Crazy times. Ammunition thread.

[Nicfin36]

I am sure many of you know of the great ammunition shortage, including components for those that reload. I just find it fascinating, for the lack of a better word, at what some of the prices are for these components. I am mainly looking at primers. I was curious and glanced at some prices on gunbroker. Rather than selling a box of 1000, people are breaking them down into auctions with 2 100 primer containers. They look like they are selling for $100 now for 200 primers, maybe more. I do and don't find it hard to believe people are paying that much. A 1000 count box of primers was $40 the last time I bought any. The current going price now would be $500.


We are truly in some crazy times now.

 

[jabloomf1230]

Some of it is caused by high demand but some of the shortage is due to individual US states instituting elaborate and restrictive permitting systems to limit the sale of ammo online. I bought 12 ga shells from Buds, but by the time my daughter tried to buy of 20 ga target loads, they were all out of stock.

 

[Nicfin36]

I reload, and I prepared for this situation. But, had I really known about this, I would have bought a pallet of primers and put them up for auction. Can you imagine spending $10,000, only to turn around and make $120,000....or more?

 

[Creature Meadow]

It is quiet amazing!

Bought my daughter a 410 for Christmas and could not find ammo anywhere. Luckily had a friend that was going to give me a box so she could shoot her new gun.

Then few days before Christmas found some at a small hunting store 10 minutes from my house. And, the price was very fair at $12 a box.

We have a shooting range and love to plink but have that on hold until some things reach a new norm. I can get 9mm but not at $27 to $30 a box.

 

[D2Cat]

Talk about crazy times, the term "China Virus" is now been banned by executive order! Nothing more important to do, the govt now controls the dictionary.

 

[ccoon520]

Some of it is caused by high demand but some of the shortage is due to individual US states instituting elaborate and restrictive permitting systems to limit the sale of ammo online. I bought 12 ga shells from Buds, but by the time my daughter tried to buy of 20 ga target loads, they were all out of stock.

There are only 5 or so states that make it difficult to get ammo online. However, that doesn't stop stores from being 100% sold out. I have been looking for .22 lr and it is insane. Walmart, Bass Pro, Cabela's, Scheels, the local sports store, all the local gun stores shelves are completely empty of ammo.

I'm on a subreddit where people post ammo that comes in stock on different websites and all of it gets sold out in under 10 minutes (sometimes under 5) even at an outrageous markup of where it was last I bought it. .308 is now like 1.50 a round if you're lucky. Panic buyers and scalpers are driving this thing to an extreme. I just wanna plink a little bit.

 

[ccoon520]

I am sure many of you know of the great ammunition shortage, including components for those that reload. I just find it fascinating, for the lack of a better word, at what some of the prices are for these components. I am mainly looking at primers. I was curious and glanced at some prices on gunbroker. Rather than selling a box of 1000, people are breaking them down into auctions with 2 100 primer containers. They look like they are selling for $100 now for 200 primers, maybe more. I do and don't find it hard to believe people are paying that much. A 1000 count box of primers was $40 the last time I bought any. The current going price now would be $500.


We are truly in some crazy times now.

After seeing the spike in ammo I recently looked into reloading to see if it was a viable alternative right now. I looked at a Hornady progressive turret that was listed for like 530 bucks at Bass Pro (but it was out of stock) and so I looked elsewhere on the internet and the exact same model was 1,200 dollars!

I got permission from the wife to start reloading stuff once this craziness dies down this time. Heck maybe next time it happens I'll open an LLC and apply for an ammo manufacturer FFL and start selling reloads to earn easy cash.

 

[dirtydeed]

I'm in the same boat. My local reloading supply shop will only sell 200 primers at a time with the purchase of another item. But, he's not gouging on the primers.

Manufacturers are running at full capacity and the primers that they make are being consumed by the makers of factory ammunition, leaving little supply for the reloading community. I think its going to be quite a while until things cool off on the demand and I don't think we'll ever return to pre-covid pricing. .

We just need to refuse to pay those prices, and things would return to near normal more quickly.

Fortunately, I had a good supply and was able to load up several thousand rounds. However, I'm now down to my last two cases of small and large pistol primers which makes me a bit nervous. maybe I should sell them...only kidding. That practice of price gouging makes me a bit angry.

 

[SidecarFlip]

Talk about crazy times, the term "China Virus" is now been banned by executive order! Nothing more important to do, the govt now controls the dictionary.

I'm sure you know where I stand on the current administration, comrade.....

Far as ammunition is concerned, I took advantage of the current situation myself and sold 1000 .223's for $1000.00 which is quite a bit less than the going price locally of $1.59 a round.

Being the capitalist I am, I have no issue with it and having way more than I'll ever need, selling 1000 don't even put a dent in my inventory.

