Ammo Shortage merged threads, aka UberUltraMasterAmmoThreadOfPower

I think the shortage is great, I'd much rather have that ammo in our gunsafes & on our shelves than sitting in a display at Walmart.

Rockwell1, that sort of makes sense, but I like to replace what I use when I go shooting. With empty shelves, my supply just keeps getting smaller and smaller. I don't just have guns and ammo for a SHTF situation, I also REALLY enjoy shooting. I have several guns I can't even shoot anymore because I'm down to my last 50-100 rounds of that caliber and cannot find more. Heck, I'm down to 37 rounds of JHP in .45!!!

While there is indeed a shoartage of ammo, I've yet been unable to find what I was looking for with some presistence. I can buy more 9mm and .22LR ammo within a mile of my home than I'm likely to shoot in a lifetime. Yes, prices have gone up significantly, but theres plenty of ammo to be had is you look hard enough. to date, I HAVE NOT been ammo shopping for ANY caliber I own( .22, .17 HMR, .243, 30-30, 9mm 12 gauge .410, 7mm rem. mag, 7.62x39), and been unable to locate it (and at basically the same price as it was in November, with the exception of the 7.62x39)).

These threads are tiresome and boring and show a lack of simple economic principle understanding by those who start them.

There's a finite supply of product. Said product is being bought at alarming rates by those who think the world is ending(ie remember Y2K).

There is plenty of ammo, I see it everywhere. Is there plenty of ammo at the cheap box stores? No because they order a set quanity and when it arrives, its sold out.

After all these box store sell much more merchandise than just ammo.

And like Y2K, in the future there will be more ammo than you know what to do with after all the idiots who bought on credit can't pay their bills anymore and have to sell.

Or maybe Nobama will bail them out too.

Bottom line is to buy when there is quanity and low prices.

I blame all those OTHER selfish buggers who've bought all the ammo before I could buy all the ammo. It's a conspiracy I tell you.......

I just bought a 140 rounds of various Federal and Hornady .223, 60 rounds of Federal .308, and 100 rounds of .45 Black Hills and 100 rounds of Blazer 9mm. Plenty more on the shelves. I just read an article posted here on THR about the ammo shortage written by the MEDIA!

I know, they can just buy a few million machines from Dillon and have at it. Maybe they can bus in the unemployed and homeless to run them.

They're running 3 shifts already. What do you want them to do?

Hello? There's a war on. Read that line again.

"Alliant Lake City Small Caliber Ammunition Co., LLC is a subsidiary of Alliant Techsystems (ATK) who among other things manufacture military and commercial ammunition. They own the CCI and Federal premium brands. In the fiscal year 2008 ATK’s annual report says “military small-caliber ammunition business again delivered more than 1.4 billion rounds to our nation’s armed forces.”.

ATK won the government owned Lake City Army Ammunition Plant operating contract in 2000 and took over from Olin (Winchester) in 2001 who were the operating contract since 1985."

1.4 BILLION small caliber rounds last year

Here's my take on the situation: Quit whining.

Yesterday, I checked quite a few quality online sources of ammo that I've done business with in the past.

They are now effectively out of ammo too.

Glad I started stocking up last summer when it became apparent that Obama would win the Democratic nomination.

The media doesn't want the public to know that there has been a run on ammo since "The One" was elected. It doesn't further the agenda.
"It's not news until we say it's news."

Hello? There's a war on.

Click to expand...

Funny, there was a war on before January of 2009 but there was ammo on the shelf. Admit it, people are concerned and are stocking up.

WOW, you people never seem to amaze me.

Yeah people are CRAZY and stocking up for no reason, other than they are crazy. Obama has nothing to do with it so leave him alone. Its the people doing it to them selfs.

Walmart is the worlds best at inventory control but continues to have low to no handhun and rifle ammo instock.

Click to expand...

You can't control what doesn't exist.

A couple of months ago, I tried to get some Hornady TAP 200gr. .45acp. Even HORNADY didn't have any for weeks or months to come.

The Wal Marts I read about on THR are nothing like the stores in my area.

I saw a shelf full, full of 9mm. They also had bulk packs of PMC 45acp, .40, etc.

It might be selling fast, but it returns to stock around here.

My walmart had a scattering of turkey loads left on a shelf last night. Pitful.

Natchez is a website I haunt daily. One day... pounce!

The closest walmart to my work has a line of people waiting at 8am to buy up whatever ammo came in that morning...

My two local Wally Worlds have had really bare shelves since about Christmas.

I reload but was out of projectiles when a friend wanted to shoot. Local WM was out of 45ACP and 9mm- all flavors. They had plenty of 40 though.

We bought 12 ga and some clays instead and shot those instead. Got to be flexible and have a selection to choose from. Reminds me I guess I need a 40 cal...

Think about the ammo situation like a all you can eat pizza buffet. Let's say your normal traffic includes an average of 200 patrons, who eat 3 or 4 slices of pizza. You're figuring on 600 to 800 pieces of pizza. Now let's say due to circumstances, people starting gorging themselves on pizza, thinking there won't be anymore pizza any longer. Now you're patrons go up and the amount of slices goes up as well. Say you've got 400 patrons eating 9 to 10 pieces. 600 to 800 slices just moved to 3600 to 4000.

