as a shooter and hunter, the ammo shortage stinks. as a concerned citizen, the ammo shortage really stinks.

Why is the Department of Homeland Security buying so many bullets? | Fox News

Basically to create a shortage, and thus drive up the price of ammo to discourage guys like you and me.

This is exactly what I was afraid might happen. The government anti-gun crowd knows it's going to be a tough sell taking away our second amendment rights and a lot simpler to just make ammunition costs prohibitive. I'm expecting prices to skyrocket soon. Time to stock up.

Y'all might want to take a look here.

Hornady Addresses Ammo Shortage: We're working 24/7 - Guns.com

Government contracts by law must be filled first, therefore they order massive amounts of ammo to decrease the availibility to the public. They get their ammo from Federal, Winchester, Remington, Speer, possibly a few others. Most contracts are for .40 cal, 9mm, and 5.56. Other calibers are more easily available but they aren't being produced in the amounts they normally would be due to these conpanies working overtime to fill gonvernment contracts. That's the way I understand it anyway. Glad I stocked up on ammo and reloading supplies a little at a time over the past 3 years, I saw what happened in '09 and KNEW it would happen again if obama was elected. As usual, I was right..... Sometimes I hate being right all the time. Hopefully, this too will pass as it did in '09. 6 months or so and my bet is things are back to somewhat normal. God helps us all.

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Still got the shovel

As much as I'd like to leave it on the govt's doorstep, the ammo shortage is not all due to govt purchases. Much of it has to due with hording and panic buying by the general public.

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I'm with the banned ...

Trust me, it's not a conspiracy.
Heck, my personal Quarterly use of ammo authorized for training as an ICE agent was right around 400 rds of just .40 cal.
Times that out by the number of armed ICE agents, include all the other Agencies covered by Homeland Security such as CBP, Customs, Coast Guard, Secret Service, and the Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers (3), it adds up.

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Hold my beer and watch this!

I believe it is 100% panic and hoarding.

It is not just ammo, EVERYTHING gun related is in short supply or not available.

You think 30-30 is "assault weapon" fodder?? No brass to be found. Magazines, 22 lr , It went from panic buying of a AR's, AK's to just buying any damn gun just to get a gun, same with ammo.

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Still Running Against the Wind

Add bullet molds and dies to that. I let my dies go along with my last .44 Magnum when I sold it, thinking I would probably never buy another.

Yeah, right . . .

Anyway, I was lucky enough to get a set of .44 Special/Magnum dies from Lee (now they are out-of-stock) but I'm still waiting for the bullet mold I ordered from Grafs and it was the last one they had in stock (they are saying 3-4 weeks just to process in-stock orders due to volume). I just hope it's sitting with my name on it because they are sold out now.

Thing is, I passed on the same mold on eBay because it would have been more expensive, now that one's gone and I haven't see another listed.

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Where do we go from here?

Exactly. The government isn't buying up lead and other reloading components. As someone said earlier, "time to stock up". That is what we're doing, and in doing so we are creating the shortages. It will end when the panic buying ends and supply catches up with demand.

I agree with Mc. HLS buying up ammo is old news. Don

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"Don't worry be happy"

With two wars winding down, the govt is probably buying a lot less ammo than in, say, 2005.