I make it a point not to be that guy since being stuck behind someone giving his life history to the gun store staff drives me nuts. This is especially true when I have money burning a hole in my pocket.
I will however ask a question or two if things are slow (Just not on a Saturday afternoon when the line at the counter is 3 deep).
Anyway, I bought some ammo this week at my local Walmart and was surprised to see that they are once again carrying firearms. The display cases have been up for a month or so and I was wondering if the guns were ever actually coming back.
The usual selection of hunting rifles and shotguns were present and there were a lot of matte black tactical looking shotguns. One lonely little Mini 14 was off by itself. No AR's were present and my store won't be stocking any. Bummer.
I know, I know... this is boring. It's a Walmart visit.
So here's the mildly interesting stuff.
The old guy at the counter told me that about 1/2 of the background checks that they run come back denied.
That's surprising since I figured that just about everyone in 2012 knows whether or not they can pass a background check. Apparently some of the more felonious gun buyers seem to think there's a lower standard when buying a firearm at Wallyworld.
Luckily the term "Criminal Mastermind" is almost never applicable outside of a Sherlock Holmes movie.
I hadn't shot any Tulammo in my handguns before today. I've used a lot of Silver Bear and never had an issues in my 9mm's or AR's. For a few years that was the main brand that I bought. Lately I've mainly stuck with WWB and Federal for handgun ammo.
I've used Tulammo in the AR's without any problems and since it's $3 per box less expensive than 9mm WWB I thought that I'd give it a try. I ran 150 rnds through a XDM, Taurus 24/7 OSS and Springfield Loaded today without any issues popping up. The shooting was done at 15 yds and I couldn't see any difference in accuracy between the Tulammo and WWB. Perhaps a better shooter could tell the difference. Maybe the difference will show more at 25yds (Hmmm... something to try next week).
I think I'll get some more of it for the 7-15 yard range that I shoot on.
What started me thinking about this update was the gun counter guy that sold me the Tulammo. I was told that they get complaints of failures to fire with almost every box that they sell. I suspect that is an exaggeration but I figured it would be interesting to check it out. 150 rnds of 9mm is hardly a definitive test but when I add it to the case of .223 that I've shot it does show a pattern... of reliability. Again, this was a very small sample but I expected at least one FTF after the warning from the clerk.
Russian surplus ammo is know for having hard primers. I have to wonder if the Tulammo has the same. This could easily lead to failures to fire in some weapons.
It's cheap ammo. You get what you pay for. Apparently what I paid for today was ammo that performed just like the WWB and Federal without the cost.
It is what it is. I wouldn't trust it for anything important but I'll be using more of it for close range shooting and general plinking. I can't wait until the .38Spl starts showing up on the shelves.
I did a review of a Taurus 24/7 OSS a few weeks ago. The pistol is standing up admirably to the rigors of sitting in my gun safe, BTW.
I wanted to take a look at the 24/7 G2 for comparison prior to the review. A few minutes were spent talking to a gun counter guy at one of the big box stores. He wasn't overly impressed with Taurus handguns.
According to the salesman, 1 out of every 5 Taurus's that they sell are returned with some kind of problem. This was the second place in which I was told that Taurus lets a lot more bad guns out the door than their competitors.
It was interesting to get a little insight from the guys that have to deal with the disgruntled customers instead of just listening to the usual internet chatter.
1 out of 5 guns. That's a hell of a lot of guns even if part of those returns are no doubt due to handguns being in the break in period, limp wristing and operator error.
I've had a lot of good experiences with older Taurus products but I don't know if I'd roll the dice on one of their newer guns (With the exception of their M1911).
The price would definitely have to be worth it.
Just my 2 cents.
No comments:
Post a Comment