Housekeeping Note: The quarterly ammunition report is below.
Rantburg's summary for arms and ammunition:
Hand gun ammunition prices changed very little since the beginning of 2017. However, some rifle ammunition prices dropped drastically, with the two most popular cartridges, the 5.56x45mm AR and the 7.62x39mm AK ammunition both dropping an average of 7.5 percent from the previous quarter.
This follows my observations in January that ammunition prices did not follow their usual pattern of price spikes during Christmas, then dropping for the next few months.
Some ammunition manufacturers are already taking countermeasures. I suspect that lifting the lid off business regulations by the national government will cause the cost of inputs, such as metal, powder and personnel to drop as well. There's only so much a manufacturer can do to stop declines in a potentially deflationary environment.
Remember Badanov's Basic Economic Law: Abundance is the natural state of free markets.
Prices for pistol ammunition were steady. Prices for rifle ammunition were mostly steady.
Prices for used pistols were mixed. Prices for used rifles were mostly lower.
New Lows:
None
I have been having a good ole time with Facebook acquaintances guffawing at leftists and firearms, such as the kommies in Arizona displaying their firepower. Something reassuring about young men and women, untrained and unfit, hauling around semiautomatics and criticizing their choices like a woman criticizes fashion.
Something is unfunny, however, about the notion that these young people have been talked into doing this demonstration. Rather than a bald display of potential firepower, what we are seeing are several candidates for federal prison, just as soon as one or more makes a statement to the snitches and informants who are without doubt in their midst. How many times have we seen federal employees try to elicit statements made in private, then once in custody, not being aware of their rights, confess to crimes the government can then convict.
The law is supposed to help people, but instead it has been weaponized by the government.
Loads.
Pistol Ammunition
.45 Caliber, 230 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (4 Weeks) (From Q4, 2016: .24 per round, Unchanged)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Outdoor Limited, Wolf, FMJ, Steel Casing, .23 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: Outdoor Limited, Wolf, FMJ, Steel Casing, .23 per round (From Last week: Unchanged (9 Weeks))
.40 Caliber Smith & Wesson, 180 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (2 Weeks) (From Q4, 2016: .22 per round, -.01 Each)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Freedom Munitions, Own Brand, RNFP, Brass Casing, Reloads .21 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: LAX Ammunition Own Brand, RSFP, Brass Casing, Reloads, FMJ, .21 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (2 Weeks))
9mm Parabellum, 115 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (4Q, 2016) (From Q4, 2016: .24 per round, Unchanged)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Outdoor Limited, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .15 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: Bullet Barn, Own Brand, TMJ, Reloads, Brass Casing, .15 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (8 Weeks))
.357 Magnum, 158 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (1Q, 2017) (From Q4, 2016: .25 per round, -.01 Each)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Outdoor Limited, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .24 per round
Cheapest Bulk: 1,000 rounds: Outdoor Limited, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .24 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (1Q, 1017))
.38 Special, 158 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (2 Weeks) (No Data Available)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Freedom Munition, Own Brand, RNFP, Brass Casing, Reloads .24 per round
Cheapest Bulk: 500 rounds: Hyperion Munitions, Own Brand, RN, Brass Casing, Reloads .25 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (5 Weeks))
Rifle Ammunition
.223 Caliber/5.56mm 55 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (3 Weeks) (From Q4, 2016: .24 per round, -.03 Each)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Outdoor Unlimited, Wolf WPA, FMJ, Steel Casing, .20 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: Outdoor Unlimited, Wolf WPA, FMJ, Steel Casing, .20 per round (From Last Week: -.01 Each After Unchanged (4 Weeks))
.308 NATO 150 Grain, From Last Week: +.01 Each After Unchanged (9 Weeks) (From Q4, 2016: .34 per round, -.02 Each)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Outdoor Unlimited, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .32 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: Outdoor Unlimited, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .32 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (1Q, 2017))
7.62x39mm AK 123 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (8 Weeks) (From Q4, 2016: .25 per round, -.05 Each)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Outdoor Unlimited, Wolf WPA, Steel Casing, FMJ, .20 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 1,000 rounds: Outdoor Unlimited, Wolf WPA, Steel Casing, FMJ, .20 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (2 Weeks))
.30-06 Springfield 145 Grain. From Last Week: Unchanged (4 Weeks) (No Data Available)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Outdoor Unlimited, Wolf WPA, Steel Casing, FMJ, .54 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: United Nations Ammo, Wolf WPA, Steel Casing, FMJ, .54 per round (From Last week: Unchanged (6 Weeks))
.300 Winchester Magnum 150 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (5 Weeks) (No Data Available)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Ammunition Depot, Prvi Partizan, Brass Casing, SP, .95 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 1,000 rounds: Ammo Liquidator, Hornady Whitetail, Brass Casing, SP, 1.05 per round (From Last Week: +.01 Each After Unchanged (8 Weeks))
.338 Lapua Magnum 250 Grain, From Last Week: -.03 Each After Unchanged (4 Weeks) (No Data Available)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Bud's Gunshop, Federal Eagle, Brass Casing, JSP, 2.35 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 200 rounds: Target Sports USA, Prvi Partizan, Brass Casing, FMJ, 2.40 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (1Q, 2017))
.22 LR 40 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (2 Weeks) (From Q4, 2016: .05 per round, Unchanged)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Ammomen, Federal, RNL, .05 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: Ammo 2U, CCI Blazer, RNL, .05 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (5 Weeks))
#1
A picture is worth a thousand words and the commies seem to be a bit out of shape and not fully armed. Assault rifles are intimidating to the novice but these people were present as counter demonstrators, a wide open, close quarter environment. If they were trying to immolate right wing armed protestors they failed. Did not see any handguns on the lefties, which right wing protesters appear sometimes with assault rifles AND with hand gun combinations.
