Is the buying frenzy starting to Peter out? In the past week
I have seen guns advertised for sale with prices a little
lower and they have not sold ( some on this forum).
I have not witnessed any change in ammo availability,
In my area there is nothing on the shelves except
A few shotgun shells. Reloading components are also
sold out.
The Ammo companies say the are running at maximum
but can not keep up with demands. I am glad they are
Trying. They will not plan expansion on a temporary
trend so it will take time to catch up.I look for shortages
to last for at least a year, I hope I am wrong.
Prices on ammo will stay inflated for along time ,even
after they catch up. (IMO)

If it did, it will pick up again I'm afraid. My local GS has nothing. I wanted them to check the price on a .22 revolver. They laughed, they let me look. They pulled up a big distributor and out of 3500 handguns of any kind or caliber only 13 were available. It was three model 41s and 10 Uberti type revolvers.

I could not agree more on all points. Locally, guns are showing back up. Ammo... nope. Prices will stay up, and I fear part of it might be new taxes we have not heard about... yet.

Who was it who said... "If you can't fix it, at least find a way to make money from it."?

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BT
EGO VOLUNTAS HAUD OBEDIO

We drive by a fair size LGS on a main road regularly and at the minimum I can see at least 20 vechicles in the customer parking lot.

We do a lot of business there, he seems to be well connected as far as getting in guns and ammo. It comes in and also goes out fast.

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14 S&W Revs none with locks!

It was standing room only at the LGS here yesterday. . .

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Wisdom comes thru fear . . .

An LGS near me advertised 9mm brass 115gr fmj yesterday. Unlimited qty at 24.95 per box.

Guns: demand is slackening according to people I know behind the counters and at gun shows.

Ammo: still unobtainium.

Magazines: you can still get 10 pmags for $120. Amazing but true.

Same in SW Washington - seems to be more guns than ammo or reloading components. When they do arrive it doesn’t stay on the shelves long, sometimes minutes; the election results have exacerbated the problem.

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213th FBINA

In the general firearms business I'm a very small dealer but my sales are continuing to be up. And transfers from online purchases.

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Super Snooper

If you don't have one, get a M41.

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Common sense isn't so common.

I was tempted but they are $1300

It'll be completely over in about 3 months, maybe four.

I really doubt it-- your guns will be worth nothing if you cannot locate ammo and they know that. I said this back in 1968--

And here we are 52 later and guns still have value. So what makes you believe the next couple of years will be any different?

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Send lawyers, guns & money...

I walked in to the local pawn shop yesterday afternoon to pick up my latest auction win.

He said, "I have your gun."

I asked, "but do you have any ammo"?

All the usual old guys in the shop laughed.

Yeah, I know.

"NO."

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Wrangler of stray Chiefs
Bob

Yep, I like this man's "cup half full" attitude!

You can choose to be a pessimist and possibly be right, or you can choose to be an optimist and possibly be right.

I choose the latter and I'm going shooting tomorrow anyway!

It's a seller's market for sure. But, you can find ammo online if you must have it. Just a question of what you're willing to pay.
I just look at it like this if you can get to the bottom of the spectrum, its looking like .60-.65 a round down there. I did find 100 rds of one type that I got for .50 including shipping. So if I see a listing, I set my max as a first bid and don't worry about it. If it gets sniped, it was over what I was willing to pay. And I have seen A LOT of listings settle in at an okay price and sit for days. Then last two hours some pair of goobers with money to burn bid it up over a dollar a round and I would have been out halfway there.
Everything's relative to your comfort level. I recently scored a nice S&W find for under what I budgeted. So in my mind I used that amount and offset the somewhat overpay on some Boolets and to me, I got the gun for budget and the Boolets for .30.
Other than that just keep an eye and check into your locals. I just happened to walk into a Big 5 because I was at the bank next door. They just got some in and it was still at regular price (for Big 5) so I scored two boxes each of two calibers and it was a good day.

Folks' credit card statements are coming in.

I have found the 5.7X28 to be interesting and been wanting to try the round but would not pay the price of an FN to shoot the round. When the Ruger came out while not cheap it was a whole better than the FN. Got the cash together and found one to buy but to be safe checked on ammo for it. NO ammo to be had anywhere. So I held off. Did see some ammo the other day but it was $60 a box. Well maybe next year.

A bargain for that model.

