Biden is banning Winchester from selling its surplus 5.56 ammo to the public.

Do you think that other suppliers will compensate, or will prices increase?

BREAKING: Biden Administration Moves to Cut Off Lake City .223/5.56 Ammo From the Commercial Market - The Truth About Guns

You need a thousand rounds for all your critical calibers for every year you expect to live.

If you don't have that much, then yes, you need to stock up.

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So if I'm 30 and expect to live to 80 (more or less), 50 more years, you're say'n I need 50,000 rounds for each critical caliber? Would put me (5.56/30-30/ 357mag/38 Special/9mm/ 22LR all critical to me) at 300,000 total rounds I should have in store. No disrespect, but I don't think so...

The present adm has had the LC plant in it's sights for awhile. They tried to cut funding last year. No surprise here.

Reversing Biden's Cuts to Lake City Army Ammunition Plant | Congressman Sam Graves | Representing the 6th District of Missouri

Actually, I'm surprised that the plant produces ammo for Federal which is a major supplier of 5.56 NATO.

The 5.56 ammo market could get tight.

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That's just somebody talkin.

Well if you don't have that many rounds on hand, at least have the components to load your own.

Stockpiling components does not mean that you have to start reloading next week. It simply means that you could reload your own if/when the time comes. Hoarding components has become a better investment than most 401's or gold and silver.

I have 3 friends that have stockpiled components and none of them owns a press or dies. I have a pair of Dillon's that they load on when they need to. In the mean time, the prices continue to climb.

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"Tastes just like chicken"

The solution here is to be self sufficient by making your own. Same realization I had recently with 357 magnum. Since it's expensive and hard to find I decided to learn and then start making my own. Once I learn and buy a press I'm buying components in the largest bulk amount possible. If you rely on others for your ammo needs eventually you will be in trouble.

If the idea of loading your own scares you the other option would be to stockpile, just make sure it's stored properly.

No disrespect taken, we all have to make our own decisions. If ammo dries up, how is a person going to shoot? Curtailing the ammo supply is definitely on the anti-gun agenda.

It gets easier as we age, but I think we all need to prepare for an ammo ban. It's also easier when a person can load their own Even today, we can still make most handgun ammo for $15 per hundred.

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It wouldn't be difficult to prohibit all ammunition imports (or pass a prohibitively high tariff on it). It has already been done for Russian and Chinese-manufactured ammunition. I strongly suspect that any concerted effort to reduce ammunition availability to private citizens would also include reloading in some form or fashion. It could be a "gun violence" tax on components and/or requiring a special government license, inspection, and recordkeeping and reporting for reloading at home. Maybe some even more draconian measures we haven't thought of yet. I seem to remember an effort of some years ago to require dealers in propellants to have prohibitively expensive "Security and Safety" measures in place. But it got no traction.

Silly. Not even ridiculous. Just silly.

But, yes, if you have the cash and shoot a lot now is a good time to buy ammunition. I don't have any issue with "stockpiling", we used to call it hoarding , but be realistic about it.

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Come and take it!!

You think they haven’t got reloading components on their radar?

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Sure you did

Oh, good. Lets have another panic.

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“What you got, ain’t new.”

Winchester has a few more plants other than Lake City, and if there is less ammo for the civilian market from there other companies will surely make up the difference if the demand is there.

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Alan
SWCA LM 2023, SWHF 220

This is still the same old panic we've been in since 2020, unfortunately.

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Until the selves are bare (again) or we have a steep per round tax on ammo and components.

To each, their own.

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I don't think it's "silly" or "ridiculous" to stockpile some ammo. I'll bet those people that had little to none in early 2020 might have thought so until they wanted ammo and couldn't get it without paying through the nose.

One thing about ammo is that it doesn't go bad, so the thousands and thousands of rounds I have will be fine 30 years from now.

Right now, I think the two items that you will need is.......
bullets and primers.

Cases and powder should be around for a while.

More unnecessary panic BS. You should have been stocking up on ammo years before all of this crazyness.

