Ammo shortage- how did it affect your season/is it still affecting you?

FL-NC said:

I think we have heard and experienced enough talk and pain about the ammo situation in general, but I'm asking specifically about how hunters dealt with it. As for me, I had enough hunting ammo on hand that I was OK for 2020-2021 deer season. Not that I keep a whole bunch of that stuff "in reserve", but I did have several boxes of my couple of different calibers I use, along with sufficient BP pellets, sabot projectiles, and 209's for BP season. My normal M.O. is to wait until just before gun season starts, and do a zero/test fire/practice session with my hunting rifles, normally firing a box through each. The change I made this year, is I only fired 1 3-rd confirmation group from each rifle. 1 rifle was slightly out of adjustment, so I made the necessary corrections, and fired 3 more that were POA/POI, boresnaked all of them, and put them back in the cabinet. The 4 additional rounds I fired through the deer season resulted in 3 deer in the freezer, and 1 missed coyote (it was on the run in the treeline and my position was horrible, but at least I made it go away). Lots of people in my neck of the woods (not me) like to hunt deer with dogs using shotguns loaded with buck. I slid a few rounds to some friends who were running short on buck so they could fill a couple of tags. I turkey hunted this morning with my 300 BLK (legal in Fl on private land) but no luck. I carried the 300 BLK due to the coyote/pig problem where I hunt. I also have about half a box of 12 gauge longbeard shells if I hunt any public land later. With a 2 bird statewide season limit, I'll be OK whatever I end up using. I also have enough 75 grain Hornady 223 to kill a few hogs and/or coyotes at night, at least for a while. I also have what I need in 22 LR to deal with various "pests" around the house. I would like to get a box or 2 of Hornady 110 gr GMX in 300 BLK for deer season- for next year. Hopefully (?) things improve in the next 6 months or so that I will be able to get them without selling a kidney or plasma. So what did everyone else need to do in the ammo arena just to put some meat in the freezer this year? Did everyone else have enough left over from last year, or did you need to take other steps? Have you thought about next fall?

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With conservative use (not having TOO much fun on range days) we'll have deer ammo for another 5 to 10 years....... If primers become available within that time, I plan to increase exponentially, if not and I'm reduced to factory fodder, then it'll sting some, but that's a problem for 5-10 years from now I reckon.....

It's effecting my competition shooting to some degree. It has had zero effect on my hunting and unlikely to have any effect unless this market goes on for several more years.

It doesn't affect me one bit. I've been reloading rifle, pistol, and shotgun shells for 50 years. I have enough loaded shells to carry me until 2040 when I'll be 96 years old.

For what it's worth, #4 will drop a dog at the right range.....<45 yds with the right choke
Eta quoted the wrong one sorry.
@FL-NC

For hunting......well, I was not exactly prepared firearms-wise the last two seasons and that is carrying into this season. I cannot get my 450 Bushmasters to shoot accurately. My AR or my Ruger American. I sold my 44 mag because it was too difficult to get to shoot right. (Buy or cast .432 bullets) I dont have time for that. My slug gun shoots OK so that is my pony right now. I started investing in muzzleloading gear late in 2020 and am having good luck with a new to me 54 cal inline shooting 500 S&W bullets out of sabots. Needs a little more tweaking with my loads but I think I will get it there.

Out of pure desperation and exasperation with all my other rifles and the fact I had a PSA gift card, I ended up buying a 224 Valkyrie 20" SS upper SOLELY because I found a large amount of available 224 Val hunting ammo. 90 gr Federal Fusion. (That was a panic buy but I didnt pay panic prices. I was panicking about hunting season. Haha) Thinking that if all my other guns failed me, this one would work. I have no reason to think it should though. It is brand new and who knows if it will even like this ammo.

Haha haha. Im not crazy.....no really, Im not.

mcb said:

It's effecting my competition shooting to some degree. It has had zero effect on my hunting and unlikely to have any effect unless this market goes on for several more years.

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Hunting-wise I've got enough components to go past my life expectancy when it comes to whitetails and small game. I'm slightly concerned in trying to work up a load for a planned elk hunt next in 2022, as I cannot find .308 either 180 Accubonds or Partitions. I've got several Email alerts pending, so when some come available I'll get a couple boxes.

The match stuff is concerning...Shot a 3gun match on SAT and surprisingly we had over 50 shooters, just about on par with a normal year. my bi-monthly IDPA matches are seeing less participation as the non-reloaders are having a hard time finding ammo. I'm probably going to cut back to a couple matches a month, but it's more a function of free time than it is ammo at this point.

No problems with my stuff here.
There were more in this area than I
expected that had to scramble to
find a few rounds to hunt with. I don't
know if they found any or not. I checked
with the people I've hunted regularly
with, and they all had something to
hunt with.
Personally, I can't imagine an experienced
hunter and shooter that expends all of
their supply of ammunition when they
don't have a for sure certain source of
resupply. Or at least an alternative
firearm and supply of ammunition for
it

I don't seem to have much luck getting a rifle deer tag, since 2 out of the last 3 were muzzleloader tags. Since I cast my own balls and can make my own caps if I ever run out, I think I can hunt deer until doomsday. Elk I have enough 165 grain partitions along with the other components that I should be good for the forseeable. What I burn morn of than anything else is shotshells. I can load lead, but haven't ever loaded steel, so I have a finite supply of 12 and 20 gauge steel. For chasing small and upland game I can use lead, but we burn a fair amount on waterfowl. If this drags on for too many years I will either havve to pay whatever the going rate is for shells, ration my shots, or figure out how to load steel or bismuth.

