“If you go to a couple of places and can’t find the ammunition you need, fear sets in. The next time you see that ammunition for sale, you’re going to buy everything they’ve got.” – Mark Johnson, Guns for Christmas: After year long buying frenzy, dealers unsure what market holds [at thepiedmontjournal.com]

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43 COMMENTS

  1. I feel for the dealers and their fears of a slow Christmas season, but not TOO much. They’ve been raking it in for more than a year, now, so any who haven’t socked away enough to carry them through a slow patch have only themselves to blame.

    As for the rest of us – bring on the bargains! If you had the common sense to avoid the gougers all last year, it’s your turn.

  2. At this point, given all we have been through under the Obama administration, anyone who is not stocked up on ammo has nobody to blame but himself. Seriously.

    I have a permanent “reserve” of ammo for all eventualities, then I rotate stock in and out of my “range use/training” ammo stock.

      • Availability of ammo here in Connecticut has been pretty awful for almost a year now, but with a little searching and using ammo responsibly I’ve socked away more than 2,000 rounds of 22lr, 9mm, 8mm, 5.45 and 30-30 for myself and my father’s guns.
        You just have to look for ammo regularly and it’s no big deal.

        • Hate to poop in the punch bowl, but 2000 rds of various cals ain’t gonna go far. I got well over that in .22 lr, and I am hesitant to even throw out figures on my other must haves in 7.62 Warsaw and NATO, 9mm, .38 short, .38 Spl, .45, 303 Brit,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Funny, Wifey didn’t protest when I spent the money to fireproof the section of the basement where this mound of ammo cans resides.

  3. Outstanding, I’m glad things are slowing down, maybe I’ll be able to get a few more weapons and ammo to go with them without taking out a second mortgage. That said I have more ammo stashed now than I did a year ago and I didn’t pay gouger prices for any of it. You just have to be ready to pull the trigger so to speak when you stumble across a deal.

  4. I haven’t seen much to tell me it’s slowing down that much. Ammo is back, but I see a lot of people buying guns and ammo.

  5. Now see, here is the rub. For years people laughed at me for buying ammo at every opportunity, even for weapons I did not own. Now everybody is all weewee-ed up cause they can’t find the ammo they want. Oh. Well. Should have been listening to me instead of laughing.

    Thus endeth the lesson.

    • Yeah, I was buying 9mm and 5.56, but I didn’t have .45ACP on my list until post-Newtown. Luckily, my CZ eats Wolf .45ACP without a hiccup!

      I’d have added 7.62×39, but that’s still available for about .26/rd in bulk and I already got a few kilorounds of that.

      • Yea, ammo and long term storage food stuffs is never a bad investment. Lots of people totally forget cleaning supplies and lubricants, just as they forget spices and coffee creamer, when stocking up. Same goes for ammo, must be more catholic in your acquisitions. Broaden the horizons.

  6. Holiday purchases are an imperfect indication of market saturation. The AR market is relatively saturated, but that could change after the next mass shooting, which will probably occur in a gun free zone. As for me, I have all the hardware I need. I could maybe add a compact 9mm and a full sized .45 1911 because my .40s just “kick too much.” Maybe a .300 Win Mag, if I need more reach than the 30-06 or .308. My .338 Lapua still needs a scope, unless I get a QD mount for that and my .308 scope. A spare Ruger 10-22 takedown or two couldn’t hurt, with a few extra (million) rounds of .22 LR. Throw in a Ruger SR-762, 300 BLK AR, and a decent over/under and I’m totally set. All those things need food, of course, and I’m running out of ammo boxes. I’m pretty well set though. For now.

    • Laughed when I read this. I’m pretty well set, too, except for half a dozen things that might be worth picking up if I stumble on them at the right price. And the AR build that I started, semi inadvertantly, by picking up a lower from my FFL. And the items I own already that could use extra magazines. And then there’s the NFA wish list that I’ve been lazy about starting on…. Still, those all fall under “nice to have.” The “must have” category is pretty well covered.

    • Hahaha
      Yup. I’m still searching for a good double rifle at an affordable price without having to sell something.
      I’m set for ammo, but I’ll still buy more if the price is OK.
      Somebody else said it, but I’ll repeat it
      “You can never have too much ammo, unless you’re swimming or on fire”

    • Well, my rule used to be that any time I walked into a store that sold ammo, I’d walk out with a box of something, to keep my stock topped up. But then the shortage hit, and I couldn’t abide by my rule anymore, because it wasn’t there. Then it became “buy it when I see it” (and the price isn’t stupid).

      • I volunteer my time for a dealer and cover gun shows for him, so I do have access to ammo that others may not, when it gets hard to get.

