How long is this going to last, they are literally ripping us off on the minimal products even available...I went searching for Federal 30-06 Nosler BT and may as well been looking for hen's teeth. Nothing on line, nothing available in retail, guys aren't going to be able to even hunt unless they stocked up.

You need to change to 350 Legend. It's on all the store shelves here.

I can’t say for certain who’s ripping off who, because I don’t know what the retailers are paying for their stock. Some stuff, notably good .22 ammo, seems pretty close to what it’s been in the past, and available if you look a bit. Took myself out of the factory rifle ammo market years ago, but I look now and then. It’s pretty scarce, though reports here have it popping up now and again.

You’re correct; those who didn’t pay attention to events a year and a half ago may be out of luck. Unfortunate, but it’s perhaps a life lesson for some, who hopefully won’t get caught next time, and there will be a next time.

There was a pic posted here sometime this year, of what l could have been very spacious walk in closet, maybe 8 feet deep and tall, with ammo packed floor to ceiling. That's the root of the shortage.

I found 1 place that had 165 gr. boattails, $104 + shipping for a box of 20




Exactly, they are blaming the upsurge in gun purchase, COVID, and not keeping up with the demand...but even the big online dealers and big box stores don't have any. I was looking for some oddball calibers like 41 mag, 260 Rem, 17 HMR, and they are scarce too....much less finding primers or bullet styles you need.

We have had ammo shortages every few years for a while. I guess the lesson is to stock up somewhat when prices are reasonable. I load most of my own ammunition, so my issue is components. I'm fairly well supplied, but it would be nice to see a return to more normal prices and supply. But I think it's going to be at least a year before we see that.

Plenty of 6mm CM, and 6.8 Western in my neck of the woods. Oh, yea, and 50 BMG. For the elk hunters I guess...

Only ones getting ripped off are guys to fugging stupid to buy enough for their needs. That answer your question? Mb

Powder is coming back but at an elevated price $36-40 lb. Saw small and large pistol primers local the other day $7/100, limit 400.

I just totally rebuilt my 1980's Rem. 700 Custom BDL deluxe, and have 2 boxes of cartridges but still have to sight it in. I have other guns and ammo to use, but wanted to break out the 30-06 again this year for old time sake.

I don't think that makes me stupid.

I learned after the Obama years. I stocked up first 2 years of Trump when everything was dirt cheap and plentiful.

I sympathize with those who were caught short, but this situation has repeated itself at least twice before in this century, so I don’t understand why they allowed it to happen to them yet again. No matter how many closets full of stuff are out there, two years ago ammo and components were plentiful and cheap, available to anyone. Their dilemma was totally predictable and preventable.

A year ago I looked at all the ammo I had loaded up for more than few firearms.I decided there was no way I could possibly shoot it all before I kicked the bucket.Now it is like money in the bank, plus all the bullets, primers, powder, an brass that I will probably never load I could sell and pay for a guided hunt..

Some say it is the stupid ones who didn't plan for these eventualities. That is not all that accurate. Up until this year, I had no use for small rifle primers, so my stock is low, but still have enough to do me, plus some magnum small pistol primers I could use if needed. I have sold/given some large pistol, large rifle, magnum small pistol to guys that are short on inventory.

Yea, it's the ones who post a full closet full of components and factory ammo that are driving the shortage a lot more than other causes IMO. You can bet those same ones wouldn't help out someone in need. I was out at the range the other day and guy was bragging he had 15,000 + rounds of .223 and I have never seen him shoot more than 100rounds

You have 40 rounds of ammo for your 30-06?

How many rounds do you need to sight in your rifle?

How many rounds do you need ot punch your tags after you have it sighted in?

In normal times, when I buy a rifle that I'm going to shoot factory ammo in, I buy 100 rounds that will be dedicated to that rifle and when I buy the factory ammo, I try to get it from the same production lot/run, which is why I prefer to buy factory ammo in person rather than on-line. MidwayUSA has a particularly annoying policy of only selling individual boxes of factory ammo, so if you buy 10 boxes of ammo from them, you could get 10 boxes that come from multiple different production lots/runs. I particularly don't understand why they do that with rimfire ammo, since the have to wrap the individual boxes in bubble wrap when they pack/ship the ammo. There must be a reason for them doing this, but it seems counterintuitive to me.

Was in Bass Pro here in Central NYS last week. Strange thing is that 223,40 S&W and 9mm was plentiful but anything for deer hunting was non existent and our Northern Zone season opens Saturday.

I stocked up on components, glad I’d did. Some hunters gonna be caught short.

Me too!

I got caught short of 17HM2 ammo after the Sandy Hook school shooting that took place back in 2012. I had enough Eley/Remington to hunt with, but no CCI/Hornady for casual shooting.

The only factory ammo that I've bought in 2021 has been 100 rounds of 6.5 CM and 100 rounds of .40 S&W. I could have bought other factory ammo, but felt that I should leave it on the shelves for people who needed it more than me. I'm still a little pissed at my oldest daughter for shooting up all of her .380 Auto HP ammo while plinking, rather than using the matching .22 that she had nearly 1,000 rounds to plink/practice with.

