Well, weeks later and I still haven't put down cash. I passed on a nice Sig Sauer 5.56 because I was holding for a .308 that apparently nobody can get. I've been to or called everyone but the pawn shops, repeatedly, and it's slim pickings. Thanks Covid.
Maybe time to try to convince grandpa to sell me his Winchester. It needs a new firing pin, NLA, but if I can't fix it I'm sure I can find a smith that can make a new pin. It's not what I want and being solid wood stock, it kicks good. But it already has optics, so that's something. Then maybe I take the rest of my budget and find an AR-15, as those seem to be a little easier to find around here. Maybe, I do that. It's a good excuse to call my grandpa anyway.
PSA has a few lowers
https://palmettostatearmory.com/ar-10/ar10-lowers.html
and one generic stainless upper in stock.
https://palmettostatearmory.com/ar-10/ar-10-upper-assemblies.html
You can ship the upper to your house. Lower needs an FFL, but PSA's order process makes it pretty easy to find an FFL holder near you that's already in PSA's system.
I bought some Israeli surplus FAL mags from them last month, despite all the shipping warnings I got my mags in about a week.
In reply to bigdaddylee82 :
That's a possibility... more than I really wanted to spend, but not terrible.
In reply to barefootskater :
I know you already know this, but everything is pretty darn hard to come by at the moment.
It's tough to recommend those PSA parts at that price considering I put together an AR-10 with one of their 18" stainless, m-lok uppers with a Magpul stock/grip lower for $650 about 3 years ago.
I spent the last ~20 minutes checking the usual places, I found a handful of options, but nothing any cheaper.
Check your local Armslist, maybe. I expect folks to be taking advantage of the current demand though, don't imagine you'll find a great deal at the moment.
In reply to bigdaddylee82 :
I know it. And I don't see anything improving the situation at least until several months after the election. Every 4 years the gun market goes nuts. Apparently I don't know when to buy.
barefootskater said:
In reply to bigdaddylee82 :
I know it. And I don't see anything improving the situation at least until several months after the election. Every 4 years the gun market goes nuts. Apparently I don't know when to buy.
I just bought a pistol from a buddy's gun shop. Last ultralight 38 snubbie he had. He's selling 20+ pistols a day out of a one man independent shop and all the ammo has dried up. As he said, happens every 4 years no matter what but worse this year.
I really gotta start selling off some guns. Just been lazy. But if prices are high and stock is low, time to turn some into fun $$.
barefootskater said:
Maybe time to try to convince grandpa to sell me his Winchester. It needs a new firing pin, NLA, but if I can't fix it I'm sure I can find a smith that can make a new pin. It's not what I want and being solid wood stock, it kicks good. But it already has optics, so that's something. Then maybe I take the rest of my budget and find an AR-15, as those seem to be a little easier to find around here. Maybe, I do that. It's a good excuse to call my grandpa anyway.
One of these? Learning to reload with a manual gun is easier than learning with a semi-auto; there are fewer variables and it is easier to inspect your brass.
If what you want is scarce, it may not get better this year. Buy a lower that goes with what you want (less cash outlay), buy (or get from grandpa) whatever works and is cheap that still is .308. If things get even harder to find down the road, the lower is the firearm and everything else is just parts.
Houses, RVs, boats, and guns. Right now the market is nuts.
I was talking with my realtor the other day, and the house I paid $87k for 3 years ago he said would sell in an hour at $135k. SWMBO has been looking for a motorhome. She's finding all kinds of $6000 motorhomes that people are asking $13k for, and they're gone within hours.
I'm thinking I should sell my boat right now.
Stag has stripped blem lowers for $99. They've got a 5% off coupon for giving them your email that might work.
Stag makes good stuff, but their AR-10 lowers are a semi-proprietary Stag/Armalite/DPMS combo pattern, so your upper options are a little limited.
https://www.stagarms.com/stag-sales/blemished/stag-10-stripped-lower-receiver-blem/?avad=48247_b1c760dd1#product-description
Not sure how I missed this but a lot of good info. Ohio finally made it legal to rifle hunt but it has to be a straight wall cartridge and that rules out everything that moved north with me. I prefer shooting .300 over .308 personally but my .308 experience is all with a clone of the Vietnam era Remington 700.
if your not sold on hunting i would look into a pistol caliber carbine. Mines 9mm but they sell several in 10mm and .45 so ammo can be found.
zero experience in reloading I tend to just stock up anytime I find a deal. It isn't unusual for me and my wife too kill off 500 rounds of 9mm in a day of shooting.
