Driving 1500 miles and 5-states; strategy to find ammo?

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Trey Veston

Trey Veston

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Taking a 3-week road trip vacation from Washington state, down to the Arizona/Mexico border next week to do some off-road exploring, mine and ghost town exploring, and visiting family.

Driving the full length of Idaho, then Utah, a couple of hundred miles in Nevada, then the entire Western edge of Arizona.

I warned my girlfriend that I would be stopping at most gun shops and large sporting goods chains I spotted along the way in search of mostly primers, powder, and bullets.

Seems like I hear from gun owners around the country that some areas seem to have more reloading components than others. A few folks in the states where there is a lower percentage of gun ownership also have a lower interest in reloading, so powder, bullets, and even some primers can still be found.

In my area, I've been able to buy one can of powder and one box of 100 primers in 5 months. Tons of shooters and reloaders around here.

Not sure I will have much success, despite covering such a large area since most of it is in states with a lot of gun owners.

What do you think my chances of actually scoring anything will be? And should I focus on stopping at the larger stores like Sportsman's Warehouse and Cabela's, or try to find the smaller local shops?
 
Trey Veston said:
What do you think my chances of actually scoring anything will be? And should I focus on stopping at the larger stores like Sportsman's Warehouse and Cabela's, or try to find the smaller local shops?
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No way to know. I think the best advice is to try to find out what every one of them are and call when you get in the area. If the first couple are out then the rest probably are as well.
 
I am on a bunch of gun groups on Facebook. Every so often, somebody posts a picture of ammo on the shelf at Podunk Gun Shop in Outtadaway, Nowhere. They are all happy because they picked up 6 boxes of this or 10 boxes of that.

So I think you might have some luck. I don't think you will strike it rich, but maybe you find a few boxes and meet some nice people along the way.

Good luck with your hunt!
 
Get off the interstate. Visit hardware stores and gun stores/ pawn shops in really small towns away from major highways. The big stores in large cities will not have anything. Making a milk run will take a lot more time, and is likely to frustrate your traveling companions with frequent stops, but you will be more likely to find stuff.
 
Not wanting to put a damper on your trip and since I live on the East Coast and been looking for the same components, I wish you a ton of luck. I've been traveling in a tri state area around my home stomping grounds and have managed to find almost nothing to be had. Found some powder and some cast pistol bullets, but that's all.
 
1KPerDay said:
If you find anything in Utah or Salt Lake counties I’ll be pretty surprised. And I mean ANYTHING.
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Well, you can find stuff around here. Every time I go to Scheels or Sportsmans Warehouse they have plenty of 6mm, 8mm, 350 and 375 bullets, since apparently nobody shoots those calibers. Some other oddball cartridges like 26 Nosler. Of course powder and primers are a different story. Scheels is your best bet though. Last time they had powder in stock I bought some Titegroup and they had no limit. I also found 22 and 40 ammo and 45 bullets at Cabelas a couple weeks ago. They also had 7.62x51 ball ammo if you're willing to shell out $1.50 per round. I'm not.

It's just all about luck of timing.
 
1KPerDay said:
If you find anything in Utah or Salt Lake counties I’ll be pretty surprised. And I mean ANYTHING.
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Same with Idaho, although the OP will mostly be traveling down the length of Idaho on the west side if he's headed to Utah, and then on down to Arizona. And it's been since before covid that I've been in western Idaho, so I really don't know.
We always go to Cabela's when we're over there. Boise Gun Company used to be a favorite of ours too, but they closed. Impact Guns in Boise is still open, I guess. But we never did do anything but try out guns in their indoor range there - if we liked a gun we tried out, we came home and bought it from one our favorite LGSs here in eastern Idaho.
I think Sportsman's Warehouse in Twin Falls is probably still around. But I'll bet they don't have any more reloading components than Sportsman's Warehouse in Pocatello or Idaho Falls.
 
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I think if you find anything it's going to be at really high prices or limited to one box. Probably not even worth the aggravation of the side trips. Sometimes its good to just put your focus somewhere else until the storm blows over. Guns are great but so is fishing, archery, road trips, and a million other things.
 
Chances are probably slim but ya never know, on the way to my friends house to watch the super bowl ( go Bucs!) I stopped at a walmart down the street from him and scored a box of .22 mag CCI 125 round milk carton type box for for $22 , every other Walmart run since has scored zero, like not scoring any touchdown at all.........:neener:
 
I would do it just to visit the different gun stores, like a pilgrimage. There may not be much inventory to buy, but there may be like minded people and interesting items for sale, or photographs of hunts or wall trophies.
 
Unless I just had an itch to be on the road, I’d combine that gas money with my ammo money and buy what I want at Gunbroker or online outlet ... not sure about where you’re at but gas prices have gone up ~ .60 since the election ... and doesn’t look like it‘ll be coming down anytime soon.

Personally I’ve bulked up after the panic ends and haven’t had to pay panic prices since 2008.
 
orpington said:
I cannot imagine driving across many states to locate components.
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I planned this trip a year ago. It is a vacation for exploring ghost towns, old mines, off-road trails, and visiting family. I just figured stopping at random gun shops along the way would be interesting to see if I could find anything to buy.

I have been reloading for about 8 years. I had and have plenty of components for the typical panics and shortages we have all seen over the years.

I thought having at least a year's worth of ammo and components on hand was prudent and reasonable. Pretty much everybody did. We are now going on a year of the greatest ammo and components drought in modern history of our country. Very few people anticipated it lasting this long. None of us has seen it this bad.

This isn't a thread about some newbie who was ignorant, or a long-time owner who ignored the past. It is simply a thread pontificating about the chances of stumbling on ammo and components on a long road trip.
 
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Trey Veston said:
This isn't a thread about some newbie who was ignorant, or a long-time owner who ignored the past. It is simply a thread pontificating about the chances of stumbling on ammo and components on a long road trip.
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If you are near as experienced and prepared as you state, you should know the chances as well as any of us. This is not a localized shortage, nor is it a scenario where just being a tad off the beaten path is going to be more productive. As long as this shortage has been hanging on and the territory it covers, your best chances are being there when a shipment comes in before anyone else finds out. It also comes down o how much time and distance, you want to divert from your vacation. I wish you the best of luck.
 
When traveling, smaller to mid size towns are the best. I never travel interstates if I can avoid it. We have always found interesting stuff on the byways of America. Be sure to ask when gassing up if there is a sporting goods/hunting/fishing shop in town. Good luck and have fun!
 
Stay off the freeway. I think you said that but just in case you didn't. The BB stores are all along the freeways. That don't have what you're looking for. I doubt anyone else will either but good luck anyway.
 
Rural shops are best. Cruising around rural northern IL and into southern WI today I got this stuff:
20210227_141721.jpg

1000 bullets and a # of clays. $100 or so and didn't get gouged .

In the cities everything is snatched up
 
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