Now, this is strange

It is said they run some ocean going game wardens on fishing boats.

As I'm saying, Don't Panic, it's the Fish Police, the "Location: National Weather Service" is claimed to be a clerical error. Which I believe:

Every delivery location is on a coast; with the exception of Wall, NJ they're all places I recognize as fishing areas.

To take the first one:

8,000 rounds to: Ross Lane DOC, NOAA, NMFS, OLE, NED, 130 Oak Street, Suite 5, Ellsworth, ME, 04605

• DOC: Department of Commerce
• NOAA: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
• NMFS: National Marine Fisheries Service
• OLE: Office of Law Enforcement

Their home page.

“Tornado Hunting” takes on a fun new meaning. Oh, come on, someone had to say it.

Update on the story - http://www.businessinsider.com/this-is-why-the-noaa-supposedly-ordered-46000-rounds-of-ammunition-2012-8

And if you do the math, this is 900 rounds short of exactly 1/2 of a year's budget worth of ammo, which is rough since it includes instructors and all the usual randomness. With a response date of the 21st and the bids must be good for 30 days, they're just spending end of federal fiscal year budget.

200-500 rounds is a decent training day. 1,000-2,000 rounds is a good course of fire for one person.

Instead of lambasting the government for buying ammo, let's celebrate and argue we should be able to match their commitment. Let's tell the world this behavior is not abnormal or at all strange, but typical for an average American. Make the Brady Campaign deny it.

I personally would like to shoot 10,000 rounds a year through each platform: handgun, rifle and shotgun -- just because I'm a hobbyiest and I enjoy it!

Sounds like a fun weekend. If they are running low, I might be able to lend them some. A local small gun store said that they have already sold over $1/2 Million of ammo this year. A local gun range stopped having Sunday Summer special event, pin/plate, 2X4 and other type of matches,because the range was too busy. And this is in NY!

Time for belt tightening if this is training ammo for the government. Time for the government to shoot inexpensive FMJ ball ammo at the range instead of expensive hollow points and save some money like everybody else does.

K: there's a lot to be said for practicing with your service ammo and making sure FMJ never accidentally gets used in service, and doing all that would cost money too. The annual numbers are small enough it's not a huge of money, especially since they're buying in bulk.

Looking at Natchez Shooting Supply current prices, Hornady 180 gr .40 HP bullets are only 1/3 more than FMJ in quantity 100 each, Remington prices are much closer, Winchester less than a dollar apart for quantity 100 (hovering around $25). I bet our perceptions of HP vs. FMJ prices are skewed from the era when manufacturing was a much bigger component of the price than the base metals, plus of course the now mostly used up Cold War stocks of surplus ammo, which would have depressed natural FMJ prices.

Actually I had a very nice e-mail exchange with Ron Jones the Chief Information Officer at NOAA, and they have indeed put out the appropriate corrections. The Nat'l Marine Fisheries Service apparently occasionally run into drug traffic types etc, and need to be armed.

Sounds about right to me.

PaulP

Hm, they got you all distracted. Everyone is so busy questioning the expense of the ammo that that we forgot to question the need for the people who are going to shoot it. Does the US really, really need so much federal law enforcement?