Where's the ammo? American Rifleman article

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Shanghai McCoy said:
In one of P.J. ORourke's essays about being in Somalia one of his companions/bodyguard refers to a Glock as "The Mastercard of the future"...
Perhaps that's just the usual P.J. ORourke literary "overkill", but that was also before they started burning cities here in this country.
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Here in Texas the expression is “Mexican Express Card”.

Anyway, my wife (who doesn’t like guns but tolerates my collecting hobby) has always been somewhat nonplussed whenever I restocked during the local annual ammo sale. But after seeing the civil unrest this year, she seems more agreeable about the cases on ammo in my storage closet.
 
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Waveski said:
My comment : I find that the best way to conserve on ammunition and still enjoy shooting is to keep a normal range trip schedule , but to keep the round count low per trip.

Weekly sessions of a few mags per trip keeps me more proficient and satisfied than once in 2 months and a couple hundred rounds.
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I agree that going just as often and shooting fewer rounds keeps me satisfied. A range day is still a good day even if I'm not going through several hundred rounds like I did early this year. I still go once a week weather permitting but I'm very conscious of how many rounds I'm burning up. This week I shot 20 rounds of .45, 45 rounds of 9mm and 30 rounds of .223, so 95 rounds total. At that rate I have enough to last about 2 years. I will cut back even further if I don't see things getting better by this summer. I've pretty much given up on shooting .22's as my stockpile on them is low and I won't pay current prices.
 
Meeks36 said:
Time to stock up on everything while you can . Cant eat bullets. But can protect them beans with them. (Meaning bullets)
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That reminds me of a quote I read somewhere that said “my survival kit is an AR 15 and a list of people who have survival kits”. LoL
 
I was able to buy 12 boxes of PMC .308, 147 gr FMJ BT, over the last few weeks, 2 boxes at a time from a hardware store that just happened to have it. 2 box limit, so I just stopped every time I was in town. The guy told me today it was just me and one other guy that pretty much took his whole supply. As long as they had it I was going to buy it. My AR loves it.
 
My buddy won an auction for a milsurp pistol and it arrived at the local small range/store/smithing place. He called them to see if he could come pick it up and they laughed. Apparently they are getting 50 to 100 transfer shipments a day and they are at least a day just to unpack what comes in and figure out who to call.
 
A couple of years back, the California Legislature prompted the wife and I to reconsider our meager ammo supply. We bought a large RSC and shelved it to be able to stack ammo boxes three deep, and set aside funds to take advantage of the glut of low-priced ammo available at the time. We targeted building up a ten-year supply of our primary calibers - 9mm, 45acp, and 22LR. Since we shoot a lot of 22LR on our property and have four grandkids, we went extra deep on it. LGS helped out my running a hot special on MiniMags, so we bought six cases. Added a couple cases of Blazer, several cases of CCI SV, and a few bricks of Wolf, SK and Eley in assorted flavors. We were still able to mail order without an FFL, so we bought when prices were especially good. One day, the UPS guy delivered five cases of 9mm and two of 45acp. He thought it was great!

We don't shoot centerfire rifle nearly as much, but we still laid in at least 500-3000 rounds per rifle. All told, we have enough to shoot what we want when we want, and still be able to help out some other family members as needed.

Back about 2012, I was living in town and using a local indoor range. Ammo was scarce, but I'd bought a couple of cases. As I was leaving the range, I ran into an old friend who was just about in tears. He didn't shoot often, but needed some trigger therapy for stress. He really wanted to shoot his High Power, but there was no ammo available. I was able to reach into my range bag and hand him a box, and he got to shoot. He still thanks me every time I see him.
 
This time, not only do we have a political change that makes it highly likely that there will be a significant assault on our 2nd Amendment rights, we also have a "pandemic", riots, looting, and just fear in general like we've never seen before. It doesn't surprise me at all that ammo is flying off the shelves. Americans can see a day coming when they're going to need it and not be able to get it.
 
shafter said:
This time, not only do we have a political change that makes it highly likely that there will be a significant assault on our 2nd Amendment rights, we also have a "pandemic", riots, looting, and just fear in general like we've never seen before. It doesn't surprise me at all that ammo is flying off the shelves. Americans can see a day coming when they're going to need it and not be able to get it.
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Seems ppl have VERY quickly forgotten these events ^^ perhaps? . I care not to look through everyone else's rose colored glasses. Can't really blame anyone, it's a common trait of human folk; if bad News, they just want to be told it's over and when. If that info isn't available, or stark, factual evidences (plural intentional e.g. again ^^ above quote) to the contrary , sometimes some just choose to make it up.

