The great ammo shortage continues

echo6mike · Dec 2, 2020

I don't see this posted anywhere, so here's the latest cheerful news on ammunition production:

https://www.americanrifleman.org/articles/2020/12/1/ammo-shortage-will-last-deep-into-2021

Slackdaddy · Dec 2, 2020

I think it was up a week ago or so.
At the rate they have been producing the last few months, demand out strips supply, due to new gun owners and then those existing owners who did not previously stock up.
$60 a box of 50 rnds 9mm FMJ sits on LGS shelves and is slowly bought by new owners.
A portion of buyers wait in the morning line at big box stores in the off chance they received some overnight.
My gut feeling is "new buyers" will slow down to a trickle as they are seeing the "end times" are not here. Once the new buyers have their guns and few boxes of ammo that demand should cease.
If the Covid vaccinations role out late Dec that will be a big help.
"IF" (big IF), nothing political rocks the boat,, The Ammo shortage will ease slightly come Feb-March. (That is SLIGHTLY).
Yeah, it will take a year to catch up,, but you wont see 40 person deep lines at BPS every morning and ammo may last a day once out on the shelf instead of minutes.

If politically SHTF,,, all bets are off.

Trepang · Dec 2, 2020

I had a hell of a time finding .35 Rem this evening. Not exactly a common round and I doubt the newbies are buying it up.

engineerbrian · Dec 2, 2020

Trepang said:
I had a hell of a time finding .35 Rem this evening. Not exactly a common round and I doubt the newbies are buying it up.

last time I checked Gary from High Rock Outfitters (Hogsniper) had about 6 boxes on the shelf in his shop. He is a hike for you, but I think he has it.

gwchem · Dec 2, 2020

Trepang said:
I had a hell of a time finding .35 Rem this evening. Not exactly a common round and I doubt the newbies are buying it up.

Dick's had some the other day.

Not my favorite store, but they still had a few oddball rifle rounds.

Trepang · Dec 2, 2020

engineerbrian said:
last time I checked Gary from High Rock Outfitters (Hogsniper) had about 6 boxes on the shelf in his shop. He is a hike for you, but I think he has it.

gwchem said:
Dick's had some the other day.

Not my favorite store, but they still had a few oddball rifle rounds.

Thanks.

I found some online at Midway.com. I didn't need much, just a new/old gun that I don't have any ammo for.

marko · Dec 2, 2020

The great ammo shortage continues

NOT IN MY HOUSE. At the beginning of this, friends asked if I had YEAST.

Of course I had Yeast. And black beans.

Just keep your fingers off of my lead.

whistlersmother · Dec 2, 2020

Trepang said:
I had a hell of a time finding .35 Rem this evening. Not exactly a common round and I doubt the newbies are buying it up.

Could be most production has shifted to more common rounds? Less supply / same demand equals shortage.

Trepang · Dec 2, 2020

whistlersmother said:
Could be most production has shifted to more common rounds? Less supply / same demand equals shortage.

Good point

AlBeight · Dec 2, 2020

I can’t find 300 PRC anywhere. Who the hell bought all the rare specialty “boutique” long range precision match rifle ammo? I’ll eat my hat if new panic buyers bought a 300 PRC for home defense. Have a case on order thru my LGS, no idea when that will arrive. It would seem I didn’t think the purchase of this rifle through all the way.

Mark75H · Dec 2, 2020

Slackdaddy said:
I think it was up a week ago or so.
At the rate they have been producing the last few months, demand out strips supply, due to new gun owners and then those existing owners who did not previously stock up.
$60 a box of 50 rnds 9mm FMJ sits on LGS shelves and is slowly bought by new owners.
A portion of buyers wait in the morning line at big box stores in the off chance they received some overnight.
My gut feeling is "new buyers" will slow down to a trickle as they are seeing the "end times" are not here. Once the new buyers have their guns and few boxes of ammo that demand should cease.
If the Covid vaccinations role out late Dec that will be a big help.
"IF" (big IF), nothing political rocks the boat,, The Ammo shortage will ease slightly come Feb-March. (That is SLIGHTLY).
Yeah, it will take a year to catch up,, but you wont see 40 person deep lines at BPS every morning and ammo may last a day once out on the shelf instead of minutes.

