:

  • Custom Faxon Firearms 350 Legend Rifle
  • Custom Cerakote completed by One Off Coating, LLC in Dayton, Ohio
  • Vortex Viper HD 15-45×65 Spotting Scope
  • Case of Hornady 350 Legend Ammunition
  • Muddy Outdoors Executioner Ground Blind
  • Scentlok Jacket, Pants, and Ozone Generator – $500 Gift Card to American Range Systems
  • HME Scent Slammer Ozone Duffle Bag
  • Nanuk Rifle Cases
  • Walker Silencer 2.0 Electronic Earbuds
  • Stealth Cam DS4K Infrared Trail Cam
  • Rocky Boots Digital Gift Card for Free Boots
  • Bison Coolers 50ct Cooler, Softpak Cooler Bag, and Tumbler

You can enter to win by visiting FaxonFirearms.com or by clicking the link below. Read more

Ammunition, Firearms
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