The great ammunition conspiracy

[Botnst]

Is The Obama Administration The Cause Of Gun Ammunition Shortages? - Forbes

It's complicated.

[Hatterasguy]

Sounds about right. Also most firearms owners tend to be a somewhat paranoid lot that enjoys stockpiling for the warm and fuzzies. It doesn't take much of an internet rumor to send them off into panic buying mode. Heck I think a lot of the firearms manufactures play into it quite frankly, I think they squeeze supply sometimes than dump a lot of product on the market at once.

Glock is the only company that doesn't seem to ever have any production issues. Even at the height of the craziness you could always buy a Glock!

.22LR is still hard to come by, a nice byproduct is I have been shooting more 5.56.

[elchivito]

I like to cruise past the ammo case at my local WalMart just for grins. The other day they actually had a couple of boxes of unsold 9mm. Dirty steel cased Rooskie Tula stuff. Still no .22, the most hilarious part of the hoarding IMO and proof positive what mass hysteria (not government conspiracy) can precipitate.
Gun prices are coming down. I bought an entire collection recently at an estate sale that was going begging. It didn't contain any scary black rifles so I guess wasn't interesting to the camo'd bubbas.
I still can't find powder locally and the guy who casts my bullets is only a month behind on orders instead of three.
That's a good article. I appreciated the refutation of the DHS myth, which is alive and well on most gun boards. It's amazing just how long hair can stay on fire.

[Botnst]

I expect that most conspiracy theories would share a similar fate if good reporters had an incentive and opportunity to debunk them.

Some people still think Bush + Jews brought down the WTC even though that stuff has been thoroughly debunked. Often conspiracy theorists defy reason.

[pj67coll]

I was in Cabelas yesterday at lunchtime. The store is about five minutes drive from my office. There was no shortage of any ammo, including 22. There must have been at least five hundred or so bricks of CCI mini mag and standard 22LR on the shelf. I thought cool, I'll go back after work and pick some up on the way home. It was gone. Not a brick left. There was other more expensive 22 though but I have no desire for that. I'm just looking for the standard target plinking stuff.

Not to concerned myself as I've built up a stockpile of several thousand 22 rounds over the last year but folks are obviously still just grabbing it as soon as it hits the shelves.

No shortage of any other type of ammo either from what I could see. And no shortage of "black guns" either. Didn't look for 556 or 762x39 as I don't have anything in either caliber. But it would appear that the only real problem still is with 22.

- Peter.

[TheDon]

I wish I could get 22lr for my 10/22..or FMJ 9mm. I bought 500 round a of reloads from Georgia arms at the local gunshow for $130. Not bad. I will find 9mm FMJ at wal mart everyone and then. I need brass cases since my local range wot let me shoot steel cases ammo which I find dumb. I pick up my spent rounds no matter the case material.

I'm now shopping for 30-06 for my soon to arrive M1 Garand and man is it expensive unless I get mil surplus ammo. But the milsurp stuff is magnetic and I can't shoot stuff like that at my indoor range. Which shooting a 30-06 indoors would be pretty loud and the rifle tosses brass at 1 o'clock so I wouldn't be able to pick it up.

My walmart had 15 cases of 5.56 150 count boxes for "black guns". I doubt is buy an AR. They don't appeal to me.

What also sucks is the price of factory magazines. I just want two G17 mags for my
G26 to use at the range but they are expensive. Forget about a glock fun stick (33 rd) magazine

#gunowner problems

[hill]

Originally Posted by Botnst

I expect that most conspiracy theories would share a similar fate if good reporters had an incentive and opportunity to debunk them.

Some people still think Bush + Jews brought down the WTC even though that stuff has been thoroughly debunked. Often conspiracy theorists defy reason.

Good reporters will just be written off as MSM by the paranoid types. Of course butt kissing the White House to gain access, is centuries old.

[Nate]

Ive got no problem finding FMJ 115gr 9mm around me, for my glock 19.


Difficult to find 22lr sometimes, but I dont seem to shoot that stuff anymore anyways. Too much fun with my G19, my Ruger Mark 2 isnt as appealing to me anymore.

Don, the KCI mags for my G19 work great. It would be weird to see a sub-compact framed G26 with a 33rd funstick, but enjoy.



~Nate

[Idle]

I am spending more and more time in Southeast Oklahoma. This is an area that has long been known for hunting, fishing and outdoors activities of all types. By long known I am referring to the last 10,000 years.

The area has always attracted those who can, not those who think they can, live off the land. Guns are a normal fact of life here, and while it is common to own several types of guns you rarely meet a whacked out gun freak like I have run into in larger cities.

The ammo shortage here has always been considered a kind of a joke since the only place that constantly runs out is WalMart. One store that cannot manage its' inventory does not a shortage make, and any sporting goods store in the area has had ammo for sale. There was an initial run on it when this scare came out, but on hunting ammo and not pistol ammo. I don't know anyone who hunts with a pistol.

