AMMO SHORTAGE, thoughts, opinions.

Not too many years ago, a dealer was selling primers at a gun show for $75/5000.

Wish I had bought a couple cases of each back then.
 
piper, I am 22 so I have been of age for a little over a year. I don't know why I waited, although I have been meaning to get one ever since I turned 21, I just never had the spare change beeing a broke college student. So this year with tax returns since I got a pretty fat one I decided to finally purchase one. It's cool though first handgun i've ever owned. I grew up around rifles and shot guns because a lot of my family is from traverse city way up north in michigan, so there's nothing better to do up there than go out in the woods on my uncles property and shoot. but I just recently like in the last 2 or 3 years got in to hand guns going to ranges with friends.

My purchase of a pistol had nothing to do with Obama getting elected, I've always been in to going to the range for a fun time, just finally decided to buy one. Along with the whole protection side of it, I plan on taking my CPL classes this may
 
I really have not bought any appreciable amount of ammo since the hype began. Two five rounds boxes of buckshot at Gander Friday was the first since November (and only that because I had a gift card).

The price hike really hit me when I overheard the cashier tell a woman that the grand total for her two boxes of Blazer Brass .45acp was just over $60. I don't recall the exact amount but I believe it was $63 and some change. Regardless of the exact amount, it was absurd.

Too rich for my blood.
 
parrothead2581:

I really have not bought any appreciable amount of ammo since the hype began. Two five rounds boxes of buckshot at Gander Friday was the first since November (and only that because I had a gift card).

The price hike really hit me when I overheard the cashier tell a woman that the grand total for her two boxes of Blazer Brass .45acp was just over $60. I don't recall the exact amount but I believe it was $63 and some change. Regardless of the exact amount, it was absurd.

Too rich for my blood.

That's about 3X what WalMart was selling it about 18 months ago. I'm sure if I had a 45acp, I would have stocked up then.

I just got 75 rounds of Golden Sabers 45acp 185g +P for $57 delivered. I still don't have a 45acp, but it was such a good deal, I hoarded it. I'll probably sell it to my buddies, or trade for some more 9mm.:D
 
I was so happy then I got so mad today making the ammo loop.

I saw one local small shop owner tell a guy that a case of Winchester 5.56 would be $500+tax. When the guy said that the boxes were marked $8.99 the owner told him that if he wanted more than 5 boxes the price went up to $10 per box. "I have to keep something on my shelves." he said. Way to look out for regular customers!:)

Then I went to another store to get my one box of PMC 9mm for the day. When the clerk gave me the box of ammo she said something about how if I didn't like it, I should write to my president. I guess it was supposed to be a joke. I don't like Obama. I never have. But this ammo shortage is not his doing, it is ours. When I asked her if she could tell me one act of congress or presidential decree that made it so I could only get one box of 9mms per day. Her answer was a big eye roll and "Oh-Kay!":mad:
 
I saw one local small shop owner tell a guy that a case of Winchester 5.56 would be $500+tax. When the guy said that the boxes were marked $8.99 the owner told him that if he wanted more than 5 boxes the price went up to $10 per box. "I have to keep something on my shelves." he said. Way to look out for regular customers!

Did anyone mention to him that, under the "Truth In Advertising Law, that's illegal?
 
Did anyone mention to him that, under the "Truth In Advertising Law, that's illegal?
No it's not. If he bought just one box, then the price was correct. A retailer has the right to have bulk pricing. I suppose if the retailer gave you a discount for buying more than 10 boxes, you wouldn't complain and say; "You can't charge me less; the box says $x.xx. Well, if the retailer wants to charge a different price for bulk, that is their prerogative.

Also; good for them for taking care of their local customers. I was in one of our local gun shops yesterday. A guy came in and saw large pistol primers. He asked how much. The lady said $3.50 for 100 primers. He had the balls to ask if she would give him a discount for buying all 4 bricks that she had. She said no. He asked; why not. She said, because I won't sell you all 4 bricks of primers. He said, if I want to buy them, you have to sell them to me. She said, the only you have to do is leave. She didn't sell him any. In between all this, she was willing to sell him a brick, to satisfy a customer. But when he practically demanded she sell him all 4 bricks, she told him where the door was. It was awesome.

Oh by the way, I can walk in there any day of the week and get any caliber of ammo I want. The customers aren't hoarding, and the merchant isn't allowing customers to hoard. And for what it's worth; 45acp ammo is running between $19.99 and $29.99 depending on the brand and type. From the cheapest plinking hardball to the best personal defense. Prices are a little higher than they were a year ago, but I know the merchants are having to pay a little bit more. When the merchants see out of state plates on the car, they know it's going to be a fun time.
 
People are buying guns and ammo in large quantities because they are scared. Period.

