The Guy From Federal Again

Dave Lively said:
I wish I could say my not buying ammo was that altruistic. And I do think leaving ammo for those that really need it is the right thing to do. But not wanting to pay 3 times as much as it should cost has a lot more to do with my not buying ammo right now.
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I stockpiled like crazy right after Y2K didn't happen and ammo prices cratered (especially surplus), till the AWB sunsetted in 2004 and ammo prices really went up. Had pretty much paired the *essential* calibers to 4 and 3 of those 4, military calibers, plus, .22 LR.

Before 2019, when I bought my first .38 sp, I don't recall buying ANY ammo, except the occasional brick of CCI SV for the kids to blast and save my SK made Wolf. I still shot regulary, but had plenty of ammo.

I saw online and at the LGS 7.62x51 was selling for .75 to $1/rnd (IF it was available). I had paid $149.99/k, shipped from AIM. Bought a bunch. Still have a bunch.

Don't even pay much attention to current ammo prices since I certainly won't be buying and likely won't be selling either. Don't need the $$ and, to me, the ammo is more valuable.

Rob
 
I bought a coupla thousand rnds of .22lr and a 600rnd case of 9mm in the spring last year. that was just to make sure the grand kids had fodder for their shopkeepers and so I'd have a little practice ammo for the son in laws to shoot at the metal silhouette target out back when they come to visit. My regular stock pile will last several years at the rate I shoot. I did take advantage of the cases of free shipped bargain .22lr and handgun ammo over the couple of years before covid.
 
Green Frog said:
Let's see... 7,000,000 new gun buyers times 2 boxes (100 rounds) each of ammo minimum yields a new demand on the system for an additional 700,000,000 rounds of ammo if you assume that the existing customers continue buying at their pre-panic rates. Seven Hundred Million rounds of additional ammunition demand. What industry can absorb that kind of sudden increase in the midst of all the rest of the complications going on these days? For that matter, how much ammunition was produced during our various wartime years? I remember from history that ammo was rationed or nearly unavailable to civilians during WW II.

Just something to think about.
Green Frog
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Couple that with reduced output due to COVID infections and having to social distance employees and you have an even bigger shortfall in supply.
 
I certainly won't be buying and likely won't be selling either. Don't need the $$ and, to me, the ammo is more valuable.

Rob
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Ayep


Finally got my last backordered shipment of 7.62x54r Silver Bear 203 gr soft points for my mosin

Only ordered it in like, October! lol, the last of Russian ammo we might get, yaknow?

Had some luck going to Federal site and ordering directly from them earlier, cut out the middle man, before prices skyrocketed
 
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I'm the CEO of a billion dollar ammo company. I am accountable to my investors and creditors. My profit comes from selling ammo to whomever I can get to buy it. So I wake up one morning and call the plant managers and say, "Shut down production and lets screw with everyone!". Better yet, I'm contacted by some politicians who think that Karl Marx was right and that guns are evil and want to disarm everyone but them and put the gun industry out of business. Bernie asks me if I could help them put me out of business and my response is, "What can I do to help!". The only thing going on right now is that the industry has become a victim of it's own success and the distribution system has been shut down for the last year. Both will be self correcting. Take a deep breath! Take a pill if you have to. Relax! Things will be back to how they were. Maybe better. Conserve your ammo a little so that you can enjoy shooting for the next few months. If this truly is some multi layered, deep state, conspiracy, then we have way bigger problems that not being able to go to the range this weekend. This too shall pass!
 
SpikeIDMT said:
Ayep


Finally got my last backordered shipment of 7.62x54r Silver Bear 203 gr soft points for my mosin

Only ordered it in like, October! lol, the last of Russian ammo we might get, yaknow?

Had some luck going to Federal site and ordering directly from them earlier, cut out the middle man, before prices skyrocketed
Click to expand...


It must have been on the same UPS truck as the chain saw parts I ordered last year! If you believe what you hear, all the tariffs on Russia and China that have been put in place over the last four years are about to go away. You might actually see foreign ammo come blasting back onto the market.
 
cmj8591 said:
I'm the CEO of a billion dollar ammo company. I am accountable to my investors and creditors. My profit comes from selling ammo to whomever I can get to buy it. So I wake up one morning and call the plant managers and say, "Shut down production and lets screw with everyone!". Better yet, I'm contacted by some politicians who think that Karl Marx was right and that guns are evil and want to disarm everyone but them and put the gun industry out of business. Bernie asks me if I could help them put me out of business and my response is, "What can I do to help!". The only thing going on right now is that the industry has become a victim of it's own success and the distribution system has been shut down for the last year. Both will be self correcting. Take a deep breath! Take a pill if you have to. Relax! Things will be back to how they were. Maybe better. Conserve your ammo a little so that you can enjoy shooting for the next few months. If this truly is some multi layered, deep state, conspiracy, then we have way bigger problems that not being able to go to the range this weekend. This too shall pass!
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Listen! He know's that he is talking about. I remember that it only took 6 years for 22 ammo to come back around....
and a year for it to go back away.

We're going to be SWIMMING in ammo in a little bit. Everything going on out there practically insures it.

It will probably be even cheaper than ever too!
 
I certainly applaud the optimism shown by some in this thread.

However...

