Ammo shortage: Thoughts

Teppodama

Teppodama

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Anyone that shoots with any regularity knows of the ammo shortages. Several reasons pop up in discussions such as the dramatic increase in firearm purchasing, fewer staff at ammo manufacturing facilities due to Covid, hording behavior, etc.

On the deep end, I put forth the question of the possibility of special interest groups or government agencies buying up the ammunition. Much more difficult to go after the guns especially with the explosion in sales due to the civil unrest in some cities around the country. Much much easier to go after the ammunition.
 
Teppodama said:
Anyone that shoots with any regularity knows of the ammo shortages. Several reasons pop up in discussions such as the dramatic increase in firearm purchasing, fewer staff at ammo manufacturing facilities due to Covid, hording behavior, etc.

On the deep end, I put forth the question of the possibility of special interest groups or government agencies buying up the ammunition. Much more difficult to go after the guns especially with the explosion in sales due to the civil unrest in some cities around the country. Much much easier to go after the ammunition.
Click to expand...

It's just demand and hoarding. I don't think it's deep state stuff. Even reloading components are hard to get.

I personally bought about 8k rounds when I saw the toilet paper shortage. I should have bought more. Look at how difficult it was to get 22 ammo for the longest time. Even after .223 went back to normal .22lr was still selling out. You have people hoarding like 50-100k 22lr ammo.

Places are saying the demand is so high right now it makes the 2012 and 2016 shortages insignificant in comparison.

Stores selling millions of rounds and entire inventories in days. Online retailers seeing 10's of thousands of orders. Target sports usa had 10's of millions of rounds. It sold out in like 2 weeks except some of the more expensive sd/hunting/match ammo. Websites have millions of rounds backordered and are still accepting backorders.
 
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RerouteToRemain said:
It's just demand and hoarding. I don't think it's deep state stuff. Even reloading components are hard to get.

I personally bought about 8k rounds when I saw the toilet paper shortage. I should have bought more. Look at how difficult it was to get 22 ammo for the longest time. Even after .223 went back to normal .22lr was still selling out. You have people hoarding like 50-100k 22lr ammo.

Places are saying the demand is so high right now it makes the 2012 and 2016 shortages insignificant in comparison.

Stores selling millions of rounds and entire inventories in days. Online retailers seeing 10's of thousands of orders. Target sports usa had 10's of millions of rounds. It sold out in like 2 weeks except some of the more expensive sd/hunting/match ammo. Websites have millions of rounds backordered and are still accepting backorders.
Click to expand...
I thought I was being pro-active in snagging up 1k of 9mm and 1k of 7.62. I really really should have bought more. Whole lot of dry fire in the foreseeable future.
 
Strychnine said:
Just roll your own man. We got taught how to do that in 4th grade back in 1979.

I live in Georgia, USA.
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No gear to reload anymore and its been ages since I reloaded anything.
 
There's a shortage? still have plenty of 9, 6.5, and 338 among others so I am oblivious that there is a shortage going on right now. Is it as bad as 2013?
 
Sakurabaism said:
There's a shortage? still have plenty of 9, 6.5, and 338 among others so I am oblivious that there is a shortage going on right now. Is it as bad as 2013?
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If places aren't wiped out, the prices are through the roof. Lot of places are limiting the amounts you can purchase at one time to try and keep some sort of inventory available for more customers.
 
I agree that ammo is just in demand. Nothing sneaky or nefarious afoot.
 
lead mines were shut down, and copper mines were shut down. So lack of raw materials, and an unprecedented demand for product. 556/223 and 9mm are as scarce as water in the Sahara right now
 
evergreenrider said:
lead mines were shut down, and copper mines were shut down. So lack of raw materials, and an unprecedented demand for product. 556/223 and 9mm are as scarce as water in the Sahara right now
Click to expand...

Oh if only we could sell them to you from Australia, my local gun shop has 800k 9mm rounds in their warehouse of various brands.
 
Woldog said:
Oh if only we could sell them to you from Australia, my local gun shop has 800k 9mm rounds in their warehouse of various brands.
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I bought my last ammo from Austrailia. F1N1, their version of m855. Good stuff.
 