Made about 500% profit. I can deal with that just fine.

Heck, my 338 Lapua, the loaded (factory) rounds are over 7 bucks each. I have at least 200 loaded with 300 grain Scenars.

I have enough reloading supplies to last decades. No issue here, cases of primers, 8 pound jugs of propellant, ammo boxes full of cases, you name it, I have it in spades.

I figured I'd sell some off and a buck a pop was reasonable, considering the current market.. I have thousands more.

 

[Bmyers]

The sad part, between the COVID restrictions and the price of ammo/lack of availability, a couple of the local shooting clubs have closed. Not sure when or if they will reopen.

We normally start our monthly matches in March and currently discussing what we are going to do. Typically there are 50 or more shooters at the match, the last one we held we had 11 shooters.

 

[SidecarFlip]

I own my own range and the locals use it. Never joined any 'sportsmans' clubs. Been asked, always decline. Too much politics. for one and secondly, I don't expend ammunition willy-nilly shooting paper.

I sight my guns in at the appropriate distances (my range is good for 400 yards). Get the loads built and dialed in and they get put away until I need them for hunting.

Paper for me is totally worthless except for sighting in. Exception to that would be my .22's. I do shoot them for fun and I have bricks of 22 LR's as in 1000 round cases. The other stuff isn't for fun. It's for killing game animals.

 

[SidecarFlip]

.......or a firearm without a cartridge to go in it, is just an expensive club. Will always be a non issue here. Other people, not so lucky or should I say not so smart. I've always maintained an extensive powder room-armory. Just how I roll. One never knows when supplies will get stupid and scarce.

Actually, I just got in 1000 .224 diameter 55 grain SPBT's direct from Hornady in Grand Island. Just for 'just in case' stock.

 

[Creature Meadow]

At my work we produce a shell that requires a primer and powder to fire it to install a product we sell. Twice last year we could not get primers, but within weeks the supplier had us inventory. We use the Remington 209HMF3 primer.

The line will produce 1.3 million shells this year so not only are suppliers sourcing for ammo but other industries as well.

 

[Old_Paint]

Fixed it for you...............

LOL. Thanks but the satire/sarcasm was intentional.

 

[SidecarFlip]

209 is a shotgun, in line muzzle loader primer, have numerous full cases of them. Not Remmy's however. CCI. CCI's are much more reliable ignition wise for me. Have at least 10 pounds of Blackhorn 209 smokeless on the shelf too, that is for inline muzzle loaders. You cannot find that stuff anywhere today, period.

I take it your company produces ram set products. Don't much care for anything Remmy, except their 700 action.

 

[random]

Manufacturers are running at full capacity and the primers that they make are being consumed by the makers of factory ammunition, leaving little supply for the reloading community.

This ^

A big part of the ammo shortage also isn't caused by long-time shooters, but by new owners. Over 39 million NICS checks in 2020. Compare that to the previous years: 27M, 25M, 26M 28M for 2016-2019, with 2019 being the highest previous record. That's 11 million more (140% of 2019), and although NICS doesn't record it, reams of anecdotal evidence from gun stores all over indicate that a very large portion of these are new gun owners. While there's no way to tell how much, that's got to be contributing a large portion of the sales. Especially given the prices - new gun owners don't know what "normal" prices are.

 

[Lil Foot]

Interesting.

 

[Lil Foot]

An employee at the local Cabelas told me on the day they get ammo/components delivered, the have 10-50 people waiting from 4AM at the front door, and the first 5 or so buy everything delivered in that days shipment, week in, week out.

 

[ccoon520]

The factories are running full tilt and the stores are stocking as fast as they are getting ammo. I don't see any reports that government agencies are buying significantly more ammo than usual either (I just did a quick and dirty search so I could be wrong). Seems to me that we have hit an almost perpetual state of people buying everything they can find when they find it because they haven't been able to find any.

Maybe more people are shooting because it is something entertaining to do alone but it just seems to be a self repeating cycle due to this. Ammo manufacturers keep sending stuff out as fast as they can too because it sells immediately.

I would bet good money that if Federal and/or Remington didn't ship out any ammo for a month or two and just built a large stock pile and absolutely flooded the market that the shortage would end and the buying would slow down. I don't expect them to nor am I saying that should or that they are terrible companies (company really because they are owned by the same parent company) because they aren't. I just think it is a mental thing going through the shooting community right now.

If Cabela's, Bass Pro, Walmart, and small gun shops had enough inventory that they could stock the shelves for a week or 2 solid I think the buying frenzy would start to slow.

 

[Fordtech86]

If Cabela's, Bass Pro, Walmart, and small gun shops had enough inventory that they could stock the shelves for a week or 2 solid I think the buying frenzy would start to slow.

I don’t know, I still see people buying buggy loads of toilet paper still