swung by the bullet store - ammo availability

So I went to the LGS for the first time since the school shooting, black rifles did not exist as expected, a couple of hand guns here or there (oddballs like a .44 mag, judge, .22 M&P).

Some guy comes up to the counter and asks "ya'll got any 5.56?" The clerk answers "nope, all out" and the guy shuffles away. I joked with him with "the whole world is out" and he asked rhetorically if the guy has been stuck in a cave for the last month.

I actually just wanted to post some observations on ammo availability.

Handguns:
No NATO rounds anywhere.
No .40, .45, or .38sp either. There was a box of .357 mag.
.44 mag was available.
Hornady Crit Defense in 9x18 was plentiful, but being fancy hp rounds they were still pricey (not bubble priced though).

Rifles:
No NATO rounds anwhere; com-block equivalents gone as well.
Not that I was looking, but didn't notice any of that fancy AR stuff like 6.8 whateveritscalled.
22-250 was probably the best stocked item
.243, .270, and some 30-06 were on the shelves
30-30 was gone

So if you were in the market for a precision/large game gun, going with somethign like a .270 would be better than, say, a .308.

Shotguns:
Fancier 12ga rounds were available (steel, less common shot sizes), but only a handful of boxes here or there.
There was supprisingly a little bit of 00 there too, and some slugs.
There was some standard clay shooting loads (2 3/4 1oz 7, 8) but not much (and those didn't last long ). It probably just came down to when the truck comes.

20ga was basically the same story, just less all around since they never stock as much of it anyways.

If you have a .410 you would be in business, plenty to chose from (relatively). I didn't check out too any of the details since I don't have one, but the sheer number of boxes on the shelves was apparent compared to the rest.


For those who don't have a full realoading system running (large stock of primers and powder, lead source), it seems a shotgun would be the easiest to keep feeding and particularly the .410.

As if we needed more excuses to go shopping.

Forgot to mention than 10mm was in decent supply, similar to 9x18 hp.

Same here in Florida......only worse.

Picture if you will, a food store in old SovietRussia, after bread has been distributed and you get the idea. The places are fucking empty fellas'.....empty. There is simply nothing left.

Excellent thread D.D.B.M.B!

Tomorrow I am off to do a little recreational shooting with my AK (my first time shooting Russian ammo, might be fun!). I also hope to be able to at least replace what I shoot with more that I can purchase (there are two gun & ammo stores near where I will drop the ladies off at the mall while I do my own shopping...). But, I have a feeling you guys are right (esp. Florida), there likely will be nothing for me. I plan to shoot 120 rounds total (80 Russian). At least I still have some 2200 rounds left.

If I am still motivated tomorrow PM, I may issue a "Range Report" if enough of interest happens (how Russian "Tula" ammo worked for me (from Wal-Mart six weeks ago), how my new magazines are working (got them JUST before they got really scarce, I wonder why they are scarce...), etc.

I'm seeing the same thing. Plenty of boutique bolt action calibers and nothin' else. But I'm kinda proud to see that 30/30 gone, I'd like to think that Americans are still carrying leverguns.

Just checked CDT website for ammo. Lots of pretty yellow "out of stock" buttons to be found (sort price low -> high and show 150 per page to see 150 of them at once).

haven't bought any ammo in years? (went crazy a few years ago and bought an arsenal). But a friend called me and said he has two .308s', a 22-06, and several shotguns for sale. He said he had ten boxes of 22-06 also, and that you could neck down 30-06 if you were doing your own reloading. Didn't bite; he also said he would be glad to take silver in exchange (I bought a 20 gauge off him a while back for 17 dimes and some other change). Now you peaked my curiosity, think I'll go see whats available today. get back to you....

If you visit the evil gun shows, one thing that stikes me are the great deals on revolvers these days. Everyone is rushing to pick up the rifles and semiauto pistols and ignoring the revolvers. A buddy of mine picked up a really nice security six ruger recently, that has had a trigger job that alone cost $100 or more, for $400.

Interesting example of panic buying? Or, does anyone know the delivery schedule for all those billions? of rounds for the .gov purchases that could be impacting the supply? You'd think the real "gun-guys" would have been ready long since.

So this is being sold to ??? People with fantasies of holding off an army with their couple K of rounds while not being shot themselves? They are really 2,000 times better in a firefight than all comers?
Are the wrong people getting armed?

