Some of us went last night to our local range’s USPSA style monthly match. When we were over at the range we noticed something strange, save for a few high tier AR15s most of the budget/ or middle of the road rifles were gone. Leaving the walls almost bare. I asked the owner if he was having a good selling month, he replied “NO” and went on to tell me how small and large shops like his, were having trouble getting AR15s in. In fact from his sources it was stated that most major distributors are out or running very low on AR15s. This isn’t just a local problem either. Manufactures all over are gearing up to try to handle the parts orders, and gun orders that can’t at this current time be filled. After calling 2 Cabela’s the total number of ARs between them was about 50. The Bass pro down the street has a total of 10, and the local gun shop had 0 middle of the road budget ARs. The local shop told me that getting parts in was also becoming harder to do.
Before some of you step in and say “Oh Bullshit, they are just trying to sell more”. At Tactical Shit, our parts buyers are reporting that some parts including gas tubes, ejection port covers and buffer tubes are becoming harder to source in large quantities.
Our Tactical Shit 80% lowers like the billet, forged, and blems are also flying off the shelves, with people buying 4 to even 10 at a time. These people are hopeing to stock up so they can continue to build rifles legally post new gun laws going into affect. There is a list right now for the 80% blems that haven’t even came in yet sitting in front of me as I write this article. There has also been talk on the wire that the price of 80%s will be increasing, due to such high demand.
For the last several years, there has been a huge surplus of AR15s in the US Market. So many manufacturers popped up and flooded the market. So much so that recently we hit the bottom value of the base model AR15s going for 400-500 dollars EVERYWHERE. Every mom and pop gun shop, to huge box store had some flavor of AR sitting behind the counter.