The Obama Shortages should have been a wakeup call for everybody because the political cycles will continue to shift like the pendulum in Grandpa's clock and it'll happen again and again. Don't reload? Fine, stock up for a rainy day when stuff is bountiful. Can't afford to? I feel for you, but there aren't many here getting along on a fixed/retired income as frugally as me but I saw the writing on the wall and stocked the hell out of my stash of components and .22 ammo - cost be damned. Had to live on hot dogs and beer for a while but I survived and now I'm glad I did because I can shoot/hunt like I stole the stuff. Priorities, baby, priorities.

No, it doesn't make you stupid. But these political-panic "shortages" have been common enough for the past quarter-century that you might be justifiably accused of being unobservant.

Unless, of course, you're too young to remember the last "shortage," which occurred after Obama's reelection.

Yep. As well as the first Assault Weapon Ban under Slick Willie’s reign.

Yep, but it's interesting that each "shortage" before this one tended to focus on one thing. The Clinton shortage hit primers hardest, partly because the then-new Internet helped spread rumors that new primers were being designed to "go dud" within 6 months. This wasn't true, but caused some panickers to bury a bunch of older "pre-dud" primers inside PVC pipe in their yards--which raises interesting questions.

For some reason the Obama panic primarily hit rimfire ammo, though it involved other stuff as well. It was over a year before the rimfire market started returning to normal. Somebody even started the rumor that Barack and Michelle were big-time ground squirrel shooters, so most of the the rimfire supply was going to a big Federal warehouse in a secret locations.

This one involves just about everything--though I have seen some of every kind of ammo and components start to reappear in local stores over the past couple months, and even more on the Internet. But it will still be a while before the shooters who apparently "missed" the previous shortages will be satisfied with their supplies, including those non-handloaders who only kept a couple boxes of factory ammo on hand.

From the standpoint of politics, my guess is that things will improve after the 2022 elections since it appears that Republicans will take back the house and thus create a check on what the Biden administration can do. If that happens, the political threat is diminished and people will be less likely to hoard, although there still may be supply chain issues.

I’m sitting in pretty good shape for this one.
I remember as a teenager in ‘66 or ‘67 when I had mowed enough yards ar $2.00 a pop, I had enough to buy 2, 20 round boxes of 243 ammo for $3.40 a box, Man, I felt rich. How times have changed. .
Those exorbitant prices 😁 are what convinced me that I needed to start reloading.

Here too, along with elephant rounds, ermine rounds (17 cal, etc) and hard ball military rounds. Wanna buy a box for elephant , it will cost you in excess of $100. Not seen any mammoth in Alaska in 10,000 years or so, but I guess hope springs eternal.

Buying the car doesn’t mean anything if you didn’t plan to buy the gas too.

This^^ what I didn't learn from Clinton's time, and Y2K, I learned during Obama.

Of course, then I went out last fall and bought a new to me cartridge, and had to chase brass, powder, bullets, and dies..........

Great analogy!

That's my take on it too.

I know where there 12-14 boxes of the ever popular 30-378 Wthby ammo is, just in case ya'll are interested........

I keep finding ammo, you just need to be proactive. I agree, it is all stashed in someone's closet somewhere... Luckily I handload, but I have been seeing rifle ammo while snooping...

My wife bought me a T/C Compass in 308 Win for Christmas last year. I have been shooting a 7mm Mag, 6.5x55 Swede, 9.3x62 Mauser and a 375 H&H for decades. Never had anything in 30 Cal so I found myself in a hurt locker for ammo. I have several thousand rounds of handloads for the 4 rifles I mentioned as well as plenty of powder and primers but had nothing for the 308 in the way of brass, dies and bullets and stuff was hard to get. However I did have nearly 500 rounds of once fired 243 Win brass that my late father shot up and I traded that for dies and enough brass/components to get the 308 going.

In my case it wasn't a matter of getting caught short or not being prepared, it was a matter of getting a new rifle going in a caliber I had never owned. If you really want to get ammo and shoot you will find a way to make it happen.

Haven't seen anything available other than 5.56 in rifle cartridges.

I'm fortunate that I purchased enough 270win, 30-30, 30-06 before things went sideways. Got enough for awhile and have the means to reload so I'm set for a long time. But the shelves have been bare and I don't believe it's going to get better because of elections and look for things to get worse and steadily more expensive due to copper and component prices rising. Copper will be in extremely high demand as well as other metals for new mandates on battery powered vehicles and emerging technologies. Also we lost our domestic supply of black powder. That's not good. Beside that all your ammo and component companies are being consolidated so there's no real competition anymore for powders, primers, and bullets companies are trending that way too. Bottom line is there's not a lot of positivity when you can't just go out and purchase cheap and plentiful 22lr, 270win, and 30-06. Only one time has that happened in our recent history and that was WWII.

Was in the Kansas City Scheels last week. All kinds of ammo on the shelf. And a large variety. Plus, Remington is coming back online. They had 30-06 150gr Corelokts for $25

boatloads of Remington 12 ga light field and target loads. Those were $9

No limits on amount purchased either.

Nailed it.

