This last weekend some of the AIM crew made its way up North to Alliance Ohio. We were signed up for Steve Fisher of Sentinel Concepts AK Class. Steve is an old friend and an industry wealth of knowledge and experience.

We have a lot of guys here who run ARs and other types of carbines but the AK platform definitely deserves its own class for just the basic reloads. Its hard to argue how reliable the AK is and it is definitely a viable platform. So our guys definitely wanted to learn how to run it in a way that made it a useful tool.

Steve is one of the few guys actually teaching an AK class in the country. There were people from all experience levels in the class. Some super cool people and some incredibly awesome AKs. Steve is a great teacher and somebody that doesn’t dance around topics. He is very truthful and straightforward about everything. No nonsense teaching and its great. The amount of knowledge you get from even an intro course is great. You get tips and tricks for a finicky platform from a guy that has used and abused these guns for years.

Steve travels a lot and is one of the country’s best instructors. I would say take a class from him if he ends up in your area or even go track him down and take one at a range in a different state. You will not regret it!

There are some things in life that I would say are just so satisfying that are leaps and bounds above everything else when it comes to satisfaction. For instance, people love the feeling of peeling that thin piece of plastic off of electronics and appliances. It’s just satisfying to do. Anything ASMR is the same way. The sounds are just pleasant to the ear. I would put dressing up a brand new rifle for the first time in the same category.

There’s just something about taking a brand new gun out of the box. Inserting that bolt into it for the first time. Getting to go to your favorite parts website and figure out what accessories you are going to run on it. Picking out the scope, the bipod, the suppressor the muzzle device and all the other accoutrements. There’s something about getting it all set up and ready to assemble. Theres this moment of satisfaction knowing that you took a rifle that was bare bones and just gave it the ability to be picked up by you and have a round fly several hundreds of yards away and hit a tiny target.

This Sig Cross came in recently and I get a ton of people that ask about it. So I decided to get it dressed up for some pictures and I tell you what. Roaming the isles of the warehouse looking for a scope and a mount. Searching the bins for mags and ammo. It was all so fun and relaxing even though I know it wasn’t my gun and just for a picture. The pictures we got ended up turning out great. The time I spent setting up was fantastically relaxing. There are very few things that beat it.

With that being said. We have ton of cool guns in stock right now and I want you to be able to experience it for yourself. So go pick a rifle or even a handgun. Browse the website and get you a few new accessories too. Once that gun arrives and you’re setting it up, you’re gonna remember back to this article and just know it was well worth it.

Now is the time to jump back into building ARs if you have been out of the building game for a while.

We have been offering some great deals on parts to get the community back into the swing of things and building again. This time we are offering a SMOKIN deal.

If you purchase one of our 11.5in or 16in AimSurplus barrels, we will give you a free Rave 140 drop-in trigger to go with it. You’re basically spending $200 and getting $330 worth of product. Super sweet deal for somebody looking to upgrade an existing gun or start fresh from the ground up. You get a nice crisp 3.5lb trigger pull and a set of free anti-rotation pins.

The barrels we are offering on this deal are our 2 best selling barrels. They are the 11.5in carbine length gas system with an included gas block. Then the matching 16in barrel with the same setup. These are 2 barrels that we sell a ton of and get great reviews.

So head to the website and check them out while the deal is going on! We don’t offer deals like this very often but the stars have aligned and allowed us to do so! Good luck with your next build!

Shotguns and shotgun ammo are possibly one of the only things that during the whole pandemic didn’t disappear. Which I find strange because when we had 2hr lines outside of the shop as the pandemic was starting, every liberal who wanted their first gun just wanted a Shotgun. Believe it or not, we even had customers that just wanted the gun and no ammo. They had always heard that just the sound of you racking the pump would scare away any intruders.

Needless to to say those of us who are normal gun owners know that is just a ridiculous myth and an absurd reasoning to buying a firearm. You need ammo for every gun. That’s not something I would say is really negotiable, nor is it something I thought I would ever need to say in general.

When handguns were drying up and when ammo was slowly doing the same. We saw a big influx of shotguns come in and plenty of ammo to go with it. I think that there has been an insanely large back stock of shotguns and the ammo for it. Lots of first time gun buyers were picking them up but the average gun owner was looking for handguns and other rifles. So they sold well, but not to everyone. Plus there are a ton of different types of shotgun ammo and the average gun owner might not understand what is what when shopping for it.