A local shop I stopped at today had 2 dozen people inside. Only 4 clerks. They still had a good number of handguns, most of the sales I saw being made were for rifles.
I stopped at Academy too, for some cleaning patches. Their counter still had a decent selection of handguns the last time I was there, today they only had 5. Four revolvers and one pistol. The only ammo was a couple boxes of 28ga. shot shells.

I have a Ruger 57, the ammo has always been expensive. But not over $1 a round. Think I paid about 70 cents a year ago.

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Super Snooper

Went to my LGS today, it was packed. Saw 3 sales while I was there, all ARs. They held ammo back for gun sales so everyone could buy 60 rounds of .223 with their gun. M&Ps and AR556s for $1299.

Said they have sold 13 ARs and 2 AKs since the 6th, not counting what was sold today.

The LGS is parking lot is full all week open to close. Prices still going up Blazer Brass 9mm $30 limit one

No local improvement. No decent firearms available for sale within 50% of what they cost in March, I can get all the additional ammo of any caliber that I want for $1 a round. Maybe $2 a round for some rifle ammo.

I went to the gun show in Lebanon, Pa this morning. They were doing a brisk business. Lot’s of people buying guns, ammo, mags, etc. Oh, and pickles. I bought a Glock 31 mag for $25, about the only deal I saw.

After leaving the show I visited four gun shops on my way home. Every shop had people waiting in line to buy guns. One shop had ammo, I got a box of .45 Colt and pound of H110. Another had some large rifle primers and .311 bullets for my .303 reloading. The other two had nothing I could use. If things are slowing down you wouldn’t know it from my road trip today.

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Wheel guns are real guns.

Especially if it's pre early 1990s, before laser engraving and MIM parts, when they were hand fitted and not just 'assembled'.

I would not trade my 1990 M41 for 2 'new' M41s. It's perfection and the new ones are a **** shoot at best.

Rob

Don’t think so.
This time it’s different.
Plan accordingly.

I think so. Last week in Cabelas, I saw 500 dollar pistols for the first time in many months.

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I've still got it made.

I don’t think the tide has turn and I believe we are just trying to placate ourselves when we say that it seems like things are going back to the way they were.....not going to happen, just like the days of .35 cents gas....long gone and beyond the tipping point. If it does get better yippee, I will eat crow, but for now and the foreseeable future I am learning to adapt and accept that ammo is going to cost me a minimum of .50 cents to a buck a round......

The ammo problem will not be resolved until the manufacturers get involved in finding out where it's going. It ain't goin' to Cabelas or Academy.

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I've still got it made.

Went to Wal-Mart yesterday to see what shotguns they had, I was thinking pump action 12 gauge.

They didn't have any.

I had heard ammo for them was still pretty abundant in stores these days and that was my reasoning for wanting one.

The ammo shelves were EMPTY, except for a couple boxes of 28 gauge.

Felt like buying a feather duster and helping to keep the shelves clean for the next time ammo does actually show up.

Probably wear out the duster before that happens.

Still love your "cup half full" attitude, but...you're wrong.

A few months ago I bought a new hunting rifle. I was on the fence as to whether to get a .300 Win Mag or a .300 WSM. Opted for the first, but kind of wish I' hadn't. The ONLY caliber consistently available on the shelves around here has been .300 WSM. So much for the guys who always insist that nobody should ever buy anything other than a .30-06 because you'll always be able to find ammo no matter where you go.

Wonder if gun sales will start dropping as a result of the ammo shortage. People may not want to spend $ on a paperweight.

Speaking of the ammo shortage, during the first big shortage during the Obama administration, I spoke to one of the Hodgdons. He said that they were churning out plenty of powder, but the bottleneck in distribution was because they couldn't keep up in terms of packaging, and the capital cost of additional packaging equipment for what they saw as a temporary demand wasn't justified. Wonder if that's part of the problem now.

This Morn I went down to Cabela’s.
There was a long line, maybe 100 folks.

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NRA LIFE MEMBER

If anything, it has amped-up here in Metro PHoenix. I see vast empty space in LGS cabinets, no matter where in town I go. IF there is any stock at all...it's in new plastic guns, and all Taurus product.

Not slowing down in my area. Background checks are back to 3 days after dropping a week ago to 1.5 days. Some shops have bare shelves, others are able to keep a good stock on hand. Seems like the used/consignment stuff is moving faster than new items.

Ammo is still a scarce commodity.

I just had a couple of pistols shipped to my local FFL shop. First day I went to pick them up there were 7 people ahead of me filling out their background check paperwork. I decided to leave and come back. Next day I went back and this time only 5 ahead of me. I said to the guy helping me, "looks like you guys are staying busy". He laughed and said "Oh man, never lets up".

