I was at a Pa. gun show yesterday and one of the people selling ammo was told that as of early next year Federal will no longer be making civilian sales of ammo until sometime in 2009. Also another vendor I buy my powder from said Jan 1, 2008 there will be a 10% increase in powder. Whether these comments are true. We will see!

I wonder what Federal's reasoning is behind that. That'll probably cause bad feeling towards them but I doubt they'll care.

I was told the military budget for ammo used to be in the $100's million dollar range but is now over $1 billion and Federal and Remington both have contracts. That is part of the reason why you can't find Federal or Remington primers on the shelves. Also the government is trying to outlaw Wolf Ammo and the importation of because they say it is too dangerous!

I would say the rumor probably isn't true if you heard it at a gun show

could be true,on one of the TV gun shows was talking to the CEO ( I think) of Federal and he said they produce 90% of the US Military Ammo.with the "need" increasing,more production lines may need to be added. jwr

quote:

Originally posted by steveno:
I would say the rumor probably isn't true if you heard it at a gun show

Agreed, I heard a similar rumor a couple of months ago and contacted all of the big 3 ammo makers, all replied that it was just a BS rumor. Price increases probably, but no ammo?, BS, that's straight from Rem, Win. and Federal.

It would be good if amo didn't dry up that way although with the prices going ever upwards I've taken to reloading everything anyway. I still need components.

If you journey to the ARK website, you can find the section on the Radford Army Ammunition plant, which is run under contract by ATK (Federal parent company). This plant produces over 90% of the governements small arms ammunition-or at least it did.

Yes, there are other suppliers, but I seriously doubt that Federal would forgo all civilian sales...if for no other reason than law enforcement ammo contracts.

If I was selling ammo, I'd tell you all sorts of stories about how you wouldn't be able to get it any more in order to motivate you to buy it now, preferably from me.

ATK is a publicly traded company and a great deal of information on them is available. The information regarding their scheduled price increases were well known and advanced well ahead of time.

Now I could believe that Federal is so back ordered on .223 that they might not catch up or take new orders until 2009. That would be somewhat plausible.

There is a volume of stated expertise at gun shows the nettlesome aspect it may not be factual. Gun shows typically have the greatest number of lairs/know it alls every assembled in one location outside of where our elected things meet.

I doubt it's true but I think it'd be good if it was.

If Federal pulled out of civilian ammo sales, already ridiculous ammo prices would go up even more, more people would buy themselves a press and started reloading. For the same money they would get 10 times more ammo to practice with and become better shooters. This way we'd be better of in any SD scenario then with $1+/round fancy ammo no one can afford to practice with.

If you practice with reloads, price of SD ammo doesn't really matter. After all we only need 12 rounds for carry, right?

:-)

Mike

What? No one's blamed this one on Bush yet

MOONDAWG

This rumor strikes me as being remarkably similar to the Campbell's Soup rumor that makes the rounds every couple of years -- no more Cream of Mushroom soup!!!! Every time it gets started, Cream of Mushroom sales skyrocket... This time of year, folks can't stand the idea of no green bean casserole!

quote:

Originally posted by sig2009:
Also the government is trying to outlaw Wolf Ammo and the importation of because they say it is too dangerous!

This sounds like gunshop/gun show bullshit rumor to me.

quote:

Originally posted by jwr747:
could be true,on one of the TV gun shows was talking to the CEO ( I think) of Federal and he said they produce 90% of the US Military Ammo.with the "need" increasing,more production lines may need to be added. jwr

What you heard is not quite correct, at least how you describe it here.

Federal Cartridge does not make 90% of US military ammunition.

Alliant Tech Systems (corporate parent of Alliant powders, Federal Cartridge, Speer, and CCI) is the contractor that runs the Lake City ammunition plant (just outside Kansas City, MO) for the government. There at Lake City is where the majority of the GI ammo comes from.

Federal's main plants are in and around Anoka, Minnesota. And while I do not know how much military ammo they make there, my educated guess is not very much.