Anyone having trouble getting ammo?? Not it's "too expensive".....

[BaiHu]

I saw this article, but really??

http://www.aberdeennews.com/news/local/ammo-shortage-explodes/article_f1c1518b-111e-5567-b4bb-7d0d576ce337.html

[Kyle Reese]

I blame Bush, crony capitalism and the Republicans. :rolleyes:

[bkent]

I blame Bush, crony capitalism and the Republicans.

Whoa, back up. I thought it was dirty socialists and Obama?
Kent

[Bigguy]

The only thing I buy is 9mm, .380 and .243. Here in Texarkana, I can always grab a box of any of it at Wally World now. Been available for at least 6 months now. Friends tell me it was always available, at least in limited quantities, at Gander Mountain and Academy. I do still hear folks asking for, and not getting, .22LR. I still have a hard time getting my head around that. Growing up during the 70s in south east Arkansas, that stuff was as plentiful as pea-gravel. .22Long was about 2¢ per cartridge. ($1.00 for a box of 50) I just accepted that that was the way things were, and never though it would be any different. Oh well.

[JodyH]

I've seen .22LR one time in over a year at Gander Mountain, none at 3 different Wal-Marts, an Academy and a Dick's.
That's zero .22LR at 5 major retailers in over a year.
I find 9mm FMJ maybe 20% of the time at one of the 6 (usually Gander Mountain because of their premium prices).

[JodyH]

There is a local unemployed "disabled" guy that has $35/100 .22LR listed for sale on his Facebook page all the time (and amazingly enough, idiots are falling all over each other to buy it).
I know for a fact at least one Wal-Mart clerk has been fired for hiding ammo for and getting a kickback from that guy.

[Corey]

The only .22 ammo I have seen locally in the last 3 or 4 months is Eley Match EPS for $18.99 per box of 50. It is Olympic class match ammo so that price is normal for that stuff. Last time I saw any was first week of January. .17 HMR and .22 Mag are both on the shelf locally and I haven't seen any calibers of rifle ammo out of stock for awhile now, plenty on the shelves everywhere including .223.

Most pistol ammo is available locally but in small quantities. You can usually get 9mm practice ammo if you are not picky about the brand. I normally reload 9mm. I have 10 bricks of primes and about 4,000 plated bullets sitting in my basement and have no trouble getting more. Powder is the hold up here. I have not seen any powder for 9mm since September. I call about 8 different places in two counties once a week looking for powder, nothing. A few different rifle powders and occasionally some magnum pistol powders is all I can find.

I have some partial cans of powders I tried and didn't like when I was working up loads that I am now using up while I keep trying to get anything, even more of the stuff I don't like would be better than nothing. I do have an 8 pound can of my preferred powder on backorder with Brownell's, but who know how long it will be before I get it.

[HCM]

I've seen .22LR one time in over a year at Gander Mountain, none at 3 different Wal-Marts, an Academy and a Dick's.
That's zero .22LR at 5 major retailers in over a year.
I find 9mm FMJ maybe 20% of the time at one of the 6 (usually Gander Mountain because of their premium prices).

Academy here in SA is usually well stocked on everything except 22LR. You can get some if you hit them early, though purchase is limited to 1 "large box" or 2 "small" i.e. 50 rd boxes. Also some Academy and Walmart stores seem to get / have more ammo than others. Those close to military bases seem to be better stocked here in SA.

[HCM]

There is a local unemployed "disabled" guy that has $35/100 .22LR listed for sale on his Facebook page all the time (and amazingly enough, idiots are falling all over each other to buy it).
I know for a fact at least one Wal-Mart clerk has been fired for hiding ammo for and getting a kickback from that guy.

Going rate at the local gun show this past weekend was $16 to $18 for 50 rounds - which is about what academy's Monarch brand 45 acp is going for ......

[PPGMD]

Other than 22LR, I have no issue getting ammo in the common calibers. 380ACP is hard to get, but I have a couple of cases of it and it is a caliber I rarely shoot.

And Atlanta Arms is still restricting ammo purchases to one case a month. Oh and I have an order with Zero Bullets since June, but they've assured me that they can deliver the ammo for the matches I ordered ammo through them for.

[TheTrevor]

CCI 22LR and handgun powder continue to be unobtainium. The USPSA club I just joined does group buys, though, and I'm hoping that they collectively have the purchasing power to get stuff that individual buyers might not. I've been holding off on starting down the reloading path until I could get some powder, but I'm starting to get impatient looking at the accumulated 2000-plus deprimed and cleaned cases waiting to be used.

