O/T ammo

Had a chat with one of our campus police officers a couple of weeks ago. He said it was very hard to find ammo for hand guns. He'd been on the internet looking for primers and couldn't find any. Said Walmart and other sporting goods stores had empty shelves. Anybody here having that problem?

Oh yeah. Ever since the "election", we've has a "change". Components for reloading and the ammunition itself are hard to get and if you do find what you are looking for, the prices are sky high. America voted for "change" and America got it. Have you had enough "change".... yet?

Yep. our Wally World has only shotgun shells right now. All the ammo that fits my gun hasn't been on the shelf for weeks. Happens any time a lib gets elected, but never to this extent. But they have never had the super majority that they now enjoy. I still have quite some powder, but can't get any primers locally.

Ammo and reloading components have been in short supply for the past several years due to military demand. All the ammo plants in the US have been going full tilt, and demand for ammo and components from overseas suppliers like IAI in Israel and Wolf in Russia has been high as well.

So when it became clear how the election results would turn out last fall, the hoarders went nuts and bought everything they could get their hands on. Since the manufacturers were already pretty much at capacity, it was inevitable that there would be a shortage. Eventually the hoarders will lose interest and supplies will return to normal, but don't expect that to happen for several months.

Was at the Rural King farm store in Owensboro Ky yesterday,the only thing on the shelves were shotgun shells,afew centerfire rifle cartridges and some off brand 22s. There were no centerfire handgun cartridges available in any caliber.
As the newsmedia and movies incorrectly say, they are all out of bullets. Joe

My brother in Idaho says EVERY store he goes to says the same thing all OUT!! They order and order and when anything comes in its sold out the same day!! My nephew reloads and it's getting WAY expensive even for that..Don't know what's up but it DOESN't look good to me..Charles

I have, among other handguns, two .45 autos. The fellow at our local Wally World says they get in whatever ammo they can every week, and the .45's always sell out in an hour.

Yes, northern Indiana on the southern Michigan border. Walmart has some good deals on longarms, just no rounds here, and certainly none for revolvers. Two other locally owned shops I go to, the same. At first I asked the Walmart guy "Gettin out of the business?" and he said no, just none to be had. Sent one fella 60 miles up into Michigan to another store for a couple of boxes for his 30.06. Local marshall told me that with unemployment being up, as well as a fear of someone going after a gun ban, they're low to begin with, but then added that a U.S. Marshall that he knows told him that Washington told the manufacturers to cut production by 50% and they have. I don't know if that last part is true or not, but I mostly work in Illinois and have heard that there too.

I haven't gone to search for the Senate Bill (SB...) yet, bot got an Email yesterday naming Feinstein (CA), Laughtenberg (NJ) and someone else as having just put a bill into committee that would ban sales at gun shows as well as private dealings (neighbor to neighbor, family to family, etc). They used the "...our guns are winding up in Mexico..." excuse that I zero'd in on the second I first heard it..."Oh, oh another stealth excuse attempt at a gun ban".

Do you remember a couple of years back when OSHA tried to get legislated that "...handling ammo was an occupational hazard and therefore must be stopped" so that store employees couldn't touch it to stock it or anything else? Was a stealth attempt at a gun ban without banning the guns, just no ammo for the guns. The NRA, may God always bless them, caught that and made it known, causing the big boss at OSHA to say, "Oh no, wasn't an attempt at a gun ban, just a mere accidental oversite with an outcome that hadn't been considered, blah, blah, blah". Yeah, the lyin piece of garbage. Anyway, do you remember when that happened a couple of years ago? It most certainly did.

Good luck, stock up while you can.

Mark

"...a U.S. Marshall that he knows told him that Washington told the manufacturers to cut production by 50% and they have..."

Mark, does that make any sense to you? The federal government is probably the single largest consumer of ammunition. Why would "Washington" (presumably meaing the current adminstration) ask for cuts? Particularly knowing that state and local law enforcement agencies can't even get their training in due to shortages.

Spreading these sorts of rumors just adds fuel to the hoarders. Of course, it's always somebody who knows somebody else who got this from somebody else who supposedly has the inside scoop.

