.380 ammo shortage

[rondog]

Wow, thank God I've collected up a bunch of .380 brass and bullets! I have a 2 gallon bucket completely full of cleaned and polished .380 brass, several hundred bullets of various flavors, and a couple quarts of cleaned brass already primed and ready to load. And a hundred of those white ammo boxes w/styrofoam trays for .380/9mm from Midway.

Then there's my stash of brass, primers, powder and bullets for .45acp, .40 S&W, 9mm Luger, .38 Special, .44 mag, .30-06, 7.62x54R..........

And all those empty GI ammo cans........

 

[LightningMan]

Well I visited my local Scheels today and they had 3 boxes of DPX .380 ammo at $24.99 a box-O-20rds. (passed on those, too much$$$) They had nada, zip, zero 9mm ammo. I also found out my favorite .22 bulk paks Win. Xpert went from $16.99 to $22.99 a box-o-500rds. Went to the closest Wally world (we have 3 ) low and behold they had one lonely box of 50rds Rem. .380 FMJ's for $15.97. Bought those and as a bonus I found 1 box of Win. Xpert .22 LR's for (SUPPRISE) $12.97! Nearly 10 dollars cheaper than Scheels. Down side is I most likely will not find another buy like this anytime soon. LM

 

[Dollar An Hour]

I blame the insane popularity of the Ruger LCP for the sudden scarcity of .380 ammo. That's the only excuse I can think of. Not like it's a superb defense caliber, but it's better than nothing.

 

[luft97]

I don't own a .380, but I called around to all the major stores in Houston (besides Walmart) last week for a few family members and there was only one place that had any and they were limiting it to 1 box per person...

I would not own a little .380 myself. I like my Rohrbaugh R9.

 

[colorado_handgunner]

Makes me glad I bought 475 rounds when I got my LCP. Now I am down to 275 . I will be rationing it for a while.

At least my total handgun ammo count is over 6000 rounds!

 

[searcher451]

I haven't seen any .380 of any stripe, from FMJ to self-defense, for more than four months and counting. Every time I ask, I get the odd look and/or the cold shoulder, or both.

 

[paradox998]

I have a couple of 380's and fortunately ordered 500 rounds last December. Since then I started reloading and try finding 380 die sets - no one has them. More shortages care of our new socialist leader.

 

[moooose102]

in short, yes, the 380 is more popular than it used to be (thank you ruger lcp). but, things went directly to he77 when the current president became elected. before his election, things started accelerating. but i think that a lot of us thought that he would not get the votes he did. when we woke up to the news, it was like every light switch in america turned on at once, and they have stayed on every since. eventually, supplies will catch up with demand, but i believe that it will ocour only after the demand starts to drop. eventually, everyone will either run out of money, or room to hoard ammo and compoments. at least i hope they do. the only problem is eventually, when things return to "normal" is that the ammo manufactureres will have a big period of where almost no one buys ammo. becasue there is such a huge stockpile in everyones basement. another bad thing that could very well come of this, is when we have a rash of fires, where huge piles of ammo burning slows or stops the fire departments atempt to put out a house fiire, local ordanaces will get passed to limit how much ammo any one person can keep in their dwelling (some places already have them). then, there will be a huge sell off at yard sales of excess ammo cheap. of course living in the sticks, where such ordances are unlikely to be passed, i wouldn't mind getting in on some of that action! hmmm, you need to sell 50 boxes of 45acp, i'll give you $10.00 a box for all of them!

 

[huntsman]

I haven't seen any .380 of any stripe, from FMJ to self-defense, for more than four months and counting. Every time I ask, I get the odd look and/or the cold shoulder, or both.

I bought a box of blazer for $20.00 and Buffalo bore for $27.00.

Those prices made me sick but I'm going back to buy the rest of the B Bore my local shop has

 

[ultradoc]

Last Friday I went to 3 Wal Marts,Gander Mtn. and two hunting/sporting goods stores. No .380 Only two stores had 38 and two 9mm.

 

[Husker_Fan]

I was speaking with a management guy at Cabela's last week. Take it with a grain of salt, but he said the Winchester representative had been in two days prior and told them all .380 presses were being used to make 9mm to meet contract obligations.

 

[Husker_Fan]

By the way, I'll likely get flamed for this, but here goes. I have no doubt Obama would like more gun control, but he is pragmatic. I doubt we will see serious gun control initiatives at the federal level any time soon. Shooter's have artificially inflated prices by creating an irrational level of demand.

Just like the irrational demand for tech stocks in the late '90s or for realestate in more recent years, this too will pass. Hopefully, with a glut of ammo and good used guns on the market.

 

[greyling22]

I find brass for it all over the range, but nobody reloads for it. I can't give it away.

 

[jackstinson]

Cabela's online had .380acp Golden Sabre in stock earlier in the week. I have a fair amount of various .380 on hand already or I would have bought some.
I've bought boxes of Remington FMJ from Cabela's online two months in a row now. They seem to get it in the first Saturday of each month and list it "in stock" Sunday morning....it doesn't last long.
Just keep checking the various online sources....it turns up...then buy it immediately. Or keep some on back-order and let it trickle in. No, it's not as cheap as Walmart, but it keeps me shooting.

