The cost of ammunition has gone up about 1000% and there isn't any 'in stock' anywhere. For me personally, the best indicator is primers. a box of 1000 used to be $100 about 6 years ago, the last time I bought any. Now its $1000 and several months of waiting for it to be back in stock. The price of actual cartridges (assembled bullets with casing, powder and primer) vary depending on popularity, but overall are similarly expensive and unavailable. The common perception seems to be that the govt is suppressing availability, either ahead of expected legislation that will make it harder to purchase or in case that legislation fails. Tis a valid concern imo, that sounds like precisely the sort of thing our crappy govt would do. However, I havn't found any evidence of it. I have spoken to many personal sources on this issue, people who know people in the ammunition manufacturing and production industry, and based off what they tell me and their past reliability, the industry as a whole is on about a 2 to 4 year backlog of ammunition production due entirely to increase of demand. This increase of demand is dispersed between the public and private sector about as proportionately as usual- roughly 50%. OIOW, everyone, both the govt and private citizens are both buying ammo at an unprecedented rate. The primary bottleneck is the producers' hesitancy to invest in major production boosts due to the past fluctuation that occurs as a result of political atmosphere- namely the tendency for demand to drop sharply when either Republicans get elected or a major piece of legislation fails to pass into law (see 'the Trump slump' in firearms and ammo sales) and people become less worried that there is any immediate need to stock up. What they (manufacturers) don't want to do is hire a bunch of folks and buy a buncha new equipment and then go bankrupt after, for example, the new gun control bill fails to make it through congress and demand drops off sharply, as happened in both 2012 and 2016. Further to this, there continues to be more and more gun sales, both repeat (by folks who already have guns) and first time (people who are buying their first gun). However, this is mostly anecdotal on my part. What do you think? Is ammunition availability being artificially suppressed, or are there just more folks buying more ammo?
Anyone that owns a firearm should have been stockpiling all the ammo they would ever need years ago...
I find it "interesting" they come up with at least 8 NEW calibers when they can't supply for established ones! Since I don't generally go for conspiracy theories I'll fall back on my cynical nature (which has served me well) and chalk it up to plain old GREED. It's been my observation that whenever there's a "shortage" (pick your product), once a price point has been established that people will cough up the "shortage" miraculously disappears. We'll see. As a side note don't think the anti-gunners aren't taking this in, if they push for nothing else look for astronomical Federal taxes on firearms and ammunition to come. And just what could SCOTUS do about that, the Constitution clearly gives the government the power to levy taxes, in fact one could argue it would be a voluntary tax, don't buy firearms or ammunition and you're not subject to it. Hard times are here to stay for firearms owners. And believe me, I'd LOVE to be proven flat-assed wrong!
I think its a combination of the usual rush to buy and stockpile and the demand created by new gun owners. After seeing riots and calls to defund police on TV, even liberals are buying guns and ammo. I got a brick of small rifle primers for $120 on gunbroker and $100 at the last gun show. Also, those willing to spend 2 hours standing in line can buy ammo at the gun show. Here in CA, the lines move slow due to the background check required to buy ammo. I am fortunate to know how to make my own ammo. When the stockpilers run out of room, inventory will become available again. Just like toilet paper.
I've not seen 9mm ammo in months! I just cannot get it anywere. Not that I need it, since I lost all my guns in a tragic boating accident a while back. I'm just noticing.
The real question is, is my ammo being artificially suppressed? To which the answer is yes, thanks to this case full of Fram oil filters...
Same here! Including ALL rimfire, 5.56, 223, 45ACP, oh hell, NOTHING is available! And I mean NOTHING! No primers, powders, Pyrodex, black powder, caps....NOTHING! And if something can be found the gougers (and spare me the "Moms and Pops", EVERYBODY'S on the gouge wagon!) want more than I'll EVER pay! Guess I'll put the carry guns away and select a stiletto from my switchblade collection, who the hell can afford to shoot someone? And with all due respect to those who think it's just temporary, may God preserve you in your innocence. The shooting sports will become the province of the wealthy, those without a wheelbarrow full of cash need not apply!
I don't think it's some mass conspiracy I think it's just folks being worried about the future and stockpiling. At least that's the case where I live. I live in a small community where everyone knows everyone so unless you are friends with the gun store owner who will shoot you a text whenever their next shipment arrives then you aren't getting any. A few weeks ago a buddy of mine who's friend is a friend of a gun store owner told him that they just received a shipment of 9mm and were putting it on the shelf. My buddy contacted me and I left work to head to the store and by the time I got there (20 mins) it was all gone. Thousands of rounds were gone, the lady behind the counter said about 5 folks came in and bought everything before she could even unpack the crates. That's the common story around here. I say that because we have our own version of a local craigslist type thing around here where folks sell everything and very little ammo is ever available for sale nowadays whereas in years past thousands of rounds changed hands on there through individual sale on a daily basis. There are millions of rounds of ammo in this community but nobody is selling it and a lot less folks are even shooting it seeing how the ranges are rarely occupied. They are just hoarding it. The best way I've found to be successful in getting ammo here is to have some ammo yourself to trade. I have rounds of a caliber firearm that I don't even own. It's a fairly popular caliber among the hunting crowd here so instead of selling it outright for the currently asinine market price I simply trade a box here and there for the type of ammo that I need.