I smell lunacy combined with fear - not good. I am glad I was ready ahead of time, with ammo, and tools/supplies to reload every caliber I have plus most of what my neighbours have (they provided the dies and brass for theirs long ago, as I make better ammo than they can buy for their guns at any price).

Sounds like I should go crank out some 1000's of rounds and offer them for sale. No way I need what I have already, realistically, other than perhaps barter. Can anyone imagine a situation where you'd need more rounds than most can even carry - that you'd live through? Would you really gun down a few hundred unarmed "zombies" since in fact they'd actually just be humans? Do you honestly think you could if even 10% of them were armed?

Just going for the basic reality check here. Right now, filling a few propane tanks and getting a bit extra food are higher on my list - it's 13f here this AM. Nice time for plenty of extra heat and cocoa etc. And a nice time to discover that I built this house so I didn't wake up cold even though the woodstove pooped out sometime in the middle of the night and was cold when I fed the cats.

What you say makes sense DC. My clan has wwhat we have for home security, and no, I do not see myself in a situation where I am battling with a huge group of zombies. I do however want to be prepared against the bum rush. If a few guys are trying to get in to my home, or trying to rob me, I will not hesitate to shoot them, even though they are just humans. Is it panic buying? Certainly. I cannot see ever paying 2,500 dollars or more on a simple AR-15 rig. those who are most likely have no frame of price reference and are simply reacting to what they perceive will ultimately be the confiscation of weapons. GovCo should take this as a wake up call and think really hard about what they ultimately propose, because any attempt to take away our guns would be political suicide for those members of congress that sign on.

525rnds 22 LR .22LR 10/22 Ammo Ammunition Bullets
Current Bid $146.41

http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/Viewitem.aspx?Item=326746109

Whoa. That's crazy. 500rds .22LR should only be around $20.

Report from local gunshow from the neighbor.
Cheapest .223/5.56 $800 per 1K.Selling well.
.22 LR $50-$65 per brick.
AR 15's $2-2500 & sales slower.
Magazines still very high.
Reloading component vendors virtually sold out.

GOD BLESS & BRING OUR TROOPS HOME!!!

PMBug said:

Whoa. That's crazy. 500rds .22LR should only be around $20.

Click to expand...

There is no "should be" anymore Bug,sorry to say.....



GOD BLESS OUR TROOPS!!!

I hope in the future Austrian economists will be writting about the "Bullet Bubble" the way they have about the tulips.

DC, I agree that massive piles of ammo aren't needed for defense, since most defense situations are infrequent and short lived. What I do worry about is being able to find/afford plinking ammo to continue enjoying shooting as a hobby. IDPA is coming up soon and I'm honestly a bit hesitant since 9mm is nowhere.

...

Range Report -- 22 January 2013

After dropping off my wife, her parents and her friend at the mall (!), I dropped into Bass Pro Shop to see if they had AK ammo (7.62 x 39), NO! No word as to when it would be in stock either.

I then went to the outdoor range with the intention of shooting my Russian "Tula" brand ammo with my new magazines in my AK to see how well the ammo worked and if the magazines were OK. But, the outdoor range was closed, it is actually a county park (!), and closed every Mon. and Tues. Sigh..., it is the only local place where I can shoot out to 100 yds.

So I went to an indoor range not real far from there. They DID have AK ammo there, but limited me to "whatever I shot at their range" plus 40 rounds more. I shot 60 rounds. They would NOT let me shoot my Russian ammo (steel bullet (!), apparently they "stick" to their back wall or something). Sigh again. So I shot what I had loaded up and bought a little more (mentioned above). The brand they had was "Fiocchi", made in Hungary, but it was brass rather than steel as well as genuine lead bullets...

I then took the others back, returned to my office, field-stripped the gun, cleaned it (first time in many months) and reassembled it.

So, net it out I shot 60 rounds and bought 100. But, I really want to try out my new magazines and Russian ammo... Soon?

EDIT

When I finished at the range and was paying, they guy there asked to look at my AK. I own a "Saiga" a Russian-American hybrid (most of it was made in Izhevsk -- home town of the AK-47). I bought it some two or so years ago for $900 and something. The guy said that (new) it was now running for $2900 retail! Wow, better than any of my other investments! He told me I could get about $2400 for it if I sell it (used, about 1000 rounds total through it, cleaned twice).

