[llamaowner]

i thought this would start NEXT year.. i'm hearing people talking on another board about WAL-MART's in different location's around the country "running OUT of ammo" and the store managers telling people they MAY not be getting any more for a while..

 

[Petrov]

I've heard so many ammo scares over the past few years that I'm pretty skeptical when I hear of another.

 

[GunnerSam]

I haven't bought any ammo lately, but relatives that know I shoot bought lots of ammo for me as Christmas presents.
One bought a Thousand rounds of shotgun shells at a flea market in a gauge I no longer use, I'd owned a shotgun in that gauge many years ago and they thought I still had it. The ammo looks to be still in good condition and factory loads. I'll be getting another scattergun in that gauge now just to have something to shoot up all that ammo.

My shelves and chests are full of every caliber I use, and most of it cost me nothing. Guess I'm ahead of the game. Need some more reloading supplies though. I gave away all my old powder to a young fellow who was just getting into handloading.
Guess I better stock up on primers, powder, and bullets.

 

[llamaowner]

yeah.. i got a "decent" stock too.. it's just that the RUMORS are flying about this whole "bad economy/end of america" stuff everywhere.. better be READY folks!

 

[49204]

This is a little bit OT....

...but you might want to PM me and ask about ammonpulver.

 

[pgpipefitter]

wal-mart ammo

Yes I was at Wal-mart last night and the sporting goods dept. was out of ammo first time I have seen this at this store as they usually keep there stock up.

 

[RuralTurtle]

I've heard so many ammo scares over the past few years that I'm pretty skeptical when I hear of another.

+1. The ammo hoopla comes and goes.

I already have a stockpile, so I'm not really buying. The only shortage I noticed was the local hardware store was out of buckshot and I was told they were "having trouble getting more" Whatever that means.

The Walfart out of town was also out of buck. At least that's what the clerk said.

 

[BeSwift]

Yes, PANIC! Buy now, buy all you can!
Now that I got that off my chest, I can say that I've still have stuff in my basement that I bought back in the 1990's, when the various panics hit..proported banning of primers, banning of Chinese ammo/firearms, Clinton AWB, and others that I have since forgotten.. These things come and go, but in a few months, things will be back to normal, barring some massive geopolitical termoil or trigger event, which while not out of question, are highly unlikely... BeSwift

 

[trainsktg]

At $13.50 or so for the Federal 550-round bulk .22 box at WallyWorld, I won't be buying any more ammo any time soon.

Keith

 

[JohnyW]

I'm not saying it's all true, but at the Wal-Mart where I live, they have stopped receiving all shipments of 30-30 and .380 ammo. They weren't even informed, they just stopped getting them.

 

[trainsktg]

Oil is down from $140 to under $40 a barrel in the last six months, as are copper ($4 per pound to about $1.25), nickel ($12 to a little over $4), and numerous other raw commodities. All of those excuses were used to justify the rapidly rising cost of ammo, yet except for the War in Iraq (another excuse) all have been eliminated. As best as I can see, the reason that ammo is still high is that fools are panic buying because of Obama's election and are willing to pay these high prices.

Keith

 

[AmmoSgt In Memoriam]

Report from the front lines on the so called "Ammo Panic"

There is no panic here as best I could tell.

I spent the weekend selling ammo at a gunshow in Alabama

I was offering

7.62x51 South African @ $80 for a 140 rd battlepack
5.56 x45 M885 RadwayGreen om strippers $80 per 150 in bando
5.56x45 Gutamalan M193 $14 per 30
7.62x54r Chinese brass case lead core $5 per 20/ case of 440 for $110
7.62x54r Albanian brass case steel core $5 per 20/ Case of 440 for $110
7.62x45 Czech for the Vz-52 $6 per 15
8mm Romanian $6 per 20 /case of 380 for $110 came down to $100
8mm Yugo on stripers $5 per 15/ $300 and came down to $270
8mm Turk $25 per bando of 70
303 Brit WRA head stamp for the 40's boxer corrosive reloadable $15 per 50
303 Brit Mk VII 40's dates 25 per 100
303 Brit Prvi Partsan berdan $6 per 15
303 Brit Mk VII U 61 $15 per bando of 50

I sold 1 battle pack of the South African 7.62x51
1 bando of the RG M885
3 cases of Chinese 7.62x54r
3 cases Romainian 8mm
1 Bando of Turk 8mm
300 rounds of Brit .303 WRA
300 .303 Brit 40's date
3 boxes .303 Brit Privi Partisan
4 Bandos .303 Mk VII U 61

lot of people looking for 7.62x39, 30 cal carbine and 9mm which I didn't have , there was some 7.62x39 and 9mm available on the first day but not much and what there was was gone by 2 PM Saturday. had a couple of requests for 30-06 , 7mm Argentine Mauser, 8mm x56r and 5.45x39... but none at the show

Talked with a small scale 06FFL commercial reloader who said he was having trouble getting 45ACP Brass to reload

All told, I sold about 3600 rounds out of about 20 K I humped to the show... not counting what I paid for the ammo I had $100 table Fees $ 210 to rent the van for the weekend, $40 in gas, and about $60 in food for me and my helper ( incudes 2 Outback Babyback rib dinners saturday night). And I gave away .303 Brit striper clips and bandos with the WRA and Brit 40's dates because they were loose pack. most of the Chinese 7.62x54r sold as 20 round bundles , Most of the Romainian 8mm sold by the case.

The only other significant ammo seller I saw was the folks with the 7.62x39 and they had about 20-30 cases of both the 7.62x39 and Wolf 5.56 x45. I saw nobody else selling or offering any significant quanity of Milslurp ammo .. One person had several cases of Winchester White Box .308 Nato for $15 per 20 but some of that was still there when the show closed today.. I am guessing they sold less than 2000 rds.

