Surreal

I went to the local gun shop (Murphy’s Guns & Gunsmithing at Ft. Lowell & Country Club in Tucson) this afternoon with a few friends. We were mostly looking at getting a few boxes of ammo (mostly .223), and also to look at all the shiny stuff.
After seeing most gun shops being absurdly busy and having bare shelves, I was pleasantly surprised to see this shop with only modest customer traffic (granted, it was a Friday afternoon), a good selection of firearms (including four AR-15s and several AK variants), and a wide selection of ammo at reasonable prices.
The ARs on the shelves included at least one Bushmaster and one S&W, both priced around $900-$1,000 (which seems quite reasonable for those specific models, almost pre-frenzy prices). Prvi Partizan M193 5.56mm ammo was $9.19/20, though some of the boxes in the crate were labled at $10 (it looks like they just got some new boxes in and put the higher price on the new stuff without relabeling the old stuff). Federal XM193F (I’ve never seen the “F” designation before, but it looks good) was available for $9.99/20. I picked up three boxes of the Federal and two boxes of the Prvi (I have one at home, making it an even 60 rounds, and my friend Louis bought three boxes of Prvi for me as well — thanks Louis).
While I can’t exactly call the ammo prices “cheap”, they were not unreasonable given today’s market. Even better, they had a bunch of the ammo (most online vendors are sold out, and the shelves at the local big-box sporting goods stores are bare) and I could support a local small business.
I felt like I was in some kind of fantasy land, what with reasonably-priced, available guns and ammo.
Someone pinch me.

5 thoughts on “Surreal”

  1. Last time I went to Murphy’s was on a Tuesday (Feb. 24th) around 1 pm, and they were PACKED. Well stocked on goodies, just busier than all get-out
    Did they have a decent supply of the Federal? I may not be able to get up there until Monday…

    1. Eric: I counted at least 15 boxes of the Federal XM193F. Surprisingly, nobody seemed to be interested in .223. They have a rather hefty supply of the Prvi Partizan M193 (evidently it’s actual NATO mil-spec), as well as a bunch of Prvi Partizan .223 commercial loads, some Black Hills, and some PMC.
      By far, they had more Prvi M193 than any other .223/5.56mm caliber — I counted at least 500 rounds total (they probably have more too).
      It sucks having to buy ammo box-by-box rather than in bulk, but I’ll take what I can get.

  2. I thought I’d try that same with local gun shops here.
    I am now convinced there is no 9x19mm ammo to be found in the greater Phoenix area, period. The local Walmart had 50 round boxes of .223 so I snagged a couple today, but that’s it.
    And I haven’t seen any .380 ACP in *months*.

  3. Lucky. I can’t find 5.56 or .223. The only caliber I can find all the time is .40S&W. Lucky that everyone hates that caliber.
    My wal-mart did have a big shipment of .22 bricks about a week ago. A few dozen, I watched them put on the shelves in the afternoon. I bought 2, that’s all I can afford. The other 30 or so bricks were gone the next morning.

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