Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Canada Availabiliy of ammo and reloading supplies in Canada

Please comment. I'm very curious. I'm sure you know it's a disaster in the US.

Stocks of most components are low. You have to hunt to find the popular powders and bullets.

Not in that region, but years back with one of our earlier shortages I had zero issues with ammo or components for oddball cartridges. Plenty of brass etc for things like 240 Weatherby or a 6.5 x 55 Swede. Now 06's or 223's were another story.

I went to the local gun shop the other day and bought 2 boxes each of CCI 22LR SV and Mini mags at what I think was a good price (12 cents/round).

And then I did something very unusual - I left some for other shooters - Pretty weird Huh!!

In our area some rifle powders are difficult to impossible to find. Popular calibers / weights / types for bullets have become low. There are more vacant spots in the shelves of the popular stores each month. Smaller out of town gun shops seem to have a better selection for now on some items.

Stocks on target shotgun shells are becoming low and selective on available brands. When new stock comes in there is a noticeable price jump. Trying to find 20 gage target loads for sporting clays can be a challenge.

Throughout the last year, less popular die sets like .38-55 were scarce, but available in a few places. Now they are unavailable anywhere.
Powders are less available, but more common types seem to be available in some places.
Starline brass in less popular cartridges continues to be available in a few places.
Cast bullets dried up fast and are still unavailable largely. Nobody is making them.
Communication with the new owner of "The Bullet Barn" suggests that he is unreliable.
Uncommonly used ammunition like .44-40 has been, and remains, unobtainable.

One thing that I discovered is that the larger the city, the less available these things are.
Medium size locations are better.

Canadian Cabelas is a disaster for ammunition supply, and their on-line inventories seem to be deliberately faked in an attempt to get you to order or visit their stores. I guess that they think that you will wait for your order, or buy something else if you visit.