The Arizona Rifleman

Ammoman sent out an email saying they have a special sale on Prvi M855. $349/1000 (shipping is included) is a pretty decent price — normally I’ve seen it sell for over $400/1000, without shipping, from other merchants.

I’m a big fan of Prvi’s M193, but have been looking for M855 for a while, and snapped up a case while it was available.

Update: D’oh. AIM Surplus has it for even cheaper, even with shipping taken into account. Of course, I discover this after I place the order at Ammoman. Live and learn.

I knew that I had more .223 lying around. Turns out I had a .50 cal can filled with loaded magazines.

Why it was sitting on top of the UPS powering my tropical fish tank, I have no idea…

When I went to the range a few weeks ago, I was dismayed to find my collection of AR magazines to be nearly devoid of ammo. My collection of Prvi Partizan M193 (my preferred general-purpose ammo) seems to have dried up, and I haven’t bothered buying more or reloading as of late.

Of course, I won’t be able to buy any ammo anytime soon (hooray for the upcoming expenses for the wedding+honeymoon) and I don’t have time for reloading (thanks to finishing up my last semester of undergrad; soon I’ll have a newly-minted B.S. in Physics).

For the time being, I’m down to three magazines of M193, a bunch of .22, a few boxes of 9mm and .45, and maybe 15 rounds of 12ga. Don’t even ask about .30-06.

Ah, the fun times of having no money, no time, and no ammo.

For a total cost of $87.00¹, I purchased 1,500 rounds of CCI Blazer .22LR ammo. Here they are:

This purchase is due to Carl’s contribution to the New Shooter Ammo Fund, and has been marked and set aside for that specific purpose.

The same amount of .223 ammo² would cost a bit more than seven times as much, and would be considerably bulkier and heavier. Although prices have risen, .22 is still cheap, small, compact, and lightweight.

It’s also a heck of a lot of fun.

1. including $1.72 for Midway’s NRA Round-Up contribution and $14.81 for shipping [↩]
2. Prvi Partizan M193 [↩]

With the enactment of the new California law requiring the registration of ammo purchases, what’s to prevent someone from ordering a substantial quantity of ammunition, having it shipped to someone in a neighboring state (e.g. Oregon, Nevada, or Arizona), driving over, picking it up, and bringing it back?

As far as I can tell, nothing prevents this from occurring.

I’m almost tempted to start up such a service for California residents, except that:

• My apartment is small, and my landlord would object to my having a few tons of ammo in my apartment.
• I think there’s a no-running-a-business-from-the-apartment clause in my lease, probably to keep drug dealers from plying their trade.

I suspect that U-Haul rentals for round-trips between Los Angeles-Phoenix (and San Francisco-Reno) will increase substantially in the next year or so.

.22 Long Rifle cartridges seem to come in several types of common packaging: Remington Golden Bullets come in paper boxes with a little paper tray that slides out, Federal ammo comes in paper boxes with a plastic tray, and some CCI and Remington rounds come in plastic boxes with plastic trays.

Which one do you prefer the most?

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Personally, I like the paper boxes with plastic trays — they’re much less fragile than the all-plastic boxes (which seem to crack and shatter on me), and the rounds aren’t resting on their noses like in the all-paper ones. It’s also easy to just slide the tray out to expose 10 rounds, making it very simple to get exactly the right amount of ammo to load a magazine.

I was rummaging through my collection of ammo and stumbled across a box of Speer Gold Dot ammo in .380 Auto. The box contains 20 rounds.

I used to own a small Bersa Thunder .380 but sold it probably 2-3 years ago. Somehow, I managed to hang onto a box of Gold Dots for it.

As I don’t have a .380 pistol now, I’m looking to sell it. I’m willing to let it part for the original, still-affixed purchase price of $13.95.

If what I think is the lot number is correct, it’s lot number 23606.

The ammo looks to be in good shape. I’ve fired gobs of Gold Dots in the past, and they’re good stuff.

With quantities this small, a local buyer would be the best choice. Anyone in Tucson interested? If so, send me an email.

California (according to a notice from Cabelas)

On Friday, Sept. 11, the California Assembly passed Assembly Bill 962, by a 44-31 vote.