The lack of CCI Mini Mags would be more annoying than anything else, except I know several Boy Scout age kids who have semi-auto guns that only function reliably with Mini Mags. The worst are the Marlin 60 rifles.

My LGS/range had cases of American Eagle 9mm on sale yesterday for ~$390 plus tax, not too far off of what the online guys are selling it for. That tells me things are returning to normal at the retail level for pistol ammo.

[B.K.]

On Saturday I paid $8.99 for a box of 100 CCI .22LR - that was the first .22LR I've seen in about a year.

A couple stores are starting to get 9mm fmj periodically but there's always a 3 box limit and you're paying $15.99-$18.99 for stuff like Blazer Brass. I found a 350 pack of Blazer Brass (in a plastic ammo can) the other day for $119 - not really a good deal but I bought it anyway.

Oddly enough, I can't find any 30-30. I snagged 4 or 5 boxes in Sept when I grabbed an old Winchester 94 and haven't seen a box since.

[TheTrevor]

30-30 is plentiful in both selection and choice of vendors on gunbot, and the going prices are fairly reasonable. Even LEVERevolution is starting to show up regularly.

http://www.gunbot.net/ammo/rifle/3030/

[Sal Picante]

Close to Chicago it is TheTrevor and some others describe it... A few Wally Worlds have some stuff. Tough to get 9mm, 45... .40 seems plentiful enough.
No .22 anywhere. I'm down to my last few bricks...

Powders only now seem to be coming back to availability (I've been using stuff like Longshot or SuperHandicap for a bit - not ideal powders for 9).
Primers and bullets have been ok for a while...

[Chuck Haggard]

I grabbed 500 rounds of Stingers and 250 of Maxi Mag Gold Dots last week from Natchez, first time I have seen either on sale in over a year.

[TheTrevor]

I grabbed 500 rounds of Stingers and 250 of Maxi Mag Gold Dots last week from Natchez, first time I have seen either on sale in over a year.

I was in a business meeting when the alert showed up, and because I was the one presenting, I couldn't slip my phone out of my pocket and surreptitiously place an order. By the time the meeting was over, all of the Stingers had sold out. :(

[Chuck Haggard]

Yeah, that sort of thing sucks.

A lot, and I mean A LOT, of this BS is due to profiteering scalpers asshats buying just to resell. Such douchebags need to cease and let the shooters shoot.

[B.K.]

30-30 is plentiful in both selection and choice of vendors on gunbot, and the going prices are fairly reasonable. Even LEVERevolution is starting to show up regularly.

http://www.gunbot.net/ammo/rifle/3030/

Thanks man! I hadn't even really looked very hard for 30-30 online. It's one of those things that I don't really need now so I just check the shelves every time I walk in a sporting goods store. Of the 5 stores I visit regularly, none have had any for awhile.

[Luke]

im in Birmingham Alabama. Im gonna have to order offline because there is nothing left local.

[TheTrevor]

A lot, and I mean A LOT, of this BS is due to profiteering scalpers asshats buying just to resell. Such douchebags need to cease and let the shooters shoot.

I don't mind the profiteers as much as I hate the insane hoarders. My inner Viking screams for blood every time I hear about an underemployed hoarder lined up outside a sporting goods store on ammo-delivery day boasting that his 22LR stockpile is somewhere north of 50,000 rounds. My kids get to go shooting way less than they used to because of the 22LR shortage, yet we have legions of these D-bags grossly distorting the market by stockpiling every round they can get their hands on.

If someone has squirreled away tens of thousands of rounds of 22LR, and they're still out there buying their limit at multiple stores every. damn. week... well, there's the problem right there.

[Casual Friday]

Yeah, that sort of thing sucks.

A lot, and I mean A LOT, of this BS is due to profiteering scalpers asshats buying just to resell. Such douchebags need to cease and let the shooters shoot.

I two guys that bought 100,000 rounds of .22lr this past summer. But they ain't scalping it, they're using it.

[PPGMD]

I two guys that bought 100,000 rounds of .22lr this past summer. But they ain't scalping it, they're using it.

Which I am pretty sure Chuck would have no issue with.

It is the people that purchase it, with no intention to ever shoot it. They simply buy it at places that don't raise their prices due to demand, like Wal-mart, and resell it on websites.

Honestly we have really built up a culture of scalpers. Every hot selling item is scalped for the first few months. I remember working on EB Games and when the Pokemon or whatever cards come in the scalpers and their entire family would come and buy their limit. And don't give me the "they are taking the risks" as they never really lose any money as they never pay more than MSRP, and if it doesn't sell within the return period they take it back to the store.

The people that do that greatly annoy me, as IMO they artificially increase costs for consumers. I personally will never do business with them, and I encourage others to do the same.

