AMMO. Buying, selling or nothing

[Rafe]

No ammo buys lately, but Brownell's still has a sale on some of the PMAGs at decent prices. For 5.56 I prefer the Gen 3 with window, but happy enough with plain Gen 2. I mean, you can never have too many magazines...especially if Creepy Joe wins and they become hard to come by again. Not the absolute best price in the world, but paid $10.50 per. Remember when you counted yourself lucky if you could find them at twice that?

While I was there I browsed a bit for ammo. Nary a 5.56 round to be had. No .224 Valkyrie or 6.5 Grendel. A couple of options for 6.5 Creedmoor starting at $2.26/round.

Hornady SST 150gr in .308 was available for $1.65/round; was tempted, but didn't pull the trigger. May think on it and go back to see if it's still there tomorrow. Next-best in-stock price was $2.05/round for 155gr Black Hills Gold, then $2.24 for Lapua 175gr. A little too rich for my blood.

No 9mm in stock. No .45 ACP. No .40 S&W. No 10mm. I don't shoot anything else but .22 LR in a handgun, so that's all I checked. We need a good outcome on ACB and a good outcome on November 3 for availability and prices to get sane again.

[Syntyr]

Rafe, Freedom Munitions has 308 WIN 175 GR HPBT for 1.19 per round. And 308 WIN 147 GR FMJ for .90 cents per round. I haven’t used their 308 yet but I have used 300 Blackout with no problems.

https://www.freedommunitions.com/ammuni ... ester.html

They also have lot of .45 cap fmj in the .75 cents per round area. Which is about twice what I used to pay... SMH! They do have 9mm and 10mm as well.

[Rafe]

Rafe, Freedom Munitions has 308 WIN 175 GR HPBT for 1.19 per round. And 308 WIN 147 GR FMJ for .90 cents per round. I haven’t used their 308 yet but I have used 300 Blackout with no problems.

https://www.freedommunitions.com/ammuni ... ester.html

You know, after Freedom had to declare bankruptcy a few years ago and stopped selling the nicely priced reman stuff--that I bought a lot of--I'd stopped looking at them. If I'm not mistaken, they went through a period where their selection was limited and their pricing wasn't very good.

From that link you included, it's the 168gr Boar Buster that got my attention. I've got plenty of mil-surp plinking stuff, and even back in the day the Boar Buster got good reviews for effectiveness. 240 rounds seems like a decent way to divest myself of $300. They even remembered my log-in info. Thanks for causing me to spend more money!

[KC5AV]

Rafe, Freedom Munitions has 308 WIN 175 GR HPBT for 1.19 per round. And 308 WIN 147 GR FMJ for .90 cents per round. I haven’t used their 308 yet but I have used 300 Blackout with no problems.

https://www.freedommunitions.com/ammuni ... ester.html

They also have lot of .45 cap fmj in the .75 cents per round area. Which is about twice what I used to pay... SMH! They do have 9mm and 10mm as well.

I’ve shot their 175 grain .308, and been very happy with it.

[Tex1961]

I've had a second friend in as many days asking to buy some 9mm from me... Told him no and that if I had sold what people asked of me just in the last few weeks, I would have been out 1000 rounds... Sent him over to Texas Gun Trader though...

Spending lots of time getting aquatinted with all of my 22's again.... Forgot how fun they are....

[Rafe]

I'm glad I reload and cast.

You are the future, my friend. Shame on me for never getting into it. Lot of excuses, but no good reasons. (My dear wife would argue that last point, though.) But if Biden wins I don't see the shortages or the prices letting up anytime soon. Scott and other experts would know best, but it might even get worse. First-time gun buying went through the roof this year, and the Biden firearms policy platform should deeply worry every gun owner, potential gun owner, and manufacturer.

On a much brighter note, after hearing stories about ammo shipment delays--and even being told by Freedom that they make every effort to ship within a week to 10 days--I got the UPS tracking number for .308 order about an hour ago. So order to shipped in 25 hours. Not bad! Good on ya, Freedom.

[Syntyr]

I'm glad I reload and cast.

