More on the critical ammo shortage.

[powderman]

Read full story at link. POWDERMAN. 
 
 
“It's no surprise guns and ammunition were going to be strong in the first quarter,” said Thomas Millner, Cabela’s chief executive officer in an earnings call last Thursday. “Supply is still tight. It is still constraining ultimate demand because we simply -- in some categories, like .22-caliber ammunition, it's very, very tight.”
 
Ammunition manufacturers are reporting record profits and sales, with increases that number in the double and sometimes triple digits. Olin, which owns Winchester, reported last week the company’s first quarter earnings climbed 190 percent over the same period last year. Federal Premium Ammunition’s annual earnings for ammunition last year climbed 24 percent over 2011.
“Our sales are only limited by the amount we can produce,” said Joseph Rupp, Olin chairman and chief executive officer in a conference call last Friday.
 
Ammunition manufacturers are struggling to make enough and have hundreds of millions of dollars in backorders. They’ve added hundreds of employees and equipment and increased overtime, and, in some cases, are running factories around the clock. Producers have posted notes on all their web sites assuring customers they are working as fast as they can.
 
“We are producing as much as we can; much more than last year, which was a lot more than the year before. No one wants to shop more during this time than we do,” a note on Hornady’s site said.
Producers did not return repeated emails and calls.
“Manufacturers are doing what they can, but it’s not enough to keep up. It’s a supply-and-demand issue,” said Nima Samadi, a senior analyst who tracks the guns and ammunition industry at IbisWorld, a market research firm in Los Angeles.
 
While demand is strong, manufacturers consider it temporary and aren’t planning to build new factories or make substantial changes that would cost a lot of money and take a lot of time to train people and buy new facilities. The last “surge” in demand only lasted six quarters, and this one, though manufacturers changed their expectations in the last month, now expect demand to remain strong through the end of the year. Some even wonder if it will extend into the new year and beyond.
“I think the honest answer is,” said Millner, Cabela’s chief executive officer. “I don't know when it's going to loosen up.”


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/05/06/bullet-blitz-demand-from-public-government-leaves-ammo-shelves-empty/#ixzz2ScjwDVsP

[guzzijohn]

I wonder how many people have put themselves in some sort of financial stress over hoarding of ammo, let alone gun purchases. Once again I will say that gun owners have created this mess themselves.
GuzziJohn

[LONGTOM]

I wonder how many people have put themselves in some sort of financial stress over hoarding of ammo, let alone gun purchases. Once again I will say that gun owners have created this mess themselves.
GuzziJohn

More or less true because they didn't heed the warnings we tried to tell them about stocking up over the last few years since the last ammo/primer shortage.
Now I know there are exceptions.
You just got into the sport, you picked up a caliber you didn't have before.
Other then that, you should have been well stocked by now.
The real problem is that a lot of owners won't change and when the next big shortage comes along they will be in the same boat and still crying about no ammo to be found or my gosh, look at what they want for a box of ammo!!!
 
Come on, LEARN PEOPLE, LEARN!!!
 
 
 
LONGTOM

[Sourdough]

I decided to take my new (to me)Rossi Pump to the range.  I needed 38spl or 357 Mag ammo.  I knew the wife had been buying both along with what I had been buying at Sportsman's.  I pulled all the ammo out of two big boxes (Approx 18"X32") that I had put up on top of the gun Vaults.  Knew they were full of ammo, but could not remember what type.  One box was full of .223 ammo.  Ultra Max boxes of 50, stacked three deep.  I had been buying for the last two years.  Every time I went to Sportsman's I would pick up two boxes.  Then when I had the big box full I stopped.  The other one was full of 22-250, 30-06, and 350 Rem Mag.  After I had all the .223 I wanted I had started buying the other.  Pulled down a third smaller box, it was full of .45ACP.   Finally asked the wife where the 38s and 357s were.  Her reply was that's mine, you can't have any.  Found them in one of the drawers under our bed.  the drawer is full of 38s and 357s.  She quite buying ammo last year sometime when the drawer got full.  We have a radio talk show host, that ever since the last shortage he has been telling everyone to stock up on ammo.  Buy a box or two a week.  I and my wife have been doing that.  We fell down on the .22LRs.

With the exception of .22LRs, and .17 Hornet, we got plenty.  We did stock up before the crunch happened.  I'm fairly well set on primers too, and powder.  Luckily when I started shooting the 25-06, I bought several bags of brass, and plenty of Retumbo powder.  I thought I had plenty of .22LR, but seems Sky and Eric went to the range several times back in the fall and shot up several bricks.  I have two bricks of shorts, and the one brick of LRs I just bought two weeks ago.  That brick is not going to be shot it will be held in reserve.  Then while cleaning off the freezer with the winters accumilation of junk found a bulk pack of 333 .22LR ammo.  There is my ammo to take my new S&W pistol to the range.  Things are good.

I set up the presses and scales last night, ready to start reloading.  While I have plenty of powder for the smaller stuff, the big buns go through powder pretty fast at 90 to 110gr a shell.