We tried to make it easy for people. If you were looking for a shotgun and ammo for it, we had the simple setup. We basically only carried 1 of each type of shell. If you wanted self defense ammo, we had it. If you wanted bird shot or buck shot or even a round for shooting clays, we had it. Right now we still have a bunch of shotgun ammo in stock and we are making good deals on it! If you buy a case of the Stars and Stripes, we now offer to ship it to your door for free. Plus there is a quantity discount for buying a case. While most of the gun world is arguing about raising prices and gouging, we are over here making deals and putting ammo on sale!

It doesn’t happen very often, but we have a new T-Shirt Design running right now! This “Graffiti” design is something our owner has had in his back pocket for a good while now. The logo is an old school style throwback to our roots of being founded in the 90’s.

We have a ton of customers that support us and local guys that have been asking us for shirts that don’t seem as ” gun related” so they can wear them more places without it being obviously a gun shirt. This one I think fulfills that role! This will let you instantly be accepted by anybody over the age of 25 and under 35. It does give you a better handling speed when tagging any train cars and on your rifle reload. Those are the key points to keep in mind when purchasing this shirt.

All of our T-shirts and merchandise in general is always made in limited runs and doesn’t typically make a comeback. So now would be a good chance to grab a shirt and help support us while all the sizes are available! From Small to 4XL!

Yesterday we talked about how cool the Duramag aluminum mags were and about how they dominate the color mags when it comes to the metal options. Now, let’s talk about some Lancer Mags. Lancer is very similar in their dominance. They dominate the Polymer side of the pretty color magazines.

They don’t have quite as many colors, but they do something that Duramag does a little different. Duramag has a large supply and keeps them stocked at almost all times. Lancer however keeps them stocked a little more exclusively. You might go a few months without seeing red mags. (Like we are now) Doing so drives the demand up for them to the next level.

They are known for their translucent magazines and the colors they do tend to be vibrant and full of color. Plus you can still see your rounds in the mag through the color. This makes them almost the best of both world. They have become popular in a number of places and Lancer mags have always been known fo their quality. The color mags are no different. The reinforced feed lips tend to solve the issues that a lot of guys that avoid polymer mags have.

If you don’t own any Lancer mags I would definitely recommend picking some up. Especially if you can get your hands on the rare red and blue ones. They aren’t made in the same quantities as the FDE and purple it appears. So if you manage to get some, you’ll be able to flex on some of your friends.

Duramags have been popular for a long time now. They make some of the best aluminum and stainless steel AR15 magazines on the market right now. If you have a weird caliber AR15 like a 7.62×39 or a 6.5 Grendel, then you more than likely already own some Duramags because they are the most popular magazine for ARs in the odd calibers. They tend to feed reliably and consistently and work well.

The past few years they have been releasing their simple Aluminum magazine in a variety of colors that have been crazy popular. Everyone knows somebody that has done some sort of color scheme to their AR. It is annoying having to paint mags or pay to have them cerakoted for just 1 rifle. These magazine come in at the normal price and are decently easy to find. They look good, function good and are cheap comparatively.

They have a huge following and can also be used to help identify your magazines at the range. They can even help quickly identify the caliber without having to look. If you know you only brought red mags to the training class, then you won’t have to worry about getting mags mixed up with a neighbor. If you have .300 Blackout and a 5.56 at the range it can be catastrophic if you get the ammo mixed up the wrong way. If you know that the blue mags only get loaded with .300, then you’ll know right away that you’ve made a mistake or a buddy has if you see a blue mag in your 5.56.

Whether you want them for the form or the function, they are great magazines. Duramag has reliably taken control of the metal AR magazine market and I don’t see them losing that position any time soon.

The .22LR world is hurting pretty bad right now I think it is safe to say. In the past year and a half now, I have had less than about 50 cases of .22LR come in for us to sell. Whenever something happens in the country and people start to panic buy, .22LR dries up insanely fast. People think it’s a caliber that is typically the cheapest to shoot and usually is the cheapest to buy. Right now though, it’s been in such high demand and so little available quantity, that many people just arent shooting their .22LRs at all.