You are the future, my friend. Shame on me for never getting into it. Lot of excuses, but no good reasons. (My dear wife would argue that last point, though.) But if Biden wins I don't see the shortages or the prices letting up anytime soon. Scott and other experts would know best, but it might even get worse. First-time gun buying went through the roof this year, and the Biden firearms policy platform should deeply worry every gun owner, potential gun owner, and manufacturer.

On a much brighter note, after hearing stories about ammo shipment delays--and even being told by Freedom that they make every effort to ship within a week to 10 days--I got the UPS tracking number for .308 order about an hour ago. So order to shipped in 25 hours. Not bad! Good on ya, Freedom.

Heads up everyone. I just went back to look at some more ammo and got a virus warning. My AVG squashed it but I checked with an online vulnerability scanner and received this report:

Normalized URL: http://freedommunitions.com:80
Submission date: Tue Oct 20 23:22:29 2020
Server IP address: 107.21.212.122
Country: United States
Server: Apache
CMS: Magento
Malicious files: 19
Suspicious files: 0
Potentially Suspicious files: 0
Clean files: 21
External links detected: 0
Iframes scanned: 1
Blacklisted: No
AVG reports it as Java Script Card Stealer Trojan
Probably best to avoid the site until they get it cleaned up. I sent the site admin a note. Also called and spoke with a person there to give them a heads up. THey said they have been having issues with the site since Monday.

[troglodyte]

I’ve added little here out there but early in this nonsense. I’ve shifted my focus to picking up reloading components when the opportunity arises. Just got a shipment of 55 gr bullets, 1000 once fired brass, and powder. Academy had SRPs and I added 2000 to my collection.

I can’t say I’m set but I can make do in a pinch with what I have laid back in components and purchased ammo.

Ammo and components are still out there and can be found at near “normal” prices. You just have to search, sign up for alerts, and be in the right spot. Manufacturers are producing as fast as then can.

[MaduroBU]

I bought a G19 and built a BRN-180 at the start of this madness for the purpose of buying rather than reloading ammo. That plan immediately died, but I'm stocked on components (and just picked up a bunch of 9mm range brass). I'm saving all of my 5.56x45 brass, but I turn that into 7.62x40 cases. Fortunately I'm set on SRs, LRMs and SPs and range bullets for each.

[Rafe]

Heads up everyone. I just went back to look at some more ammo and got a virus warning. My AVG squashed it but I checked with an online vulnerability scanner and received this report:

Normalized URL: http://freedommunitions.com:80
Submission date: Tue Oct 20 23:22:29 2020
Server IP address: 107.21.212.122
Country: United States
Server: Apache
CMS: Magento
Malicious files: 19
Suspicious files: 0
Potentially Suspicious files: 0
Clean files: 21
External links detected: 0
Iframes scanned: 1
Blacklisted: No
AVG reports it as Java Script Card Stealer Trojan
Probably best to avoid the site until they get it cleaned up. I sent the site admin a note. Also called and spoke with a person there to give them a heads up. THey said they have been having issues with the site since Monday.

I can, sadly, confirm this. The Trojan evidently doesn't install on your local computer. My McAfee subscription never warned me about the Freedom website or blocked/quarantined any files. Concerned because I was able to replicate similar results as Syntyr with website scans, I checked my system with Malwarebytes and Avast. I also let McAfee crunch overnight on my 75% full 4TB C: drive in a full scan. None of them turned up anything.

However, this particular nasty looks to have been around since 2015 and infects, specifically, sites running the Magneto content management system, which Freedom does. Freedom uses Authorize.net to actually process card transactions, but the Trojan sits in between the entry form on the Magneto-generated webpage(s) and the transmission of info to Authorize.net...evidently capturing entered credit card information and sending it someplace none of us would want it to go. When I tried to complete my purchase, clicking "Submit" after my CC info was entered did nothing, no indication of processing at all; not even a page reload or a "please wait" spinner. So I telephoned Freedom; said I had an order sitting in my cart but nothing happened when I tried to complete it; was told the credit card system was down; I finished the purchase over the phone.