You can get the straight dope from the manufacturers themselves just by hitting Google News with "ammunition production". One of the articles you can read at the CNN link below.

A couple of excerpts:

' Each year U.S. ammo manufacturers make about 8 billion rounds, according to the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the trade association for the firearms and ammunition industry. Current production data won't be in until late May, but the foundation expects the numbers to be way up.

"In order to keep up with demand for ammunition, manufacturers are working at full capacity, 24-7," says Ted Novin, an NSSF spokesman. "Currently demand for ammunition is outpacing supply."'
.
.
'A message from Steve Hornady, president of Hornady Ammunition, on the company's Web site reads:

"Here at Hornady Manufacturing we are breaking our own production records in an attempt to keep up with customer demand. We have added extra shifts, machinery and we are also in the process of expanding our manufacturing plant."

Winchester Ammunition posted a similar statement:

"Winchester Ammunition, like other ammunition manufacturers, has seen the demand for our products increase significantly since last fall. To meet that increased demand, our operations are running 24 hours a day, 7 days a week."'
Ammo hard to find CNN

My son brought over some handguns to shoot a couple weeks ago- wife and I especially liked a .380 semi-auto- small, but had some punch. I think it was an AMD brand, but could be some other initials.

Went to the local firearms purveyor, and he said, "I can probably get you the handgun you want, but forget about ammo- I haven't seen any .380 for months, and it is constantly on order."

I agree that this is the "back door" solution to the 2nd amendment for the libs- and it seems to be working.

It makes just as much sense as you saying that ammo and reloading supplies are in short supply because of Government demand. It takes someone from a shallow well to believe that. We are using no where near the ammunition that we have in most of the decades in the 20th century, yet we are supposed to believe that is the cause. If there was such a shortage because of government demand we would have new production lines coming on immediately, like we did in EVERY other situation where we were at war and there actually was a shortage. There is no shortage of lead, or copper or any other of the hard items needed for ammunition production. The cost of these items in the scrapping industry has crashed so there should be an abundance of raw resources available. Someone has got to be controlling the output of the ammo manufacturers. I find it hard to believe that the shortage we are seeing is just the result of peoples hoarding, I am sure it is influencing it but there has to be a reduction in production to have the results we are seeing. Sometimes you have to not take everything the media feeds you as gospel truth, and actually think thru a situation.

You lectured me the other day on verifying sources and now you offer the word of the Commie News Network as unimpeachable. Unbelievable. I guess you have been completely brainwashed by the leftist, collectivists philosophy. There are several legitimate sources who state that the Federal Goverment has, since shortly after external_links election, contrived various means to keep ammunitiopn stocks that would be available for sale to the general public low. Among these were banning the military from selling used brass back to manufacturers, this directive has since been rescinded. The federally subsidized militarization of Police departments across the country has increased law enforcement ammo demand an estimated 15% since the first of the year. Anyone notice small towns and rural sheriff departments with newly formed SWAT teams etc? A direct effect Obammas election is hoarding, as you called it, by people who are concerned about the future of our basic constitutional rights. There are just as many reasons to believe sources out of Washington D.C. who say Remington, for example, was ordered to cut production by 50% back in late November as there is to not believe them. If a credible source who works for remington posts that this is not true then I will believe them, otherwise I'll get my ""facts"" elsewhere than CNN. The Federal Goverment, at any level, is not to be trusted and that is why we have a 2nd amendment to start with.

jbp, when we are in Owensboro visiting friends, we always go to Rural King and spend much more than we plan to. That is a great store. I wish we had one here in the upstate of SC. You folks are lucky.
Richard

You need to update your nnalert talking points file. The Military is not responsible for the ammo shortage, in fact, the top suppliers with verifiable contracts have not been at full capacity for months. The Pentagon may be a Goverment entity but the people in charge know they need a dependable supply of ammunition and they have that supply in place.

The nice lady that works nights in the sporting goods end of our Wal-Mart has gotten to where she goes and looks for ammo first thing when she gets there and brings it on out. I was in there a few weeks ago walking off my Mexican supper and drinks and asked her about the ammo. She said that day the store got two trucks in. She went and looked through the sporting goods stuff and they had sent on box (not a case a box of 50) 45 UMC's thats it, and there was a guy waiting to buy it when she came out.

