I realize the ammo shortage has been hashed and rehashed. I just have to comment that I think most of us thought it would have eased by fall hunting season. But wow, it sure hasn't. You can hardly buy ANYTHING! This "episode" has given me a renewed appreciation for purchasing the more common standard calibers.

trhe locals here couldn't find any 30/06 ammo right before hunting season opened in October..

there was tons of 308 ammo tho, for some reason....

now that the season is over, there is plenty of ammo on the shelves as compared to a month before hunting season...

as a Handloader tho, I am not overly bothered..

I can get bullets and powder if buying in the 8 lb containers..

primers are hit or miss...

plenty of 223 primers locally tho...

that will change come varmint season tho.. so I'll stock up now..

2000 to 3000 ought to get me thru next years varmint season...

Not sure if your in the US or Canada but I'm in Canada and is nuts trying to find ammo. Winchester seems to be the worst which is what I use XP3 in my 270 WSM. Federal seems to be available but I've never liked it(not trying start fight about this). My local gun shops tell me they ordered ammo long ago just none is coming in. You have to wonder where it's going?? Does winchester provide military ammo??? You would think their sales would be down if they are not but ammo in the stores. It's been steadly getting worse for about 3 years.

And prices are horrendous. What is this going to do, long term, to the shooting sport? It cost $1 - $2.50 each time you pull the trigger. That really takes the fun out of practice.

Supply and demand, keep the supply low the demand and prices up. I'm guessing that they are trying to maximize profits prior to Obama and the liberals all out assault on gun ownership. It has already been mentioned that to go after the guns is a losing battle, they are planning on going after the ammo, make it so expensive to shoot that people won't bother.

I've kept some ads from a month or two ago and prices are coming down. Slowly. The interesting thing I found this past weekend is that where you shop makes all the difference. I have both a Cabelas and Bass Pro close to my house, so finding ammo is not an issue for me, BUT I happened to be in Walmart in the small town where I hunt this past weekend and not only did they have absolute shelves full of popular ammo, but at a decent price. I bought two of the Remington 550 count 22LR hollow point boxes for $16 each and a 100 round box of Winchester 115 grain 9MM for $21. I can't even get close to that at home.

Wal-Mart probably ordered the ammo quite awhile back. It seems as though the ammo manufacturers are trying to fill backorders as well a current military/LE orders. I have a friend on a local police force and they had to wait over 6 months for ammo from Federal.

quote:

Originally posted by larrys:
I've kept some ads from a month or two ago and prices are coming down. Slowly. The interesting thing I found this past weekend is that where you shop makes all the difference. I have both a Cabelas and Bass Pro close to my house, so finding ammo is not an issue for me, BUT I happened to be in Walmart in the small town where I hunt this past weekend and not only did they have absolute shelves full of popular ammo, but at a decent price. I bought two of the Remington 550 count 22LR hollow point boxes for $16 each and a 100 round box of Winchester 115 grain 9MM for $21. I can't even get close to that at home.

The couple Wal Marts around me in Florida have had almost no ammo even 22LR.

you guys still think the problem is the administration or the war...

Look at corporate greed instead. Just mark everything up by 300-500% and let fear handle all of your marketing. If that were not the answer, the european countries would be flooding the market with primers, etc.

Rich

I was at Wholesale Sports today getting powder. AA2015 for those keeping score. I use it in my 45/70 mousegun.

Lots of the usual suspects. 30-06, 308, 270, 243, 300 Winchester. Cases of XM193.

Stuff is trickling back in. No primers, powder is hit and miss. No Varget, H4831, H335 or RL15. No brass to speak of.

Some less popular powders are in stock. I'm getting as much RL25 and AA2015 as I can get while the getting is good.

At least I can shoot the 300 Weatherby and the BC for a long time.

Dear MikeG50:

I spoke with Federal about two weeks ago about the limited supply of Federal 209A primers, and was told that they are running three shifts trying to meet all the orders for ammunition.

It appears that demand has gone through the roof.

Got my primers last week though.

Sincerely,

Chris Bemis

I drove cross country late spring and ammo was in short supply all over.

But conspiracy theorists can give it a rest - all of the people who think this administration will make it harder (and those of us in CA who it has already happened to) are buying in quantity. I know there are casual shooters now buying $500 - $1,000 of ammo at a time.

They never spent more than $50 at once on ammo and have increased demand way above supply.

If you were an ammo company executive would you invest money to re-tool and expand knowing that you might have to micro-etch or some other stupid thing when the administration finally starts to hassle you instead of targeting the bankers, car companies, and the doctors???

Idaho...except that Europe is short of primers as well. Perhaps not as bad as the USA but many of the small ammo makers and custom reloaders are in trouble...The big companies that actually make the primers are supplying virtually all production to the major ammo makers they are contracted to (or are usually part of the same group).

The upswing in ammo demand world wide is largely seen as a temporary spike and not worth adding production capacity for- unless you believe you are able to 'grow' your market share long term.

It is also interwesting to see the 'shortcuts' that various people are taking to try and meet demand. I just bought some (American name brand) primers in Europe to feed my IPSC habit...they were South African PMP...which was fine for what I needed but a bugger if you wanted soft primers to run through a revolver with a light spring (PMP makes only 'magnum' small pistol primers and they are made from a very hard brass as they are designed for reliability in open bolt SMG...)

Only eastern Europe and China have the spare capacity for primers and most of us don't like corrosive primers...

Much the same could be said of powder...Appreciate that European powders are not that common in the USA but try and buy some rifle stuff! Almost all production is going into ammo- with very little surplus available for packaging and selling to reloaders.