Compare that to ammunition. Companies have been making a certain amount of ammo, give or take, for some time. All of a sudden, demand shoots through the roof, and they don't have the productional means to get there supply that high. Look on this thread, and threads like these of people "stocking up" or even "buying the mother load". Even I've found myself planning to make an order for 300 to 500 rounds, when I usually buy about 100 at a time. With most frequent customers upping the amount they usually buy, as well as non-frequent shooters now entering the buyers' market, ammo can't be kept up with.

Wal-Mart isn't "out" of ammo. It just doesn't stay on their shelves long. Our local gun store is the same way. They sell out in hours rather than days or weeks. Add in the panic people are feeling when they see empty shelves, they buy more than they usually would. It'll come around. The backorder waits seem to be shorter than they were at the beginning of the year.

Yeah the Walmart near my house and the Academy have had some bare shelves since November or so. There was an interesting piece yesterday on Fox News. They had a gun shop owner in to thank Obama for the massive increase he and his competitors had since the election, and to remind him ther are millions of new voting gun owners.

I've seen a lot of stories in the media about the run on guns. I haven't seen any stories about the run on ammo, or the triple increase in prices over the last 3-4 years.

Demand is outstripping supply, that's it plain and simple.

However, the "there's a war on you know" excuse was played out about the first 3, 4, 5 years of the war. We've been in Iraq now going on SIX years. You'd think that by now the companies making ammo would've ramped up production and invested in infrastructure to increase their output in a big way. They had to have been making huge sums of money over the last 6 years (just like the oil companies).

Commodities prices have come way down from a year or two ago also, and availibility has gone up due to the slowing of the global economy, but *surprise* the price of ammo has not come down and availability is worse. To some extent it is the changing political winds to blame, but I don't believe that is the entire reason for the price gouging and low supply.

I hope this ends soon because I am tired of not shooting as much as I used to. How many thousands of rounds do these people need to stock up on? Suddenly reloading looks more attractive than ever. This is the worst bit of gun control I've ever experienced LOL!

Here in Western Washington, I have 2 walmarts within 30min... They have less than 20 boxes of ammo between the two of them!!! I check alomst every day!! it has been like this for 3 months now... they have .270 .243 .22 .308 (really pricey stuff in 180gr) some .32 auto, and thats about it!

I am not going to pay $40 for deer ammo to plink with my 308... thats $2 a round, Back in the day you could buy bulk 50BMG ammo for $2 a piece, and I though.... You would have to be rich to shoot a 50cal

I check 5 out of 7 days a week, and they say they get a case a week at random, and it is gone by noon... I dont even shoot anymore because I dont reload, and I my shoot the last bullets I can find...

They had .40sw last week for 1 day, It was the 250rd value packs, 6 of them!!!, I went the next day, it was all gone!!!

the gun show was even limited on ammo!!!! I'll be damned if I ever buy 1968 .308 ammo from pakistan for $23 a box....

The hottest sector of the economy is guns and ammo. While clothing and electronic retailers are laying off employees and closing stores, gun stores are making record profits and gun and ammo manufactures cannot produce enough goods to meet market demand.

Of course Obama's logical response is to impose a new gun ban and new taxes to ensure that the one part of the economy that is actually doing well will also come to a screeching halt.

some powder, dies, reloading books, and a few thousand primers and brass

Click to expand...

Powder, primers, and brass? Have you looked for such lately? I can have a dairy cow at my house, with a round bale of hay before the sun sets. I can't do that with the previously mentioned.

Obama has nothing to do with it so leave him alone. Its the people doing it to them selfs.

Click to expand...

I agree it's the people doing it. But it is BHO's talk and retoric that got them to doing it. So it's impossible to say that BHO had NOTHING to do with it.

Wyman

"You'd think that by now the companies making ammo would've ramped up production and invested in infrastructure to increase their output in a big way."

Why? Companies plan for the long haul, not the short-term blip in the market. When the wars end (and the President says they will; see the announced cuts in the military budget) the demand will fall and they don't want to be stuck with excess capacity and all of that idle machinery (refer to the car makers to see the trouble that causes.)

John

JWF III,Point taken. I was at a few gun shops to day and you all should have seen the people buying the guns. Most of them were buying AR-15"s and "tactical" shotguns. One of the gun dealers was telling everyone in his store. You better buy them now. With this shooting prices well double tomorrow or the day after. Everyone's response was to reach for their wallets and pull out their credit card. I couldn't believe it actually worked. When the dealer started to do the background check on the people he said when he called the system said it was down. He said BS its not down they are just over run today because everyone is buying. So all the people were leaving big deposits on the guns and coming back later to pick them up. I thought how great is this, because I don't buy "tactical weapons" and the dealer himself told me he couldn't sell firearms that wasn't black and didn't carry at least a twenty round clip. That's good for me, that means cheaper guns for me. As far as ammo goes I had no trouble finding 30-30 Win ammo today. I even bought some leverevolution for $16.79, at some other stores it was $29.99. I don't know if I like it though. Scheels was selling their AR-15's for $900.00 today out the door brand new DPMS rifle with two mags and a plastic carry case, that is the same price they were selling them for a year ago.