Wal-mart 1 has no centerfire rifle or pistol ammo and has not for since late October. It is in the more upscale part of town. The Dept Manager told me last week that he quit even trying to order it. Shotgun is plentiful and the Skeet\trap club is close by.
Wal-mart two the Department Manager told me two weeks ago that he gets his orders filled from the distribution center at about a 50% rate. (BTW the Distribution center is here in town.)
Wal-marts three and four all have reasonable stock of both pistol and rifle ammo but not if you are looking to buy a thousand rounds. They have possibly 200 rounds of most calibers and shotgun is well stocked.
Both Scheel's, Cabela's and Sportsmans Warehouse were wiped out of ALL common pistol ammo during the last month. Sales inventory is grabbed up instantly and common rifle ammo is snapped up as well. The Gun Dept manager at Cabela's told me he started doubling his orders in November and only receives about 75% from his suppliers. Both Cabela's and the Sportsmans receive powder on Tuesday it is ALL gone by Wednesday am. Cleaned out.
Components are hard to come by and it is a right place and time kind of thing. I have way more hours into obtaining ammo than I care to think about due to the current situation.
The last gun show was the weekend before Thanksgiving. The largest ammo distributor was wiped out of 5.56 and 7.62 by noon on Friday the opening day of the show and he told me he brought 2x the normal quantity. AR, SKS and other common guns were in good supply but prices were in the $1800 to 2500 range fro brand name Ar's.
The last gun show in SF was on 17/18 January. Next will be 28 February/01 March.
7.62x39 was selling for $.27 per round in quantities of 1000. I spoke (briefly, he was a bit busy) to one of the guys at the booth who said that they hoped they would sell out of 7.26x39 and .556 on Saturday but had another truck coming down for Sunday so they expected to be good both days.
I’ve written ad nausium about the supply chain issues of the major retailers and the fact that Walmart, being in the political cross hairs of the libs, may not be there for the consumer this time. I will spare you a full repetition other than to say that online vendors and local gun shops will probably be the best bet for people wanting to ensure they have adequate ammo stocks.
I would not characterize the prudent accumulation of weapons and ammunition at this time as a manifestation of fear. Uless anyone can show me a reason why firearms or ammo will be less expensive, adjusted for inflation, in 4 to 8 years than they are today I would consider it an investment. It ain’t gonna spoil and if the price of ammo does drop then, as they say on The Box O’ Truth, it’s still fun to shoot stuff.