A quick check of Gun Croker shows 365 pages of handgun ammo for sale at astronomical prices. So I guess what this has devolved to is not a shortage of ammo, but a shortage of ammo for sane people. On page one I'm looking at at two 500 round bricks of Winchester standard velocity 22lr going off at $170. I'm sorry, but if you are spending $85 for a brick of 22's, you need to talk to a therapist. I don't care how much money you have. I will sell my guns and buy a bowling ball before I spend that. PT Barnum was wrong. There's not a sucker born every minuet, there's one born every 30 seconds!

End of rant, thanks for reading.

If they weren't able to sell it at those prices, the price would come down. But somebody is buying it.

That's economics 101. There were 7 saps, I mean people, who bid on that ammo. In all seriousness, I don't believe that the shooting community is going to support $85 bricks of 22's or $1 a round 223's. Once the end of the world, absolutely have to have it, "This new gun sure is expensive to shoot!" people are satisfied, the prices will go back to where they were. I think that will be soon. In the mean time, this has become like watching a train wreck.

I remember seeing a 500 round brick at a gun show during the last shortage. The seller was asking $100. He wasn't getting it, at least not while I was there. I'm pretty sure he still had the same brick at the next show I attended.

Much of that ammo is being recycled by end users and not coming from traditional retail outlets. Lots of hoarders have seen an opportunity. New ammo from the factory is still EXTREMELY hard to come by according to every single LGS that I have spoken with in the past few months.

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Who watches the watchers?

[QUOTE=cmj8591;140969000 I'm sorry, but if you are spending $85 for a brick of 22's, you need to talk to a therapist. I don't care how much money you have. I will sell my guns and buy a bowling ball before I spend that. PT Barnum was wrong. There's not a sucker born every minuet, there's one born every 30 seconds!

End of rant, thanks for reading.[/QUOTE]

For defense I had rather have a .22 than a bowling ball and if hungry a brick of .22s will kill more animals than a bowling ball. That's my thinking but maybe you can throw a bowling ball better than I can. Larry

I regard this occasional, recurring phenomenon with sadness. Many of these people probably voted for gun control in previous years and are pretty clueless. I have seen them, over the decades, waiting patiently in line at LGS's, typically clutching a box of FMJ ammunition. The little old ladys make me particularly sad. It's one time and place, where I feel the weight of political vagaries at work.

Someone from GA. on the Harley forum posted this a couple weeks ago.

Said he went shopping for 45 ACP.

Could be a pic he got off the net, or could be real. Claims to have a few full auto's.

You've never seen me bowl!!

People are crazy. I just sold 2k rounds of Pmc .223 for $1350. Hey, if people wanna pay double what its worth, ill sell with a smile on my face.

just ten days ago I was able to buy two bricks (1000 rounds total) of Aguila Super Extra 40gr CPSP from a major online retailer for a total of $60. Last month I found 100 round boxes of CCI Mini-mag for $11, also a major online store.
I use Ammoseek.com as a resource to search for good deals since my LGS's don't have it or they have outrageous prices.

From what I see on the internet there is plenty of .45 ACP for sale. It just takes a little more money too purchase it than it did a year ago and may need to buy from several sources. Larry

To a lot of newcomers, 17 cents a round probably doesn't sound like a lot.

After the last shortage of .22 LR, I stocked up. I am not a flipper, but if offered $1 / round, I might be tempted to let a few bricks go. (Note that I said "might" I am still not a flipper.)
However, I wouldn't cross the street to sell it for 17 cents / round.

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You're shy a few manners.

Seems like if he could afford all that ammo (and a Harley), he could afford to have that bed liner re-sprayed.....

I was at our indoor range a few days back. They had 9mm for $35 for a 50rd. box. No thanks.

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No baby we aint

FWIW, last week I bought 2 bricks of 500 Aguila super extra at Sportsman’s Warehouse for $26.99 less 5% for the vet discount. I’ve seen it at TN gun shows for $60 to $70 a brick. The most I’ve paid is $36 and that was pushing my limit for 22lr.

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213th FBINA

It depends upon ones priority. I am led to believe his #1 priority is ammo. I once knew a very good skeet shooter that had high dollar top of the line shotgun and drove a piece of junk truck and his house wasn't much better. It just depends on what is important in a persons life. Larry

I HAVE ROUTINELY SPENT $100 A BRICK (OR MORE) FOR SV .22 AMMO. BUT IT'S FOR LAPUA OR ELEY. THAT IS SHOT THRU MATCH GUNS. WHICH NEVER SEE A BRUSH IN THE BORE. JP

Ammo is hard to get...and will only get harder to get due to one reason.....Lead.

In 2012 the EPA essentially shutdown all lead processing in the US....

So what happens? We collect all our lead in the US, load it on a ship.....and gets sent to China...

