AMMO SHORTAGE, thoughts, opinions.

"Prices always go up and rarely do they ever go down, and thats on anything."

Well, back in the early 1990s when primers were in such short supply and people were panic buying prices skyrocketed.

When people stopped panic buying and supplies bulked up again, prices dropped significantly.

I expect the same to happen with ammo and primers again.

Maybe not back to the same levels prior to the latest jump what with higher metal and energy costs, but I don't expect to see the same price levels that we're currently holding.
 
for me , i reload and on occasion when I am too lazy to reload I buy a box or two of ammo (mostly el cheapo federal rifle loads or wwb 9mm).

I make it a habit of going to the wally world once a week and alternate the days so my buddies hit it the other days of the week. we have a good rapport with the guys behind the counter and they will "reserve" a few boxes or a case for us since we are just regular guys that use the ammo to shoot and not to hoard. When one of us goes to wally world we ask the guys if they have any of the ammo from our lists in and if so we instantly call who ever wanted what. on monday I was in and they had several cases of the cheap winchester 150 gr 308 and i called a buddy who needed it and told him to get down here to pick his cases up and I got a couple boxes for plinking and then reloading the brass. same thing with 9mm WWB, we had 2 cases reserved from a pallet they got in. buddy calls me, i get down there and luckily they still had my case, they sold the rest of the pallet before it even hit the shelves.

for me it pisses me off that folks are hording reloading components as well. luckinly I like to keep 10k of primers for each load (small pistol, small rifle etc..) on hand, so while I still have ample supplies I am unable to replenish them. hopefully the market will slow down bythe middle of the year.

JOE
 
Prices always go up and rarely do they ever go down, and thats on anything.
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Hmm, do you drive a car or truck? You DO remember the $4 gasoline last summer? And how all the talking heads were saying worldwide demand was so high that it was going to just stay there? It's been $1.7x in Oklahoma for months now. I was watching an industry analyst the other day who said it may well go lower since demand is still so low?

How much did you pay for your first computer? I paid over two thousand dollars twice. Now I can get a computer that is 100x faster in every way for less than a thousand dollars.

How much did you pay for your cool camera gear? I was paying $350 for a Canon camera body back in 1979 and that was at the PX in Weisbaden. $350 back in 1979 was worth a whole lot more than $350 now! But go out there shopping for camera gear now. Digital cameras are an amazing deal right now due to low demand. Even the high end ones.

How about food? Americans used to pay about 30% of their income on food. Now they typically only spend about 10% of their income on that category.

First CD players were one thousand dollars at the PX. I got an early first generation Yamaha for $500 about a year later. Go look at internal CD drives for a computer now. They are literally almost free. Even DVD writers from top companies are only something like $30!

So prices DO go down. Even on commodities like oil, gold, and silver. Even bullets and reloading components! I do remember that primer shortage back in the early Clinton years.

Gregg
 
Lot's of old timers are saying now "Why don't you reload?"

I do reload. So does everyone else around here. The supply/demand dynamic has pushed the price of components for some rounds higher than factory ammo.

I can load .44mags 2/3 what they cost new. I can load .223 for 110% what they cost new.

FWIW the local shops are stocking XM198 again. I haven't seen Lake City brass in three years. (It's still $8.99 per box though :( )
 
I'm going to wait till people come to their senses. I can't even get ammo at my walmart and will not pay range prices for ammo. I went 2 weeks ago and spent $55 at the range, I bought 2 boxes of 9mm from the range and paid for range time only. I'm certainly not going to pay range prices for my .357.
 
Ammo shortage caused by panic buying / hoarding.
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The vast market of new shooters buying more-than-average amounts of ammo compared to the usual shooter (since we are getting practiced with our new guns) is underestimated, I believe. People are buying in bulk where they can, but I don't think it's entirely driven by panic.

BTW - my range doesn't have a markup compared to other ammo retailers, at least that I can ascertain. Is it typical to see a hike, or does it just depend on the range?

I have yet to go anywhere that doesn't have (and has had for some time) a 2-box maximum for any caliber. Seems as though this would have curbed any panic-buying and let the 24/7 ammo production catch up, if that were the only reason for the shortage.
 
My intention is to shoot 200 rounds of .38 special a month at the range.

Given the present situation, those of you who are decrying "hoarding and panic buying", what would you recommend I do?

Would you recommend I quit buying it and shoot from the supply of about 500rounds I have now?

I'll tell you what I am doing. I'm buying as much as I can find and afford.

Call that what you will, but if I find 1,000 rounds of .38 FMJ this afternoon, I'm buying all of it.
 
I was talking to a guy at a local gun shop the other day and he just said he can't wait until the have a line out the door of people trying to sell back the cases of ammo that they bought and never used.

This really does suck, being that I just got my first gun the S&W M&P 9mm pretty much payed off and plan on picking it up within the next couple of days, as soon as the shop gets it in, because I went to a couple of stores today to pick up a couple of boxes of ammo to break my gun in when I get it and could not find one box of 9mm range ammo anywhere.
 
for me it pisses me off that folks are hording reloading components as well. luckinly I like to keep 10k of primers for each load (small pistol, small rifle etc..)
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This is flippin' hilarious.
I've been reloading for twenty years and currently, I reload in twelve calibers.

