When will it end? Ammo shortage

HOUSTON RICK said:

I bought a lot of guns, supplies, safes and ammo from a local LGS over the last 20 years for a little higher than academy or Walmart would have charged, but I knew they would, and they did, take care of me if something was not how I wanted it. Every or every other Saturday I look for ammo there and see what used guns are available, I go in today and there is the usual Creedmor, 5.56 and shotgun birdshot shells on the shelves. but a heavy box comes from under under the counter today and is quietly handed to me with only a smile from the manager: 250 rounds of 45 ACP, 50 9mm, 100 rounds of 40 Caliber, 100 rounds of 38 special, 100 rounds of 357, 40 rounds of 308, 100 12 gauge slugs and 40 rounds of 12 gauge buckshot. Total cost $325..

And there was a like new minty 92 FS with clean bore and correct action sitting almost alone in the used section for $620 that was not there last Saturday in its minty box with two minty mags. and non-creased papers. No charge or interest four month layaway. I am going to buy a lottery ticket. Support your LGS.

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My local gunshop is gouging everybody he can. My days of buying from him are over. As for reloading, I got started after Newtown. Components were scarce but I found them with a little effort. 8 months later and everything was available again. I had no issues buying guns or ammo when Obama took office. This panic feels different than anything I’ve experienced. If things stabilize, I will stock up far more components. I have about 700 small pistol primers and maybe 3000 small rifle primers , but I do have several thousand cases already primed.

The largest and oldest LGS in our small city has always had a reputation for being high and a bit uncooperative. It has always been my last choice for a place to go... only when I couldn’t find it elsewhere in town, or wait to get it online or at a gun show (remember those?). Anyway, I went in a week or two ago and he had half of the store roped off because it was empty. The part that was “open” looked like what’s left of the turkey dinner at midnight on Thanksgiving. When I chatted with the owner, he complained that he couldn’t get anything to sell, which translated means he can’t find stuff he can mark up double or more that anybody will still buy, even in these times. What goes around comes around, I guess!

Froggie

It may get slightly better, but it will never end.

Bumpus13 said:

It’s very simple.

It’ll end when people stop panic buying everything in sight the second it hits the shelves.

*sheesh*

“We’re” worse than a plague of locusts. Even the toilet paper morons knew when to stop.


There are two important actions to take here:
1) Stop buying now. Slow down for a bit. Take a breath. Let the pipeline catch back up. Things WILL return to normal, but not until then.

2) Once we return to normal, do what many of us have done ... Don’t act like you’re entitled to walk in to a store whenever you want and have ammo just sitting there for you. Plan ahead. You don’t have to buy multiple cases at a time, just pick up a couple extra boxes whenever you are buying. It adds up quicker than you think, and then next cycle you’ll be prepared. By having your own pile, you won’t have to join the madness. Thus saving yourself the money and aggravation, and also not contributing to the shortage. It’ll end up ending a little bit sooner and even if it doesn’t, it won’t impact you.



This too shall pass. And when it does, I’ll still have some in my pile. That’s when the time will come to start building it back up. So when it happens again, it won’t affect me again.

I only had to be burned by a hot stove ONCE as a kid. You?!?

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It will not pass this time.
Expect some increased a availability in metallic ammo, but not at anywhere near the “ old “ prices.
Shotgun shells may come back some, except for slugs and buckshot, or anything that would be seen as potential anti-personnel loads.
I am operating under the assumption that what ammo I have now is all I’m ever going to be able to get for the rest of my life, which means what I have is too precious of a commodity to wantonly burn up in extended target practice sessions. I have not fired a metallic cartridge in over 8 months, and don’t plan on shooting any at all for the next year, except to test fire a .380 Bodyguard when I get it back from S & W after warranty work.
I have switched over to shooting black powder guns exclusively.
They will do anything I need to do with a gun, and I have a good supply of powder, lead, bullet molds, flints, caps, and wad punches. Also primers for my all-brass shotgun shells.

Yup, if people will calm down, it’ll show back up.