China processes it and sells it back to ammo makers in order for them to make their ammo.

Right now we arent exporting or importing anything to China...thus lead isnt being processed thus ammo isnt being made.....

While most companies have a healthy supply of lead on hand......that supply dries up fast when 100M+ people are trying to buy 1K rounds at a time.

The definition of fair price is the price a buyer is willing to pay and a seller is willing to accept. There are no other legitimate considerations.

About 5-1/2 years ago we purchased a home in a HOA-run "patio home" community, one of 20 very similar homes on a private cul-de-sac with all exterior maintenance, landscaping care, snow removal done by the HOA (sounded like a good way to ease into retirement). At that time the appraisal on our home (very similar to all the others) was $200K. Since then 5 of the others have gone on the market, and all have sold in less than 30 days, mostly retired folks with cash to buy what they want. Appraised values have risen over those years to about $245-250K, but the last two went into bidding wars and sold for $260-270K because of very strong demand for this particular community.

If we were to sell our home today, why would we calmly accept the $245K appraised value while there are multiple buyers willing to pay $15-25K more? We would be foolish to do so! We have it, they want it, and they are willing to pay a premium to obtain what they want.

Again, a fair price is what the buyer is willing to pay and the seller is willing to accept. Makes no difference whether we are talking about ammunition, gold, antique cars, or real estate.

FWIW the Federal boxes in the right foreground are dated 15 Mar 19 in Sharpie.


Just pointing out obvious evidence without citing it as proof of anything.

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On the whistle draw and fire 6

Ammo shortage? Not around my place. Maybe a shortage of storage space. Don’t mean to be rude but who on here couldn’t see this coming and stock up last year when prices were low. We didn’t know about the virus but we all knew 2020 was going to be an election year that made 2016 look tame by comparison. Right?

I about fell off the couch earlier. I was just looking around to see what was available and there was a box of Magtech can't remember if it was 9 or 45 because I was looking at both? But they wanted $100 for 50 rounds!

Has anyone thought of mining lead from the backstops of existing firing ranges? It might be a revenue stream for gun clubs.

Just everybody that casts their own bullets .

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Grumpy Old Man With a Gun

I was just looking on AmmoSeek. The best price for CCI Mini Mags was $40 for a 100 round plastic pack. That is .40 a round and shipping was not included.

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... a little behind in my work

Even if you waited for the run on toilet paper to make some moves, things were available this year.

I had plenty of ammo in what I shot, before this year started. When the toilet paper and shutdowns started, I decided to get more.
2k of Herter's brass 9mm, 1k of Federal Aluminum 9mm, $180 a case, Bass Pro/Cabela's. This was when people were whining about backlogs instead of instant shipping. Mine came in a month.
1k of Tula steel 9mm, $154. Higher than it was, but range ammo, still low enough to get some for deep stash purposes.
$200 got me another 1k from Fenix reloads.

Bought a C308 in March, got some surplus brass 7.62 NATO for about 40 cents, got some steel cased 308 for about 35 cents a rd. Got a little over 2k total. Also added some loose brass special (Armscor brass 308) from Lucky Gunner or Ammo Man, $100 for 250 in vacuum sealed bags.

In May I decided I would get an AR (just to have one), later added a second. First rifle was $475, I think the second was $515 or so. Prices were climbing and getting hard to find any of them, I got the second in July, I think.
By then, I had picked up 1k of IMI brass 556 for $369. 2k of Tula steel 223 for $250 apiece. 1k Silver Bear for $279 in July.
Tula 7.62x39, $210 for 1k, to top off what I had there for the SKS.

End of May, someone posted about Targetsportsusa running a deal on Gold Dot, I picked up a case (1k) of 124gr JHP for $399.
I laugh when I think what that would cost today.

I also added more .45 acp, as I could. Defender ammo (even got some factory blemished, that ain't happening anymore!) 500 ct for want to say $140. Got some steel Hot Shot, it shoots, $135 for another 500.
Later I worked a trade with a buddy who had sold his 45's, did an even swap of 9mm for 45. Added oh, maybe 600 rds, using some of my old stash (stuff that cost $160 a case), so we both were happy.

At one point in July or August, someone ran a deal on 9 Makarov, $180 for a case of Silver Bear. As Mak shooters know, this was good even for pre-covid pricing. Earlier this summer, I picked up 10 boxes of PPU brass HP Mak for $11.99 a box, which was decent.

Most recently, I've spent more per rd, between 40-60 cents on some pistol ammo. Sounds high... I didn't own guns in them, but DID own guns that could be converted.
So I added about 3.5k of ammo (9mm Largo and 7.62 Tok) for about $700, and another $100 total for 2 barrels that allow me to shoot them both.
I did a little creative reasoning, and determined that had I bought pistols in those calibers instead of barrels, I'd have spent about $600 on just guns; so using this logic that put the "effective price" of the ammo at $200. Not so bad, when you look at it that way.

