Ammo becoming available again

[rwsmith]

I scored some 9mm Gold Dots....

Went to Palmetto Armory, had to wait about a half hour to get in the store. Very little defense ammo. So I bought a box of 20 (count 'em...20!) Gold Dots for almost 25 bucks. I got out to the car and opened the box and thought...."Pitiful".

PS: I load my own (everything) for range but for SD I prefer to use factory stuff.

 

[Rudi]

Went to my fav. LGS yesterday. The had about 1/3 of their usual gun selection left. Some Specialty ammo. Spoke the owner who does the buying, he said the plants were closed down due to the kung flu. Still down, I mean he spends hours on the interwebs looking for ammo. May be some time before this changes.

 

[oldbrownhat]

As I mentioned above, I had four people who have virtually no interest in firearms ask me how to "get armed up" last week....

My gf in Bellingham WA is in that boat. No interest in guns (but tolerates me, so that's OK) and is thinking of having a gun at home. Will be looking into training courses etc. in the fall. i've been thinking of various handguns that might be appropriate (Model 10, or a 9mm of some sort, maybe one of the M&P models) and just out of curiosity was just looking online at what suitable ammo was available. Checked Midway and Brownells. Practically zip/nada! "out of stock; no backorder". Lucky Gunner was a bit better, but mostly the pricey stuff from Buffalo Bore and Underwood.

Not urgent in her case so hopefully by the time she's ready to get into it, things may have improved. She should at least be able to get white box stuff for practice.

 

[Muddyboot]

Went to three different small gun shops in my area yesterday, all three were very low on ammo. I ask if they knew when they would be able to get more, none of them were sure.....

The larger stores had a decent supply. ( like Point Blank Shooting Range ) but were still lower then normal in the amount of ammo available.

 

[Rudi]

Was at Bi Mart, a bit of everything store. Guns & ammo too. They had just got in several cases of 5.56, .38spl. and .45 acp. I got 100 of the .45. Could have got more but didn't want to hoard.

 

[scoobysnacker]

I posted this in the Other Brands forum, will push it out over here...

Bass Pro is becoming one of my new favorites. Unlike a lot of old standby's, they have been listing some ammo at pre-covid prices. Namely, the Herter's brass 9mm, it's been listed at around 18 cents a round. They charge tax, but not shipping for now (if it's over $50). So, a case runs me $197.

They got beat up early on because of delayed shipments, but they seem to have figured it out. I ordered a case 6/22. It was loaded onto a Fedex truck on 6/23. It should be delivered in a day or so.

Just a note, to order, you have to select a store that shows stock. Turns out, that isn't a big deal. I live in La, it was out of stock near me. I changed to a store in Miss which listed "limited stock", and it let me order. Turns out that's not even relevant, because the delivery started in Utah, but hey, what the heck.

I like Sellier and Bellot 124gr better, but I'm not paying $250 a case for it, plus tax and shipping. It's range fodder.

 

[Green Frog]

From my perspective it seems like most ammo is pretty much available as usual, but the prices from the cheap sources seem to be creeping up (to establish a “new normal?”) but ammo is still readily available Since I’ve been able to build up my supply pretty well, now I can comparison shop and try to jump on bargains to maintain my supply status.

The old Boy Scout admonition to “Be Prepared” holds true as always.
Froggie

 

[scoobysnacker]

I guess, let's look at the bigger economic picture, and predict from there.

Things were normal, ammo was available and cheap.
Covid hit, lots of owners stocked up, the toilet-paper analogy. At the same time, covid affected the domestic manufacturing, and probably seriously slowed the distribution and especially imports. So the shelves emptied and you couldn't find much, for awhile.

Things started to get back to normal, now there's a lot of civil tensions and unrest. This pushed a second run, and this time a lot of new gun buyers- the world is getting too crazy, people wanted more protection. Non-owners buying pistols; pistol owners buying rifles. Ammo for the new purchases, because you probably don't have supplies for something you didn't own.

As production and distribution return to normal in the future, let's see what the market does. I've seen speculation of a new normal price, but not everyone is playing along... Bass Pro is big. It's big because- it's big, and spread around the country. They seem to be figuring out the shipping, and I can get $200 cases from them. I liked SGAmmo, but I'm not paying $50 more just because he sends me emails.
Once we see S&B, PPU, RUAG products back alongside domestics on the shelves, I strongly think we see a return to decent prices, if closer to $190 a case instead of $160. There's a larger gun owner market now, and the playing field has been reset. Vendors are going to try to establish a spot in the chain.

Got my bass pro order in today, it took 4 days. Also got my Glodal Ordnance order in, took about 6 days to get in a case of Tula 223 and some magazines (from the Father's Day sale).

 

[peterGun]

I seem to remember prior to the insanity buying ammo was scheduled to go up 10% by first of April, so I don’t expect to see 17cent 9mm anytime soon.

Also Americas biggest ammo seller(Walmart) isn’t there to keep costs down.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Dave Lively]

As production and distribution return to normal in the future, let's see what the market does. I've seen speculation of a new normal price, but not everyone is playing along... Bass Pro is big. It's big because- it's big, and spread around the country. They seem to be figuring out the shipping, and I can get $200 cases from them. I liked SGAmmo, but I'm not paying $50 more just because he sends me emails.

I would bet the reason BassPro is cheaper right now is they probably are big enough to have some long term contracts with the price locked in. Good when demand is high, bad when demand is low. SG probably buys what they can when they can. Which means their prices are going to be more volatile.