The lines at the stores are hilarious to me, and it’s mostly the scalpers lined up. Story after story of the same yahoo’s lined up every delivery day to make a buck after while.

However, I’m seeing prices inch their way down, they’re still ignorant, but 9,45,and 223 are sitting longer, my guess is the first timers, once in a blue mooners, etc have for the most part gotten what they feel they need and aren’t going to keep paying what it costs now. The scalpers aren’t raking it in like a couple months ago, they’re next to slow down or stop. The preppers, and heavy shooters never really slow down buying even during the calm times.

Once the shelves return to holding up the weight of ammo, still going to be several months at least I’m afraid, a smaller rush will happen because it’s showed back up, once that calms, price will come down. Same deal with reloading stuff. I think reloading will be the bigger aftershock because a lot of folks who didn’t reload before will start stocking up just like those of us who reload do.

I’m sure there are new shooters who don’t know how much this stuff cost normally, but I don’t believe for one second that number outweighs the others who shop and veg out on the internet. This situation is a fascinating story to go down the rabbit hole on. Several folks I know who couldn’t care less about firearms have taken interest in the subject.

Oh, and whining about the lgs gouging people, if your a small business, do you want to make the profit, or some joker who cleans you out, then makes a profit with no rent or overhead to pay? Sucky situation, but that’s capitalism, charge what the market will bear. Lumber is ridiculous right now, no slowing down on house construction or home projects, just people crying it costs too much, hold off if you can, emergencies can’t be avoided though.

Here’s the last of this long winded reply of mine. What I don’t understand is it seems the whole world is out of everything in general,yet companies who can find labor, are running full blast day and night and it’s like a black hole opened up and stuff just disappears. Finding labor seems to be one of if not the major issue, I feel we all know why as well.

Sadly, a long hot summer of riots and looting will keep the shelves bare in some areas, for at least the short term.

It's not magic...

Glock1736 said:

I’ve never reloaded and wouldn’t know where to start. But reading post from ones that do. You guys are the smart ones for sure.

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...but there is a steep learning curve. But a person can be producing his own ammo in a few weeks time if diligent about learning the ins and outs. If you start with one forgiving cartridge, like the .38 or .44 Special you can branch out from there.

The very first step is getting a reloading manual with a good 'how to' section and studying it. The internet has tons of stuff but it's best used as a supplement, since you want to rely on PUBLISHED information.

rwsmith said:

...but there is a steep learning curve. But a person can be producing his own ammo in a few weeks time if diligent about learning the ins and outs. If you start with one forgiving cartridge, like the .38 or .44 Special you can branch out from there.

The very first step is getting a reloading manual with a good 'how to' section and studying it. The internet has tons of stuff but it's best used as a supplement, since you want to rely on PUBLISHED information.

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A lot of quacks posting on the web. A lot of "How To" videos are done by people that obviously never read proper setup instructions. As above, the manufacturer's information is where to look.

As for LGS gouging, many are simply having to pay gouge pricing to have ammo to sell now. We know the distributors are taking care of their large clients and the Mom & Pops are left with little to nothing to buy for resell. I know several in my area that have resorted to buying from BPS/Cabela's and other large retailers just to have ammo. It's the same with firearms. The Mom & Pop shops are the last in line.

Hard to stay in business with empty shelves.

I could probably weather the lack of handgun ammo better if hunting ammo would show up. Forget 357, 38, 380...I haven't been able to even find 30-06, 7mm-08, 243, 6.5 ammo since early September...

uncleted327 said:

I could probably weather the lack of handgun ammo better if hunting ammo would show up. Forget 357, 38, 380...I haven't been able to even find 30-06, 7mm-08, 243, 6.5 ammo since early September...

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Judging from our local chain sporting goods store, it's time to buy a .35 Remington. That's the only thing I see.

With so much civil unrest and police hating (police defunding), people who never owned a gun are panicking. A lot of gun owners/ reloaders are panicking. Unless the political climate changes, things won't get a lot better. Gun owners are scared that their guns will be outlawed and ammo will have new restrictions. Primers aren't being sold to consumers, but are being used to load ammo by factories.

