Why there is an ammo shortage

I’m an avid shooter. I shoot every Saturday and Sunday of every week of the year. I shoot around 20000 rounds a year and my stock of ammo was always around 4000 rounds because my range used to sale ammo really cheap. Now I stopped going to the range on Sundays and I’m shooting less than halve than usual but I refuse to pay more than $2.00 more than I used to pay for my ammo and I’m sure that in 3- months I will be able to shoot again on Sundays. Those improvised buyers that never shoot and are buying tons of ammo cases in order to resell them would have to eat every round they bought because there won’t be any Ammo Ban in USA and almost sure won’t be any AWB nor any High Cap magazine ban and everything will be as normal as used to be 2 months ago. Do you wanna bet?
 
At the local gun show today, .22 LR was up to $80/brick, and there were NO primers of any type for sale. Thank God I have a reasonably good supply of both.
 
I’m an avid shooter. I shoot every Saturday and Sunday of every week of the year. I shoot around 20000 rounds a year and my stock of ammo was always around 4000 rounds because my range used to sale ammo really cheap. Now I stopped going to the range on Sundays and I’m shooting less than halve than usual but I refuse to pay more than $2.00 more than I used to pay for my ammo and I’m sure that in 3- months I will be able to shoot again on Sundays. Those improvised buyers that never shoot and are buying tons of ammo cases in order to resell them would have to eat every round they bought because there won’t be any Ammo Ban in USA and almost sure won’t be any AWB nor any High Cap magazine ban and everything will be as normal as used to be 2 months ago. Do you wanna bet?

From your mouth to God's ears!:)
 
I've been to gun shows in Knoxville, TN in December and January. Never saw so many primers for sale, IIRC, $30-34 depending on brand. Lots of powder.

Prices for AR magazines actually dropped $10 from the December show.

If you want to know were the ammo is going, surf some of the other gun forums. Some guys are happy to post photos of the boxes of 9mm, 45 or .223, where they cleaned out a local Wal-Mart.

Internet ammo sellers are offering ammo (many at pre-panic prices), but word spreads on gun forums and thousands of cases sell within a couple hours.

My advice: take a deep breath, don't pay outrageous prices and wait till prices come down. If you still believe it's a conspiracy, don't bother with the generic tin foil, go straight to the Reynolds Heavy Duty.
 
Sad to see so many of 'our own' take unfair advantage of the rest of our community. At a recent show, one friendly guy with whom I had previously shopped now had a NIB Colt mfg. M-4 for $2,995. Said he would keep it if he could not get that price. Also had .223 ammo in plastic bags for $1.50-ish a round. Come on people, you're hurting your own. VL
 
Sad to see so many of 'our own' take unfair advantage of the rest of our community. At a recent show, one friendly guy with whom I had previously shopped now had a NIB Colt mfg. M-4 for $2,995. Said he would keep it if he could not get that price. Also had .223 ammo in plastic bags for $1.50-ish a round. Come on people, you're hurting your own. VL

nobody has to buy
 
No, I don't have an answer, still questions - but no one on here has answered it. With the prices being what they are, manufacturers should be going balls to the walls producing and taking advantage of this surge and profitability; yet, very little is hitting the shelves. A friend of mine owns an small ammo business. They can't manufacture, because they can't get components from the big guys. So - that is the real issue - with production way up, where are the rounds going?! Earlier posts talked about the shortage being due to rampant buying. That might have been relevant two months ago, but not now. Now the shelves are bare AND nothing is being shipped. I just called my local wallymart to find out what came in tonight on their twice weekly shipment; only to be told "12 gauge only.!" So again - where is all the currently made ammo going? Government Contractors have what is called a DPAS (Defense Priorities and Allocation System) rating on their contracts. When mandated and enacted, they are required to moved USG requirements to the forefront of their production schedules. Not that it hasn't happened, but if it did, that would explain why domestic manufactured ammo is not available. What about the Mexican., Argentinian, Brazilian, Korean, and you get the picture rounds? Sometimes it seems like Tul and Bear are the only ones getting through. So - not claiming or supporting any conspiracies, but the math is just not working. Notwithstanding war ammo, the quantity available is not equal to the quantity being made! Where is it?
 