No effect what-so-ever. This wasn't my first rodeo. I had and have plenty of everything I need/needed for last season, the coming season and probably several seasons to come. Might need to find some 6.5 bullets one of these days, but I can always shoot something else.

This is my first time through an ammo shortage. I got my first gun (10/22)when I bought the farm in 2017. I came across a number of old forum posts talking about not being able to find .22 for years so I started to stock up and continued to with each additional gun. Learning from the experience of others paid off big for me.
I’m in no danger of running out of something to hunt with for some time. Traded some primers with my neighbor so we both had what we needed. Times are tough but there is still some stuff to be found and at reasonable prices, yesterday I got a brick of primers and a brick of cci blazer .22lr for $39.99 each at sportsman’s warehouse.
Keep your heads up gang, you crazy kids will be back to mag dumps before we know it.

It didn't affect me either, had several loads worked up for 4 rifles with plenty of components to load more. Plus I shot about once a week from July to one weekend before season opener. I'm still shooting dime of the supply I had from last season.

I made a trip to the range today, shot 100 rds of 9mm from my pistol, 10 rds of 7mm08, 20 rabid 243 win and about 100, 223 from both my bolt action and an AR 15.

Let a fellow club member shoot my m11 savage 223, heckled it's much that he offered to buy it.

No affect what's so ever. Filled the freezer with no issue.

It did not affect me hunting much at all. What I did have to do sooner than I thought was to transition over to only my reloaded rounds for hunting sooner than I thought. I just started reloading 1.5 years ago. Just before the mess started. My goal was to slowly work through my factory loads and work in reloads to find the balance and what reload worked best for the right guns etc... I had already went through what factory rounds worked best with each gun and had a small stash of each. But Now that I was reloading I eventually wanted to phase out factory rounds. Well, as the hunting loads became next to impossible to find in my area, I had to ramp up that "best load" faster than I was initially planned. I was prepared with all kinds of bullets and powders and primers. Just had not put in the time to find that best one yet.

I finished out my deer hunting season with only a handful of factory rounds left and now it's only reloads from now on. Now in the off season I have some work to do. I have quite a few different rifles I hunt with to include my youth rifles for my three kiddos.

earlthegoat2 said:

For hunting......well, I was not exactly prepared firearms-wise the last two seasons and that is carrying into this season. I cannot get my 450 Bushmasters to shoot accurately. My AR or my Ruger American. I sold my 44 mag because it was too difficult to get to shoot right. (Buy or cast .432 bullets) I dont have time for that. My slug gun shoots OK so that is my pony right now. I started investing in muzzleloading gear late in 2020 and am having good luck with a new to me 54 cal inline shooting 500 S&W bullets out of sabots. Needs a little more tweaking with my loads but I think I will get it there.

Out of pure desperation and exasperation with all my other rifles and the fact I had a PSA gift card, I ended up buying a 224 Valkyrie 20" SS upper SOLELY because I found a large amount of available 224 Val hunting ammo. 90 gr Federal Fusion. (That was a panic buy but I didnt pay panic prices. I was panicking about hunting season. Haha) Thinking that if all my other guns failed me, this one would work. I have no reason to think it should though. It is brand new and who knows if it will even like this ammo.

Haha haha. Im not crazy.....no really, Im not.

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.224+90gr fusion= food no worries!
Eta as my brother found out with his valk, remember to size properly lol!!

I've enough hunting ammo and components to see me out. Target rounds for quite a few years. Plus my LGS has 25 tons of ammo in stock. I think I'll survive.

Always stock up on MidwayUSA's after Season huntin' ammo clearance sales.

That way, the rollin' stock is always stacked high n deep.




GR

I should be good for a few years of shooting mostly hogs and a few deer with the number of .308 accubonds I have but I would prefer to have more to practice. It's definitely affecting my practice though for most of my shots I will be okay with no more practice as long as I know I am sighted in. After accubonds I have some PowerPoints that should last me another few years but I think sometime this year Underwood should have accubonds in stock again.

Since I started with a small reserve I've tried to not buy anything during the panic so that people who were out could still hunt.

It did affect my bank account throughout the summer when I added inventory of strategic items as I found them.

Last season, I had plenty of old stock...really old stock. I killed my deer with likely 1970s Hornady 154 RN bullets because I wanted to see how they worked. Stocked up for the wife's rifle when they discontinued the 150 mag tip about 10 years ago. Finally put the last of those into ammo, 2021 will be the last season for that bullet. "Found" a pile of random steel shot to use for my bread and butter duck shooting over decoys. Unpacked a box from when we moved 11 years ago looking for a copper tube flaring tool (didn't find it), but the steel shot was there! Barely dipped into my new stock that I bought last summer. For the dozen or so grouse loads I shoot per year, I'm basically reloading a heavy trap load with a bag of #6 chilled I must have bought in the '90s. It has a $17.99 price tag on it, and seems bottomless. I'm deep on trapload components as I saw this coming and invested in precious metals back in June. Also have the capability to make my own shot if needed. Did my first trial run this spring with mixed results.

