Question for Industry Professionals here re: Ammo Availability

[HowardCohodas]

What do you industry professionals with contacts to the ammo manufacturers hear about the paucity of ammo on retail outlet shelves? I've read a lot of uninformed speculation in other forums and thought some facts would be helpful to share.

[Buckaroo]

I would be very interested too.

Thanks

Buckaroo

[ToddG]

I was at a shop on Saturday that had shelves of ammo in every imaginable caliber. Like the "shortages" with many other things, most of it has been caused by a sequence of:

Lack of foresight on the shopkeepers' end.
Drastic increase in demand for weapons and ammunition, much of it due to completely unconfirmed rumors that a "new tax" was on its way.
Reduced inventory at manufacturers due to the demand.
Reduced inventory at distributors due to the demand.
Reduced inventory at dealers due to the demand.

Shops that ordered a lot of ammo in anticipation and shops that tend to have large orders/accounts seem to be getting a reasonable supply of ammunition. Nonetheless, prices have jumped up astronomically due to the demand. This has, ironically, resulted in a 25-50% increase in ammo costs brought about by people who were afraid of a 25-50% ammo tax. :rolleyes:

Furthermore, the demand for "inexpensive" practice ammunition is so great that some manufacturers are slowing production of their premium/JHP ammunition in order to generate greater volume of their practice fodder, which is less expensive to produce and requires (or at least gets) less QC. This has resulted in a further backlog for some premium JHP ammo.

[Irish]

Subscribing.

[BigDozer66]

Our local Academy gets in pallets of ammo on a regular basis. If you aren't there when they unload it you will not get any of it.:eek: That is unless you have someone that works there hide what you want until you can pick it up.:mad:
Their prices are higher than what I can get it for on the internet and the shipping is less than the tax so I don't worry.;)
BigDozer66

[Jack-O]

The manufacturer I have an inside track with is running about 5 months from time of order for standard shipping.

They are making as fast as they can, and are even in the process of adding machines.

One big thing that is always an issue is having all of the components in stock to assemble. Quite frankly there are only a few brass manufacturers and they are at full capacity right now, so there is limited supply of basic components even if there were a greater ability to load.

As you can imagine, there are still a great deal of people out there who will only buy from local sources, and the stores just cant or wont get a larger supply in. This basically means that the stock they do have disappears faster as the demand is far out stripping supply.

Many of the big box stores like Sportsman, and cabelas and such, are under a set contract to deliver and only receive what they contracted for. this means that they sell out much faster than before, which in turn creates an environment where folks will tend to buy twice as much as they would have otherwise and contributes to the overall lack of ammo and lack of price reductions in sipte of drastically reduced transportation and basic metals costs.

In short it's simple supply and demand. prices are not going anywhere as long as you keep buying, and supply wont catch up until you stop buying either.

Expect to see things start to stabilize here in the next few months as folks run out of money. Prices may even come down a bit if we can curb the urge to buy for a couple of months.

If you want to see things change, then start an nationwide ammo purchase blackout for 1 month. Until then, expect more of the same for some time.

[FromMyColdDeadHand]

The interesting thing is that zinc, copper, and lead are a third of high price from over the past two years. Somebody is making a killing there. Either the ammo companies are stuck in contracts, or the ammo companies aren't passing it on due to demand.

Demand aside, ammo should be around 2004 prices. I can't remember what that that price point was.

[BigDozer66]

In short it's simple supply and demand. prices are not going anywhere as long as you keep buying, and supply wont catch up until you stop buying either.

Expect to see things start to stabilize here in the next few months as folks run out of money. Prices may even come down a bit if we can curb the urge to buy for a couple of months.

If you want to see things change, then start an nationwide ammo purchase blackout for 1 month. Until then, expect more of the same for some time.

There is more truth to your post than many can imagine.

As long as they "CAN" sell it for what it is now why "WOULD" they lower the price?:confused:

BigDozer66

[Business_Casual]

Who are the dipshits paying $219 for a case of 9mm Wolf?

M_P

[BigDozer66]

Demand aside, ammo should be around 2004 prices. I can't remember what that that price point was.

Right after the Fed Ban sunsetted we could buy 7.62x39 Wolf for $89.00 a case out the door at the DFW gun show.:cool:

Those were the good old days.;)

BigDozer66

[DRich]

Right after the Fed Ban sunsetted we could buy 7.62x39 Wolf for $89.00 a case out the door at the DFW gun show.:cool:

Those were the good old days.;)

BigDozer66

$79/case if you bought 5 or more...

I bought 20 cases of 7.62x39 at the Big Town show in Nov '04 for less than the going price of a decent AR today. Still got about half of it in the garage. My ammo collection is doing much better than my 401k.

[FromMyColdDeadHand]

My ammo collection is doing much better than my 401k.

Amen, brother.

I'm not buying now bacause I'm not buying at the peak frenzy of the market again.

[Business_Casual]

Now WalMart is cleaned out. Anyone getting tired of this?

M_P

[stanlyonjr]

We have a Sportsman's Warehouse (SW) and a few Wallyworld's (WW) here in So. Oregon. If your not there when the ammo guy is stocking the shelves(or I should say trying to stock the shelves) forget it. Your SOL!! SW that I visited yesterday has no ammo (unless your going to Africa on a big game hunt) on there shelves. WW is the same way. I get ammo from a small chain store. They deliver on Thursday's and I'm there at 9:00 am when the door opens and I can get one of the cases they stock of 5.56. They usually get 3 500rd cases a week and are grateful as am I. Forget finding ammo over 55gr. I can find 77gr on-line but I can't afford 30.00 + for match ammo which I need for any matches over 300 yards. %% just don't cut it. I hope it gets better and it seems to be slowing down. My two cents...

[Gentoo]

This has, ironically, resulted in a 25-50% increase in ammo costs brought about by people who were afraid of a 25-50% ammo tax. :rolleyes:


This is what boggles my mind the most.

[BrentPete]

My hope is that ammo manufacturers will increase production capacity now. In the future when the speculative, panic buying is over they will be producing more without the high demand. When you add the increased supply with the lower component costs (the cost of metals falling) we may actually see some really good prices. There are a lot of "if's" in the scenario but it is hard to imagine prices not dropping a bit when the temporary gun and ammo high is over. :rolleyes:

[A-Bear680]

When the panic buying and hoarding slows down , prices will drop and stabilize.

The people who are truly getting screwed are those who are running low , at a very bad time. IMO , anyone who is still trying to squirrel away a lifetime supply of ammo , EBR's , mag's or whatever is only hurting themselves and the noobs.

I'm still shooting cheap ammo from the post-Y2K ammo price crash. More by luck than anything else , I bought cheap & stacked deep from from Feb/Mar 2000 though 2004/2005.