Is ammo availabilty getting better yet?

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Ammo shortage is Getting better for me, thanks to my poor memory! Looking for something this am, found a bag I bought last year at KTP; had a new box of .45 LC and a .38 Special target ammo! Bought them last year before the "ammo drought" hit, forgot all about it. Like opening an Xmass gift. :D
 
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Yesterday I stopped by what is locally billed as the world's largest gun store-- and it may well be as they took over a former major supermarket building a few years ago.

The good news is I saw ammo and component shelves that not too long ago were bare now starting to fill with product. Not everything you're looking for but enough so you could go shooting. The bad news was prices-- mostly yowza!.

Same general inventory situation at their long-- and I mean long-- gun counters. Increased stock-- up to maybe 30-40% of what was there a couple of years ago- but mostly punishing prices.

But a few months ago the count was more like 10% (all my eyeball estimates). Several of the counters had been closed off and blocked as the case shelves and gun racks were empty. Yesterday, only one counter was empty/closed off.
 
I don't base availability off what's in store, I base it off what's in stock online and at what price. I see Blazer 9mm Aluminum is $20 a box, which is a lot better than the $30 I've been seeing Federal brass 9mm at and it appears that the ammo isn't selling out super fast.

For any other handgun caliber it's either out of stock or ridiculously priced. I see Midway has Federal 10mm HST ammo at $2.50 a round in stock and it's like nobody is buying it so why hasn't Midway lowered the price? In normal times that ammo would be maybe half the cost and it's not like there's a huge demand for 10mm ammo anyway.

Seems to me a lot of retailers bought ammo at outrageous prices from distributors thinking it was going to sell, it hasn't and they're like a used car dealer holding onto a 12 year old F150 that doesn't start and has two flat tires and won't let it go for less than 6 grand because they won't turn a profit.

IMO, for calibers that aren't 9mm, .223/556, 762x39, .22, and 12ga, we're in for a very long wait. You consider that it's taken us 7 months to go from 9mm at $40 a box to $20, it's gonna take us another 7 months to get anything outside the most common calibers to become available at prices 50% higher than normal and a lot of that's because inflation is going to hit like a tsunami.

And that is if there's no major mass shooting. We're pretty lucky so far this year that we haven't had a Pulse nightclub, Vegas, Parkland school, or El Paso Walmart shooting this year.
 
TunnelRat said:
The days of high volume shooting are only over if you can’t or won’t pay the price.


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When you consider the prices for everyday essentials like fuel, food, hygiene products, vehicles, etc. it's leaving less and less money available for people to spend on a particularly expensive hobby.

I remember last year seeing people blast thru 200 rounds of 9mm in about half an hour and hey, good for them, but it's pretty damn wasteful IMO when 100 rds worth is enough to stay loose.

This is why I always bring another gun to the range in a cheap to shoot caliber, either .22 or a black powder that takes a while to reload. Allows me to enjoy a trip to the range, breathe some fresh air, and not go broke doing it.

And whenever Webley gets off their rear end and starts shipping their bolt action CO2 air rifles to the US, I'll be buying one of those.
 
All of these economic points are known to me. My point was simply that there are those with larger discretionary incomes than others, hence the can/can’t. It’s not meant as a judgmental comment but one based in reality (there are items and hobbies I could never personally afford and likely never will). Those people will likely continue to shoot a substantial amount. It may be that the group of people that continue to shoot higher round counts will get smaller.

Another option is that the frequency with which people shoot high volumes decreases. I’m still shooting 200 rd of 9mm or so during my sessions, I’m just doing it half as frequently. Ammunition right now is about twice what I was paying pre panic and COVID. I’ve kept my spending the same and adjusted the frequency accordingly.

To be frank we had a number of years where prices were so low that people got used to shooting high volumes and not thinking about it. That’s not the case anymore. I still think a person can have higher round count sessions (that phrase is a bit subjective), but it may require more planning than it did some years ago.


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Still shooting almost the same number of rounds (every Sunday), but mixing in more odd-ball calibers and lots more .22. I probably don't need to ever buy any more ammo, but I am looking forward to refreshing the stock a bit.
Lots more out there, and prices are dropping. January might be a big BUY month!
 
unless 9mm drops back to $9.99 a box and 45 acp drops back to $14.99 a box , I simply wont be shooting as much as before

Ill just limit myself to one box of ammo a year for practice, my supply will last a long time if I only shoot a couple boxes a year or just stop going to the range.
 