I was surprised that the .303 and 8mm did as well as it did , just as I was surprised the 7.62 Nato and 5.56 did as poorly as they did... The area of Alabama I was in was definately starting to show signs of hard times.. I must have seen at least 20 Title Pawns and payday loan places just on the main streets of the 2 towns and 2 cities I drove thru inculding the City with the show.. I passed only 4 McDonalds on the same route just to give you an Idea. Alot of stores were very dimly lit on the main streets with little outside lighting.. the loansharks were the brightest shops on the street.

As Far the guns go, lots of pistols, mostly autos, lots of used hunting rifles , couple of AR focused booths , One full auto booth with sales and display peices. Got a nice side entry center pouch style CC Purse.. saw some nice Cowgirl Hats and belt buckles.. lot of knife booths.. A couple of vendors had 3-4 Garands and M1 Carbines a few '03's some real sad Enfields inculding a cammoed truckbed liner No4 Mk1 LongBranch. Very few Mosins.. Lots of lever actions.
Walk thrus were mostly hunting rifles and the odd chopped mauser, a few AR's, lots of long shotguns mostly semiauto duck guns.. conciderable number of revolvers looking to be swapped for semi auto's ... Lots of ( both Booth and walkthrus) SKS's .. Yugo 59/66's for $400-500 , even a few Chinese M's and D's for 800+ some FALs and Cetme's/ HK91 for $1000-$1500 , the only significant millurp Collector pieces I saw , both walk thrus were a Kynock converted Chasepot in 11mm Mauser, dirty and some surface rust but all there and a 1898 unconverted M91 Mosin Nagant Dragoon, SA stamped, with no import mark.. turned another collector on to the guy that was shiopping The Dragoon arround and he got it for what I thought was a very low price.

Most of the folks asking for 7.62x39 just called it SKS ammo.. didn't know the caliber numbers... I had some questions about why my 8mm was marked 7.92x57 and if it would really work in a 8mm Mauser... some were surprised that 7.62x54r came in brass instead of painted steel. Many reached for the Romanian 8mm when they wanted 7.62x54 because the Tin looked more like what they thought the Russian came in than the "strange" looking Chinese can.. many thought the 8mm Romainian was the 700 round cans of 7.62x39.

I think I am over gunshows.. to much work for too little money. Several vendors packed up and left Saturday Afternnoon because they sold nothing by mid afternoon.

 

[catsnguns]

Right after the election the Walmart at Selmer tn. supposedly sold out of everything that was a really common useable caliber. Didn't believe it until one of my students said that his cousins had to cross over to the Corinth Ms. stores to get shotgun shells in bulk.
Local PD/SO was giving another school shooter/hostage situation the Friday before Christmas and one of the officers said they could not get ammo to train with and that it was hard enough just to get it for the routine street patrols who also have patrol rifles.
Oh yeah almost forgot the Walmart in Iuka did have an ammo cleanout of key rifle calibers. I am in the place every other day and it is one of the old style small Walmarts and I walk by the ammo only sporting goods area every time and you could tell that certain calibers had been cleaned out.
In any case if you can find ammo anywhere at a reasonable price it is better to buy it by the case or box if you need it.
I went to my first real gun show in years and ammo in almost all cases or boxes for that matter was through the roof. Certain calibers were simply not there and Yugo at 350.00 a case for 7.62x39.

 

[Bingo]

I was under the impression that Walmart had a contract with the ammo mfg'rs that gave them the ammo before the military's due to the volume of their order/contract. It makes one think about what is really going on???

 

[llamaowner]

Bingo: better to be READY bud.. (i'd rather HAVE it than NEED it!)

 

[dou 44]

ammo

the 2 walmart stores in my town have been running short on all pistol and riffle ammo .the only thing they seem to have is shot gun shells and 22 rifle .i am well stocked up on everything but 40s&w for my xd 40 i only have 4 boxes of that

 

[Bigdog57]

I have been reloading all my centerfire ammo in the last year - in common calibers it saves me 50% on costs compared to factory fodder - just have to shop smart and buy in bulk, and keep to the more common bullet types.
My more exotic milsurp stuff costs me more, but I accept that.
I did stop by Wally's a couple days ago for some rimfire - they had NO 550-round bulk packs! Luckily I still have a half dozen. Supposedly, the ammo supplies will be back up in late January(?).
Biggest problem was the same 'panic-buying' as the recent gas-shortage. A "Self-fullfilling Prophesy" by too many people buying too much too quickly - drove stocks down and prices up! Some laughingly call obama the "year's top gun&ammo salesman"......
Luckily my local Sportsman's Warehouse has all I need for 'rolling my own', in my more common calibers. I am stocking up, a little here, a little there.

 

[DK PHILLIPS]

I'm not a rumor I'm a observer!

have seen in the last year, shipping prices go up first, then ammo, ammo sale drop, then gun shows having less, walmart not keeping shelves full, and too much time filling empty shelves.
some dealers at gun shows had bought all the stocks a year before, then slowed on reordering due to slow sales.
now sales have increased and they are finding supply lag times from normal sources, unless its bulk military sold buy independents. some stop selling some ca-ls. because not enough profit margin because of shipping prices. may not be anything but the economy<>< dk

 

[Merle1948]

I'm in Newport News, VA and the panic is on here.

I was in the Bass Pro shop this AM, and ALL of the bulk pack (100 ~ 250 rd packs) 223, 9mm & 45ACP was gone. There was almost no 22LR either.
You can still get the high-end 9mm & 45ACP ammo, plus the less common calibers.

There wasn't a single auto-loader left in the rifle racks either.
Glad I didn't have to buy anything.

 

[llamaowner]

Merle: that sucks but ya know it's all about the PANIC.. it won't last IMHO..