Due to Treaties with the US there are Native Americans here that can hunt the year round with-in their nations or on set aside areas, but you can only fire so many rounds while out hunting and sadly the number is normally zero since deer don't just wander into your sights.

What has perplexed me since the beginning of this hooey is how even in the face of ample supply there are those that keep insisting this is some sort of great evil when all one had to de was visit a sporting goods store to put the lie to it. It made me wonder if those pushing this story ever purchased ammo.

A friend of mine bragged about buying 5000 rounds of .223 due to the shortage. How, I asked, could he buy 5000 of something that did not exist?

[t walgamuth]

Originally Posted by Idle

I am spending more and more time in Southeast Oklahoma. This is an area that has long been known for hunting, fishing and outdoors activities of all types. By long known I am referring to the last 10,000 years.

The area has always attracted those who can, not those who think they can, live off the land. Guns are a normal fact of life here, and while it is common to own several types of guns you rarely meet a whacked out gun freak like I have run into in larger cities.

The ammo shortage here has always been considered a kind of a joke since the only place that constantly runs out is WalMart. One store that cannot manage its' inventory does not a shortage make, and any sporting goods store in the area has had ammo for sale. There was an initial run on it when this scare came out, but on hunting ammo and not pistol ammo. I don't know anyone who hunts with a pistol.

Due to Treaties with the US there are Native Americans here that can hunt the year round with-in their nations or on set aside areas, but you can only fire so many rounds while out hunting and sadly the number is normally zero since deer don't just wander into your sights.

What has perplexed me since the beginning of this hooey is how even in the face of ample supply there are those that keep insisting this is some sort of great evil when all one had to de was visit a sporting goods store to put the lie to it. It made me wonder if those pushing this story ever purchased ammo.

A friend of mine bragged about buying 5000 rounds of .223 due to the shortage. How, I asked, could he buy 5000 of something that did not exist?

I love your last line!

[Hatterasguy]

Ammo is hard to find here still and now you need a permit to buy it. Next shooting I bet we get limited quantities and have to register ammo purchases.

[pj67coll]

Originally Posted by Idle

A friend of mine bragged about buying 5000 rounds of .223 due to the shortage. How, I asked, could he buy 5000 of something that did not exist?

Well. If you were trying to pick up some 223 after your buddy just grabbed that last 5000 rounds in the store that would be a perfectly good question.

The shortage has always been in the most popular calibers. Not hunting ones because frankly, there just aren't that many hunters out there compared to other types of gun owners. And even for hunters the actual ammo expenditure is minute compared to say a city slicker who goes and blows off several hundred 9mm or 22 rounds in an hour or two at a range.

The shortage as I experienced it was in 22LR, 9mm, 45ACP. For a long time there was no 223/556 or 7.62X39 available here either. Of course none of these are traditional hunting rounds. 22 is probably just the most common round out there because of the number of 22's and since the manufacturers of "black guns" found they could sell even more when they made clones of them in 22LR that massively increased the demand for that round.

There was never a shortage of other calibers as far as I could see. But here in Phoenix there was a lucrative black market in people buying up all the stock they could of the five aforementioned calibers and then trying to flog it online to folks who simply couldn't find any in stores.

No doubt location makes a difference. In SW Oklahoma with a more traditional hunting based lifestyle there is likely going to be less demand for the common calibers favored by the city folks for home defense, 9mm 40SW, 45ACP etc, and the mall ninja tactical freaks who are prepping for the next revolution. 223, 762x39 etc.

They're mostly concentrated in cities I think so those calibers would be most affected in such locations rather than elsewhere.

- Peter.

[TheDon]

I can't stand those people that buy up the ammo at wal mart and flip it for a higher amount at gun shows. It's frigin ridiculous and I refuse to buy from people like that.

[Txjake]

Originally Posted by Hatterasguy

Ammo is hard to find here still and now you need a permit to buy it. Next shooting I bet we get limited quantities and have to register ammo purchases.

why in hell don't you guys up there elect some politicians that will undo all that crap?

[elchivito]

The WalMart that serves my rural are has never run out of only one caliber: 270Win.. This is a big hunting culture area, as is most of AZ, never the less handgun ammo is VERY hard to come by. WalMart has been permanently out of .45 auto, .40 etc. for over a year unless you want to show up and stand in line at 7 a.m. on tuesdays for a 3 box limit. Same goes for small and large pistol primers, powder and other reloading supplies. I shoot about 200 rounds a week and if I didn't reload would have had to seriously curtail my shooting.

Regarding steel case ammo and why lots of ranges don't allow it. There are two reasons. First, they don't want to have to separate it from the brass they collect. Brass is the new gold in case you weren't paying attention. Cases are in short supply. Second, most steel case 9mm isn't just steel cased. A lot of it, like Tula and Wolf and the other junky russian stuff is also loaded with copper jacketed steel bullets. Magnetic. That garbage is too hard on guns for my taste. I wouldn't put a single round of it into any gun I cared about.