The (Not So) Great Ammo Shortage of 2013

[chasfm11]

I'm pretty frustrated by the lack of .22ammo, too. I figured that the larger calibers might go and have the stock that I want. But .22? Please!

I've got arrangements with two different Wal-Marts to find out what they are getting each day. Their corp. office is not allowing the stores to order any ammo so they get whatever is on the truck

I don't know if you can believe that but the Wal-Mart employees claim that they will not be getting .223 again. The is a government "hold" on the sale of all of that. If true, it is exactly what I expected. They cannot ban and confiscate so they will just dry up the ammo.

[K.Mooneyham]

I'm pretty frustrated by the lack of .22ammo, too. I figured that the larger calibers might go and have the stock that I want. But .22? Please!

I've got arrangements with two different Wal-Marts to find out what they are getting each day. Their corp. office is not allowing the stores to order any ammo so they get whatever is on the truck

I don't know if you can believe that but the Wal-Mart employees claim that they will not be getting .223 again. The is a government "hold" on the sale of all of that. If true, it is exactly what I expected. They cannot ban and confiscate so they will just dry up the ammo.

Can you expand what you meant by that? Do you mean the government has ordered Wal-mart to not order .223 or ordered the ammo manufacturers to not ship to Wal-mart? I'm pretty curious...

[Andrew]

I'm pretty frustrated by the lack of .22ammo, too. I figured that the larger calibers might go and have the stock that I want. But .22? Please!

I've got arrangements with two different Wal-Marts to find out what they are getting each day. Their corp. office is not allowing the stores to order any ammo so they get whatever is on the truck

I don't know if you can believe that but the Wal-Mart employees claim that they will not be getting .223 again. The is a government "hold" on the sale of all of that. If true, it is exactly what I expected. They cannot ban and confiscate so they will just dry up the ammo.

My vendor of choice for 5.56 or .223 is Old Virginia, they have run out twice since Sandy Hook, but have always had stock again in a few days. http://www.oldvirginia.net/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; . If the Feds were confiscating ammo, surely they'd suck up supply fron one of their contractors for 5.56, Black Hills.

[chasfm11]

I'm pretty frustrated by the lack of .22ammo, too. I figured that the larger calibers might go and have the stock that I want. But .22? Please!

I've got arrangements with two different Wal-Marts to find out what they are getting each day. Their corp. office is not allowing the stores to order any ammo so they get whatever is on the truck

I don't know if you can believe that but the Wal-Mart employees claim that they will not be getting .223 again. The is a government "hold" on the sale of all of that. If true, it is exactly what I expected. They cannot ban and confiscate so they will just dry up the ammo.

Can you expand what you meant by that? Do you mean the government has ordered Wal-mart to not order .223 or ordered the ammo manufacturers to not ship to Wal-mart? I'm pretty curious...

They weren't that clear. I understood them to say that some governmental group was preventing sales from suppliers to Wal-Mart. But the people that I was talking to were from a store and are pretty far down the food chain. Maybe it is a buyer for Wal-Mart or a Wal-Mart lawyer that is signaling that there will be no more .223 ammo and maybe that was a temporary thing while everyone was waiting for POTUS to have his news conference. Like I said, I don't put a lot of stock in that part but they seemed pretty up to speed on the overall ammo environment at Wal-Mart.

BTW, I don't have a dog in the .223 fight.

[K.Mooneyham]

Well, SOMEBODY has bought a LOT of .223/5.56mm in the last month or so. I'm curious about something...has anyone on here been to a gun show RECENTLY (since the Sandy Hook incident)? Does it seem like vendors there have .223/5.56mm ammo for sale? I'm not asking about prices, just availability. I know that some are buying to put it away for a "rainy day", and I do have some for that purpose myself...and MANY people have bought ARs and other .223 rifles recently...but there was PLENTY of ammo and now there is VERY little...it had to have gone SOMEWHERE. Did the "resellers" buy up a substantial chunk of it...and I don't mean retailers, but rather the folks who resell at gunshows and at "Guns America", etc.

EDITED TO ADD: Thank you chasfm11 for the clarification.