In "Subterranean Homesick Blues", Bob Dylan hit the nail on the head:


You don't need a weatherman

To know which way the wind blows.
 
typetwelve said:
I have conflicting feelings with these panics. On one hand, I despise price gouging...On the other, I despise the fools that willingly give their money for these gouged prices.
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What I don't get is why so many people get/got caught off guard...why in this day and age, so many people failed to stock up ahead of time? Did we know Covid and "social unrest" was going to strike big time in 2020? Nope. But we've had plenty of warning signals over the past...ohh, 12 years...that everyone should know better to have stocked up well in advance. Did everyone forget the lessons of the post-Sandy Hook market? Did everyone forget that 2020 was a really critical election year? IMHO, in these times, there is no excuse for anyone being unprepared...and that goes for both ammo, and anything else like toilet paper, food, medicine. Any reasonably intelligent person can look around at the state of things and know that stockpiling is now a necessity. I think someone else on another forum said it best. They said "look at what you have in your guns and ammo stash. What you see is all that you have into the forseeable future."
 
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Don't forget about the Ultramax Ammunition plant fire in South Dakota in 2018. It burned to the ground in a fire that was ruled accidental. 2,000,000 rounds were lost. Ultramax used to make some pretty good ammunition. I liked their .45-70 stuff. The fire killed them and I understand that they are now out of business. One less source for quality ammo.

NHKFFM7ZAFOFPLNP2LQIRARGLU.jpg
 
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yeti said:
Glad to hear they are working hard to try to keep up with supplying us all.
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AlHunt said:
Judging by my LGS and every online source I can find, they're failing abysmally.
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Well, one of the problems is, they never had to supply us all in the first place, even when the market was calm.

Brass ammo
Price leader has almost always been PPU (Serbia), with Fiocchi (Italy and US), and CBC (Sellier & Bellot -Czech; Magtech- Brazil; MEN- Germany; CBC-Brazil) in the mix.

Also figure in Ruag, with Norma, Hirtenberger, Geco, RWS; all European. Not often the cheapest, but they were prominent in the market.

Are we seeing much of anything from these companies, at all? Or PMC from Korea?

I'm not downplaying Federal, but to ask them to cover the entire market is like asking GM alone to supply cars for everyone in the country- they're just not geared up to do that in normal times, and definitely couldn't do it when EVERYONE wants a new one right now.
 
Tytan01 said:
They ain't failing. They are purposely sandbagging.

Eventually the truth is gonna come out either by threat of lawsuit or by a disgruntled employee spilling the beans but the truth about why ammo makers withheld production in 2020 will come out and a lot of people here sucking up to "The Jason's" are going to be looking pretty silly.
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Wow!!:D I guess I will add to this thread!:)
Some really strange ideas coming out! :)
Ed
 
500SNW said:
What I don't get is why so many people get/got caught off guard...why in this day and age, so many people failed to stock up ahead of time? Did we know Covid and "social unrest" was going to strike big time in 2020? Nope. But we've had plenty of warning signals over the past...ohh, 12 years...that everyone should know better to have stocked up well in advance. Did everyone forget the lessons of the post-Sandy Hook market? Did everyone forget that 2020 was a really critical election year? IMHO, in these times, there is no excuse for anyone being unprepared...and that goes for both ammo, and anything else like toilet paper, food, medicine. Any reasonably intelligent person can look around at the state of things and know that stockpiling is now a necessity. I think someone else on another forum said it best. They said "look at what you have in your guns and ammo stash. What you see is all that you have into the forseeable future."
Click to expand...

Same here.

I'll admit, gettin' while the getting is good can sometimes be really difficult. When you see 30 of something sitting on a shelf, grabbing 3 when you really just need 1 sometimes seems dumb.

But...

Knowing how panics work, not having at least a small supply set aside is just being foolish.

With that said, what I still cannot get is those willing to pay outrageous amounts of $$ for something that really isn't a "need".
 
People are buying ammo at high prices because they can and "need" is another relative word. "Need" and "want" is the same thing if one can afford it.
There are plenty of people that have never bought ammo and wouldn't buy ammo at any price because they don't "need" any.
There are people that go out and eat a $100. meal just because they can and other people think that is foolish.
There are people that don't buy new vehicles because they think there is a lot of money lost on one in the first few years but some can afford too and think it is money well spent. Larry
 
tops said:
People are buying ammo at high prices because they can and "need" is another relative word. "Need" and "want" is the same thing if one can afford it.
There are plenty of people that have never bought ammo and wouldn't buy ammo at any price because they don't "need" any.
There are people that go out and eat a $100. meal just because they can and other people think that is foolish.
There are people that don't buy new vehicles because they think there is a lot of money lost on one in the first few years but some can afford too and think it is money well spent. Larry
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Can't argue with that.
 
Sure seems many are mad, even furious, that the easy availability and low prices of a year or so ago are not to be had today. I've lived through several of these panics, and if I have to pay more now, it's my own fault for not "buying it cheap and stacking it deep" pre-pandemic, pre-summer riots, and pre-election. I just don't believe it's some kind of giant ammunition manufacturer/distributor/dealer conspiracy to keep us all from having all the cheap ammo and components we want. "This too shall pass"......YMMV
 
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