I went to several of my favorite web sites tonight to try and order some brass, all of them were out of several brands of several calibers, 308 Win, notably, was not available from Nosler, Lapua or Norma at my fav sites. A couple of other calibers, they didn't have Nosler (my absolute fav) or Lapua....Just a coincidence or is the war actually taking up production--or something else??

I think demand is down and production costs are up so it is not being made. It is getting real expensive to send copper and lead down range so I see cut backs in shooting at my club. China, Korea and India are after all the brass and other metals they can get. Hyundi is getting most of it right now. The war is using up some .308 but I can't imagine enough to create a shortage of bullet heads and brass. From what I understand the Afgan army is being trained and equipped with .308 rifles. Check gunbroker as I know there are some used quantities available. There is also some new stuff.

Yep, brass is difficult to come by lately.
Specifically, 218 BEE, 222 Rem mag, 250 Savage, 257 Roberts and 7x57, all of which I've been looking for, is just not available from the "usual suspects".
So, I've been buying brass off the classified forums on the shooting and hunting sites.

Don

Thanks for the intel guys, I'll keep looking and lay in a little extra next time.

Recently Federal's parent company(ATK I think)announced a new $134 million small arms ammunition contract from the military. This added to the existing contracts likely keeps their production capacity well spoken for. Leaving the remainder to supply the retail market as well as they can.

muck

With the price of copper brass and lead falling IMHO the brass and bullet mfg are waiting for it to seek a level and stablize, they don't want to buy high and sell low.

Maybe FC has been diverting a large portion of there resources to the war, but not other co. unless they have a military contract.