[pbwalker]

Well, SOMEBODY has bought a LOT of .223/5.56mm in the last month or so. I'm curious about something...has anyone on here been to a gun show RECENTLY (since the Sandy Hook incident)? Does it seem like vendors there have .223/5.56mm ammo for sale? I'm not asking about prices, just availability. I know that some are buying to put it away for a "rainy day", and I do have some for that purpose myself...and MANY people have bought ARs and other .223 rifles recently...but there was PLENTY of ammo and now there is VERY little...it had to have gone SOMEWHERE. Did the "resellers" buy up a substantial chunk of it...and I don't mean retailers, but rather the folks who resell at gunshows and at "Guns America", etc.

EDITED TO ADD: Thank you chasfm11 for the clarification.

Well, I can tell you that some "people" ( ) have friends that work at Academy and get a heads up prior to the pallet being brought out to the sales floor.

[johncanfield]

I'm looking for .308 Hornady Match in 178 grain. Sportsman's Guide displayed this message after I put a box in the virtual shopping cart:

"We're sorry, (Product: Hornady® Superformance .308 Winchester(R) 178 - grain BTHP SPF Match Ammo, 20 rounds (WX2-180246)) is not currently in stock. It's expected in our warehouse on September 23, 2013 and will be shipped to you within 24 hours after its arrival. You will not be billed until the item is shipped. If you do not want to wait for this item, please remove it from your Shopping Cart."

[K.Mooneyham]

Well, SOMEBODY has bought a LOT of .223/5.56mm in the last month or so. I'm curious about something...has anyone on here been to a gun show RECENTLY (since the Sandy Hook incident)? Does it seem like vendors there have .223/5.56mm ammo for sale? I'm not asking about prices, just availability. I know that some are buying to put it away for a "rainy day", and I do have some for that purpose myself...and MANY people have bought ARs and other .223 rifles recently...but there was PLENTY of ammo and now there is VERY little...it had to have gone SOMEWHERE. Did the "resellers" buy up a substantial chunk of it...and I don't mean retailers, but rather the folks who resell at gunshows and at "Guns America", etc.

EDITED TO ADD: Thank you chasfm11 for the clarification.

Well, I can tell you that some "people" ( ) have friends that work at Academy and get a heads up prior to the pallet being brought out to the sales floor.

Okay, that's cool, I figure some folks would get heads up about ammo shipments, but are you buying up thousands of rounds at a pop, though? I'm just trying to figure out where its all going. A lot of people may have bought ARs though those are getting hard to come by too, and not all of them or even most of them have time to spend all day waiting for shipments to come in, AND they don't have the money to buy it all up at one go. TENS OF MILLIONS of rounds have to be getting churned out right now, I'd imagine the ammo factories that make this stuff are all pretty much running three shifts (and if they aren't, well they sure are losing out on money to be made)...and yet the shelves are still bare no matter where you go...its just not adding up.

[pbwalker]

Well, SOMEBODY has bought a LOT of .223/5.56mm in the last month or so. I'm curious about something...has anyone on here been to a gun show RECENTLY (since the Sandy Hook incident)? Does it seem like vendors there have .223/5.56mm ammo for sale? I'm not asking about prices, just availability. I know that some are buying to put it away for a "rainy day", and I do have some for that purpose myself...and MANY people have bought ARs and other .223 rifles recently...but there was PLENTY of ammo and now there is VERY little...it had to have gone SOMEWHERE. Did the "resellers" buy up a substantial chunk of it...and I don't mean retailers, but rather the folks who resell at gunshows and at "Guns America", etc.

EDITED TO ADD: Thank you chasfm11 for the clarification.

Well, I can tell you that some "people" ( ) have friends that work at Academy and get a heads up prior to the pallet being brought out to the sales floor.

Okay, that's cool, I figure some folks would get heads up about ammo shipments, but are you buying up thousands of rounds at a pop, though? I'm just trying to figure out where its all going. A lot of people may have bought ARs though those are getting hard to come by too, and not all of them or even most of them have time to spend all day waiting for shipments to come in, AND they don't have the money to buy it all up at one go. TENS OF MILLIONS of rounds have to be getting churned out right now, I'd imagine the ammo factories that make this stuff are all pretty much running three shifts (and if they aren't, well they sure are losing out on money to be made)...and yet the shelves are still bare no matter where you go...its just not adding up.

Manufacturers are running 24/7/365 right now. They still can't keep up with the demand.

There are four of us that are shopping for each other. So if one guy finds something I need, he buys it and let's me know the cost. Same applies vice versa. So it's nice to have four sets of eyes shopping for me. That being said, I am sure we're a drop in the bucket in the scheme of things. 4000 rounds (1000 x 4 people) in a week is probably 0.00000004% of the overall sales.