Some people may not remember the L.A. riots but many will.If you did not have the tools to protect you and your loved ones or even your livelihood and you needed to you were completely out of luck!ie.dead, wounded,assaulted and your place of business looted and or burned to the ground

The 'establishment',police ran from their duties to save themselves and left everyone they were sworn to protect helpless.Many are afraid it could happen again and want to be prepared.I say good for them.

Regards,
Brair

Just my 2 cents worth(1.5 cents American)
 
brair; riots or not, there is a practical amount of ammo that a person needs for defense. And to be honest, I personally don't believe that there is an excessive amount of hoarding going on. Yes, some people are buying cases of ammo. But the average person isn't. The problem is; while there was a very small amount of people who were buying ammo on a regular basis for sport/plinking/etc..., the average gun owner rarely went out and shot their one or possibly two guns. But because of paranoia, many more people are now buying ammo. Lets do some basic math:

2006 stats showed approximately 21.5% or 70 million Americans own at least 1 gun.

1. I'm going to aim really high and say that 15 million of those Americans shoot guns on a regular basis. Hunting, trap, plinking, practicing, etc... (NRA Membership is around 4 million - Probably an increase in membership in the last 4 months).
2. That means that the ammunition production from CCI, Winchester, Federal, Remington, etc... including imports; was producing ammo in the amounts needed to support the 15 million; PLUS, military and police contracts.
3. Now, put a scare into people (which could be valid) about how anti-gun Obama is. (He is). About a predominantly democratic party congress; and that guns and ammo are under attack.
4. Realize that there is some turnaround required from the time CCI, Winchester, etc... starts making a bullet to the time it takes to go through the entire wholesale, retail, transport, etc... system to get it on the shelf for you to buy.
5. Now, have the normal 15 million shooters who buy ammo at WHATEVER rate they normally do; decide to just double up on their normal orders. Many bought more, but just say double. Then, have the other 55 million people (3 times the normal shooters); decide that they all want to buy simply 3 or 4 boxes of ammo.
6. Now; if all 70,000,000 gun owners (Probably closer to 100,000,000 today) decided to buy just 4 boxes of pistol ammo; that would be 14 BILLION: 14,000,000,000 rounds of ammo.

The industry just isn't set up for that. Basically; you're trying to produce 5-6 months worth of ammo in 1 month; send it out; get it on the shelf; and continue to make this much ammo. And that's just so everyone got 4 boxes of ammo which is what I'm using as an average. Then, add to this that there will be some that buy a lot more. Add also, that there are also now NEW GUN OWNERS who need ammo.

Fortunately; and the ammo manufacturers know this; most people who are buying ammo are not buying thousands of rounds. They also are NOT SHOOTING the ammo that they do buy. Therefor, the supply and demand scenario will reverse itself. But because the manufacturers know this, they aren't likely to higher and train additional workers for an unspecified length of time until people have the ammo they want and stop buying it. There will still be the sport shooters that will buy. But even they will slow down because they've probably got a year's supply instead of the normal 3-4 months they normally have.

Realize also that it isn't CCI, Winchester, Remington, Federal, etc... who are raising prices. It's the resellers. It's the "Cheaperthandirt"s of the world. When Walmart has ammo in stock, because they buy in bulk contracts, they are selling it for basically the same price they have for a while. But this is American. Companies are free to charge whatever they want for ammo. I'm all for that. We aren't a socialist country "Fully, yet". So retailers should be allowed to charge whatever they want. And consumers are allowed to be stupid. They are allowed to pay $50 for a box of 9mm if they want. People need to stop talking about laws; because that implies the government being involved. And personally, the government is the LAST PEOPLE I want involved with guns and ammunition. Buy the ammo if you want. Don't buy it if you don't want to. Hopefully, when the hoarding is over; which it will be probably by summer; the regular shooters who shoot for sport and plinking a lot will hopefully remember the gun stores and online stores that treated them right and didn't gouge the prices. And they'll reward them. And hopefully; businesses like Cheaperthandirt (Who are raping people) and Georgia arms who charge way too much for shipping and handling; will be put out of business because those who bought from them won't use them any longer.
 
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.

Keep dreaming. Ammo stored properly can last a LONG time. Why would someone buy 1,000 rounds of ammo with the intention of returning it if they "didn't use" it? Perhaps they bought it because they were unsure if they'd be able to get it later (at all or at a better price). Selling it back would almost certainly be at a loss (assuming the scenario given, not the scenario in which hoarding pays off), which makes no sense.
 