I would say the typical gun owner should have 1000rds of each caliber that they shoot on hand. That’s a good number and it’s fairly easy to obtain. If you talk to a .22LR guy, he would say 5,000 or even 10,000. Just because the ammo used to be so cheap. It allows you to shoot often without breaking the bank and without digging into your stash too far. If you have 5,000 rounds and shoot maybe 100 or 2 a month, you have more than a year’s worth of ammo. 10,000rds of 9mm or even .223 can be pretty expensive and take up a lot of room. Bricks of .22LR are so small and were relatively cheap that you could get 10,000rds into the bottom of your safe and not feel like you have to eat ramen for the next 3 months.

Right now .22LR has been scarce. I would say that most of the guys who had nice big stockpiles of the ammo are starting to get to the point where they aren’t too comfortable digging into it because it’s not going to be as easy to replace. Even the most prepared guy has shot a few thousand rounds by now just between having fun and scratching that itch to shoot. I would say besides 9mm at the price of 2010, .22LR is the most commonly asked for ammo right now.

Even though the ammo is difficult to get. The firearms are popping up more and more frequently. This is where people are messing up though. Even if you can’t find the ammo right NOW, you will eventually. Some of the more rare and harder to find .22LR models are going up for sale and being ignored by the normal .22LR guys that would grab them up. This is the general population’s chance to get some of the cool and unique .22LRs out there. The Ruger Hunter MKIV for example. It is a very sought-after Ruger and we have had it in stock for almost a week. Usually, these guns don’t last a few hours. This is the chance for somebody that has been trying to track one down, to do so. Things like these don’t last long and it’s good news if you’ve been looking for one.

The top picture on this post was from March 19th, 2020. This was only a few days into the start of Ohio’s closing. While there may still be some products on the pallets and look like some of the ammo is still sitting there. It is all actually sold. It was just waiting to be picked up and put and a box to be shipped. For almost all of 2020, our warehouse stayed just like that. We didn’t even have enough product in the building to just put things in the empty spaces.

Fast forward to now, July 2021. We can see that it’s starting to be back to a normal supply. This is one of the good signs we have been waiting for as a country. This means that distributors and manufacturers and starting to fulfill bigger orders. They are finally shipping in a more consistent manner and the product at least exists in some form. While there is still a very large demand throughout the country, the bigger companies are starting to get a good stock again.

Because the demand is still so high in general, the prices still have not dropped too much. You still have plenty of people buying ammo. It might not always be the end-user, but if smaller dealers, schools, police departments, etc are still buying. Then the price is still not going to fluctuate too much. There is still plenty of ammo and money still changing hands.

Eventually, we will get to the point where the manufacturers have to start being more competitive with their pricing because retailers and consumers will have ammo again. That is when we will start to see a decrease in price. When will that happen though? Could be this year, could be 3 years from now. It’s incredibly difficult to tell. I will say that right now we have a good stock. So if you haven’t been buying or you got caught off guard with the pandemic. Now is a great time to stock up and make sure that it doesn’t happen to you again. The prices are more reasonable and you actually have options again.

Everyone knows that FN is a quality manufacturer. Everyone knows that because of that, all FN products come with a nice big price tag. The Scar 20s in 6.5 Creedmoor is no exception. It is currently being sold on our website for $3999.99. This is actually a steal for this gun since so many other places are charging above MSRP for it. These guns are also made in a limited quantity for each production run.

The 20s is cool because… well, just look at it. The Multi-FDE coloring that doesn’t match anything else on the gun is so iconic and awesome. It takes the base Scar rifle, bulks it up in size and weight and barrel length, and then makes one badass DMR rifle.

The 20in barrel and 6.5Creedmoor round means you’re gonna be able to reach out further than your skill would probably normally allow. The gun weighs an absolute ton before you toss on any accessories. Easily an 8-10lb gun when everything is all set and done. The benefit though is that all that weight is going to be an advantage to managing the recoil. Making fast follow-up shots super easy.

Now is the time to start picking up these rarer and harder-to-find guns because the demand has been so high for so long. If you don’t pick them up when you see them, then the chances of finding them later don’t get better. Check out the sight and see what all we have going on!