Where is all the ammo?

[S.B.]

All the stores in my area of Illinois are out and have been for some time?? No .22LRs any where.
Steve

[buck460XVR]

Same 'round here S.B. Don't know what the issue is with .22LR. Thank goodness I stocked up on reloading supplies after the last shortage, and the centerfire supplies have been starting to show up again,  but I never dreamed .22LR would be impossible to get for so long.

[Cheesehead]

Scheel's Sporting Goods store in Eau Claire WI had 100's of 50 round boxes of CCI long rifle ammo for sale. One box per customer, 9.95$ per BOX. This was last week.

Cheese

[JustaShooter]

Scheel's Sporting Goods store in Eau Claire WI had 100's of 50 round boxes of CCI long rifle ammo for sale. One box per customer, 9.95$ per BOX.

The CCI stuff usually comes in 100 round boxes, which is what I've seen around here going for $10 - $12/box.

[Ladobe]

Where is all the ammo?   Apparently it is all in Canada!
 
Posted by a gent on another forum yesterday:
 
"I was in a sporting goods store today in Saskatoon and found they had literally 10s of thousands of rounds of 22 ammo. Most any brand in large quantities. Not just a couple of bricks but hundreds of bricks. This town has less then 250K people and there is more ammo here then all total available in the entire Eastern US. Handgun ammo no problem. All major brand and calibers. 223 ammo no problem cases or smaller boxes. All prices are normal prices as well. Unfortunately we head home tomorrow and doing some quick checking it would required forms from the ATF to import the ammo with me."
 

 
 

 

[Cheesehead]

[quote author=JustaShooter link=topic=281539.msg1099721986#msg1099721986 date=1370803108]
[quote author=Cheesehead link=topic=281539.msg1099721985#msg1099721985 date=1370802571]
Scheel's Sporting Goods store in Eau Claire WI had 100's of 50 round boxes of CCI long rifle ammo for sale. One box per customer, 9.95$ per BOX.

The CCI stuff usually comes in 100 round boxes, which is what I've seen around here going for $10 - $12/box.


I looked closely and am sure they are 50 round boxes, for 9.95$...

Cheese

As I recall, they are 32 grain Velociters.

Cheese

[Graybeard]

Prolly Stingers or one of the other types that CCI packs in boxes of 50 and yeah all of the ammo they put in the boxes of 50 are way more expensive than their standard ammo in 100 packs.

Ammo is shipping. I have 10,550 rounds on back order with one company. Last time I checked the status it said pending assignment and gave ship dates before the middle of this month. I called to see if that was good info. It wasn't but she said they are receiving and shipping ammo every day and it looked like they would have the ten boxes of Winchester ammo in the 555 boxes this month and the other 5000 in July. I figure this plus what I already have will come close to being a life time supply for me depending on what the boys shoot.

She also said that the projected ship dates from the ammo makers are now getting much closer to reality and that most projected dates are coming within a month of actual ship dates.

I guess a huge amount of ammo was on back order with most retailers and until those back orders are filled you won't see it listed as in stock.

[Elwood]

We all went through this same stuff when Obama was elected the first time and the great primer shortage.
"Keep calm and carry on. "
eventually the supply will catch up with the demand. I learned my lesson and stocked up before the current crisis. Those of you who are hurting now will learn and stock up in the future.
Elwood

[Rodent]

The people that say " You people will learn" are the Hoarders that caused this problem in the first place.
I do not shoot much 22lr other than competition, so I never have any bulk on hand and have not bought any. The 22lr that I do use in competition has gotten hard to find, but it shows up when I need it.
I reload everything else and I have no more on hand than I normally would ( a couple hundred ). I order it when I need it and never order more than a couple hundred, as there are others out there that are in need of it as well. I never could understand that "Buy it even though I ain't gonna shoot it" mentality.
 
Just my opinion, of course.

[SHOOTALL]

Here if you can find it CCI 50 round boxes are 40 gr. and $5.95 a box several stores have it on and off all same price. Nothing else available. And it is the first 50 round boxes of standard vel. 40 gr. from CCI in cardboard boxes I have seen since the switched to plastic.

[Dixie Dude]

I suggest becoming a hoarder.  If you keep up with the news, etc.  California just passed a $5 per box tax on ammo.  So a $5 box of 50 22LR now becomes $55.  This is the gun grabbers latest attempt at some type of gun control.  TAX, TAX HEAVY.  So buying a little along for a while until you get a good supply, and put it in an ammo can or shoebox should last you for years.  It also beats inflation.  I don't consider an ammo can or a shoebox full of 22LR ammo as hoarding.  Maybe a closet full. 

[SHOOTALL]

so they will create a new back market smuggling in ammo , like we need another racket in this country ..............Any given weekend you will find plenty of out of state cars in the gun stores along I 95 in Va. with the guys from up North buying ammo. and magazines.

[Bugflipper]

Buying in bulk is cheaper. Also buying ammo to shoot later is cheaper. Wolf MT 22 lr was $14 a brick not to many years ago. You could get it $10 per brick for a case. Now it's $94.90 a brick.
The same with bulk surplus ammo, it used to be cheaper to buy than to reload. Today steel cased Russian ammo is more expensive than NATO was 5 years ago. NATO ammo has trippled in price in that time.

[Ranger99]

i don't consider buying in large quantities
hoarding if you are buying it with intent of
shooting it eventually. i refer to those who
buy with intent of reselling at a profit
as hoarders and ***holes, and i hope they get
stuck with all they bought.

[Dixie Dude]

I don't resell any ammo.  Might trade or sell to a relative or friend if they need some, but mostly never.  Just store it until I am ready to shoot or go hunting. 

