By Major Van Harl USAF Ret
USA –-(Ammoland.com)- As a child when I royally screwed up, I would declare to my father, the Navy Master Chief, “now I see how I failed”.
He would advise me it was just great how good my 20-20 hindsight always seemed to be.
20-20 hindsight is that perfect understanding of an event after it has happened.
Really it is an underhanded sarcastic response of criticism for making a poor decision. What one needs is 20-20 foresight so you can see into the future and make the correct decisions that will provide for a positive response to life’s actions and outcomes.
I am suggesting for the November 2012 Presidential election that a little 30-30 Foresight needs to be observed, practiced, and followed through with.
30-30 Foresight is not a true measurement of a person’s ability to see clearly in the sense that 20-20 eyesight would be. In fact, 30-30 is a reference to a type of rifle ammunition. 30-30 Winchester is an old cowboy rifle cartridge that came out in 1894. All those John Wayne movies had the good guys using their Model 94 Winchester lever-action rifles to stop evil and lawlessness. As old as it is, 30-30 is still the number one selling centerfire rifle cartridge in the U.S. every year during deer season.
I have been writing articles for years about the need to buy more ammo and store it up for a rainy day. I still hold to the fact that in times of crisis the only two things of true value are food and firearms and when I say firearms I really mean buy more ammo.
In November of 2008, after Obama was elected, the firearms and ammunition sales went off the charts. Within six months you could not find ammo on the shelves of Walmart. The ammunition manufacturing companies got caught off guard. They did not expect such a rush of sales for guns and more importantly ammo. So to make sure this did not happen again the ammo makers of America and the rest of the world have been working overtime to ensure their warehouses are full and ready for the results, of the November 2012 election.
The price of U.S.-made ammo was projected to rise up by 40% during June and July of this year. Ammo started to get a little scarce on the shelves. Imagine you have a stockpile of “widgets” and you know that in three or four months you can charge your customers 40% more for something you already have on hand. Would you send it out early to be sold at the current price or hold back and send it out later at a 40% mark up? The holding back did not work because the 2012 projected hoarding of ammo has not happened.
I just bought a box of Remington 30-30 170 grain core lock rifle ammunition. I called Remington to get the suggested retail price and it is $18.36 a box. The box of Remington 30-30 that I bought sold for $10.99 with a mail-in rebate for another $2.50 off. This brought my $18.36 box of 30-30 ammo down to $8.49 a box. Well over 50% off the list price.
I would suggest that Remington and many of the other ammunition manufacturers have way too much product on hand and perhaps are not predicting near the level of panic buying in the fall of 2012 as did happen in 2008.
What I am suggesting to the reading public is 30-30 Foresight. Based on the diminished sales of ammunition in what was projected to be robustly stockpiling in the U.S., due to what I believe is a less frightened American gun-owning public; I predict that Obama will not be re-elected. I have put this in writing, so in November I can be accused of having very poor 20-20 hindsight or 30-30 Foresight could become the new cry of the supporters of the Second Amendment.
None of this is a reason to fail to continue buying ammunition. In fact with the prices of ammo so greatly depressed, now is the time to improve your reserve supply and have fun shooting some of it. Rifles and shotguns have also been on sale of late. The rainy day will come and you will need your 30-30 Foresight that got you ready to be safe.
To provide that safety to your family and the community you will survive and operate in. Karan, buy some more ammo and go shooting.