+1 Chris Corp, I have the same mind set as you do, I use to buy alot of ammo from various distributors/ resellers, by the case. I would buy about 1 case of every caliber I own, about every 2-3 months which at the time was calibers, 9mm, .45, .223. and the very available at wally world (back then) .22lr. I use to shoot on average 100-200 rounds a week of each caliber, depending how much I would shoot would depend on how much I would order. Now as soon as this scare hit I ordered 3 times what I normally ordered because I knew the one gun owners were going to panic and drive prices up the wall. Well thank god for Wal-mart. The day I ran out of .223, I went to wally world and found 1200 rounds of federal at the normal price, then as of recently started getting low on .45 and guess who had the ammo and at the same price they always do? Your right wally world, they only had a case so as a nice guy I only took half the case and left half for someone else, which by the way we should all try this. I have had ammo in my safe since the big scare, I have been shooting less and conserving ammo. As of late I probably shoot 50-100 rounds of 9mm, .45 and .223 and as much .22lr as I can bare to shoot until I get bored. Well as my luck would have it I went to wally world today and since my 9mm was beginning to deplete I said lets see if y some crazy luck there is some ammo well go figure they had CCI brass 9mm 115gr. So I asked how much they had and they lady at the counter said about 20000 round, so I was like I'll take 20 boxes and the lady said nope. She said she can only sell 6 boxes per person per day maximum. So I beat the system, Bought my six had 2 buddies come over to wally world had them by me 6 boxes a piece and went after shift change and bought 6 more so now I have ammo again. Well again my buddy just went and he told me that they are done no more ammo. And this was with them only selling six boxes to each individual. People need to start conserving ammo and being conservative in buying. If you know your not gonna shoot it, you don't need cases to store, leave some for others. I could have easily had my whole crew go in there and buy up 5k-6k in ammo but I didn't I left some. We should all think this way and stop buying ammo at ridiculous prices. That why they do, because some idiot will by it.
 
There's no shortage, there is just brainless hording. You don't need much for personal defense. If you do a range several times a month, than it doesn't take to much time to run out, found that out the hard way when the 'Better Half" and I started back into going to the range more often. That's the only reason I started buying bulk, and don't under stand why people have to buy up every thing they come across and not leave some thing for some one else. I cut back on range time, holding off on buying cause of people not using there heads and now having prices jacked up and back orders. :confused: "Chicken Little" the sky's falling the sky's falling. :(
 
Be WARY of any online ammo that does pop up as available!

One of my favorite sites (questionable now), is offering generic FedAmEagle 9mm as available. They laughably show the "reg price" at $29.99 and say it is on sale now for $24.99 --- for a single box of plain jane 9mm FMJs! What a rip!

I wouldn't trust any of these guys... watch those prices!
 
One thing I've heard is that Uncle Sam has made HUGE purchases - which will be filled before distributors - to dry up the supply. No verification. But if I were the Evil, Maniacal Ruler this is the ploy I would use. I'm just sayin'...
 
"Not too many years ago, a dealer was selling primers at a gun show for $75/5000."


Yep, I remember prices like that as recently as 2 years ago at shows in Northern Virginia and Pennsylvania.

If you were lucky, you could occasionally find the odd dealer willing to sell you a case of 5K for between $50 and $60.
 
"One thing I've heard is that Uncle Sam has made HUGE purchases - which will be filled before distributors - to dry up the supply."

I don't buy that at all.

First off, prior to Obama's election, the ammo supply line was alreadily far more heavily engaged than in years past by virtue of the fact that the US is fighting a two-front war.

Virtually all US military ammo is loaded by commercial companies under contract for the Government.

Add in the massive uptick in purchasing brought on by Obama's election, and a system already under stain simply could no longer keep up.

There's no conspiracy to deny Americans ammunition based on the government buying up all types of ammo.

Right now it's a case of companies with competing interests; the primary interest and necessity being that our troops overseas have all of the ammunition they need.
 
Well boys this is one reason to like revolvers. Most semi-autos are quite sensitive to loads and many times it is better to use factory stuff. This is the time to pull out those .38 specials and .357's (revolvers and lever action rifles), since that ammo seems to be in stock at a lot of places.
 
Mmm, not so sure about .357 and .38 ammo being in stock in a lot of places. All of the on-line retailers are totally out, unless you count the occasional box of Cowboy Action rounds as stock. Midway, for example, has nothing in either .38 or .357 and it isn't accepting backorders. When I was at my local Walmart the other day, they were sold out of .38 and had one measly box of 115 gr. 357 for sale.

I'd say that the ammo panic, crisis, shortage, whatever, is pretty much across the board at this point. However, I also am convinced that this is a classic bubble and it will pop at some point, probably sooner rather than later. Right now, I'm just about out of everything except .22. I've got some ammunition in .38, .357, and .45 ACP on backorder with two or three suppliers. Not huge quantities, either. I'll just have to be patient.
 
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