In close quarter, face to face confrontations, an opponent can grab the barrel of an assault rifle and counter with a lethal shot with a pistol.
Motion is a close quarter tactic. Seems a little un-orthodox to approach an aggressor armed with an assault rifle but you are the one initiating movement momentum to dodge a shot from your stationary opponent and you are also moving closer to get a more accurate kill shot.
The one with the first shot on target usually is the one who lives. When you are in motion you minimize your self as a target because you can react quicker when in motion. TALK. And your speech causes your opponent to temporarily focus on you, not your weapon, you are creating a verbal distraction for at least a split second.
1) Quick first shot on target method.
2) Using motion to your advantage. Sometimes Hollywood gets the finer details right...
[MWI.USMA.EDU] Warfighting in North Korea would be hard; much harder if US-South Korean alliance forces set assumptions on a foundation of sand. Here are five fatal challenges that planners ought to keep in mind when establishing their own plans and loadbearing assumptions for successful combat in Korea.
1. Digital and computer networks will function without interruption in combat.
Counterpoint: Everything is networked and susceptible to attack from a country with a demonstrated cyber capability. In the cyber world, the offense has the advantage.
2. Ground forces will complete required non-combatant evacuation operations rapidly and without major issue.
Counterpoint: While Marines typically handle non-combatant evacuation operations (NEO), in Korea, that task falls to US Army ground forces. Logically, this mission would occur early in a conflict and those ground forces utilized for the NEO mission would be subject to contingencies well beyond their own control--from massive civilian casualties to spontaneous riots to mistaken headcounts--that might tie up these forces and prohibit them from participation in follow-on combat missions for a considerable amount of time.
3. Movement, maneuver, and supply routes will be fluid.
Counterpoint: North Korea has a mountainous, Afghanistan-like geography and road network. Even if US-South Korean forces cut the North Korean military down significantly, their bypassed and remnant forces will still represent a more numerous, much better-trained, much better-armed version of the Taliban (and considering their ideological orientation and upbringing, while some may surrender, the bulk will probably fight, and fight hard). They will exploit advantageous terrain to conduct lethal harassment ambushes. Simply assuming this problem away is tactically problematic; narrow roads and choke points dictate that whoever is on the road will have to fight from the road--a poor proposition.
4. There will be sufficient time and assets to deal with the weapons of mass destruction problem.
Counterpoint: Putting together two facts makes for a tough conclusion. The US Army’s military mission in North Korea includes responsibility for weapons of mass destruction (WMD), and it has long been publicly known that North Korea has underground facilities numbering in the tens of thousands. And so the innocent children’s game, "hide and seek"--in North Korea becomes a scary, subterranean, "where’s the WMD" nightmare. It’s not hard to anticipate this will mean an exponential increase in energy expended and time required for this mission, no matter what resources are available on day one, to get after these likely underground-stored weapons.
5. We are prepared to engage with guards and managers at North Korean WMD facilities.
Counterpoint: It stands to reason that, if the United States is responsible for the WMD mission, then at least some effort will go to engaging with the North Koreans at these facilities. The first handshake, the result of that last 50-meter walk on the approach, will be crucial. Everything taught to those guards and managers, over the entire course of their lives, will have been that Americans are evil and put on earth to destroy North Koreans. It doesn’t help that our fully armed, geared-up final approach will confirm this narrative. This will be the highest-stakes engagement of any military leader’s career. How are we going to change those North Korean individuals’ narratives and get them to accept ours? Not to mention the bulk of these engagements will likely have to be performed by relatively junior officers (lieutenant colonels and majors; maybe even captains and lieutenants) that will mostly have just arrived in theater.