Government contracts keep ammunition manufactures very busy.Here are a few examples.

https://www.ammoland.com/2021/06/federal-ammunition-awarded-3-year-defense-contract/

https://www.guns.com/news/2019/10/29/winchester-wins-big-cbp-ammo-contract-for-new-glocks

https://www.speer.com/news/speer-awarded-norwegian-swedish-contract.html

https://www.americanthinker.com/blo...guns_and_ammo_purchased_under_obama.html

https://www.openthebooks.com/assets...fAmerica_06102016.pdf?mod=article_inline

Some of you should look into making your own bullets. It doesn't solve all your problems, but you will always have some.

I just swung into the nearest LGS after work yesterday to pick up a transferred rifle, and they had more ammo on the shelves than I had seen in quite a while locally. They had the usual oddballs that are mostly just dust covers for the shelves, but also some common stuff like 9mm, 308, 30-06, etc.

They even had a few different shotgun slugs, which I haven't seen many of online or in-store for quite some time.

I've said it a 100 times on the campfire...

too many guys somehow thought maybe there would never be another democRat in the White House after Trump won..

well he got in office, shelves were full and prices dropped....

I just kept on buying, primers for $19 to $20 per thousand... every time I'd go up to Portland on business, I'd stop and buy $100 worth of primers.

See powder on sale, I'd buy it if I used it. I was buying RL 26 for $22.50 a pound every time I'd go into a Sportsman's Warehouse, I'd buy a pound or two..

Local Bi Mart chain had tons of Benchmark... $23. a pound, bought one or two of those every time I had to stop by there for something.

Same thing with bullets on sale, which there were plenty of...same with 22 Ammo on sale... Did that for 4 years under Trump...

Pick up range brass all the time at my local range, take it home and process it, and get it ready to load when ever..

Same with 17HMr and 22 Mag brass when I saw it on sale..

I am experiencing ZERO ammo shortages....

When its available and plentiful on shelves, so much a lot of its on sale... folks who hunt and shoot a lot should have taken advantage of it..

and NO, none of my stuff is for sale....

Just the other day, I picked up like 80 , 308 Win Cases.. Mostly Federal.. add that to the zillions I have picked up.

I don't shoot a 308, but it necks down to 260 real easily... and 7/08 to boot.

I've probably picked up at least a 1000, 223 Rem cases in the last month, laying on the ground.. people shoot it them just leave it...

In the past 10 days I’ve been in Sportsman’s Warehouses and Cabelas on both the West Slope and Front Range, plus three LGS’s, none of them had much of anything in the way of components or ammo.

Interestingly there were LOTS of AR-15s, bolt actions, small selections of shotguns, semi auto pistols and single action revolvers. But nary a double action revolver in any of the stores.

I asked about the revolvers they said when DA revolvers trickle in they’re sold within a day or two.

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.

Have seen quite more brass and bullets showing up here on store shelves, along with ammo. The timing is pretty typical of these shortages, and would guess for the same reason: The component and ammo companies are cranking stuff out as fast as they can, but more is going into ammo than usual, because believe it or not most shooters don't handload. I know this is hard for Campfire members to believe, but there it is.

Plus according to the ATF about 11 million people were run through the background check system in the past year that had never been checked before--which probably means 11 million NEW shooters, many of whom bought a handgun for self-defense. Each of those probably bought a couple of boxes of ammo, which means a LOT more factory ammo was sold as well.

But even with that, what eventually happened during the last several shortages is starting to happen now: The shooters who want a "lifetime" supply of ammo or components are starting to fill their needs, whether cases of ammo/components or a couple boxes of handgun ammo. Once that starts to happen more will stay on shelves, whether local stores or those of Internet companies, because fewer people feel the need to buy whatever they can, whenever they can. The ammo and component companies won't have extra shifts anymore, and things will return to something approximating normal.

This is what happened during past shortages, going back to the big primer-buying panic during the Clinton "assault rifle ban" in the 1990s: Eventually supplies exceeded demand, and the shortages ended.

I've been seeing stuff marked down, components that is.

From what I've seen, there are plenty of AR type rifles available, and plastic centerfire pistols. Steel handguns and .22 handguns not so much. A local Ace Hardware just opened near me and they had a bunch of guns and shooting stuff. Some powders, but no high demand stuff like H4350. Lots of Winchester 5.56 FMJ. A bit of .22 RF ammo, 38 gr. Blazer and some Winchester. Funny, there are two Ace Hardware owners in town, and they are competitors. I noted that the Blazer .22 200 packs are $35 in the new store and $45 in the other. But a week or so ago I bought a can of Gun Scrubber at SW, and then found the same cans at the older Ace for $3 less. You really have to know prices and compare.

Yep, missed the post...they still have 270, but now out of 30-06.

I have a box and I'll beat tat price. 102 shipped

I was revisiting "Basic Economics" by Thomas Sowell and this, and similar threads, about the shortage came to mind. If you listen briefly to the section on shortages (1:44:26) and substitute primers/power for gas, he explains perfectly what's happening. The man is a treasure.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMbCdfxI_jA

Simple search today for SIMPLE ammo, Remington 270, 130gr. ZERO at leasat through ammoseek.