I've never in my life run out of primers... and I've NEVER had 10,000 total primers in my possession at once. Not ever.

You are ****** off at people who are "hording" and you keep at least 20,000 primers in your supply.

Is there something wrong with keeping twenty thousand primers? Hell no! It's your gig, that works for you, it works for me.

But I guess I'm waiting to hear how you define hoarding if you keep at least 20,000 primers. Load any handgun? Do you keep 10k of each of them, too? FORTY thousand primers?

Define hoarding already. At one time last year, I had three thousand small pistol primers at one time. I was loving life.

I guess the definition of "hoarding" is when someone has a thousand more than you have? :confused:
 
This is flippin' hilarious.
I've been reloading for twenty years and currently, I reload in twelve calibers.

I've never in my life run out of primers... and I've NEVER had 10,000 total primers in my possession at once. Not ever.

You are ****** off at people who are "hording" and you keep at least 20,000 primers in your supply.

Is there something wrong with keeping twenty thousand primers? Hell no! It's your gig, that works for you, it works for me.

But I guess I'm waiting to hear how you define hoarding if you keep at least 20,000 primers. Load any handgun? Do you keep 10k of each of them, too? FORTY thousand primers?

Define hoarding already. At one time last year, I had three thousand small pistol primers at one time. I was loving life.

I guess the definition of "hoarding" is when someone has a thousand more than you have?
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X2 That IS flippin hilarious. Joe pretty much summed up the reason for ammo shortages in that one sentence!

I hate when people are so greedy and hoard up ammo so other people can't have it. Luckily, I have 10,000 rounds stocked up. :D
 
What vytoland said.

There is no ammo shortage.

The retailers are just making it up.

You hold the suppy up,let the shelfs clear and start raising the prices in some cases,200%.

Nice profit margin.
 
Stevieboy is 100% right, the ammo shortages is caused by a mad rush of the great unwashed ignorant masses. There is absolutely no truth to the rumor mills espoused by the “sofa shooters” that prowl the web and gun stores. Just the other day I was in a gun store looking for a holster and over heard a Baptist preacher and his pals going on about how Obama is going to take away your guns, like sheep all there heads bobbing up and down, all the time the gun store owners behind the counter smiling like the Cheshire Cat.:cool:
 
This is the first "Ammo shortage," thread I have read that did not contain at least one, and usually several, Obama-bashing, conspiracy theory, hunker down in the bunker, type posts. Whew. Lots of reasonable thoughts, though: Calm down, wait it out, pick up a box when you can, wait for people to come to their senses. Thanks.
 
There is no ammo shortage at my house. I was able to squeek in and out of the market every now and then for large lots. I shoot so many different calibers, have no idea when they are going to restock and some of the suppliers have listed some ammo as backordered for 6 to 8 months. What price are they going to charge for it, then? It's going up, 2x, 3x, 4x; Cheaperthandirt wanting $1/round for XM193 5.56! By fall, we're going to have a self-imposed ammo ban. The only good thing is, maybe this administration will not enact stupid legislation because we're already hurting our own community without them doing anything but threaten. Am I contributing to the shortage, yes, for now. Am I stocked up enough not to worry for the next year, yes, I am.
 
I have about 10,000 small pistol primers in my stash right now.

I got caught with no small pistol primers in 1994.

But, when primers started showing up again, did I immediately go out and start buying them as quickly as I could? No.

It took me several years to get to that 10,000 mark, and it was done solely by grabbing a box here and there when I came across an abnormally good deal.

Case in point, about 2 years ago a friend of mine calls me from a shop in Southern Virginia that is going out of business.

"They have CCI small and large pistol primers in APS strips... $9 per thousand! (IIRC that was the price)."

I had him get me 3,000 small pistol and 2,000 large pistol primers because at that time prices were starting to creep up towards the $20 per K mark, and I recognize a good deal when I see it.

Last year I found a shop in Northern Virginia that had Trail Boss, one of my favorite powders, on sale for $8 a bottle. Normally it's close to double that in NoVa.

So, given that I tend to use a lot of it, I bought 5 bottles.

Is that hoarding?

No, I don't think so. Is it contributing to the massive supply problems that we are now having? Absolutely not, because all of those purchases were made in a time when supplies of those products were plentiful.

So, in my mind, there's a significant difference between panic hoarding vs. laying in supplies of products that you use on a regular basis when the supply is plentiful and prices moderate.
 
goose why did you wait until Obama was elected to buy a pistol, you just turn of age? I bet living in the city of the Detroit doesn't help either.
 
Not Everyone

Not everyone is a ripoff artist.
Here in RI Competition Shooting Supplies and Police Depot have been selling popular(i.e. 9mm) at entirely reasonable prices given the situation.They should be able to make a profit,but these guys,who are independent dealers are passing along their savings to us.They're gun guys first.
Just as an example-the 9mm is $12-14/box of 50 when they can get it.
Georgia Arms is also not exploiting the situation,nor is Graf & Sons,who charge a flat service fee and no shipping.
Ammoman is OK-no shipping charge,but he is out of stock on a lot of stuff.
 
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