Ammo Panic / Stupidity 2023

[spence]

Got an email last week from SG Ammo stating that his sales volume had doubled basically over night. Two days later he said it had doubled again and that he may have to pull some SKUs off his site to keep from overwhelming his shipping dept. This is after months of emails stating razor thin industry margins, bargain pricing and it's a good time to be stacking. From nothing burger to OMG! in under a week.

Seems to me that at least a few places were looking for a reason to drive prices up. I am indeed glad I bought an extra case of 5.56 in September, and I snag 9mm whenever I can since that’s what I shoot by far the most of. I’ve gotten to where I buy a couple boxes of HST every time I order to bolster that inventory. Would rather be able to buy the stuff a case at a time to avoid various lots, but such it is.

5.56 has definitely seen an uptick, but doesn’t really seem pistol ammo has done so.

[rcbusmc24]

We just got 30k of M855 in to the shop today. Its all packaged in 35 round boxes that are in 420 round packs. A lot of stuff has dried up at the distributor level but I feel like some of that is just stuff being held back to increase demand... Luckily I just bought 10k of 9mm and a few k of winchester 193 during the recent rebates so I should be gtg personally until way past election season at least...

[JRB]

We just got 30k of M855 in to the shop today. Its all packaged in 35 round boxes that are in 420 round packs. A lot of stuff has dried up at the distributor level but I feel like some of that is just stuff being held back to increase demand... Luckily I just bought 10k of 9mm and a few k of winchester 193 during the recent rebates so I should be gtg personally until way past election season at least...

I learned the same lessons the hard way the last go-round.

Election in Nov of 2024? Buy lots of ammo by the summer of 2023. Election in 2028? buy lots of ammo NLT summer of 2027, and so 'round she goes.

[Spartan1980]

I heard rumblings this morning that the nitrocellulose supply into the U.S. has been cut off or just dried up. This means no powder is able to be manufactured and I sure hope they were only meaning canister powder for public sale. Anyone heard anything like that?

[GyroF-16]

I heard rumblings this morning that the nitrocellulose supply into the U.S. has been cut off or just dried up. This means no powder is able to be manufactured and I sure hope they were only meaning canister powder for public sale. Anyone heard anything like that?

Okay- now you have my attention.
Where are you hearing these rumblings?
Anyone else have info to confirm/ deny?

[Spartan1980]

Okay- now you have my attention.
Where are you hearing these rumblings?
Anyone else have info to confirm/ deny?

From a Facebook friend who is/has just opened a gunshop and range. He didn't give any detail, but did state that there is no nitrocellulose production in the U.S., which is the main ingredient in smokeless powder. I'm assuming that the supply has been rerouted to .gov purposes, at least I'm hoping that is the case. I'm ordering another 8lbs of pistol powder just in case.

I can tell you from investigating a few years back that the permits for manufacturing smokeless propellent is very extremely burdensome and then there's the hazmat/enviro permitting to go along with it. That's probably why nobody has been interested in getting into it here for years. I feel very thankful that we are getting a couple of primer manufacturing plants in the next year or two.

[Malamute]

From a Facebook friend who is/has just opened a gunshop and range. He didn't give any detail, but did state that there is no nitrocellulose production in the U.S., which is the main ingredient in smokeless powder. I'm assuming that the supply has been rerouted to .gov purposes, at least I'm hoping that is the case. I'm ordering another 8lbs of pistol powder just in case...

I was surprised to think there was no production in the US, so just googled it, it showed 9 companies making it in the US, some specified the main purposes, some didnt, three mentioned for defense related or explosives.

https://www.thomasnet.com/products/n...3813002-1.html

[Spartan1980]

I was surprised to think there was no production in the US, so just googled it, it showed 9 companies making it in the US, some specified the main purposes, some didnt, three mentioned for defense related or explosives.

https://www.thomasnet.com/products/n...3813002-1.html

I found that BAE Systems opened a new plant in the last couple of years, but that is for DOD stuff.

I also found a bunch of companies that make it for lacquer coatings and various finishes and films, but energetic nitrocellulose is much more sparse. And, I completely forgot about Thomasnet. Thanks!

[OlongJohnson]

I recently relocated my entire ammo supply from one storage location to another in the compound. I was seriously thinking to myself, "WTF, I should have unloaded a lot more of this in 2020." Maybe I'll get another chance.

[Suvorov]

I recently relocated my entire ammo supply from one storage location to another in the compound. I was seriously thinking to myself, "WTF, I should have unloaded a lot more of this in 2020." Maybe I'll get another chance.

Yeah, I had to rent a Uhaul just so I could move my ammo out of Kalifornia last year. I was thinking the same thing (but in my defense it was logistically impossible to sell that much ammo legally in Kalifornia). But now that I got everything pigeonholed away, out of sight = out of mind….

Now off to order another case of 9mm….