Among other regulations, AB 962 would:

• Ban all mail-order and Internet sales of handgun ammunition.
• Prohibit the retail sale, the offer for sale or the display of handgun ammunition in a manner that allows ammunition to be accessible to a purchaser without assistance of a vendor or employee.
• Require that the delivery or transfer of ownership of handgun ammunition occur in a face-to-face transaction, with the deliverer or transferor being provided bona fide evidence of identity of the purchaser or other transferee.

That evidence of identity, which must be legibly recorded at the time of delivery, includes:

• The right thumbprint of the purchaser or transferee.
• The date of the sale or other transaction.
• The purchaser’s or transferee’s driver’s license or other identification number and the
• state in which it was issued.
• The brand, type and amount of ammunition sold or otherwise transferred.
• The purchaser’s or transferee’s signature.
• The name of the salesperson who processed the sale or other transaction.
• The purchaser’s or transferee’s full residential address and telephone number.
• The purchaser’s or transferee’s date of birth.

The bill is on the desk of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, where it awaits his consideration. He will have until Oct. 11 to sign or veto the bill. If he does not veto the bill, it will become law.

Arizona

• Don’t be a criminal.
• Pick out the ammo you want, be it local or online.
• Pay for ammo.
• Receive ammo.

The other day, I was at the local gun shop perusing their wares. I overheard a conversation between a customer and the employee. Evidently the customer was a visitor from California, was spending a week or two here visiting friends, and wanted to pick up some ammo for the range. He inquired as to what restrictions exist for purchasing ammo, and whether or not he had to be an Arizona resident or show ID to buy ammo here. The employee considered this for a moment and said “Well, so long as you’re not a criminal and can pay for it, you can buy whatever you want.”

He looked rather amazed. After browsing for a bit, he picked up a few boxes of .380 and something else I didn’t see.

Who in their right mind actually thinks that the bills waiting for the governor would have any effect on crime? Prohibiting customers from handling boxes of ammo in the store will accomplish…what, exactly? Makes no sense at all.

For all the flaws that Arizona has (and no state is perfect), it’s still a rather free state, unlike our neighbor to the west.

Anyone here used Prvi Partizan¹ Match ammo?

Specifically, the 75gr .223 Remington stuff.

The local shop had a bunch for $12.29/20rds, which was just two bucks more than the PP M193² I was picking up, so I grabbed a box on a whim.

Normally I don’t think of “Made in Serbia” as being a mark of high quality, but PP’s M193 stuff has changed my mind, so I’m willing to give this stuff a try. Any experience?

Surprisingly, I was unable to find lot numbers on the individual boxes of 20 rounds. This is surprising for match-grade ammo (their mil-spec stuff has lot numbers on each box). Do they have the lot numbers printed on the case itself, if one buys in such quantities? It’d be nice to stock up a thousand rounds or two of the same lot so one could practice and compete with identical stuff.

Any additional information would be much appreciated.

Update: There appears to be some confusion in the comments. To clarify, I have shot several thousand rounds of Prvi Partizan M193 5.56mm NATO-spec ammo in the past and have found it to be excellent, and I now shoot it exclusively for recreational purposes. That said, I’m asking specifically about the Prvi Partizan 75-grain Match ammo. Has anyone used it in competitions? How does it compare vs. other match-grade ammo?

1. Yes, I know their factory had an explosion. Somehow the local shop still has tons in stock at a reasonable price. Hope PP gets back to production soon. [↩]
2. Fantastic ammo, 100% reliability in both my ARs, powerful, and pretty accurate for mil-spec stuff. It’s also actually available, unlike the US-made mil-surp. It’s also looks a lot better than XM193, and meets all the mil-spec. I’ve always been under the impression that Federal XM193 on the civilian market, while made in the US, was being sold to the public because it failed mil-spec in some minor, not-safety-related way. [↩]

Thanks to generous donations to the New Shooter Ammo Fund, I have been able to purchase an additional 80 rounds of .223 ammo for teaching new shooters.

While 80 rounds might not seem like much, most new shooters I take to the range really seem to love the ARs, and so an extra few magazines worth is always useful.

I could have gotten quite a bit more .22LR than .223, but the local shop was short on .22, and didn’t have stuff that my 10/22 seems to prefer.

Many thanks to all those who’ve donated. The fall semester is off to a busy start, and I don’t have as much time as I’d like to take new shooters to the range (heck, I don’t know any more new shooters! Anyone in town want to send them my way?) right now, but hopefully that’ll become possible as grad school applications go out.