If politically SHTF,,, all bets are off.

Until Harris and O'Rourke start spouting, then its every thing starts over

Melnic · Dec 2, 2020

Fair weather shooters will be buying less ammo. Hoarders that have not hoarded enough will gobble things up. who knows that early 2020 will be like.
I want to hear more about reloading primer production and imports !
Traditionally a 3cents a piece, even 4 cents right now if AVAILABLE would be tolerable.
I'd much rather see the manufacturers make that extra penny in the short term than the people buying and flipping them

erwos · Dec 2, 2020

Primer imports would definitely relieve some stress in the reloading market. Powder Valley seemed to say in their article that foreign primer production had also been impacted by COVID, and Murom in Russia was having management issues on top of it.

In general, the ammo market also got bit by Remington's problems, as they were running about half capacity before Vista bought them.

Brickman301 · Dec 3, 2020

AlBeight said:
I can’t find 300 PRC anywhere. Who the hell bought all the rare specialty “boutique” long range precision match rifle ammo? I’ll eat my hat if new panic buyers bought a 300 PRC for home defense. Have a case on order thru my LGS, no idea when that will arrive. It would seem I didn’t think the purchase of this rifle through all the way.

Not 300 PRC, but I was speaking with a guy who sells ammo at gun shows. He explained this to be.
He sells, a lot of odd and obsolete ammo, along with hunting calibers. He was telling me, at the Frederick show that he had been lugging around a lot of calibers like 32 S&W, 32 S&W long, 38 colt, etc. for years, with hardly any sells. He said, now with this “run on guns and ammo”, he’s selling a lot of it.

He basically was telling me people ( not “gun people”) couldn’t find guns, or wanted a gun right away, (no HQL) so they dug out grandpa’s old guns, so at least they had something.
Same thing, they were pulling out the old hunting rifles, so they wanted/needed ammo.

This kinda,

Makes total since to me. This is why we are having a hard time finding anything.

ironpony · Dec 3, 2020

Mark75H said:
Until Harris and O'Rourke start spouting, then its every thing starts over

This.

tallen702 · Dec 3, 2020

Trepang said:
I had a hell of a time finding .35 Rem this evening. Not exactly a common round and I doubt the newbies are buying it up.

The sheer volume of .35 Rem Model 8 and 81 sales I've seen over the past 3-6 months on GB alone would explain a shortage. Add in the fact that this year's deer hunting season has seen some of the highest participation percentages and success rates in the past 20-30 years and it's no surprise that it's hard to find.

Pinecone · Dec 3, 2020

whistlersmother said:
Could be most production has shifted to more common rounds? Less supply / same demand equals shortage.

Pretty much all the center fire rounds are off the same line.

It takes time (lost production) and effort to switch the lines over to another caliber. So why do that when you can sell more of the common calibers than you can make?

But as long as people are snapping up ammo, at inflated prices, the shortage and high prices will be with us. Once everyone starts to slow down their buying, and not paying excessively, things will settle back down.

AlphabetSoup · Dec 3, 2020

I haven't been in a store in awhile, but is 22lr having the same issues?

I don't know why that one would be getting the big hoarding bump but since you can't find a 22 rifle new in stock most places, maybe there is the same issue?

I'll hopefully need some squirrel whacking rounds soon.

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

JB62 · Dec 3, 2020

I was thinking of buying a 6.5PRC rifle to mess with for something different until checked ammo. Either unavailable or little had seen was $5 per round. No thanks, will wait I guess no point in buying rifle optic etc.. if cannot enjoy.

Slackdaddy · Dec 3, 2020

My hope is that the rush slows and the lefties stay quiet long enough for ammo to remain on shelves for 12 hours at normal prices,, And I can stock 2 years worth before they start running their yaps.
Just need to make it until 2022

Mark75H said:
Until Harris and O'Rourke start spouting, then its every thing starts over

The great ammo shortage continues

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