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SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS

If things fall apart anything more than you can easily transport will probably be used by someone else. Remember, the same pen that can ban 10 round magazines can make having more than X number of rounds illegal or require a permit.

The article just said the M855 will be cut off. Didn't day anything about M193, when I shoot factory that's what I usually buy since it's cheaper than green tip.

The military doesn't use M193 anymore anyway so none of it is really "surplus". I was under the impression they had mostly switched to M855A1 anyway, but I'm not sure about that.

5.56 is a bit expensive now at $450 or more for a case of 1000. Not the best time to stock up.
But if you do not have any you shout get some.

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Thanks. I already have some. What price do you see as reasonable?

$0.35/round translates into $175/500 and $350/1000 would definitely be time to stock up. Might not see it that low ever again.

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Winchester operates the Lake City plant under contract. The current administration must surely find it awkward that LC is selling civilians ammunition that's used in a weapon they believe should be banned.

The question is whether or not under the contract the Administration can do that. Winchester no doubt bid it based on selling the over-run in the commercial market to help keep costs down.

I'm not sure this is a done-deal just yet.

A thousand rounds a year per caliber is very silly. That’s only 83 rounds a month. I’d at least double that, if not more.

No one said you had to buy it all at once.

It’s like food, you’ll need X pounds of food in each food group per year for every year you expect to live…

A few years back, when I first decided I should have an AR, ammo was $340/1000 and I could make it for half. Just accounting for inflation, we're unlikely to see those levels again. I can now churn it out for about $240/1000 with high priced primers, though I haven't priced powder of late.

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My personal food theory is to have a few years worth of canned and non-perishables on hand and be capable of raising/growing enough to feed yourself. But we're getting into prepper theory now ...

I'll offer a modified statement:
A person should have a thousand rounds of each critical caliber for every year they believe the ammo supply will remain dicey.

I'm operating on the assumption that the ammo supply is never going to improve.

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That’s the thing, no one knows how long the ammo sitch will be dicey. This time, it’s gone on long enough that I expect it’s the new normal unless a major change happens. And I don’t mean just a color change after an election.

The other manufactures will have the opportunity to pick up the slack. Where there is money to be made someone will find a way. That's why I bought some stock in a ammo producer.

Powder has gone up about 25% in the last few years. Three years ago it was around $25/lb so I bought a substantial quantity of it. Primers seem to be the thing that has really gone up in price.

With the components I have I can make a 5.56 for about 0.25/rd. and I can make a lot of it. It wouldn't matter what the cost would be these days using current prices because there just isn't anything to buy.

When I run out of components I'll probably just quit shooting. I'm just not going to buy ammo or components at todays prices.

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That's just somebody talkin.

Where are you finding it at $ 450/1000?

Vista Outdoors down the road from me—former Remington ammo Plant—is still going 24-7, 365 (they worked around the clock Christmas, Thanksgiving, New Years, etc). I think it is an excellent stock, even with the recent downturn.

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Possum—The other white meat!

As I type this, the 3rd entry down is new/brass 5.56 for $450/1000. Shipping probably adds to it but at that point it's just a matter of shopping. (ETA: Shipping is 40 bucks)

5.56x45mm NATO Ammo | Cheap 5.56x45mm NATO Ammunition - AmmoSeek.com 2022

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I also did some searching Sunday night June 19, 2022 and saw plenty at $444.11/1000

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I prob got more than I'll ever need. A while back I traded my Kivaari for 3 barrels of 855 ammo, on top of that I have on hand prob in the area of 17 cases of IMI 855.

Back in 1972 my dad bought a 3 acre house in rural Western Washington state for $3000. The old guy that lived there died and had left two truck loads of ammo in his shop. My dad took it all to the dump. Moral of the story is people have been preparing for the worst for a long time. There's probably more reason to now than ever.
The property had an outhouse. My dad decided to burn it. Oh boy were we ever surprised to learn where that guy kept the third truckload of ammo when my dad lit it up...

People measure volumes of ammunition differently: 20 round box, 25, 50, 100, 250, or 500 round containers. If your unit of measure is "50 caliber ammo can" or "5-gallon bucket" you may have enough.