As for ammo. No one here has any for sale unless you buy a gun, then you get one box. That's it. I asked him about any word on primers, and he said "fuggetaboutit". He said the ammo manufacturers are snagging all of the primers. So where's all the ammo that these manufacturers are putting those primers into? It's not showing up around here.

The large national chain gun shop near me is the same. Not one single box of ammo on the shelves. No primers, and not a single pound of powder of any type.

Last month I bought 3 8 pound jugs of powder on line because I was worried it would get worse, so I bought what was available instead of what I normally use. It is worse. Now Midway has zero powder available. Of the 150 or so brands of powder, they have none. Powdervalley has no powder last time I checked.

No one around here sees any end in sight. Buy what you can when you find it. It could get worse.

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What could possibly go wrong?

Over on SIGTalk, they're complaining about magazine shortages. Fortunately, I've got all I need, unless I'm legally compelled to convert to ten-rounders.

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What, me worry?

I was bored this morning and it was raining so the dog and I hopped in the truck for a gun shop trip. Wasn’t really looking for anything but an excuse to get out of the house.

Went to 5 different small town shops and 2 big box stores. There was a line waiting on background checks at all but one of them. Guns aren’t really in short supply here but of course ammo is. No ammo in common calibers and if they did have any they were only selling if you bought a gun and it was expensive.

I was in the neighborhood so I went in the "big" Walmart (we have a "neighborhood store" the small). While pushing the cart I meandered through the Sporting goods section> ALL ammo behind the counter was gone, even the copious quantities of 12 ga usually floor to ceiling in the aisles. Never seen this before. Joe

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Wisdom chases me; I'm faster

Sign that we are in for a long drought: Local Sportsman's Warehouse has repurposed the ammo and reloading component shelves to display other products. Doubt they'd do that unless they knew it's going to be a long wait.

I went to the Morgantown, Pa gun show yesterday. Stood in line for an hour and 45 minutes to get in. There was ammo, and it was not cheap. $40 and up for ammo, and people were buying it. Buying guns too. The body armor vendors also seemed busy. I can usually find something that is at least reasonable to buy, but not yesterday. I enjoy watching the people, so it wasn’t a totally wasted trip.

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Wheel guns are real guns.

Not necessarily. What are they going to do, leave 2 or 3 aisles empty? Not gonna happen, even if it were only gonna last a few weeks or a month. The local Sportsmans and Cabelas both did the same thing.
Retail space is expensive and empty aisles are a bad visual for any retailer of any product. Hell most of them go through and rearrange the entire store every year or two just to break up the traffic patterns and direct more traffic past the impulse purchase items.
Rearranging a couple of aisles is small potatoes. They did it overnight and they can undo it overnight just as easily.
I don't see that as meaning anything about anything other than what isn't available right now.

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Send lawyers, guns & money...

Same with nearby Cabelas. Not only are the shelves empty, they don't even have shelves anymore.

Yet we are told we are buying too much.

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I've still got it made.

Stopped in at my favorite LGS yesterday and was surprised to find it busier than I've ever seen it. I was there to buy my limit (200) of primers and I don't know what all those others were buying but I did notice that the powder rack had a couple empty spots, notably two that I use H335 and Titegroup were vacant spaces. Until now this place has had a very good supply of various powders at reasonable prices. Fortunately I'm in pretty good shape on powder.

By the way those 200 primers were selling for $15/100, a price I paid without batting an eye as they are almost all gone now and I don't expect any replacements are coming.

I noticed that he still has a fair number of handguns in the display case, probably because of the ammo shortage. For a while you couldn't find a 9mm gun but now the guns are available, but no ammo. Strange times indeed.

I hope I'm wrong but I don't think the situation is going to get better anytime soon, if ever. It might even get worse.

At my current rate of consumption I have about 4 years supply of ammo and I don't feel that's enough. I buy more components every chance I get.

I considered that this might be the case, and I hope you are right, but they never did it during prior shortages. We'll just have to wait and see.

Where is the money coming from?

From the things we haven't been able to due during the pandemic.
In my case, traveling, concerts, eating out, trips to the hair salon, shopping for stuff I didn't need, the list goes on.

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Super Snooper

Went to a NE Ohio gun show today and ammo was close to a dollar a round 9mm 40$ for a box of 50 .38 sp reloads 45$ glocks
some at 799 so glad i have my revolvers and enough .38 .357 45 acp to last me for years to come.