[JodyH]

Venting in this thread must have been good mojo.
I stopped by WalMart an hour ago and they had probably 4k rounds of 9mm FMJ on the shelf (no .22lr though).
I picked up 1k to replenish my previously dwindling reserves.

[Drang]

Agreed, .22LR is pretty much unobtanium. Kid at the local Wally World last week told me that he was expecting 16 cases of Winchester in that weekend, "be here when it gets here."
The FLGS where I bought my Colt Rail Gun was selling 200 rounds of Remington, the stuff that comes in a bucket, for $12, one baggie per customer.

[Chuck Haggard]

Last week our WM got in 110 boxes of 225 rounds of Rem .22lr, was sold out in an hour.

But they have .50BMG on the shelf :confused:

[TheTrevor]

Last week our WM got in 110 boxes of 225 rounds of Rem .22lr, was sold out in an hour.

But they have .50BMG on the shelf :confused:

It's a good time to be a 50BMG or black-powder shooter. Those are the only two types of powder I've seen in stock for immediate purchase over the last 12 months.

[Totem Polar]

Venting in this thread must have been good mojo.
I stopped by WalMart an hour ago and they had probably 4k rounds of 9mm FMJ on the shelf (no .22lr though).
I picked up 1k to replenish my previously dwindling reserves.

How was the 9mm pricing where you are at this point?

I agree that .380 is still touch and go, and .22 is unicorn poop.

[Timbonez]

.22LR is the only cartridge that is nigh impossible to get in my area... the Black Hills.

[John Hearne]

Most folks dont' appreciate how "undesirable" 22 is to manufacture and how unprofitable it has been. It wasn't until Winchester moved to Mississippi and cut labor costs, 22 production was not a profit making enterprise for them. Given pre-panic pricing for 22 there just wasn't any profit there to encourage the industry to increase capacity. The other issue with .22 is that the installation of the priming compound is difficult and hazardous. Getting the primer compound into 22 cases is considered the most dangerous part of the ammunition making process. There is special machinery to get the priming compound distributed. The primer is installed wet and has to sit in a drying area before the cases can be loaded. In a nutshell, there isn't any money there to encourage an increase in capacity and there are extra bottlenecks in the production of 22 rimfire. If you ever get a chance to tour an ammo factory, jump on it, it's fascinating....

(IIRC, 380 is loaded on the same machines as 9mm, they just seat the bullet deeper for 380. Until there is a surplus of 9mm, 380 will probably be short)

[BaiHu]

Thanks for that explanation John, I was unaware and that makes a ton of sense.

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[RoyGBiv]

Anything other than .22LR can be found here (and online) with minimal searching. It's still sometimes difficult to find specific SD rounds, but practice rounds are not much trouble. I haven't seen .22LR on a shelf in any quantity greater than 100 rounds here in over a year. The guy at my local WalMart tells me he sees the occasional shipment of .22LR bricks, and that I should call him in the evenings to see what's coming in the following day. I've called a few times, no luck. Luckily, I've got a friend that does product merchandising for a company that sells into Home Depot, Lowes, WalMart, etc. He's kept an eye open and come through with an occasional box of 100. Last week he called me to let me know they had 225-round bricks at a Wall World about 30 miles from me. Too far for a lunch break, but even more luckily he was with 3 other coworkers who were not shooters and we scored 2700 rounds at a very fair price. I think it worked out to $0.055/round including tax for Rem "Golden Bullet" 36gr. hollow points. I can take the kids shooting again!

[BaiHu]

Nice score Roy!

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[Malamute]

It's been hit or miss at the local shops, though one shop has had a fair supply through most of this nonsense, and his prices have been decent, other than when he cant find stuff for normal wholesale prices.

Wal mart has had some ammo, and has been getting better. They brought ammo out whenever it happened to come off the trucks and was wheeled out. I was in town a lot last spring and sometimes found ammo on pallets setting out on the floor waiting to be stocked. The ammo was buried in other sporting goods junk. The clerks didn't even know it was there until I pointed it out. When they got ammo out, it was like magic, people started to filter in to the sporting goods area looking to see what they had. The ammo often didn't make it off the counter from being unpacked, it sold out of the cartons. It's been better the past couple months, pistol ammo stays on the shelf most of the time, at least the common practice types.

They said when they got 22's in, they lasted an hour or two. They now have an improved system, it only comes out in the morning, so it can be ambushed on schedule. I liked it better when it was random times. They've been getting 22's in from a couple times a week to once a week or so, no consistency to supply schedules.

I've bought a little, and sold a little to others that couldnt find it for what I had in it.