He asked me to call him if I want to sell it before I put it on eBay... But, NO WAY I am selling my AK.

So yesterday I went with a friend to the gun store because he wanted to get a new Semi-auto pistol, what I saw and heard hardly shocked me but did kind of come as a surprise... first, we showed up almost immeadiatly when the store opened, as my buddy was checking out the picked over selection of handguns, I started looking for accessories for myself. They had 2 Mag Pul 30-round mags for the AR... $40 a piece...but they were behind the counter, when I asked the clerk about them, someone else a few feet down from me was also asking about them, sufice it to say we each bought one. However, $40 I thought was a little pricey considering $15-$20 was what I was used to seeing, the clerk said "thats nothing, we saw some private sellers selling them for $75-$100 a piece." So while I had the clerk there I asked him if he had any .223 or 5.56 rounds, he said no and had no idea if they had any coming in anytime soon. While this whole situation was going on I did notice 4 AR varients on the wall and this peeked my curiousity (I thought they were all sold out, everywhere), so I say to the guy, "seems like you have a few ARs on the shelf, I'm pretty surprised." He said ALL of them were on cosignment with $2500-$3500 price tags (he also said two were just basic Bushmasters nothing special, and he said confidently that they would sell), non were the stores actual supply, as they have been sold out for a while. My buddy ended up getting a Taurus 9mm its actually pretty nice, but they did have a limit on boxes of ammo (even for the 9mm), two boxes per customer.

So after we field stripped and oiled his new piece we grabbed my gear and went to the closest range that is opened on Mondays. We got there, and there was an hour wait to get a lane. It was a holiday, MLK day, so a lot of people were off but this is a twenty lane range, I had never seen it this packed, infact I have never had to wait to get a lane there. Also I asked about ammo for sale and they said only if your putting it down our range, I thought this made good sense since with this range you aren't allowed to bring your own .223 or 5.56 ammo. We left empty handed and without firing our weapons... it was disappointing.

However we went back today, we got a lane without a problem, but they could only sell us two boxes of 5.56 ammo for the range. That was no big deal as we were there to break in the new 9mm mostly. When we were leaving I asked if there was a chance I could get some boxes for home, the manager told me they litterally got a delivery about 10 mins ago, but they would only sell two boxes per customer because of the limited supply.

I think there is a lot of panic buying going on, and its a sellers market, very tempting to put mine on cosignment to 4-5 times what I paid for it, just for shits :doodoo: and gigs. But you never know if you would ever be able to own one again or get one for a reasonable price that it probably isn't worth it.

DCRB Sounds like you and I had VERY similar expiriences... very wierd.

went to Wallyworld in the neighboring town. their ammo case contained:
4 boxes of .243
6 boxes of 30-06

a few assorted boxes of shotgun shells.

will check our local hardware store tomorrow. Doubt they have anything left. Haven't checked the bait shop. The "new" gun store here in town had two boxes of Federal .308 for 43.50. He said he sells out whatever caliber that is delivered each day.

I have enough .22 cal. to last until the rapture, so I gave a box to a buddy who needed some. The guy nearly cried. He said he drove all over creation looking fro some ammo and everywhere he went they were out. The one place that had .22 was restricting sales to one box of 50 per customer. What a drag! So, I gave him a box of 550 Federal I don't particularly care to shoot.

Freedommunitions.com has finally shipped my order after a 3 week backlog, plus they have been sold out of everything they make for almost the same length of time. I'm hoping they get back in service soon! Lambone needs some more 300 blackout!

Yeah, I like CCI mini-mag for most guns, stingers for pistols. And anything that comes bulk is going to have a bunch of half-bent rounds in it. Not worth it.

A friend in the ammo biz tells me her company is just beginning to catch up to the point of allowing backorders again. She shared us a pic of a box of about 10k rounds of 5.65 they had just turned out. She says demand is just through the roof, and her small company is one of the few who can even get the supplies to make ammo at this point, and had had a lot in stock already.

She says it's just plain demand from dealers - everyone caught off guard by it.
Brass is made by most companies in rotation, eg we make this type this month, that type next month and so on, estimating to make enough of each to last till the next time that caliber comes back into the rotation. They don't just make one type all the time except for a few rare instances - it takes a lot of steps on a lot of machines (capex) to make brass from a slug punched out of a plate, so they don't have a set of machines per caliber.

