Ammunition Shortages In The U.S.

Michael Yon Online ^ | April 4, 201`3 | Michael Yon

[Wuli]

04 April 2013

I posed a question on Facebook about ammunition availability across the United States. About 150 answers have come in so far:

[Wuli]

Given what the pols in Connecticut enacted yesterday, and the populist notion to do the same in other states, the responses to Michael Yon's query is NOT amazing.

[Rio]

My only recent experience:
I stopped at the gun store yesterday to order a case of an obscure flavor of Winchester shot shells. No problem. Will be here next week.

[RoosterRedux]

Bulk Ammo has (my fave) Lake City XM855 Green Tip (5.56 Nato) in stock at a pretty good price.

[Mich Patriot]

I saw a box of .22LR on the floor behind the counter at Dick’s Sporting Goods (28th St Grand Rapids). The clerk passed me one, and I asked if I could buy two. He snapped at me as if I’d asked for a bazooka. Libtards and firearm counters don’t mix.

[EternalVigilance]

Yeah, but did he give you the second box?

[muir_redwoods]

I have a “friend” who, quite out if character” was smart enough to buy hundreds or thousands of rounds in .22, .223, .32acp, .380, 9mm, .40 S&W, 45acp etc. about five years ago. This “friend” is actually tempted to sell some but it may never be commercially available again so, “he” thinks he’ll hang on to it.

[Flintlock]

The Feds don’t use much 22LR—so, where the hell is it?

They used to stamp it out by the BILLIONS.

[dartuser]

Take a look at gunbroker.com ... there is no ammo shortage ... you can find any brand and caliber you are looking for.

The ammo market has been hijacked by ammo dealers who are selling it for 4-5x normal prices.

As long as there are people will to pay $800 for 1000 rounds of 9mm ... Dicks, Walmart, et. al. will struggle to get ammo.

[TEXOKIE]

bfl

[lacrew]

I watch a site called ‘gunbrokerdotcom’, and there is a continuous supply of .22lr for sale. At any given point in time, there are easily 30,000 rounds for sale.

The problem is the price...triple and quadruple normal prices. And this is a bidding site...so people are regularly bidding and buying at these inflated prices.

With this much profit to be made, I suspect that anyone who works in a Wally World gun dept., or behind the counter at Dicks, etc. is going to buy the stuff up for retail, and immediately auction it off on an auction site.

[vette6387]

“Bulk Ammo has (my fave) Lake City XM855 Green Tip (5.56 Nato) in stock at a pretty good price.”

They are thieves. Just bought 100 rounds of CCI .22LR Mini-Mags for less than $13. here in Northern CA at a retail gun store! These guys are asking $17 for 50! On-line ammo sellers are all ripping off their customers.

[Mich Patriot]

Nope, he said only one box per customer. I didn’t put up too much fight because limits have been reported on FR a lot. Besides, I have half dozen bricks or so already. I told him he didn’t need to be a douche about it though.

[Lurkina.n.Learnin]

Bump to read later

[Mich Patriot]

The box I got at Dick’s was only $25 for 525 rounds. That’s about normal for the hollow points I think.

[CopperTop]

Really? Holy crap. $408 for the same 420ct can of XM855 I just bought at Bass Ho Shop for $190 (bad enough) is a “good price”.?!?
Allrighty then.. Looks like a bit of opportunistic free enterprise to me. Hehehe. Affiliated, are we? d;^)
I can’t bring myself to be that desperate. The other side of free enterprise. 6 P’s and all, ya know? d:^)

[is_is]

You call that a good price?

[longtermmemmory]

dealers want the end of private sales in order to force people into their shops. It the holier than thou shop attitude that is bothersome.

[RIGHTWING WACKO FROM MASS.]

pre obama fed 550count 22lr 10.99 now 19.99 if you can find them. wally world hasn’t had them in months

[Iron Munro]

In my area for the last six months or more there has been almost nothing in the local Big Box chains.
At best they have some bird shot and a few dusty boxes of antiquated calibers that look like they were last used in Africa during the 19th century.
Friends who live more out in the country report their local Walmart regularly gets some ammo in but it goes fast the minute it hits the shelf.

Local gun shops get a few boxes of popular calibers now and then but there is a big, big mark-up.
Also, there is almost always a waiting list and regular customers get preference.

But my local indoor range is still selling range ammo to shooters at what seem to be near normal prices.
Example: 50 round box Magtech .38 Special FMC for $20.
No limit for shooters that I am aware of but I have never tested the upper limits.
Range ammo is not for sale to carry-out customers.

[edboock]

We have only ourselves to blame on this. Ammo scalping is the most lucrative activity on the internet other than pornography. People are stockpiling ammo and components and reselling it at double or triple the price online or at the next gun show. You can sell it in the parking lot. You don’t even need to rent a table. MidwayUSA will not use backorders so it becomes first come, first served and large quantities go instantly. I get product announcements and I cannot act instantly before they are out. Someone else beats me to it every time. It reminds me of the high frequency trading scandal on wall street. Someone has a system to get in line first and they are making millions doing it.