Couple of things caused it...
-Manufacturers naturally relax production during Spring and Summer because of those periods see reduced purchases. Its a balancing act between keeping enough stock on shelves to 'feed the beast' but not so much that when buying picks up in autumn and winter that prices are depressed because of crushing surplus left over from the previous season. so coming out of Feb, ammo makers were already starting to gear down production numbers
-motherfucking COVID. You had places straight quarantined up. Ammo couldnt be made because half your employees are staying home, the distribution network was prioritizing medical stuff so shipping was suffering as well. These 2 things were compounded by:
-materials shortages. Lot of the BS we use to make ammo comes from overseas. we get a huge amount of copper from China because mining it ourselves is environmentally psychopathic. Same with lead. The ammo may be assembled here, but a lot of its components were coming from countries under lock down
-finally, you had millions of first time gun buyers snapping up ammo. They just bought a gun because of panic buying and they needed LOTS of ammo in case the US became a live action The Road simulator.

I sat in awe in my store as these things coalesced into a fucking inventory nightmare. Right now? my store is one of the only in Eastern VA to keep high quantities of 9mm and 5.56mm. The prices are of course high, but its because im buying ammo now at outrageous prices just to keep it stocked. Sourced a bunch of 9mm NATO spec military ammo from Germany and Belgium. Got 62 grain SS109 from Australia, Lake City and shitloads of Radway green
 
Roaming East said:
Couple of things caused it...
-Manufacturers naturally relax production during Spring and Summer because of those periods see reduced purchases. Its a balancing act between keeping enough stock on shelves to 'feed the beast' but not so much that when buying picks up in autumn and winter that prices are depressed because of crushing surplus left over from the previous season. so coming out of Feb, ammo makers were already starting to gear down production numbers
-motherfucking COVID. You had places straight quarantined up. Ammo couldnt be made because half your employees are staying home, the distribution network was prioritizing medical stuff so shipping was suffering as well. These 2 things were compounded by:
-materials shortages. Lot of the BS we use to make ammo comes from overseas. we get a huge amount of copper from China because mining it ourselves is environmentally psychopathic. Same with lead. The ammo may be assembled here, but a lot of its components were coming from countries under lock down
-finally, you had millions of first time gun buyers snapping up ammo. They just bought a gun because of panic buying and they needed LOTS of ammo in case the US became a live action The Road simulator.

I sat in awe in my store as these things coalesced into a fucking inventory nightmare. Right now? my store is one of the only in Eastern VA to keep high quantities of 9mm and 5.56mm. The prices are of course high, but its because im buying ammo now at outrageous prices just to keep it stocked. Sourced a bunch of 9mm NATO spec military ammo from Germany and Belgium. Got 62 grain SS109 from Australia, Lake City and shitloads of Radway green
Click to expand...
You ship and take online orders?
 
Teppodama said:
I thought I was being pro-active in snagging up 1k of 9mm and 1k of 7.62. I really really should have bought more. Whole lot of dry fire in the foreseeable future.
Click to expand...
I did even worse. Thought i was clever buying 500 of 9mm and a couple hundred .22s when the prices were going up, disn't think they'd straight up disappear from shelves...

Oops.
 
Roaming East said:
Couple of things caused it...
-Manufacturers naturally relax production during Spring and Summer because of those periods see reduced purchases. Its a balancing act between keeping enough stock on shelves to 'feed the beast' but not so much that when buying picks up in autumn and winter that prices are depressed because of crushing surplus left over from the previous season. so coming out of Feb, ammo makers were already starting to gear down production numbers
-motherfucking COVID. You had places straight quarantined up. Ammo couldnt be made because half your employees are staying home, the distribution network was prioritizing medical stuff so shipping was suffering as well. These 2 things were compounded by:
-materials shortages. Lot of the BS we use to make ammo comes from overseas. we get a huge amount of copper from China because mining it ourselves is environmentally psychopathic. Same with lead. The ammo may be assembled here, but a lot of its components were coming from countries under lock down
-finally, you had millions of first time gun buyers snapping up ammo. They just bought a gun because of panic buying and they needed LOTS of ammo in case the US became a live action The Road simulator.

I sat in awe in my store as these things coalesced into a fucking inventory nightmare. Right now? my store is one of the only in Eastern VA to keep high quantities of 9mm and 5.56mm. The prices are of course high, but its because im buying ammo now at outrageous prices just to keep it stocked. Sourced a bunch of 9mm NATO spec military ammo from Germany and Belgium. Got 62 grain SS109 from Australia, Lake City and shitloads of Radway green
Click to expand...
Man, i'll suck yo dick for some 9mm. Times are tough out here... <Eek2.0>
 
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