My best prediction through a crystal ball with less cracks (LoL) ? Two years+. Due to political upheaval until the next election cycle. Caveat e. ; GA elections.

'' YMMV IMHO IANAL GHU '' God help us:cool: !!
 
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brewer12345 said:
My buddy won an auction for a milsurp pistol and it arrived at the local small range/store/smithing place. He called them to see if he could come pick it up and they laughed. Apparently they are getting 50 to 100 transfer shipments a day and they are at least a day just to unpack what comes in and figure out who to call.
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Illinois "common sense" background checks are running weeks behind. Typically, during our state mandated "cool down" 72hr waiting period, your background check will clear during that time. The last pistol I bought took 2 and a half weeks to clear.
 
Lotta people forget too that it might not make sense for a company to buy the resources (tooling and machinery) to make more. They may not have the space or are super wary about dropping that kind of money and not making it back if this proves to be a temporary rush.

Such is the case with .22. It would cost a lot to increase production exponentially and the return on investment due to the price most people would pay, just isn’t there.
 
huntsman said:
I think the biggest elephant in the room has to be new laws, I can’t see any ammo co tooling up with the threat of banned internet sales.
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Exactly. We're through the "civil unrest" phase, for now. The COVID thing will soon die down, so that really only leaves us with one more thing causing a panic. New laws. For now, it's just the threat of new laws fueling fires. We'll what is targeted but the "online ammo purchase" seems to be a major one. IF something like that passes, yes, it will just prolong things depending on how it is done and when it would take effect. Ironically, there's really no online ammo to be had, so there's not much of a run that could occur anyway.

I'm actually surprised that places still have >10 round magazines in stock, I could have sworn those would next to hoard.
 
I have enough stocked up for most issues, during these shortages I just don't go to the gun range, I keep it and hold it till the issues go away. Snap caps are a good way to keep your fingers and reflexes limber...that's just me...call me old fashion or frugal, but if there is a shortage why are you shooting it up at a range, go hunting or just stay home. Just my opinion
Paul
 
hso said:
In short, folks are buying it faster than it can be made.


https://www.americanrifleman.org/ar...ort-wheres-all-the-ammo#.X9l4hBi9Ylo.facebook
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Well, no. When the prices get to a certain point, much of the ammo goes to gunbroker instead of filling orders. Then it is rather slowly let out as we are all forced to bid against each other, one lot at a time.
If there were a true shortage, gunbroker wouldn't have any either. But they do. And they did all through the Sandy hook panic too. Even when shelves in stores are empty for lack of availability. It is all there on gunbroker, any kind you want. And how ever much you want to buy. Right now.
This not ammo but is illustrative: Take KVAR for example. In normal times they sold Bulgarian stamped rifles for around 800-1000 on their website. I bought several. But since the embargo, the KVAR rifles are only available on auction and are going for 1750-2600. It is just street smarts. You dont fill orders for 995 when people will bid it up to 1900.
 
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mshootnit said:
Well, no. When the prices get to a certain point, much of the ammo goes to gunbroker instead of filling orders. Then it is rather slowly let out as we are all forced to bid against each other, one lot at a time.
If there were a true shortage, gunbroker wouldn't have any either. But they do. And they did all through the Sandy hook panic too. Even when shelves in stores are empty for lack of availability. It is all there on gunbroker, any kind you want. And how ever much you want to buy. Right now.
This not ammo but is illustrative: Take KVAR for example. In normal times they sold Bulgarian stamped rifles for around 800-1000 on their website. I bought several. But since the embargo, the KVAR rifles are only available on auction and are going for 1750-2600. It is just street smarts. You dont fill orders for 995 when people will bid it up to 1900.
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Can you prove that the manufacturers are selling on GunBroker?
 
I've stopped going to the local public gun range, the Honey Island Shooting Range, because of the people who go there with short barrel AR's and AK's, and shoot up hundreds of rounds, seemingly just to make noise. As a former NG and Army reserve instructor and competition shooter, IMHO they do not seem to be doi anything to improve their skills. Maybe it is just their idea of fun.
 
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