Primers have been in super short supply, but she had plenty (by her standards, some few tens of thousands per type). Bullets and powder not so bad.

She's pretty happy just now - she labelled that picture "gold" and to her, it is - and it's all spoken and paid for already.

Bishop ammo if anyone cares, in CA. I've talked to them for hours while they QC the day's production on video chat. I'm impressed enough with their technique and care to probably even buy some of their product myself once it's back in stock - even though I can make my own cheaper. Never any harm in having a little extra, and they use premium brass I can reload with confidence.

It's just going to take a little time, like all the other times. Panic buying creates artificial shortage in this JIT world.

local hardware store, all calibers in pistol, no .223 or .308, everything else. Same pre-panic prices. But no .22

Local Red Top Bait shop. NOTHING on the shelf except one box of twelve gauge and a battery charger. The huge storekeeper said this is just a scam by the NRA to raise ammo prices, everything will be back double price in a few months. She also said she hopes they ban those assault weapons, no one needs an assault weapon.

Jay said:

... She also said she hopes they ban those assault weapons, no one needs an assault weapon.

Click to expand...

Which assault weapons? A tire iron can be an assault weapon. A brick can be an assault weapon. Gasoline and a match can be an assault weapon.

If management at a local mom & pop store were espousing such opinions in my home town, I wouldn't patronize them any more.

PMBug said:

Which assault weapons? A tire iron can be an assault weapon. A brick can be an assault weapon. Gasoline and a match can be an assault weapon.

If management at a local mom & pop store were espousing such opinions in my home town, I wouldn't patronize them any more.

Click to expand...

Cains' rock was the original recorded assault weapon. I don't patronize them, stopped by looking for .308. She looks like shes gonna do herself in without the need for help from a gun anyway

Weve been there before and once again, it'll pass. Not having any problems here in Greenville, SC. Supplys are down, but not out.

Just came back from the local range (never been there before, cause usually I can shoot free at my friends ranch). This was by invite; I sure like the range. Guy next to me had a canned .308 shooting subsonic, you could barely hear it. With super sonic he was hitting the steel at 1000 yds. (This was all new to me, yeah, I'm easy ) The gun shop there had all calibers at regular, pre-freakout prices. Got five boxes of .308 Federal 20. each (actually he said they used to be 16.) But still glad to get them. No ammo in Burnet or the neighboring town.

Glad I bought that progressive press a few months ago!

Been reloading 5.56 and .45 pretty regularly. It's been a good investment so far!

Big backorders on most supplies, though. There's not much at all in stores here in NY... and a few companies won't ship to NY even though it's not illegal yet.

ADK

I am so completely fucking pissed about the unconstitutional NY gun bullshit that I want to go all baseball bat on someone. Did you read about the decorated marine vet that was arrested and charged as a violent felon for simply posessing five empty AR-15 magazines?

These people are insane and should be exorcised from the face of the planet.

Yup -- that was just north of me. Watertown, I think.

They *waaaaaay* overstepped their reach on that one.

You should see some of the public information meetings going on up my way. This one is from Buffalo and is pretty representative of every meeting north of White Plains:


That' the abridged version with soundtrack, etc.

Here's the full video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Ol1SzjHPFGw

There's a room full of patriots My kind of people.

Maybe I should re-post this in the SHTF room... I'm a little off topic here.

ADK

Absolutely correct ADK. The mood is the same here in Florida. The People have hadit up to their chin with these power grabs by the executive class, the TSA and DHS, even with local police buying tanks and military style weapons. It is all just a giant ball of fuck as far as I am concerned, and I can't wait for it all to come apart in to a giant smoking heap.

Steering us back towards the original conversation, the local prices on semi-auto rifles, magazines, and semi-auto ammo is crazy!

9mm ammo for 40-50 cents a round?!
Good luck even finding .223 ammo!

Old, crappy chinease AKs going for well over a grand!?
Decent ARs going for over two grand?!

I found some ammo, but it was insane prices.

.223 = $1.12 per round
9mm = $0.68 per round for ball ammo
a 550 round box of .22 = $89
No 7.62 X 39
No .30 .30
No .45
No .40
No 12 ga. besides bord shot
No .38
No .32 auto
No .25 auto
No reloading supplies to include, powder, primers of any kind, presses, dies........nothingness in the extreme.