The truth is, no matter where or when, "war is an option of difficulties." But today, in North Korea, the ground combat option is particularly vexed by geography, physics, and the ability of propaganda to dominate the (North Korean) mind. That said, it may be the only option available--and so a clear understanding of the challenges ahead is indispensable.
Posted by: Herb McCoy7309 ||
04/01/2017 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Commies
#1
I don't think ground operations in Nork are a good idea, and I'll be surprised if they happen.
All that's needed is too smash stuff above ground, bridges in particular and wait for logistics breakdown and starvation to do it's work. The Nork's only options are to invade the south or go nuclear against the south. I doubt an invasion would get very far against prepared defenders, and I'd assume any delivery capability would be destroyed asap.
#4
6. Do not allow your Hubris to engage.
Wireless networks in mountainous regions, won't and all land access from south to north is mountainous. Assume passes are also tunneled and mined. PT and humping daypacks on roadruns will NOT provide the leg and back strength generations of hillclimbing have developed.
#6
Of course this all supposes that the Norks do everything right and won't have any significant execution failures either (or political failures - like senior officials concerned about their own hides looking to work a deal rather than fight).
#7
Planners will have to assume the Samson option. North Korea will strike out to take out as many allies as possible. Expect missile strikes for the South and Japan with both nuclear, dirty warheads and chemical weapons. Protection of allies will be critical.
Also the leadership will be as hard to find after the fighting as the Iraqi leadership was. Some will flee to China and others will be in a hole somewhere leading what is left of the resistance.
Expect a humanitarian crisis like never before seen. The population mostly won't be fanatical as say the Japanese were during WWII, but they will be hungry and desperate. Supply lines will be rapidly overwhelmed with the demand for their care as the simple act of feeding them will keep them from going gorilla.
#8
The population mostly won't be fanatical as say the Japanese were during WWII
I don't know about that. They have been brainwashed for generations that we are the enemy and the Kims are the saviors.
Saw a documentary of an eye doctor who went to Pyongyang to treat people who had eye problems - in some cases restoring eyesight. I think it was a National Geo. documentary. Keep in mind, only the party faithful and higher-up are allowed to live there.
At the end the people and their relatives thanked, not the foreigner, but Kim, or a picture of him - some even appear to pray to him. It was very creepy.
One might think they would appreciate it after they figure out that they have been lied to all these years - but many, if not most, simply will not accept it.
#9
A dictatorship that starves and enslaves the populace won't hesitate to use them as human shields
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/01/2017 10:48 Comments ||
Top||
#10
CrazyFool---I saw the same documentary. The end was creepy. It will take several generations to fix this once the NORK dictatorship is gone.
Ground pounding stuff up there will be a meat grinder. We are talking decapitation of the regime and some serious kinetics on missile and nuclear sites. This will be war at its worst.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/01/2017 15:54 Comments ||
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#11
A ground engagement is what the NORKS desire. Avoid giving your adversary what he desires. See comment #5.
#12
There is no reason to fight Nork ground troops. They can't be sustained or maneuvered. Leave them where they are. Simultaneously, use counter-fire assets to destroy their ranged fires and SOF to clean out high value installations. The first couple of days will be very bad. Probably hundreds of thousands of Sork civilian casualties. Then the Norks will run out of food, ammo, water, nukes and ambition.
At that point leading the charge into Norkland with food trucks would pretty much end the conflict.
#14
NORK Special Purpose Units will be deployed as far forward as possible prior to the initiation of hostilities - overseas if possible. That is another complexity to deal with
[AP] BERLIN (AP) -- Chancellor Angela Merkel says newcomers to Germany must learn the country's values and customs, but that Germans can also learn from them.
More than 1 million asylum seekers have arrived in the past two years, and Germany's been working hard on integration.
Speaking in her weekly podcast this Saturday, in a question-and-answer form with a Syrian journalist who arrived as a refugee in 2015, Merkel emphasized migrants need to respect Germany's values of "tolerance, openness, freedom of religion and freedom of expression" and also "be a little curious about our way of life."
On the flipside, Merkel says Germans should be open, and "seize upon it as a possibility to learn and experience more."
Merkel meets with three organizations next week to thank them for their help with migrants.
While both sides of the equation are true only one side is an obligation. New comers are obliged to learn the language and customs of their hosts and to share their own values if they do not conflict.
