Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Walmart Is Good For Some Things...

...and I do mean besides all those People of Walmart photos that make the rounds on the Internet now and then (I am overdue to receive an email with new ones). Yesterday, on my trip home from hunting, I decided to take a break from driving in the storm at an average speed of  about 50mph (in a 65 zone). I figured that Middletown, NY would be a good place to stop because I could visit Gander Mountain to see if they had any 22LR ammo. I have a pretty good supply of it, but about half of mine if from the 1970s or 80s, so my supply could use freshening up. As it turned out, I got off the highway heading west instead of east (the direction of gander Mountain) because my stomach was talking to me. I made a quick stop at Mickey D's for two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, onions on a sesame seed bun and some fries.  I did takeout because the clientele inide looked like a group of hoodlums. Then I took my food and headed to the other side of the road, into Walmart's parking lot, where I gobbled it down. While there I had the rather infrequent, for me, thought of going into Walmart to check for 22LR ammo. While walking back to sporting goods, I came across a bin of CDs for $5.00 each. I gave a cursory glance and was very surprised to almost immediately find a Roy Orbison CD I liked, something along the lines of greatest hits. That go me to digging and I came up with a dozen of them from Alice Cooper's first album to Waylon Jennings with some Lynyrd Skynyrd in the middle.

After that, I headed over to the ammo case, not really expecting to find anything worth buying. As I approached from afar, it looked as if I had been right since the shelves were about 75% - 85% depleted of a full load. I walked over to it and as I got closer, with some squinting since I left my reading glasses in the car, I noticed Winchester 22LR ammo! There were two boxes of Winchester M*22, 22 Long Rifle,40 grain, black copper plated, round nose ammo. I asked how much and the Walmart guy told me $50.87. It was a bit difficult to impossible for me to read all of what was on the box, so I asked how many rounds were in each of the rather large looking bricks. The clerk opened the outside box and took out one of two inside boxes and started to open them saying that the outside of the box did not say how many rounds were inside. I squinted again and gave a good once over to one of the boxes and there in the middle of the box, it said 1,000 rounds. I told him not to bother opening them and to ring em up. Another 2,000 rounds in the ammo supply and I was a happy camper.


I don't know anything about this ammo other than what it says on he box. I rarely used Winchester 22 ammo in the past. I am hoping this is a step up from their low end 22 ammo about which I have heard bad things - mostly that it was known for lots of misfires and firing very dirty. If this stuff goes bang every time and is fairly accurate I will be very satisfied considering the price at just a tiny bit over .05 cents per round. If you are like a lot of other folks, myself included, who have been looking for 22LR ammo, you may want to give a Walmart that sells ammo a try. (My local Walmart does not sell ammo, I don't think any in my county sell ammo). While there, if you are short of cash, just avoid the CD bin.

I did not bother heading over to Gander Mountain after that since I already had spent more than I needed to or should have spent on hunting and ammo over the past two weeks. What the heck, you only live twice and I am going to enjoy this second round of life as best I can. Anyway that's why God invented plastic and debtors courts.

All the best,
Glenn B