[Chuck Haggard]

Yeah. Two of our three local Wal Marts stock at 0800hrs, those were emptied by the buy and resell people. The third WM would stock whenever the truck rolled in, which might be 8 at night. I could often find ammo at that one since they stocked late and it's on the way to and from our range.

They started stocking at 0800 because "someone complained". Yeah, the douchebags were getting their profits cut in to. I know one of the sporting good guys got canned due to getting caught holding ammo back for a local gunshop that would buy it and then mark the ammo up 50%

[TheTrevor]

If you ever get a chance to tour an ammo factory, jump on it, it's fascinating....

How It's Made (or one of the programs just like it) did a segment on ammo manufacture, with particular attention to primers. Definitely the trickiest part of the whole process.


(IIRC, 380 is loaded on the same machines as 9mm, they just seat the bullet deeper for 380. Until there is a surplus of 9mm, 380 will probably be short)

I see what you did there. :cool:

[PPGMD]

I know one of the sporting good guys got canned due to getting caught holding ammo back for a local gunshop that would buy it and then mark the ammo up 50%

Back during the 2009 panic. I would go to the gym everyday at lunch time and on my route was such that I passed two different Wal-Marts (using a different route on the way there and the on the way). The counter guy at one of the Wal-marts would hold me two boxes of 9mm when they got a shipment in. That was the only thing that got me through that ammo crunch.

I am glad he didn't get canned for what I consider good customer service.

[John Hearne]

FWIW, that is a Sportsmans Warehouse store approximately an hour away, which gets 22 ammo and powder every Tuesday. 22 is available for sale at the customer service counter on a first come, first served basis. I only happened to be there once in the morning and was able to snag 300 rounds. There are no guarantees as to what kind of 22 will be there but there is generally enough for the first two hours or so and that is it for the week.

[ragnar_d]

They now have an improved system, it only comes out in the morning, so it can be ambushed on schedule. I liked it better when it was random times. They've been getting 22's in from a couple times a week to once a week or so, no consistency to supply schedules.

I've bought a little, and sold a little to others that couldnt find it for what I had in it.


Yeah. Two of our three local Wal Marts stock at 0800hrs, those were emptied by the buy and resell people. The third WM would stock whenever the truck rolled in, which might be 8 at night. I could often find ammo at that one since they stocked late and it's on the way to and from our range.

They started stocking at 0800 because "someone complained". Yeah, the douchebags were getting their profits cut in to. I know one of the sporting good guys got canned due to getting caught holding ammo back for a local gunshop that would buy it and then mark the ammo up 50%
Same thing happened at the WM I pass on the way to work. They would stock everything whenever it came in, then changed it to stocking at 0730. People would come in and line up at 0530-0600 and wait for the ammo. It even got to the point where they would get a magazine and camp chair to sit and wait (from what I gathered, the manager quashed that with great swiftness and lasted all of about 1 day). From talking to the Sporting Goods manager, it was the same people in line every day.

Now the lock on the cabinet is "broke" so everything is under the counter and I've got better things to do than wait on an associate to come tell me they don't have anything.

[TR675]

People would come in and line up at 0530-0600 and wait for the ammo. It even got to the point where they would get a magazine and camp chair to sit and wait (from what I gathered, the manager quashed that with great swiftness and lasted all of about 1 day). From talking to the Sporting Goods manager, it was the same people in line every day.

Hang them.

.22 is just about everybody's introduction to shooting. Anybody can shoot a .22; everybody likes shooting .22. Jackwagons like this are IMO harming the future of the shooting sports. Zero consideration for their fellow shooters.

I could go on and on about this, but oh wait, I already did in another thread...

[Chuck Haggard]

Yeah, same here, same jerk-offs every single morning.

[Malamute]

Yeah, same here, same jerk-offs every single morning.

Come on Chuck, quit holding back, tell us how you really feel. :D

[Chuck Whitlock]

If you ever get a chance to tour an ammo factory, jump on it, it's fascinating....

Indeed. I've toured Hornady's plant a couple or three times. Although I don't remember getting into the rimfire production.

[ragnar_d]

Hang them.

.22 is just about everybody's introduction to shooting. Anybody can shoot a .22; everybody likes shooting .22. Jackwagons like this are IMO harming the future of the shooting sports. Zero consideration for their fellow shooters.

I could go on and on about this, but oh wait, I already did in another thread...

I'd agree with that . . . getting my girlfriend into shooting with my 10/22 (eventually getting a 22/45 Lite as a suppressor host, er, training aid) plus shooting the occasional Multigun match in the Rimfire division has put a dent on the .22 inventory at the homestead. I always try to replace what I shoot, but the .22 situation makes me hesitant to burn it up at the range.