At Cabelas yesterday, shelves were FULL of 5.56 and 7.62x39, inflated prices though. Lots of shotgun shells, Herters branded. A few boxes of .22's, about gone.
Hunting rifle ammo? Nope.
Handgun ammo? Nope.
 
Ill just limit myself to one box of ammo a year for practice, my supply will last a long time if I only shoot a couple boxes a year or just stop going to the range.
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Shooting one 50-rd box per year for "practice" isn't effective practice for any serious use for which you'd keep a 9mm or 45acp pistol.

Nope, in these times of factory ammo deprivation, reloading is the only way to go, provided you can source components.
 
JustJake said:
Shooting one 50-rd box per year for "practice" isn't effective practice for any serious use for which you'd keep a 9mm or 45acp pistol.

Nope, in these times of factory ammo deprivation, reloading is the only way to go, provided you can source components.
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Yet that is the norm for many even when there is no ammo shortage. I sold a LCP about 6 years ago to a friend that wanted one. I gave him a good price and few boxes of ammo and with the caveat that he learn to be proficient with it. To this day he has not shot it once. And have run across so many folks that have not gone to the range in years.
I would be willing to bet that even now many will buy a gun for home protection etc, buy one box of ammo and not be seen again at the range. Shotguns will go into the closet for years. Same with AR's. etc.
 
In my area in north-central IL, ammo supply is spotty at best.

I picked up 2 200 round boxes of 5.56 at the local Farm and Fleet for a little under $300. Not great pricing but better than a lot of places.

They had a few 400 round ammo boxes of 7.62x39 as well.

A bunch of .45ACP.

A few boxes of .44 Magnum.

That's about it. I haven't seen 9mm in the wild at non-scalping prices in some time.

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Yet that is the norm for many even when there is no ammo shortage.
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:rolleyes:

Don't know how many of these "many" there are, but these "closet-queen" owners are clearly an embarrassment to the rest of us who purchase a firearm for a serious use (personal protection; hunting), and then practice with it for that particular use.

If retail ammo is scarce or overly spendy for the budget, that's what reloading is for.

Uh huh. Right there.
 
JustJake said:
:rolleyes:

Don't know how many of these "many" there are, but these "closet-queen" owners are clearly an embarrassment to the rest of us who purchase a firearm for a serious use (personal protection; hunting), and then practice with it for that particular use.

If retail ammo is scarce or overly spendy for the budget, that's what reloading is for.

Uh huh. Right there.
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If someone isn’t willing to put in the time and money to shoot more than one box of factory ammunition, I’m seriously doubtful that the same person is going to invest in a reloading setup and the time necessary to reload. My experience is the cost of ammunition is less a factor than motivation in these cases when we’re talking shooting on such an infrequent level.


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Last time I was at the LGS there was some ammo. Prices are still high, but there seems to be more of it, plus some primers actually popped up, too.
 
Went to the local 'bigger' LGS yesterday and the shelves were filled with ammo (all rifle and handgun calibers) - almost like old time. Prices were still higher than pre-craziness.
 
I do reload most of my ammo, but will not buy the current over priced factory ammo

factory ammo is for my reserve / long term storage
 
Went to the local 'bigger' LGS yesterday and the shelves were filled with ammo (all rifle and handgun calibers) - almost like old time. Prices were still higher than pre-craziness.
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That cheers me up. Where abouts are you located.

P.S. IMhO it would be nice if EVERYONE that tells about horrendous ammo/great ammo stories indicated where they are located.
 
Is ammo availabilty getting better yet?
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It was, until today. That's toast now.

The US has just announced it is banning Russian-manufactured ammo. So all that cheap Tula, Wolf, Red Army Standard, Brown and Silver Bear, etc (including the steel Monarch stuff at Academy)... done and over. What's here now, and maybe for a couple of weeks of further imports, that's it. After the current stock is sold, there will be no more.
 
scoobysnacker said:
It was, until today. That's toast now.

The US has just announced it is banning Russian-manufactured ammo. So all that cheap Tula, Wolf, Red Army Standard, Brown and Silver Bear, etc (including the steel Monarch stuff at Academy)... done and over. What's here now, and maybe for a couple of weeks of further imports, that's it. After the current stock is sold, there will be no more.
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You are right, and 40 to 45% of the ammunition sold in the US is Russian!!
 
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