I didn't realize President Obama had a .380 pistol? So he's the one who's been personally buying up and hoarding everything causing the "shortage"? Ya learn something new every day.

 

[lvcat2004]

At my local super walmart, about 10 same people apparently call between 7-8am to see if any ammo is available, and if there was a shipment, they're gone by 8am.

It's getting ridiculous out here.

 

[luft97]

in short, yes, the 380 is more popular than it used to be (thank you ruger lcp). but, things went directly to he77 when the current president became elected. before his election, things started accelerating. but i think that a lot of us thought that he would not get the votes he did. when we woke up to the news, it was like every light switch in america turned on at once, and they have stayed on every since. eventually, supplies will catch up with demand, but i believe that it will ocour only after the demand starts to drop. eventually, everyone will either run out of money, or room to hoard ammo and compoments. at least i hope they do. the only problem is eventually, when things return to "normal" is that the ammo manufactureres will have a big period of where almost no one buys ammo. becasue there is such a huge stockpile in everyones basement. another bad thing that could very well come of this, is when we have a rash of fires, where huge piles of ammo burning slows or stops the fire departments atempt to put out a house fiire, local ordanaces will get passed to limit how much ammo any one person can keep in their dwelling (some places already have them). then, there will be a huge sell off at yard sales of excess ammo cheap. of course living in the sticks, where such ordances are unlikely to be passed, i wouldn't mind getting in on some of that action! hmmm, you need to sell 50 boxes of 45acp, i'll give you $10.00 a box for all of them!

Well, I would agree with you that this is one of the scenarios that could happen. But, there is another possibility, that things get bad enough for people to use all of the guns and ammo that they have been stockpiling. Where it would go from there? Who knows? I hope your assessment is correct.

 

[RedAlert]

Personally, all this talk of the current president as the cause for all the increased buying and hoarding is as responsible as falsely hollering "Fire" in a movie theater.

Its just fear mongering. Until actual legislation is presented for vote or consideration I don't see that the new administration can be rightly accused of being behind the ammo shortage.

Folks need to look at social conditions around us. Those are the true cause for concern and fear.

As I've mentioned before, keep on top of legislation and let your political member know of your concern. If they don't; elect someone else next time.

Remember prohibition was repealed once American's made their true feelings known

 

[buckeye8]

Talked to three gun-store managers/owners this week. They're optimistic about most of the "shortage" issues, but they just shake thier heads when you ask them about .380. One store (a MAJOR retailer) manager said he had only recieved about 10 boxes of .380 since October.

I honestly believe that this particular shortage of this particular caliber will only be fixed when a new manufacturer steps into the game, or an old one who doesn't make much .380 decides to step up the volume big-time. The current manufacturers are failing the market right now, and the opportunity is there for someone new to swallow up some market share. I understand why the major .380 manufacturers have dropped .380 production in favor of keeping up with more important demands... but they've opened up a major opportunity for someone.

 

[LightningMan]

Well it's been about 3-4 weeks sence my last sighting but I saw 1 box of .380 UMC FMJ 250rds bulk box at my local gun store, and it was $94.99. UNREAL! LM

 

[mongo4567]

I just bought two boxes at the local Academy WWB FMJ this morning for $17.99. I left two boxes on the shelf. I got a couple of boxes of Monarch at another Academy a few weeks ago. They had a lot of 9mm, 7.62x39, 7.62x51, 5.45, .223, and .45. They just got a shipment and the pistol ammo runs out pretty fast. It is .40 that I have a hard time finding right now.

 

[CorpITGuy]

I bought 4 boxes of .380 ACP FMJ, 50 rds ea. at a local retailer on Friday. Left several as well. Owner of the shop said he gets in a shipment every now and then, and it's gone the same day.

I'm saving my brass for reloads. As others have mentioned, a manufacturer needs to step in with increased capacity before this problem can go away......

 

[Cannonball888]

Must be all those new P3ATs and LCPs owners HOARDING...

 

[mormandy1]

This whole "ammo hoarding" thing makes me want to throw up.

There is not one single bill on the table right now to limit ammo in any way that has any chance of becoming law. Yet this whole paranoid fantasy that "Obama is going to take my ammo away" has caught fire, and thanks to insane hoarders buying crazy amounts of ammo, normal folks can't find a box in their local store.

 

[ravonaf]

I just bought a Bersa 380 over the weekend. Now I can't find a single box to even shoot the thing let alone break it in. It was going to be my new carry gun but I might as well use a slingshot with no ammo being available.

 

[OcelotZ3]

About a month ago I had bought a LCP and decided to go to the range in the middle of the week. Stopped our local Bi-Mart, and they had one box of Blazer on the shelf for $15.99. Thought it was a bit spendy, but picked it up and shot 44 rounds at the range and kept a mag full.

Haven't seen any .380 since...

.45 & 9mm was short for a while, but .45 now shows up & occasionally you even see 9mm. So I think that production might now be catching up, at least in some calibers. I *was* surprised to see how little .22 ammunition there is out there now though.