GAO: U.S. Has Fired 250,000 Rounds For Every Insurgent Killed « JONATHAN TURLEY
The General Accounting Office (GAO) reports that our forces are now using 1.8 billion rounds of small-arms ammunition a year — a level of use that has more than doubled in five years.

Israel and Korea are building up their own supplies and our domestic market is really burning it up. A day of target shooting used to be 50 or a hundred rounds. Now, that is the warmup. I used to be able to use one or two 50ct boxes of .22 in a year. Now, you need a brick for a day, and the most wanted calibers seem to be the ones used by the military. Between hoarding and increased consumption, its' amazing that there is any available for sale.
 
I've seen CCI brass 115 gr 9mm, 1000 rounds, sell for $450 plus shipping... 124gr sell for nealry $600...

I'm having a tough time believing those sales... nuff said.

bn.
 
With the quantity of 600 rounds per year training and the quantity on order, I tend to think there are WAY too many agents on payroll and too many departments that are carrying sidearms. I mean IRS????? How ridiculous is that since they can get any of your money they want without holding a shotgun to your face.DHS is working it's way up to being the Brown shirt brigade for a runaway government that is doing little to curb the infestation of illegal immigration of who knows what types of individuals.


If you go behind the fear mongering stories, you'll find that most of the contracts are for several years. The annual amount of ammo isn't that huge.

One government agency's purchase seem huge, until you divide by the number of armed agents and realize it's only about 600 rounds a year for each. To a lot of shooters, buying that many JHPs seems odd, until you realize many agencies train and qualify with what they carry.
 
At the local gun show today most all ammo was priced at 2 X last months pricing. 223 ammo was routinely $1 a round , 22 ammo in 500/525 bricks $50-$60 when all last year could be bought for $20.I've been surprised at how shallow the inventory has been at all major dealers from ammo to reloading supplies. Powder and primers all gone . Most wholesalers could count their inventory on one hand for those items.LOL.


I've seen CCI brass 115 gr 9mm, 1000 rounds, sell for $450 plus shipping... 124gr sell for nealry $600...

I'm having a tough time believing those sales... nuff said.

bn.
 
I think a good part of the frenzy is the "speculators" who buy at Walmart, et al and resell for 4 to 5 times original price. Look at all the stories of LGS buying ALL the Walmart supply since the distributors can't supply their needed amounts. I'll bet that 80% of the sellers on graigslist don't even own a gun - it's just become the "easy" money play. Invest $1000 and turn it into $4000 and up in just days. Then when somebody can't get their "normal" purchase they fall into the frenzy and purchase 10X what they would have bought.
 
As far as Uncle Sam's ammo purchase, the military was stockpiling in anticipation of the potential spending cuts that would have hit them if the vote hadn't backed us off the fiscal cliff.

The US Military does not use 40 S&W, not in any significant quantity anyway.

The huge ammo purchasing referred to was for 40 S&W.

Now, who uses that...?
 
Because there are people who, apparently, don't have jobs/lives otherwise or something who can be there when the stores open to buy it all up before those of with jobs/lives are able to get there to get one or two boxes.
 
Because there are people who, apparently, don't have jobs/lives otherwise or something who can be there when the stores open to buy it all up before those of with jobs/lives are able to get there to get one or two boxes.

Just a note: I have a job, but I work from home. So I am able to keep up on this stuff and order when I see it. So don't pigeon hole everyone. :)
 
Just a note: I have a job, but I work from home. So I am able to keep up on this stuff and order when I see it. So don't pigeon hole everyone. :)
Sorry about that. Just get frustrated every now and then when you can't walk into a store and buy a box of ammo because there were "30 people waiting when we opened" or "One guy bought it all last night when we took it off the truck".
 
How many here six months ago would normally buy one or two boxes of ammunition at a time but lately when you see any buy 5 or 10 boxes or whatever the traffic will bear? How many of you usually only stock one or two boxes in the house but find yourself making a weekly (or daily?) swing by the usual places and pick up "just a little extra"?

Be honest.

Now figuring that there are about 50 million gun owners in the U.S. doing the same thing you are and there's your answer.
 
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