So yeah, I spent a lot of money on ammo this year, but seriously bolstered what I had, and added several new calibers to the mix. I don't have need to buy again, for years.

Like you said, you could see it coming, and once it really started to get crazy, it was time to prepare for some dry seasons.

Oh, and to add- I saw this coming, and I was fortunate enough to be "essential" so I didn't lose hours at work. So at some point in the spring, when Lucky Gunner was running a sale on used 50 cal ammo cans @ $7 apiece, I picked up a good amount of those and made sure they were sealing up tight. I got enough for just about everything, including what I had. Might have been the best investment of the bunch. I'm stocked and organized now.

Ammo can get you thru times of no money better than money can get you thru times of no ammo.
That being said for the past 10 years I have bought a couple of boxes of ammo every week.

Yep, without ammo, a gun is about as useful as a hammer. Same range and basic effectiveness.

Like I said in my long post above, I bought available ammo recently, in 2 calibers I didn't have. Looking around now (maybe a month later), that ammo is now gone, and whatever is left costs a lot more.

So if you THINK you can use it, get what comes available, and then address HOW to use it.
I was fortunate to think of it early enough, that I secured barrels before buying what I did. I even had time to buy the barrel, get some test ammo (small quantity), and confirm it worked before buying bulk. It seemed like that window closed right after I did it;
I sort of wonder if my posting online about doing so prompted others to also, and that's why it vanished right afterwards.

What little ammo I can recall purchasing this year were types I hadn't used before, and I wanted to try out. Not panic buying, just curiosity buying. Sap or not, no switching to a bowling ball for me....

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NRA Life, COTEP 640

My car had a Market Value Adjustment Sticker on the window. $15,000.

I told the salesman, "If you get it, it IS a market value adjustment. If you don't, it's just obscene dealer markup."

It was obscene dealer markup. I paid $3,000 UNDER sticker.

Since these dudes still have the ammo, I'd say it's obscene markup.

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I've still got it made.

Sportman's Outdoor Super Store has Blazer 9mm for $450 for 500. I thought that I was really blowing it a few weeks ago when I paid that for a thousand.

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Mighty 90's,Trying 4 a 100!

I was caught short many years ago - learned my lesson and will NEVER be caught short again! Leaning from mistakes is essential! Repeating them is the problem!

I was caught short many years ago - learned my lesson and will NEVER be caught short again! Leaning from mistakes is essential! Repeating them is the problem!

Kind of like hitting the submit reply button twice

Just kidding BTW, I have made more than one double post myself.

I'm shutting most everything down right now. I might dig out those 22's, as I have a few bricks stored from the last time. I don't want to shoot anymore centerfire until I feel comfortable with the market supporting replacement. I have plently, but this feels like it's going to be a long and uncertain dry spell.

I took up competitive shooting in retirement. I'm dabbling in different disciplines, IDPA, GSSF, Action Pistol, and Marine League bullseye. Mostly with 9mm, but I have shot a few matches with .38 Special and .40 S&W. I've probably got enough 9mm for maybe another year if I don't use much in practice. I'll shoot 9mm until I'm down to only SD ammo, then switch to .40 and do the same. I load .40 and .38 Special, and I have primers and powder, so I just need to find bullets.

I won't be spending $30 or more per box for 9mm ball ammo any time soon.

Lets just hope the ammo manufacturers get caught up and flood the market before new rules and regulations are implemented prohibiting us from buying it.

No real reason for the manufactures to do this. Right now they can charge what ever they want. 9mm was always about $10 a box of 50 on average. Even cheaper by the 1000. Now the going price on 50 rounds is about $30 on average. If you run the ammo company what would you do?

So you think the manufacturers are the ones that upped the price to $30/box?

Like Joe says.... come on man. There's a lot of wheels that get greased between the factory and $30/box.

Make as much ammo as possible to cash in while prices and profits are crazy high.

Fixing prices by restricting supply is hard to do, just ask OPEC. They managed to do that for a while but eventually some country wants a bigger piece of the market, ramps up production and prices fall. And OPEC doesn't have to worry about anti price fixing laws.

But I wouldn't invest in a lot of new plants and equipment to increase production. Those are long term investments that will not pay off when prices fall.

Ammoseek vendor Top Shelf Ammo .38spl FMJ $97.95 50 rd box

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But it's "High Quality" ammo. It says so on the front of the box. Maybe that's why it's $1.96 a round. I wonder what they get for the "Low Quality" stuff? A fool and his money are soon parted.

While at Walmart today walked by the sporting goods and saw one lone box of ammo on the shelves....Winchester Wildcat 22LR 100 rounds for $7.33. Needless to say I bought it.