  8. In the last year I’ve more than doubled my desired round count for centerfire calibers and am working towards keeping 10X as much .22 LR around. I’ll be making small purchases for quite some time building up to those new targets.

    A commonly mentioned figure for domestic ammo production was 12 billion rounds per year. With around 100 million firearms owners that comes to 120 rounds per year. Imagine the three box daily limit at wallyworld being an annual limit: one box of 50 .22LR, one box of 50 centerfire handgun rounds and one box of 20 centerfire rifle rounds.

    • That situation would last as long as it took for suppliers to expand capacity. That’s the beauty of the free market: none of those oh so greedy manufacturers are just going to sit there and leave all that money on the table.

    • I buy a lot of mil surplus for range time, try to get decent brass for reloading that way, too. As for pistol, I try to push 400 rds a month for practice, buying the cheap Wolf 115gr 9mm. Supposed to practice with what you carry, that has gotten prohibitively expensive, plus I am having a hard time finding Remington 167gr jacketed hollow points for a few years now, only got 200 rds on hand and that is what I run in my Walther. Newer flat face profile HPs don’t load so well in it.

    • You forget the amount of ammo imported from places like Russia, Brazil, Mexico, Serbia, Romania, Italy, Bulgaria, Turkey, Ukraine, Czech Republic plus tons of surplus from places like Israel, South Africa, Germany, Denmark, Portugal, just to name a few. If we were allowed ammo from China again not only would it be more plentiful but cheaper too.

      • In fact on last recollection I don’t think I have any U.S. made ammo. All of my ammo is from:

        Russia
        China
        Malaysia
        South Africa
        Brazil
        Italy
        Serbia
        Poland
        Hungary
        Romania
        Bulgaria
        Albania
        Turkey
        Germany
        South Korea

        • I got a mixed bag, too. A lot of my 7.62 NATO is Pakistani and German, Warsaw is mostly Romanian and Czeki, though I do have a few 1000 rds of Chinese(don’t remember where I picked it up, sealed cans, and still are). Everything else is a mishmash, pistol ammo mostly American and Russian, exception being a good bit of Sellior&Bellot, got a lot of their 12ga and 410, too.

          Funny, have a pile of Indian and Iranian 7.62 NATO and the Iranian is much better, all mid ’70s production. Iranian is all new brass and seems hotter than standard. Indian is crap. Let me rephrase that. The Indian is CRAP. Clearly reloads, bad brass, unreliable to say the least. Is good for malfunction drills! And corrosive. Did I mention corrosive?

  9. As long as the Democrats rule America, our rights are not safe and I intend to buy up every single round that I can find at a reasonable price.

    I would advise all of you to do exactly the opposite.

  10. Wonder what those of you with leo mil civ training or hunting experience consider a reasonable monthly or quarterly range session minimum to stay current. If I am going to carry for self defense (not yet able in SoCal due Sheriffs May Issue criteria but that may be fixed by a 9th Court decision) but if and when then I’d want to plan for that much on hand stocked up a year ahead. I’m basing that on the rough length of time for this last and earlier shortages as a prudent measure. That could easily be 600 to 1200 rds per caliber I’d guess and the savijgs for doing so in .40 for example could be $500

  12. I’ve found the Advantage Arms Glock slide conversion useful to save $ in ammo. Breakeven in cost savings after approx 1000 rds for 22 vs 40.

    I might get myself the Laselyte blue gun target kit for practice. Anyone have experience on that…good or bad for building skills?

  13. I’m well stocked up on the three calibers that I own, and tempted to go into a fourth… but I don’t have the storage space or cash (grad school student).

    Eventhough I have more than enough .22LR stored away, I’m starting to forget what a brick looks like…

  14. I never really panicked since there was plenty of ammo on the interwebs (yes, at annoying prices). But, like $2 gasoline, some things may have changed forever… Ammo chaos may be part of the marketplace for a while.

    • Most of what I have actually purchased in 2013 has been in small quantities at local retail, but at prices within a few cents per round of 2012 pricing for centerfire and a penny or less difference for .22LR.

  15. I’m not sure that’s how it started or ended. It has ended right? Well maybe not for 22. Not really sure why there is still a shortage of that pop gun caliber. 223 is back to pre Dec’12 pricing if you know where to look. Same goes for 380. Anybody that got caught with their pants down and no ammo was just not prepared and probably voted for Obama. The money that was to be made selling black guns at inflated prices has been made. I’m seeing a lot of dust on AR’s in the racks these days. The shortages these days other than 22’s is reloading powder and projectiles.

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