I know alot of people that have started placing orders once a month on two or three web sites that let people back order stuff. They just order what they can aford and it comes in at random times.

Dave

Laa-Laa,

Same question for you as before: What are your sources? Give me legitimate and credible sources and I'll be happy to check them out. And should they prove me wrong I will gladly retract anything I've said that was in error.

As for the CNN link, that was just the first article that came up. You can do the same I as I did and pick your sources. Or, you can go to the manufacturers' web sites and get the same quotes that the reporter used.

Still waitin' for those sources, Habibi.

Blin,

Show me a credible source that any US ammunition manufacturer has deliberately cut back production, and I'll take back what I said.

If the government is responsible for reduced production levels, they did it back in that "other" administration. As someone who actively reloads, I started seeing component shortages a couple of years ago. In particular, the IMI brass I favor for my service rifle became unavailable, supposedly because all of IMI's production was going to the US armed forces.

By the way, government ammo production HAS stepped up. The Army's Lake City plant has quadrupled its annual production since 9/11. See the link below.
Lake City quadruples ammo production UPI

You don't shoot much, do you?

Snopes has it -- fatwhiteman.com -- pajamasmedia -- thats to name a few -- I just can't see trusting CNN -- half of Obammas current propaganda Gestapo came from CNN. As for hoarding and hiding firearms and ammunition that is because when the Goverment comes after your guns the first step will be suspension of habeus corpus, no friendly knock on the door and no warrants.

Simply supply and demand.
Guns and ammo demand has gone through the roof because everyone is afraid that external_link and the nnalert will pass some sort of draconian gun/ammo ban so they are stocking up. It's good for the guns and ammo business as they are wotking 24/7 to supply this demand.
If there's any conspiracy, it's the gun ban people in Comgress that are conspiring to limit our 2nd Ammendments rights.

Bought a handgun lately? I picked up a S&W .40 after Christmas and just bought my wife a .38 +P airweight. They're lined up elbow to elbow buyin guns. Mostly semi auto as the HR 45 bill will ban any gun with a clip. And the %500 tax on ammo is driving the hoarding. Surprisingly the prices of the handgun ammo isn't "skyrocketing" like you'd think. Sure, there are no bargains, but no real gouging either. I've mail ordered some and got it. Although not real quickly. One order was not expected until July and I got it about 3 weeks ago. And its not just pistol ammo. I can't find a single round of 12Ga. 00 buckshot in any store
I gotta believe its artificial rationing. Why isn't scrap lead and brass prices going up?

Washington would ask for cuts because they know that the companies will fill government orders first as it is guaranteed money and profit. If there would be anything left over it would go out ot the public. Thus if The gov. uses say 60% of the total ammo manufactured then the rest of us would only be getting 10% of what we normally do while the gov. would get all of theirs.

I'm from Se AZ. Haven't been shopping for ammo cuz I have always made it a habit to pick up a box or two of whatever caliber whenever I can. I shoot as much as time allows but I still have quite a bit. Bought Seller & Bellot 9MM back when it was $119.00 per thou. I also reload a lot. 40SW,9MM 38-357, 45ACP, 30 carbine, and a few rifle calibers. Relaxing cuz it takes my mind off of everything else.I weigh every rounds powder and use a single stage press cuz I'm never in a hurry. I recently (two weeks ago) went on a turkey hunt in New Mexico and stopped in at a gun shop in Alamogordo. He had quite a bit of hand gun ammo. I only bought some small pistol primers cuz I was down to 100. He had winchester and I think Federal. I hope this madness ends soon.

Actually Mark, I qualified what I said, not knowing if it was actually true or not.

But with the stuff coming out of DC these days, Homeland Security memos leaking out and targeting folks, ginned up stories about us being the cause of drug wars south of the border, OSHA having been caught trying to ban handling ammo...nothing surprises me. So when I hear something, I have no problem passing it on, and did qualify it when I did.

Mark