Green Frog said:

The largest and oldest LGS in our small city has always had a reputation for being high and a bit uncooperative. It has always been my last choice for a place to go... only when I couldn’t find it elsewhere in town, or wait to get it online or at a gun show (remember those?). Anyway, I went in a week or two ago and he had half of the store roped off because it was empty. The part that was “open” looked like what’s left of the turkey dinner at midnight on Thanksgiving. When I chatted with the owner, he complained that he couldn’t get anything to sell, which translated means he can’t find stuff he can mark up double or more that anybody will still buy, even in these times. What goes around comes around, I guess!

Froggie

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I’m with the dealer on this one.
If he sells at lower prices, the ammo flippers will clean him out of stock and turn around and sell it for double or triple what they paid for it.
The flippers ( with no overhead ) will make more money on the ammo than the dealer who has to maintain a line of credit, buy insurance, pay a business tax, make payroll, and pay utilities.
I’ll bet dealer’s prices on ammo have gone up a lot too.
If anybody is going to make money gouging, I want it to be the dealer.

More people should have been paying attention to world events and seen this thing coming.
I did.

That's how everything gets sold at retail. If it didn't, you'd have a different price on each exact same item that came out of a different case from different trucks on different days. That's why gas prices go up and down. Gotta be able to replace it at the current price.

I worked as a stock clerk at a grocery store, pre-UPC code scanners. When price changes came out, we scraped the old tags off, or worse, dissolved the stamper ink on the cans, and applied the new price. I am certain we had cans of clamato that we originally priced at ten cents that were now over a dollar, because nobody bought it and it didn't expire . . .

smoothshooter said:

I’m with the dealer on this one.
If he sells at lower prices, the ammo flippers will clean him out of stock and turn around and sell it for double or triple what they paid for it.
The flippers ( with no overhead ) will make more money on the ammo than the dealer who has to maintain a line of credit, buy insurance, pay a business tax, make payroll, and pay utilities.
I’ll bet dealer’s prices on ammo have gone up a lot too.
If anybody is going to make money gouging, I want it to be the dealer.

More people should have been paying attention to world events and seen this thing coming.
I did.

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LGS email flyer, all 9mm blazer you want $39.99 a box.

“shortage” is over now comes reality, up to the individual how to move forward.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The current situation may be the thing that finally kills off almost all the shooting sports.
That would make a lot of people very happy.
Expect one or more ammunition companies to go out of business, further aggravating the shortages.

How could that happen with the high-demand for ammo, you ask?
The answer is de-monetization of the ammo companies.
When banks and insurance companies are pressured with threats of retaliation by their peers for not being “ woke “ enough, ammo companies’ insurance and lines of operating capital will start to dry up. Credit card companies are preparing to ban firearm and ammo transactions using their cards as well.
Hard to run a business of any size without those two things.

And we all thought the government would be the entity that killed off our sport and rights.

Covid followed by civil unrest started the shortage so the first step in ending it is to get rid of covid. Everyone needs to get the vaccine.
Only way to end it.

The shortage / unavailability of ammo due to the current circumstances should in a normal environment fix it self, The problem is that the communists in power "will not let a good disaster" go to waste and are taking advantage of the situation everywhere they can. they will do everything to keep ammo out of the hands of law abiding citizens.

rwsmith said:

...but there is a steep learning curve. But a person can be producing his own ammo in a few weeks time if diligent about learning the ins and outs. If you start with one forgiving cartridge, like the .38 or .44 Special you can branch out from there.

The very first step is getting a reloading manual with a good 'how to' section and studying it. The internet has tons of stuff but it's best used as a supplement, since you want to rely on PUBLISHED information.

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I don’t anticipate a great increase in interest in reloading. Most people still see it as some sort of black art.

smoothshooter said:

I don’t anticipate a great increase in interest in reloading. Most people still see it as some sort of black art.

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I don't know who "most people" are, but in many years of handloading, I've never heard anyone refer to the process as a "black art", whatever that may be. Where did this fact come from?

My LGS received a shipment of Remington .223 today. I didn’t ask what the price is but Big Green is coming to the shelves.