No communication from Freedom about this yet to the people, like me, who tried to make online purchases. We'll see if they're going to be proactive in any way. However, though no mysterious charges have turned up since my purchase late Monday afternoon, it's very clear that the card I used has been compromised. And closing that card and having a new one with a new number reissued is going to be a huge pain...certainly more trouble than buying a few rounds of .308 was worth. There are scores of blacklists maintained of websites that are known to be compromised, and Freedom Munitions has started to show up on them.

While I was logged in there, I looked at my purchase history with them. Until last Monday, September 2016 has been my last purchase. I'm afraid, though, that this week's experience with Freedom will be my last. Having my cc info compromised far outweighs anything else.

[howdy]

I guess those little voices in my head were accurate this time. They told me to buy ammo when it was cheap....and I did. Sometimes those voices have some great ideas, then sometimes...........

[Paladin]

I don't see the gun/ammo crunch letting up before spring. For me reloading is a contingency, and that contingency event is now. While primers are difficult to find at the moment, collecting brass and getting the basic reloading equipment & knowledge is something that non-reloaders should contemplate.

There is a real freedom in being able to make your own ammunition.

[flechero]

There is a real freedom in being able to make your own ammunition.

QFT. In more ways than one.

[Syntyr]

Heads up everyone. I just went back to look at some more ammo and got a virus warning. My AVG squashed it but I checked with an online vulnerability scanner and received this report:

Normalized URL: http://freedommunitions.com:80
Submission date: Tue Oct 20 23:22:29 2020
Server IP address: 107.21.212.122
Country: United States
Server: Apache
CMS: Magento
Malicious files: 19
Suspicious files: 0
Potentially Suspicious files: 0
Clean files: 21
External links detected: 0
Iframes scanned: 1
Blacklisted: No
AVG reports it as Java Script Card Stealer Trojan
Probably best to avoid the site until they get it cleaned up. I sent the site admin a note. Also called and spoke with a person there to give them a heads up. THey said they have been having issues with the site since Monday.

I can, sadly, confirm this. The Trojan evidently doesn't install on your local computer. My McAfee subscription never warned me about the Freedom website or blocked/quarantined any files. Concerned because I was able to replicate similar results as Syntyr with website scans, I checked my system with Malwarebytes and Avast. I also let McAfee crunch overnight on my 75% full 4TB C: drive in a full scan. None of them turned up anything.

However, this particular nasty looks to have been around since 2015 and infects, specifically, sites running the Magneto content management system, which Freedom does. Freedom uses Authorize.net to actually process card transactions, but the Trojan sits in between the entry form on the Magneto-generated webpage(s) and the transmission of info to Authorize.net...evidently capturing entered credit card information and sending it someplace none of us would want it to go. When I tried to complete my purchase, clicking "Submit" after my CC info was entered did nothing, no indication of processing at all; not even a page reload or a "please wait" spinner. So I telephoned Freedom; said I had an order sitting in my cart but nothing happened when I tried to complete it; was told the credit card system was down; I finished the purchase over the phone.

No communication from Freedom about this yet to the people, like me, who tried to make online purchases. We'll see if they're going to be proactive in any way. However, though no mysterious charges have turned up since my purchase late Monday afternoon, it's very clear that the card I used has been compromised. And closing that card and having a new one with a new number reissued is going to be a huge pain...certainly more trouble than buying a few rounds of .308 was worth. There are scores of blacklists maintained of websites that are known to be compromised, and Freedom Munitions has started to show up on them.

While I was logged in there, I looked at my purchase history with them. Until last Monday, September 2016 has been my last purchase. I'm afraid, though, that this week's experience with Freedom will be my last. Having my cc info compromised far outweighs anything else.

Rafe,

I am so sorry man. I apologize for leading you down the dark path. They seemed surprised when I called them. The comment was "we have been having problems with the website since Monday when we came in." Well yeah... I told her that they needed to get their vendor on ASAP and they needed to send out a note to people that had purchased.

When I tried to go to the website AVG started screaming and blocked it. Thankfully because I was headed there to make a purchase. I do everything in a sandbox that I can erase and reload with 3 clicks so no problem there but getting your card compromised sucks!