The only time you may have too much ammo is when trying to swim across the river, in that case get a boat.

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S&WHF 366

That ain't the half of it...military grade 5.56 may dry up considerably. The US just awarded SIG the contract on the new replacement for the FN SAW and sniper rifles in .300 Norma and .338 Lapua. I don't have the specifics, but the new rifle will use caseless ammo in 6.5 or 6.8, this goes hand in hand with taking L.C. off the market. Going to be interesting to see how people go about getting their hands on those babies, let alone the ammo to feed them. Caseless ammo has been in the background for a few years now, HK was working on it a few years back and probably is instrumental in SIG's development. The caseless stuff makes sense, lighter weight, no brass expenditure to deal with, probably get away with a combination of paper and plastic, or polymers like epoxy resin soaked paper or cloth even.

Thanks.

Newbie question: what does LC stand for?

Lake City....

Lake City Army Ammunition Plant | Missouri Department of Natural Resources

If ammo becomes unavailable to that extreme due to laws/regulations or cost, what makes you think that you will be able to even shoot what you have on hand without it getting it confiscated/seized or stolen?

... civilian ammo sales are essentially banned, but old Johnny down the road still shoots a few hundred rounds a month out his back door. Pretty sure that will attract some unwanted attention on multiple fronts...

My favorite LGS got in a couple of pallets of .223 and 5.56 a few weeks ago. Its priced at $549.00/1000, half-cases are $309/500. During ALL of the panic-buying and shortages they've never price- gouged (unlike most of the other LGSs), so I believe that is the "new normal" for now. I don't think there'll be a glut on the market anytime soon.

I don't shoot much .223 and I have a bit stashed away but at $450/1000 I'd pick up at least a couple of cases.

Wait until Arthritis hits your wrist or hands, you will rethink that statement quickly. There was a time when I had the same attitude, now at age 67 my handgun shooting is very limited and I am quite certain when I do kick the bucket my heirs will be scrambling about what to do with the ammunition, cases, primers, powder, and bullets. Some good news for me is that the pattern of my Arthritis does allow me to still shoot a shotgun so I've take up doing competitive Skeet and having a blast doing it.

I look at my competition shooting and ammo consumption the same as my food. When I'm in the mood for a meatloaf or tuna casserole I build one. When I want to shoot my 1903 or .45, I shoot it but then reload the brass and replace the ammo back on the shelf. No need to waste your time tieing up components building tons of ammo until you need it. Also reloaded ammo has no value except to you. Whats more valuable, a 1000 handloaded .45acps or a 1000 pcs of brass-1000 JHP .45 bullets and a brick of LP primers? A guy I used to work with was fond of saying ‘work smarter not harder.’

See my bold of your text —-
You’re right, and that is what a lot of us will be forced to do. That sad thing is, that’s what the opposition wants…….

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"Your other right........."

Thats why I went from 2 cf cas shoots or 1 cas shoot and 1 cf zsa shoot a month to 1 cas and one .22 two gun shoot a month. Streeetch out what I’ve got.

According to the news the White House has reversed its ban on private sales from Lake City for anything that is "currently available" for private sale.

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Or something like that . . .

Judging Joe's past performances with policies he has inacted ...

I'm going to roll with ... Price Increases and Shortages !

And don't expect a check from Joe to help you buy ammo ...

... Ain't Happening ...

Gary

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Certified Cajun
NRA Member

Take turmeric and black pepper. Go to a senior citizen workout class that does wrist stretches.

The results can be amazing.

I'm 67. If I quit the turmeric and skip the workouts my left wrist gets mighty sore. If I stay with it I barely notice it.

21 calibers, 20 years to live, 21,000 rounds times 20 years, heck that's only 420,000 rounds of ammo...I'll get on it.

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Robert
SWCA #2906, SWHF #760

I bought 1K 5.56 couple months ago steel case like $350. Don’t like steel case so just today ordered 1K brass for under $500.
I’m also getting the factory crimp die and will use up hundreds of 224 bullets I have no use for. I just did 350rds no crimp. According to popular opinion I need to crimp them for AR.