Understanding the ammo shortage, & what u can do to turn it around

[Courtney.cj.chen]

There is a ton of speculations circulating out there regarding why there is an ammo shortage- that the govt is buying it out, to prevent it from being in our hands- or businesses taking advantage of the surge and slowing down production to drive up prices.... and on and on...

heres my take on it-
whatever that is truly going on- SLOW YOUR HORSES with the frantic buying of ammo! this contents of the gun bill would cover the guns and magazines- not ammo. no need to buy every box in sight. When the connecticut tragedy occurred- people immediately went out to buy ARs, AR mags, and .223 & .308s. In order to conserve their ammo- due to the immediate shortage of the 223cal ammo- people started buying up .22LR bc its costs around... $20 for 400- so thats very very inexpensive for target practice. What if you're someone who doesn't own a rifle that chambers 223 or 22LR? all of a sudden, seeing everyone buy all this ammo, you as well, go out and buy- probably the most common- 9mm Luger - not to mention that 9mm is the next most inexpensive and popular caliber after 22LR - so thats the next caliber people are going to go after (sure theres others that are cheaper, but 9x19 aka 9 Luger aka 9 Parabellum, is the most popular). Next, there's the talk of banning high capacity magazines... so all of a sudden, 9mm handguns become very popular, especially those that can hold over 15 rds, such as Smith & Wesson SD9VE, Sigma, etc, and the Springfield XDm. and so on and so forth- so people are buying 9mm handguns and needing the ammo for it.

The factories need time to catch up with production. No matter what is truly going on- us buying everything in sight will not help the situation. If we have ANYTHING to worry about- its our guns and the magazines they hold- lets save each other in this community, a little bit of headache, by helping each other, eliminate at least ONE area that we do have control over- ammo shortage & their inflated prices. Heres a couple ways:

1) stop repeating the rumor mills: the govt is buying out, so that we cant have any. it will only make people want to go out and buy more.
2) if you MUST buy- only go to places that do not raise their prices. such as walmart, Cabelas, etc.
3) alot of times that places like walmart set these boxes on their shelves, its gone. if you're there when it happens, and you know a friend who is in need of a box- pick it up for him/her- so that they don't need to buy if for an inflated price elsewhere.
4) Sell a couple boxes of your ammo if you have enough- at fair market value, just as a "pay it forward" in the gun community
5) if you're looking for ammo, try to make a trade- instead of buying. Armslist.com is a great place for that. I am going to do a short review of that site in the next couple of days.
6) Just wait it out! bc thats the best thing we can do, so that the factories can catch up.

[XD357grandpa]

Spot on CJ. The shortage if from hoarding and panic buying. I've heard people in here mention they had a 100K rounds. If it comes to a shooting war, the war will be over or you will be dead long before you can make a dent in that much ammo. If you like range time fine, but don't go shooting 1000 rds every week because you can. Stay tuned up but don't waste it either. Bartering is a possibility? Sure, someone comes to your door offering to trade beans for bullets? Likely they want the bullets to kill you and take both.

Like CJ said, SLOW YOUR HORSES, let the supply catch up. Once the first few boxes stay on the shelf more than a few hours the rush will be over and no one will be buying another box until the next panic attack. Bloomstick in NY is telling the NEA not to sell their gun and ammo stock. He probably is laughing his hiney off at us while making a killing on his own ammo portfolio.

[Riverkilt]

Get all you can before the hoarders get there!! Was checking out a WalMart in Farmington, NM when I was on a trip....no ammo, but there was a guy there who was looking who said he already had 5K rounds....jeez buddy!

Somewhere there's a doctoral thesis for an economics student looking at what's happened in the firearms market the last few months.

I got lucky yesterday. My local WalMart got a case of 9mm in. I went there at 0700 and got my 3 box of 50 limit. Went back early this morning to see if any survived...none left.

My guess it will be YEARS before the ammo and firearms market stabilizes. Have had orders out for a Sig Sauer P226 TacOps and a Springfield Armory EMP for months. My LGS insists he's on a watch list with all his distributors for those....and yet nothing. Did the factories shut down? Don't the manufacturers wanna meet demand and make money for their owners and stockholders? Makes no sense at all. And when things don't make sense folks think up weird stories.

Seems like the gun and ammo factories would wanna be running full tilt 24/7 and raking in the dough. Go figure.

Found a Sig Sauer P238 in a most unlikely place - a Trading Post. Snapped it up but the only ammo in town for it was 4 boxes of 20 .380 hollow points at $17 +tax each...about a dollar a round. Bought all four boxes and ran three mags through at the range just to get the feel for the new pistol.

When I find a store with any sort of ammo for sale I start to wonder if I should buy a gun to fit the ammo....

No clue why this weird supply and demand situation isn't making the national news as a weird phenomenon.

[Courtney.cj.chen]

riverkilt- its that mentality, that is making it harder for the supply to catch up. i know that you are trying to take it for yourself, so that the "hoarders" don't need it. but.. you don't need to have a "hoard-worthy" pile of ammo, to have a hoarders mentality. & you, my friend, i mean this kindly- but you are a hoarder ;) what do you need all that ammo for? if "they" come... trust me. they're coming for our guns and mags. bc what good is ammo, if there aren't guns to put them in. why don't you sell those three boxes that you got, at walmart prices- to someone that you know is genuinely running low.

[XD357grandpa]

Gee riverkilt, you have all that ammo and Page is not that far away....I'll have to make a not of that

[UDoggie]

+1

I just sold a friend a box of 500rnds of 22lr, at the price I paid for it ~6 months ago, instead of the 2.5x he paid for his previous brick.

Crazy, man.

UD

[Courtney.cj.chen]

+1

I just sold a friend a box of 500rnds of 22lr, at the price I paid for it ~6 months ago, instead of the 2.5x he paid for his previous brick.

Crazy, man.

UD

Thank you!! we need more people like you, UD -

[beachbum17]

I have several thousand on had should a situation arise and it's cheaper to buy in bulk.

Also when you go to the range as much as me 6000 rounds only lasts a year when you bring friends and family.

I've been trying to buy up ammo at reasonable price so I have more range ammo and I'm also unfortunately in charge of supply all my
Friends because they can't find it and I'm better at finding it

[beachbum17]

When I find a store with any sort of ammo for sale I start to wonder if I should buy a gun to fit the ammo....

No clue why this weird supply and demand situation isn't making the national news as a weird phenomenon.

I find myself doing like wise. Few I have some .308 ammo sitting around for when I shoot with my buddy maybe I should buy my own .308 haha.

Also with 9mm being so scarce and going $20-26 a box on armslist.com I would consider getting another .45 or a .40 (which I thought I would never do) because ammo is the same price as the 9mm and you can find plenty of .40 and .45 in and out of stores

[sevans1965]

I find it funny that some hoarders have more ammo than the life of their weapon.