In reply to matthewmcl (Forum Supporter) :
Dude. I've looked high and low for one of those. Admittedly, it's been a few years, but I couldn't find anything in stock anywhere.
A lower may be a good for-now solution, but imma give it a few more weeks of looking before I start buying parts. I can be patient, though given the chance again, I'd have bought that 5.56. I love a good Sig Sauer.
Not that I needed a reason, but I don't think I want to move to Ohio. Not that I'm a hunter, but that seems like a silly law and therefore, a silly state.
I plan to tag along with someone on an elk hunt this year if I can, and if it's good I'll buy a tag for next year.
The short is I really need to go out more with my 22. I've been sitting on ammo for almost 10 years, I can shoot almost anywhere around here, and it's fun. Also, politics aside, I believe if you're gonna do something, you should make all effort to be proficient. 22 is no substitute for a hunting round, but it's better than sitting and reading. I should make more effort to getting up early. Sun comes up around 6/630, and I'm just sleeping the day away.
Numrich (gunpartscorp.com) is the McMaster of old gun parts. When Winchester decided that they no longer wanted to bother keeping parts for the 88, chances are they sold their entire inventory to Numrich. Their catalog is almost three inches thick.
.22 does not teach you to flinch and is a good way to keep up on fundamentals. Marksmanship is marksmanship. Want to start reading the wind? Try using a .22 at 100 yards, or 200 yards.
In reply to barefootskater :
Complete rifle with a magazine for $10 less than you could buy their separate upper & lower assemblies for. These all showed out of stock when I was looking last night.
https://palmettostatearmory.com/psa-gen3-pa10-18-mid-length-308-win-1-10-stainless-steel-classic-ept-rifle.html
They've got 2 options for 6.5 CM too, but I think we've established you want a .308 right?
Nice price for a .308. Looks like the SC store has a couple.
Having never purchased a gun online, what should I expect? Fees? Does the FFL act as anything other than will call? I'm assuming they'll do the requisite background check.
In reply to barefootskater :
They do the background.
They usually charge a fee. $25 to $50 from what i have seen.
Reminds me that I need to get with my gunsmith and see if I can ship to him.
In reply to barefootskater :
Toyman has got the broad strokes, in this case you pay PSA for the gun, give them your credit card and billing info, and ship it to the FFL of your liking. You pay the FFL whatever their fee is. The FFL does the 4473 paperwork and background check.
If you add something requiring a transfer to your cart on PSA's website and go through the check out procedure, you'll be forced to select an FFL to ship to. PSA does enough business, that there's likely already several FFLs local to you in their system. You can look at the options listed, call them and find out what they charge for a transfer fee. I've paid as little as $20 (sadly he retired) but it's usually $25-30, and I've been quoted as much as $50 (ridiculous) for a FFL transfer fee.
If you know of a local FFL that you want to use, and they're not already in PSA's (or whoever you're buying from's) system, all they'll have to do is fax/email their FFL info to PSA.
It's a good idea to call/email whatever FFL you're shipping to, to give them a heads up, to expect a package in your name.
The pawn shop I've used the past few times, gets so many FFL transfers from online orders, that they just expect that they're getting several packages in random folk's names every day, that there's no need to give them a heads-up. YMMV.
Im going to try to tag along with FIL on the hunt this year, and I learned that in UT a semi auto is ok for hunting as long as you only have a 5 round mag. Not a big deal. This year would just be to tag along anyway.
Apparently Walmart is blowing out their rifles and a few can be had for sub 100 bucks.
Savage axis series mostly
What did you get? Buy more mags than you think you'll need. Glass is as big of an expense as the @un, Vortex is my favorite and I've had good luck with Leupold too but they aren't cheap
Nice! When I get new firearms I force myself to put x number of rounds through it before I change or add anything like optics so I know how to use it in the event of a failure. It also helps to feel out a particular caliber before hand. My first AR had a red dot with no magnification and it was a huge waste to me because I cant see as far as the round is accurate, now I have a 1-8x32 that handles everything from point blank to 300 yrds+. Yeah, I know, i know, yall shoot tennis balls at 800 yards with a 91/30 and mother Russia's finest adjustable WW2 iron sights
Justjim75 said:
Yeah, I know, i know, yall shoot tennis balls at 800 yards with a 91/30 and mother Russia's finest adjustable WW2 iron sights
No, but I did once shoot a Palma match (800, 900, and 1000 yards, prone slow fire, iron sights) with an M1. Rear sight cranked way, way up. Not a good cheek weld. I didn't do well, but I did hit. Couldn't do that now.
I value low-power scopes more than I once did.