I like sgammo but like you am not going to pay extra because they had good prices in the past. I bought enough from them over the past five years I am going to sit this shortage out.

In addition to COVID and riots we have an election coming up. Discussion of gun control has drowned out by the media talking about nothing but COVID and BLM protests. But if there is a mass shooting or the murder rate keeps going up the way it has recently in some cities it will become an issue again. Which will bring on another round of shortages. I am guessing prices will return to normal in early 2021 if Trump wins. If Biden wins it could be much longer, if ever.

 

[scoobysnacker]

Not 17 cents, but 18 before tax. For me, thats under 20 to the door.

That's a live listing, so it's still active.

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[scoobysnacker]

I would bet the reason BassPro is cheaper right now is they probably are big enough to have some long term contracts with the price locked in. Good when demand is high, bad when demand is low. SG probably buys what they can when they can. Which means their prices are going to be more volatile.

I like sgammo but like you am not going to pay extra because they had good prices in the past. I bought enough from them over the past five years I am going to sit this shortage out.

In addition to COVID and riots we have an election coming up. Discussion of gun control has drowned out by the media talking about nothing but COVID and BLM protests. But if there is a mass shooting or the murder rate keeps going up the way it has recently in some cities it will become an issue again. Which will bring on another round of shortages. I am guessing prices will return to normal in early 2021 if Trump wins. If Biden wins it could be much longer, if ever.

you raise a good point about Bass Pro having a bigger contract, and still having stock at a lower rate.
With the uncertainty we face, that has pushed me to take advantage while we still can; because if it does move up, every cheap case I get now adds value. And yeah, I had plenty before. More never hurts.

Regarding the current civil protests, it's very tenuous. People are misbehaving and acting crazy, and police are slow to respond. I'm worried the next "mass shooting" will be someone defending themselves, because things are lawless. If that happens, everything will go haywire.

 

[Telecaster]

It’ll be interesting to see the final numbers on gun sales for 2020. This must have all previous gun and ammo droughts beat by a long shot.

 

[Telecaster]

I dropped off an outgoing transfer yesterday, for a plastic gun I sold for more than I paid new, and all they had in the case were a few used semiautos that probably just came in, some Charter revolvers, and some $3k collector guns. They had ammo, but not a lot, and mostly oddball calibers.

 

[scoobysnacker]

Things are sparse as heck right now. I thought we had a wave of ammo making it back to the shelves, but apparently not. I'm glad I grabbed that Herter's, as I can't find anything brass within $50, or even steel under $200 right now.

 

[Bozz10mm]

Having a heck of time finding decent 45 ACP online. Placed an order for a 200 round box from Bass Pro back on May 25th. Still hasn't shipped. It was only WWB, but a pretty good price and free shipping. Every week or so I get another email pushing the expected date farther back. They say I won't be charged until it ships, but so far they have hit my bank 3 times with a temporary charge. They say they will automatically cancel the order after 60 days if it hasn't shipped by then.

 

[max]

I waited a long time for some 9mm from them, but it and some 357 Silvertips finally came.

Having a heck of time finding decent 45 ACP online. Placed an order for a 200 round box from Bass Pro back on May 25th. Still hasn't shipped. It was only WWB, but a pretty good price and free shipping. Every week or so I get another email pushing the expected date farther back. They say I won't be charged until it ships, but so far they have hit my bank 3 times with a temporary charge. They say they will automatically cancel the order after 60 days if it hasn't shipped by then.

 

[xfarfuldog]

Just a suggestion. I am OK on most of the calibers I own. But now I am regretting a sale I made a few months ago. The security company I worked for until April 2020 used to issue the 40 caliber. I was the firearms instructor for my branch. We exchanged ammo yearly. Each employee was issued 46 rounds. Most employees did not want the old ammo. I told them I would destroy it for them. (bang bang)

I do not like the 40 round and have not owned a 40 in years. I did not feel comfortable selling what was given to me. In November 2019 the company switched to a 9 mm gun. At that point I felt I would not be buying a 40 to shoot all that ammunition.

So I sold over 4000 rounds and used the money to buy my other calibers. The ammo was mostly Gold Dots or HST. Fast forward to last weekends gun show. I purchased CHP 4006. It came with 80 rounds of bonded Golden Saber. I now have to buy practice ammo. The Golden Sabers are now costing over a dollar per round. I will shoot a few for testing and keep the rest for self defense.

Oh, I sold all 4000 rounds for I think $ 600. The buyer got a super deal.

Lesson learned. Do not sell your old ammo (or guns) because you never know when you might want them.

 

[max503]

Our local farm store has lots of ammo BUT my friend has a 32 acp. They want $35 for a box of 50 standard, ball rounds. I'm so glad I reload. I might pick up some 22's.

 

[Skeet 028]

Yep bought that Mauser HSc at the auction last weekend. When I looked at it I was hoping it was a 32 Auto...I happen to have 10 boxes of Winchester Silvertip HPs...but no...it was a 380. Only have 2 boxes of decent 380 ammo. Luckily the 32 Silvertips shoot ok out of my Ruger 101 327 Fed revolver. But who knows...I may find another 32 auto somewhere. I have a 3 pound coffee can full of new 380 brass and a friend who uses one of my 550 Dillons.. I may give him the components and let him load me some more 380 ammo though. I ain't loading those tiny little things. 32 Longs is as small as I go