[Junior1942]

Spotted Dog Gun & Pawn in Columbia, Louisiana,  last week had shelves filled with ammo.  I didn't look for 22LR, however.  They also had a few CCI primers.  I bought two bricks of SR @ $49.90 per brick, and I complained the entire time I was paying for them.  They had a few 100-pacs on the shelf when I left but not many.

[Qaz]

Dixie dude- If it is taxed @ $5 per box, that would be $10 for a $5 box and $15 for a $10 box not $55 for a $5 box!
 
I was in two of the local shops last week and was told that when the supply catches up with the demand, unfortunately the prices will probably not come back down because people have proven that they will pay the higher prices.

[SHOOTALL]

It's supply and demand. Will the factories let capital equipment sit idle making no profit or keep it going by reducing price and making a profit ? Then there will be price wars when competition kicks in.

[twoshooter]

I agree on the "resale" hoarding, completely legal but they are rectumus maximus, I know people that do not even own a gun that have done that.
    That being said, still not a 22LR in sight, nor any pistol ammo, nor 223 or 7.62 X 39 on the shelves. The supply of actual "hunting ammo" in stock is not bad and climbing. If you have one of the 300 Mags, a 7mm Rem, 270 Win or 30/30 you are OK, 243 and 25/06 are getting more common also. I guess I should be grateful none of the deranged guys have decided to be a "sniper" instead of the spray and pray variety.

[Dixie Dude]

Sorry, I was thinking about $50 Tax for a brick, thus probably $100 for a brick.  Still way too high a tax.  At the very least it should have been a percentage tax, not a per box.  Now, I guess if you bought a bulk pack that was not ten 50 shot boxes that make a brick, maybe it wouldn't be so bad if a bulk pack only had a $5 charge.  So, maybe the ammo makers will get around the tax and make larger boxes of ammo so it can spread the tax. 

[SHOOTALL]

When govt. buying slows our hunting/target  ammo will return . If govt. buying stays up then manufactures will open more lines when they know there will be profit made.

[Empty Quiver]

Quite simple. The ammo is still in factory packaging in basements, dresser drawers, gun cabinets, and surplus military ammo boxes all over America.


At the beginning of the last ammo shortage, I was caught flat footed. I had enough ammo for a reasonable range trip for each gun. I determined that would not happen again if I had any say so. Without insanity I was a low flame sort of heat on the last ammo fiasco. I geared up to reload, I put away a supply that with frugal use will last the rest of my career.


I was naive, I read the posts of those here and in other forums, and thought poo poo, what are they worried about. I bought an expensive lesson and the lesson was learned.


I guessing my experience is not too awful unique. When this generation gets caught up the next crises will be lesser in size and longevity. I hope... I ain't liking the frugal use proviso, nope not one bit.

[buck460XVR]

When govt. buying slows our hunting/target  ammo will return . If govt. buying stays up then manufactures will open more lines when they know there will be profit made.

All the major ammo manufacturers have clearly stated that none of the shortages we as civilians are experiencing has anything at all to do with them filling government orders. Same with reloading component suppliers/manufacturers. We are the cause of the ammo shortage. Some of it is retailer induced to make huge profits. Some of it is hoarding and some of it is hoarding for resale at a profit. But most of it is due to panic buying by those perpetuating government involvement/conspiracy theories.

[Dixie Dude]

Lots of new gun owners the last 5 years.  In 2011 over 8 million weapons were sold, 5 million American made, 3 million imported.  Two and 1/2 million of those were AR-15 variants.  Five to 8 million guns have been sold each year since Obama was elected.  If only 5 million a year, that is 25 million now.  Gun ownership went from 43% of Americans to 47% in this time frame also.  That is like 12 million new gun owners in 5 years.  Two to 2-1/2 billion 22 lr cartridges are produced in America each year also, not counting imports. 

[buck460XVR]

Two to 2-1/2 billion 22 lr cartridges are produced in America each year also, not counting imports.

I found this on another site.....
A trusted source provided this:
 

“Take for example .22LR ammunition. The industry as a whole (all manufacturers combined) is setup to produce 4,200,000,00

0 (4.2 Billions) .22 LR annually. That is running all the machines, full capacity all the time, all manufacturers together.
There is NOTHING they can do to produce more.
That corresponds to 230,137 cartridge per State per day, which is 460 bricks of 500 .22lr per day per State. That means that if less than 50 people per day in each State are buying 10 bricks of .22, it is enough to dry up the entire supply as it is being manufactured.”

[Dixie Dude]

Maybe that is where I got 2.5 billion.  Workers have to have some time off, holidays, vacations, etc.  2.5 was produced in 2011, last year I saw statistics.  Most survivalists sites recommend from 5-30 thousand rounds to stockpile per gun.  Most people I know are stocking, not shooting right now.  Obama has scared a lot of people straight.  Most all gun owners also have 22's also.  They are also the cheapest guns to buy. 

[Empty Quiver]

Maybe that is where I got 2.5 billion.  Workers have to have some time off, holidays, vacations, etc.  2.5 was produced in 2011, last year I saw statistics.  Most survivalists sites recommend from 5-30 thousand rounds to stockpile per gun.  Most people I know are stocking, not shooting right now.  Obama has scared a lot of people straight.  Most all gun owners also have 22's also.  They are also the cheapest guns to buy.

30k per? Well I need to get busy .


I'm not sure I possess a gun that can reliably fire 30k rounds. Crimeny how many barrels would that be for the 300WM? I don't think the firing pin could survive, I know my shoulder would need help from an orthopedist. 


Having said that I really have no problem with enough ammo to wear a gun out / lifetime supply. Imagine what the fuel situation would look like if it could be stored?

[Junior1942]

Yesterday morning, Blade 'n' Barrel in Jena Louisiana had plenty of ammo except no 22LR.