Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Ammo shortage

Just for grins, this morning I spent a couple of minutes looking and found Nosler .30/06 180gr E-Tip at two places, and good ‘ol 150gr Core-Lokts at another. The E-Tips are almost $60, as expected, but the Remington is $27.

No .30/06 here (!), but I could work with either.

For handloaders, twice recently I backordered brass from Starline, and it shipped within a couple of days. Seems once it makes it from Unavailable to Backorder, they’re getting ready to make it very soon, or so it seems. They have a pretty long list now, and what I’ve ordered has been very nice.

For you more experience reloaders, how do you go about calculating how to stockpile for your needs? Trying to get a better understanding of your logic and numbers.

For example I must be something wrong. I use to shoot about 3,000 round of 9mm/year between me and my wife. So I'd order sleeve (5,000) pistol primers. As I got close to my year consumption, I'd order another sleeve. This way I'd always have about ~2,000 primers in reserve. Obviously, I did it wrong because I got caught short. What should I be doing? Always have 5k small pistol primers in reserve? Or more like a three year reserve supply, so like 15k small pistol primers? Is that what you guys do? Thanks for your help!

It all depends on how much you shoot. I probably shoot 3 or 4 times the 9mm rounds that you do annually, but that has been reduced somewhat during the current shortage. I like to have at least 25,000 small pistol primers in stock and I might revise that upwards after the current shortages.

I don't shoot as many rifle rounds but I like to have 10,000+ of different types on hand. I might increase that as well.

The same approach applies to bullets and powder although they are easier to obtain and I have larger supplies of those.

I always figured the safest bet was to have at least an 8-year stockpile of shooting supplies in reserve, because that is the (hopefully) maximum length of an anti-gun administration.

It is not going to get better.

Was in Cabela Wed. poor stock guy just could not keep up. Very few gun's in stock. But selling what they had. Just stood back and watched. Was just there to spend gift card's picked up a few new shirts. I don't know why people don't stock up when they can. But it's not over.

For sure not over. I'm very grateful I have everything I actually "need". The only things I wish I acquired was more 22magnum rimfire and 17HMR. I some but wish I could have scored more, but the rest of it I'm GTG, and actually need to clear out powders I don't use.

Anyone who is really serious about this has not passed up a chance, since at least the Obama election, to purchase the entire component stock of any and every store he has entered.

Ok. So there are several proven inventory & stock procurement methods.

You’ve heard of Just in time, not in time & out of time. I rely on the ‘all the time’ method of stocking various inventory items. Just sayin. Be well & prosper.

That's what I fear. Now I'm set on ammo for what I have bit I've been passing up guns I wanted to buy because I don't want the headache of trying to procure ammo for them

Bullschidt.

Every time this has happened (and the first "shortage" occurred during the Clinton administration), the shortage has eased up within at most 2 years. This is about how long it takes for the shooters who didn't pay attention to past shortages to catch up.

This one may last a little longer than average, because 11 million new shooters entered the ammo/component market in the past year. Even if they each bought just two boxes of ammo, that's a big jump in demand.

Though it could actually be a government conspiracy. This actually happened during the great rimfire shortage after Obama was reelected. It was due to both Barack and Michelle being closet "gopher" shooters, who loved to whack various burrowing rodents. Consequently almost all the new rimfire production was diverted to a secret Federal armory.

I would have to put the 222 Mag, the 400 Whelen, the 32 H&R and 38-44 as some of my favorite chamberings to literally shoot a bunch of.

The 375 SuperMag I haven't shot in two years may also get the nod.

There are reasons not to shoot something or buy something, but they aren't reasonable ones at this stage.

I think I have about 2k worth of pistol primers that I loaned a gun store employee over the last year. The payback will happen, but even if it doesn't, I'll be okay.
The Little Red Hen

Ammo situation might ease up a bit in the next two years. Then it will be another round of madness before 2024 election.

30-06? All you gotta do is look. Buy a case and you’re set for a year or two….

https://www.shootersproshop.com/30-06-springfield-180gr-accubond-trophy-grade-ammunition-blem.html


And yeah, when Targetsports was selling Berger factory ammo loaded with Berger bullets and Lapua brass for $25/box, it was an easy decision button to push….

The shortage of Hunting ammunition has me considering another conspiracy. Shortage of ammo- shortage of hunters- short interest span- all add up to less people even interested and a decline in hunting in general. Do away with hunting and you eliminate a large segment of the interested parties.
Do away with th interest and you can ram in a lot more gun control.

I saw a box of Remington 300 ROY at the WM in York, NE, today that was priced at $75 for 20 rounds. That seems like a lot to me, but these are unusual times.

Got a flyer from Roger’s Sporting Goods this morning. They have ammo for common rounds like .308, .270, .30/06, and some others. The price is the price, but factory ammo prices already seemed pretty high to me before this crunch hit.

If you are truly out, I wouldn’t linger….

One of the impacts not talked about here is the young shooter. Low paying job, family to take care of, limited discretionary income, etc. may not be able to 'stock up' when ammo is available because of the cost, so may only have a couple of boxes in the closet for the hunting rifle. Yes, you don't need a bunch of ammo to hunt, but the increased prices and the shortages (whatever may have caused them) makes buying just one box hard, even if you can afford it.

There's no impact on me because I can afford it (I mostly buy components); I stocked up years ago. But, since this started I've bought a few thousand primers, already had plenty of powder, and bullets that are beginning to come off of backorder.

That's hilarious!

I've seen quite a bit more ammo on shelves the past couple of weeks, compared to the last 8-10 months. Plenty of .22LR.

Components are still quite rare though I see some light down there somewhere.