This is the basis of the American melting pot. Our incipient disaster is caused by the self-segregating and demanding ways of the entitled.
#5
I wonder when the tipping point will come when German natives object strongly enough to this "leader" to remove her from office thru whatever means necessary?
[OpsLens] "It had to be a scary thought--the thought of a special prosecutor with strong investigative powers looking under the hood of the Obama and Clinton getaway car..."
As I’m writing this, the news is reporting possible bombshell evidence being released in the next few days regarding the Obama administration spying on Donald J. Trump and his transition team. If the roles were switched and the Republicans were to blame (think Richard Nixon), Washington would be in flames. Instead, we have casual avoidance of the subject by the media, who continues to scream "the Russians!" whenever any derogatory evidence is brought up against our previous Dear Leader Obama.
But this is not the first time, is it? There has been a long string of evidence implicating the Obama administration in abusing the power of the state he was given by the American people.
The IRS first comes to mind. Using the tax agency of the federal government against political opposition is something straight out of Moscow; it’s ironic that the Democrats are the ones screaming, "the Russians are coming!" Vladimir Putin regularly ransacks offices and homes of his foes on trumped up (pardon the pun) tax evasion charges.
The Obama IRS famously prevented conservative groups from getting tax-exempt status prior to the 2012 election, and then his smug IRS commissioner lied to Congress about it. The woman in charge of the issue at the IRS pleaded the Fifth. Recent reports say the IRS is still slow-rolling conservative non-profit applications. This is corruption, pure and simple--using the agencies of the federal government against your adversaries. It’s right out of the handbook any totalitarian regime or banana republic dictator. It’s not supposed to happen here, but it did. And it is still going on.
[DAWN] THE scene is grimly familiar, as is the location. A market has been struck in Parachinar -- the second market bombing this year in the town and the fourth since 2013. The Friday bombing, likely aimed at inflicting maximum harm ahead of the weekly congregation at a nearby Shia imambargah, further crystallised what has long been clear about the violence in the Parachinar region of Kurram Agency ...home of an intricately interconnected web of poverty, ignorance, and religious fanaticism, where the laws of cause and effect are assumed to be suspended, conveniently located adjacent to Tora Bora... : militancy with an overtly sectarian dimension. And after rival claims to this year’s January bombing in the area, yesterday’s attack has been followed by a claim of responsibility from Jamaatul Ahrar ...A Pak Taliban splinter group that split off from the Mullah Fazlullah faction because it wasn't violent enough... , the TTP splinter that has been at the forefront of recent attacks across the country. The long war against militancy, longer in the Parachinar region than most parts of the country, looks set to grind on, undermining the gains made elsewhere.
For Pakistain, the questions are many, and all wearily familiar. The tone of the politicianship may have changed somewhat since earlier this year, when senior government officials openly and at odds with the facts tried to downplay the sectarian underpinnings of militancy, but there is no clear path ahead either. Perhaps nowhere is the connection between extremism and militancy more apparent than at the sectarian intersection. While the roots of the animosity may indeed be historical, stretching back many centuries as some government officials glibly claimed, it is actively encouraged by a vast infrastructure of extremism. The tentative steps taken under the National Action Plan and by provincial governments to fine or arrest preachers of hate has done little to slow the poison being spread across the land. The need for an unequivocal, firm and determined message -- that Pakistain is and will remain an inclusive state and society -- remains as strong as ever. What the message must be is clear; whether the state has the will or ability to carry it forward until it becomes uncontested and undeniable across the country is unclear.
There is also the problem of the state choosing to emphasise one part of the problem and in doing so distorting the real scope of militancy. With Jamaatul Ahrar claiming responsibility for yesterday’s attack, the problem of cross-border militancy and Pakistain’s growing discontent with Afghanistan will likely come into focus again. But terrorism and militancy blighted Parachinar before the emergence of Jamaatul Ahrar, and the relationship with Afghanistan is far more complex than the now undeniably serious problem of anti-Pakistain Death Eater sanctuaries in eastern Afghanistan. The answer lies in drawing together seemingly disparate threads such as NAP, Operation Raddul Fasaad, and national security and foreign policy into a coherent, effective and strategic approach. It will not be easy, but there is also no realistic alternative. The suffering in Parachinar must not be in vain and with no end. The ugly reality of sectarianism must be confronted directly and decisively.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/01/2017 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[AP] BERLIN (AP) -- Chancellor Angela Merkel says newcomers to Germany must learn the country's values and customs, but that Germans can also learn from them.
[OpsLens] "It had to be a scary thought--the thought of a special prosecutor with strong investigative powers looking under the hood of the Obama and Clinton getaway car..."
Kurram Agency