Around here stores are limiting sales (when they get any} to two boxes per day per customer to prevent that. Sounds like that gun store owner has some "special friends".
Yeah this is a small community we only have one big box store that sells firearms and ammo but we have dozens of mom and pop gun stores. The box store has the two boxes per customer limit but the locally owned stores don't. The folks living here know when ammo is coming before it even leaves the shipment warehouse because they have direct communication with the gun store owners who they've been friends with for decades. The box store can't even enforce their policy because since the community is so small your buddy who works at the gun counter will simply call you and 20 of his other buddies to show up at 7:15pm and wait around until they unpack the crate. And/or will conveniently only put out a handful of boxes until his buddies arrive. I've seen it first hand plenty of times while jus hanging out in the box store browsing firearms. The shelves will be completely bare of ammo and a "random" guy will walk up to the counter asking and the guy on shift will walk into the back and magically find 2 boxes of ammo for him. If you ever want to know if ammo has arrived in the box store just hang around there at random times of the day. Whenever you see dozens of people "casually browsing" the gun section you know that the call went out and they are about to buy it all before it ever hits the shelf. It's an inside job.
True enough! I made my weekly "misery tour" of the local stores today, at one a 5 rd. box of 410 "turkey loads" $49.99 with tax! TEN DOLLARS A F**KING ROUND FOR 410 BIRDSHOT??? The shooting sports and hunting have been a major and rewarding part of my life since the Old Man taught me at age ten to handle firearms, but I'll never fire a gun again before I bend over and take the screwing being offered up by our so-called "friends and supporters" in the industry. THEY CAN ALL KISS MY AZZ ADIOS!!!
Holy ****....And here I was laughing at one of our local stores here for trying to sell their handful of boxes of 00 buck for 4.50 per round last time I checked. 10 bucks a round for birdshot?! You can't even make that up.... The sad part is I bet somebody bought that birdshot because I know for a fact that somebody happily bought that buckshot seeing how I was in the store when it happened. And in the same store they had a 5 rd box of 50 BMG for the normal(ish) price of 30 bucks...I understand supply and demand but seriously.... The problem is folks keep buying it at these prices so why would they stop selling it for these prices? I understand that these stores are likely getting it in the rear from the manufacturers due to this whole fiasco but they aren't getting it THAT BAD. There is no excuse for birdshot to cost 10 bucks a shell that is asinine. One of our local gun shops runs a facebook page and posts his inventory on there. He gets .22lr in more than anything else nowadays and if you want some you need to get put on the call list. It sells out instantly obviously like everything else. Here's the kicker, it's 99 bucks for a HUNDRED. And he can't keep it in stock...Someone challenged him in the comments section of facebook when he posted that the other day and his response was "Have you seen anybody else with any around here and if so go let us known what they are charging". Folks have lost their damned minds.
the gun stores will close their shops when President Biden ban's guns they should learn the trade of blacksmith https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blacksmith
sad, just sad to lose your guns that way. May they Rest In Peace. I to have suffered a similar loss.........all my guns down the hole while ice fishing.....truly sad. All 13 went down that hole in 150ft of water.
I agree with your personal sources. We've seen this before. After the Sandy Hook mass shooting, people were talking about banning AR's, and all of a sudden, AR's disappeared out of gun stores, and the prices of the available ones shot up. In fact, just about every semi-automatic rifle disappeared out of gun dealers' stock. Ammunition also disappeared. I remember it was hard to find even .22LR ammo. It wouldn't surprise me if things stayed this way until the next Republican becomes President, or until one of the houses of Congress is controlled by the Republicans. Whenever that happens, guns and ammo will become more available. Seth
I'd be with you if it were only things like 5.56 or 7.62 that were out of stock everywhere. The current clowns in power aren't talking about making handguns illegal just semi-auto rifles but pretty much EVERYTHING is out of stock everywhere. Even non mainstream calibers like .45 LC are nowhere to be found and nobody is discussing legislation against any firearm that shoots that. I know some folks hunt with .45 LC and cowboy action shooting is a thing but it's not THAT popular. Even a super liberal government would let SA revolvers and lever action rifles stand under whatever cooky bill they proposed. I think folks are just hoarding everything. Nobody is out here conducting mass shootings or crimes in general with a Single Action Army....
Slightly related question. Does ammo have a shelf life? Will buyers be left with a shed full of duds should said ammunition not be needed?
I've got a gut feeling they're not getting burned as bad as they would like us to believe, just taking the opportunity to shamelessly gouge and profiteer off of OUR 2nd Amendment rights! It makes me both ashamed and LIVID! I'll NEVER look at those in the firearms and ammunition business the same way again, much less EVER to consider them "one of us"!!!
Everything I have heard says the ammo shortage is a direct result of demand exceeding manufacturing capacity, with the ammo manufacturers unwilling or unable to invest in the means necessary to increase that capacity.
That's exactly what is happening. Buying a machine that makes a certain caliber of ammo takes more than a year and is a huge investment, so they are just adding shifts and running the machines they have 24/7, but they still need to shut them down and clean and calibrate them from time to time, also many of them do not make primers or brass and are finding that becoming harder to source.