It has had a mild effect on my casual practice shooting. I've been using up a lot of oddball stuff in random calibers for offhand practice at relatively short ranges. This position has improved markedly for me, to where I feel I'm back near the peak I experienced in the milsurp ammo and gun boom of the early 2000's when centerfire ammo was as low as 10 cents a round and I had access to a private gravel pit every weekend. I am starting to feel short of large rifle primers, so I've been plinking with more .38s from a single shot as I have lots of stuff for that. I did finally dust off a couple of boxes of WWII vintage M2 ball I got from parts unknown. 19/20 went "bang," accuracy was... relative from my M1917 camp rifle. Still have another 20 to shoot next weekend after I repair my steel plate.

I'm good in terms of deer hunting stuff and waterfowl loads for several years including normal zero/practice procedures allowing for a couple of acceptable substitute standards. The Speer bullets I prefer have been nonexistent for some time, but I got suitable Hornady's to shoot if need be. They do just fine on Bambi, just the tips get a bit ugly after a few times in and out of the magazine.

I'm just a competitive shooting blasting away at steel targets for Steel Challenge and practicing once a week.
It has affected my round count. I would normally shoot 1000 rounds a week. I'm down to 200 in practice and 2 Steel Challenge Matches a month. That's about another 500 rounds. ( I miss a lot )

I had about 50K rounds and would buy a case when I thought I was low. I have enough now for a few years and hope the situation gets better or I'm going to take up archery again.

It severely limited live fire training.

FL-NC said:

I think we have heard and experienced enough talk and pain about the ammo situation in general, but I'm asking specifically about how hunters dealt with it.

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The ammo shortage didn't have any effect our big game (deer and elk) seasons at all last year - we didn't even see an elk to shoot, but I guess that's a different discussion.
Anyway, our big game seasons weren't affected last year, and they probably won't be this year (or next year) because we've been loading own big game hunting ammo for a long time, and we have enough components on hand.
However, the ground squirrels are starting to come out around here, and I figure the ammo (.22LR) shortage will make us change our ways when it comes to "hunting" them. As I've posted before, some friends of ours asked my wife and me over to their ranch last spring to exterminate ground squirrel. We had never seen so many of the little vermin in one area in our lives, and we spent two days burning through .22LR ammo.
If we go back over to our friend's ranch to shoot ground squirrels this spring, we'll be taking it a little easier on the ammo - no banging away at ground squirrels 100 or more yards away, and no shooting 6 or 7 times at a ground squirrel on the run. We have enough .22LR ammo on hand to hold us for a while, but this spring (unlike last spring) it's too hard to replace, so we won't waste it - we'll be trying to "make every shot count" so to speak.
It's too bad, because last October I gave my wife a Ruger "American Rimfire" .22LR for her birthday. She'd been wanting one like it for shooting ground squirrel ever since last spring. Oh, well. At least it's a bolt action, so my wife won't be able to pop off 6 or 7 rounds (like she was doing with my 10-22 last spring) at a running ground squirrel anyway.

.308 Norma said:

The ammo shortage didn't have any effect our big game (deer and elk) seasons at all last year - we didn't even see an elk to shoot, but I guess that's a different discussion.
Anyway, our big game seasons weren't affected last year, and they probably won't be this year (or next year) because we've been loading own big game hunting ammo for a long time, and we have enough components on hand.
However, the ground squirrels are starting to come out around here, and I figure the ammo (.22LR) shortage will make us change our ways when it comes to "hunting" them. As I've posted before, some friends of ours asked my wife and me over to their ranch last spring to exterminate ground squirrel. We had never seen so many of the little vermin in one area in our lives, and we spent two days burning through .22LR ammo.
If we go back over to our friend's ranch to shoot ground squirrels this spring, we'll be taking it a little easier on the ammo - no banging away at ground squirrels 100 or more yards away, and no shooting 6 or 7 times at a ground squirrel on the run. We have enough .22LR ammo on hand to hold us for a while, but this spring (unlike last spring) it's too hard to replace, so we won't waste it - we'll be trying to "make every shot count" so to speak.
It's too bad, because last October I gave my wife a Ruger "American Rimfire" .22LR for her birthday. She'd been wanting one like it for shooting ground squirrel ever since last spring. Oh, well. At least it's a bolt action, so my wife won't be able to pop off 6 or 7 rounds (like she was doing with my 10-22 last spring) at a running ground squirrel anyway.

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Oh if she doesn't figure it out by 10 a.m., she's just humoring you.....

Not at all, been hunting a reloading for long enough to have been past component shortages keep enough on hand for at least ten years.

Missed out on deer this year. Due to quadriceps detachment. Other wise i have plenty of hunting ammo.