I honestly haven't the slightest clue where it's all going. PD's hedging? Turn and burn sellers on Gunbroker? Very rich hoarders? You're guess is as good as mine.

[jmra]

Well, SOMEBODY has bought a LOT of .223/5.56mm in the last month or so. I'm curious about something...has anyone on here been to a gun show RECENTLY (since the Sandy Hook incident)? Does it seem like vendors there have .223/5.56mm ammo for sale? I'm not asking about prices, just availability. I know that some are buying to put it away for a "rainy day", and I do have some for that purpose myself...and MANY people have bought ARs and other .223 rifles recently...but there was PLENTY of ammo and now there is VERY little...it had to have gone SOMEWHERE. Did the "resellers" buy up a substantial chunk of it...and I don't mean retailers, but rather the folks who resell at gunshows and at "Guns America", etc.

EDITED TO ADD: Thank you chasfm11 for the clarification.

Well, I can tell you that some "people" ( ) have friends that work at Academy and get a heads up prior to the pallet being brought out to the sales floor.

Okay, that's cool, I figure some folks would get heads up about ammo shipments, but are you buying up thousands of rounds at a pop, though? I'm just trying to figure out where its all going. A lot of people may have bought ARs though those are getting hard to come by too, and not all of them or even most of them have time to spend all day waiting for shipments to come in, AND they don't have the money to buy it all up at one go. TENS OF MILLIONS of rounds have to be getting churned out right now, I'd imagine the ammo factories that make this stuff are all pretty much running three shifts (and if they aren't, well they sure are losing out on money to be made)...and yet the shelves are still bare no matter where you go...its just not adding up.

Manufacturers are running 24/7/365 right now. They still can't keep up with the demand.

There are four of us that are shopping for each other. So if one guy finds something I need, he buys it and let's me know the cost. Same applies vice versa. So it's nice to have four sets of eyes shopping for me. That being said, I am sure we're a drop in the bucket in the scheme of things. 4000 rounds (1000 x 4 people) in a week is probably 0.00000004% of the overall sales.

I honestly haven't the slightest clue where it's all going. PD's hedging? Turn and burn sellers on Gunbroker? Very rich hoarders? You're guess is as good as mine.

I've had LEOs try to buy ammo from me. They claim they don't have enough ammo on hand for the officers to qualify. Maybe that's just a line to gain empathy, I don't know. I do know they didn't talk me out of any.

[pbwalker]

I've had LEOs try to buy ammo from me. They claim they don't have enough ammo on hand for the officers to qualify. Maybe that's just a line to gain empathy, I don't know. I do know they didn't talk me out of any.

that's scary...

[K.Mooneyham]

I've had LEOs try to buy ammo from me. They claim they don't have enough ammo on hand for the officers to qualify. Maybe that's just a line to gain empathy, I don't know. I do know they didn't talk me out of any.

that's scary...

http://cnsnews.com/blog/gregory-gwyn-wi ... ges-police

[jmra]

I've had LEOs try to buy ammo from me. They claim they don't have enough ammo on hand for the officers to qualify. Maybe that's just a line to gain empathy, I don't know. I do know they didn't talk me out of any.

that's scary...

http://cnsnews.com/blog/gregory-gwyn-wi ... ges-police

I guess they were being straight up. Very scary.

[K.Mooneyham]

I've had LEOs try to buy ammo from me. They claim they don't have enough ammo on hand for the officers to qualify. Maybe that's just a line to gain empathy, I don't know. I do know they didn't talk me out of any.

that's scary...

http://cnsnews.com/blog/gregory-gwyn-wi ... ges-police

I guess they were being straight up. Very scary.

And that is what I'm getting at...if multiple law enforcement agencies can't get ammo...

[ghostrider]

When the supply pipeline is emptied it takes time for it to refill. The ammo has to be manufactured or imported, shipped to distributors, shipped to wholesalers, finally getting to retail outlets. It's like an empty hose if you turn it on it takes a while for the water to get to the end of the hose.

Even before the ammo is manufactured, just think of the huge increase in demand for raw materials. Inventory is expensive; companies do not like to stock product (or components for products) that may not sell.

Just imagine the effect on the supply chain if all ammo manufacturers simultaneously request 2x or 4x their normal purchases of raw brass, lead, and copper. I'm not saying there isn't something nefarious going on, but ramping up production volumes can take time.