The gun shop looked like it was in going-out-of-business mode. No weapons to speak of and it has been virtually stripped of gear. I've never seen anything like this before......ever. It's spooky actually.

My fusion partner just found a few K primers, while on the road in the FLA area. But that was it. Glad we'd already stocked up.

went to the local gun show, 11 miles west of here. Ammo higher, 1/3 to double December prices. No one buying guns; all guns (even the 30-30 I coveted FROM A YEAR AGO, SAME GUN) same prices except for black rifles, 1200-2000 each. LOTS of silver, junk silver, rounds, 2013 ASE's 32.00 Didn't buy anything, took a case of steel jacket crap .223 I had and a guy there is exchanging it for something I can shoot.

Ammo has loosened up the tiniest bit around here......finally. My buddy called me from the gun store and asked me if I wanted some boxes of .223, so I had him pick up five for me [that was the limit per caliber] along with a carton of .22 and five boxes of 9mm. I hope it gets better than this soon because I miss the days of being able to roll down to the range and blast away to my hearts content.

yeah, we haven't gone out shooting cause of that. Ended up "trading" the steel cased Tuli (one case) for .308 and 30-06 brass cased. I paid six dollars a box for the .223, I think (its been so long I can't really remember) and he gave me 15 a box in exchange. I think I came out ahead financially; I certainly came out ahead on ammo as I don't have anything that will shoot that stuff. (and on a numerous note, I only have a single shot .223 so I'd be a month trying to shoot a case). Did your prices come down?

took two van full of my kids and wifes friends to Ruidosa NM to go snow skiing for spring break, but no snow. (they had reserved the cabins months in advance.) No loss, we went to white sands and played in the sand, and the snow we didn't have to pay for at Cloudcroft.


Checked out the gun stores while we were there, Goth hippy chick had every caliber you could imagine, and lots; 30.00 for 20 rnds federal .308. She said the ONLY customers she had anymore were people driving from Texas to get ammo. Ruidosa was different; no ammo I could find anywhere, but the guns were way cheaper than here in Burnet Texas. One shop had five black rifles behind the counter, 495 each (no scopes). Every rifle I looked at out on the floor was about half the price of here at home (but no visible ammo in the shop, except for a few boxes behind the counter).

Exciting trip, saw a bald eagle, old lady driving the wrong way down the interstate, and the rear driver tire on the van de-laminated at about 85 mph outside of Big Spring, Texas; the shrapnel tore off the rear taillight assembly, rear bumper, etc. Actual tire never lost any air.

Everybody safely at home, all is good.

Went to the gun show this weekend. Plenty of AR's at super high prices (up to abut $2700), but no one was buying them according to the vendors.
Uppers were going for $500-800, about normal, but these weren't the really nice custom ones - that guy wasn't there.

Ammo less than "normal" but there - mostly all NATO and .40 calibers. One reloader supply place there (usually 2-3) and he had the normal stuff, though he did laugh and point to many empty cases of powder - it'd been open about 3 hours, and maybe 20 boxes of 1lb cans of powder had been sold already - perhaps 12 cans/box.

I didn't buy anything myself, other than a fire starter. The good MRE guy wasn't there either. I'm already "stocked up" and nothing particularly caught my eye other than some night vision stuff that looked too expensive for what it was (and I have other sources for that kind of thing).

No one wanted to buy my race-gun (.45 1911 colt, very nice) - though everyone looked at it and ooh-ahh'd it. No one wanted to buy my .50 bmg Grizzly. Just no bid.

The place was extremely crowded, though.

Edit:
I "just happened" to have an AGE and a ASE in my pocket when I went. For giggles, I pulled one or the other out at various vendors to see if they'd accept one (and in some cases, they'd have had to make change). No takers whatever - some astonishment on their part however. There was a coin dealer there selling mint-direct ASE's for less than APMEX, however.

I went to a local gun store over the weekend. They were completely out of every type of common ammo you can think of: .223, 9mm, 38special....

They were equally wiped out of most semi-auto pistols and rifles. What ever they had left was priced extremely high. When I commented on the prices, the guy told me he couldn't get in new stock if they sold.

Amusingly for me, revolvers were plentiful and priced low. I have my eye on a nice Ruger Security-Six they have for $400!