The great ammo shortage of 2013

Amazing! With all the posturing in Washington, the gun and ammo shelves are suddenly empty. I've got a large stock of .308 slugs and brass for my Garand and FAL, but I find myself short on .223. I haven't been reloading .223 because with all the cheap eastern European stuff it wasn't cost effective. Still, I've been saving the brass (at least the actual "brass" cases rather than the lacquered steel ones), but slugs have disappeared from all the usual sources.
I managed to get 2000 pulled military SS109 slugs from one source (who are now out and not taking any more orders) and another 1000 Hornady soft points from my local store (the last they had). I also scrounged the last three cans of BLC2 locally, so that's enough powder for a year or two.

I didn't even have a set of .223 dies, but was able to back-order a set from Midway.

Is everyone else having the same problem? Any obscure sources for slugs you'd care to share?

 

Let me get this straight.

You only have the makings for 3,000 odd rounds of .223 of ammunition.

No wonder you feel under supplied!

 

I'm ashamed enough with you rubbing it in!

With all the proposals floating around right now, shooting may become a very expensive hobby. One proposal in the senate is to conduct a background check on every ammo purchase. Every gun store would need a full time employee to do that, and of course they'd charge you for the service. A box of .22 ammo might cost $25 if such a proposal made it into law.

 

Perhaps there is a 'shortage' because people feel the need to purchase a thousand (or two) rounds at a time. Is there any other commodity that you purchase in such bulk?

I have no wish to start an argument, but it is such actions that makes it difficult for persons like myself to defend the right of citizen's to own guns in the first place. I do feel any American should have the right to protect his family and property with a fire arm, but it makes the point of self-defense look absurd when the need to purchase hundred's or thousand's of rounds of ammunition is linked to such a stance.

 

I don't stockpile such ammo to defend my home or family. My home defense is a shotgun. My outside-the-home defense is a handgun. I shoot my military arms as a sport and hobby. I might shoot hundreds of rounds on a single afternoon and if ammo prices double or treble, I can no longer afford it.

I want enough basic reloading supplies to keep me in ammunition.

 

I remember reading about this in school. I think they called it Supply and Demand, or some such.

)f course that was when I walked 10 miles, in the snow, uphill both ways. to get to school.

Oh and I had to elude the Dinosaur's too!

 

You are probably too young to remember, but back in the seventies for a short time all ammo had to be signed for, from .22 on up. I think it was under the Ford/Nixon time frame, prices didn't spike, the normal people selling the ammo just had you sign a log book and present a driver's license. It only lasted until the Carter years I think then it was fazed out as too cumbersome and paperwork creating for the Federal ATF people. And I was glad to see it go since I usually bought my .22 ammo by the 500 round case, and those in two or three lots at a time, and while you only had to sign for each purchase, I had to sign for each case I bought.

 

The fact that the Feds have ordered millions (yes millions) of rounds of all calibers for DHS, SS, TSA etc hasn't helped matters. Wonder why domestic agencies need so many rounds?

 

I don't stockpile either, what I normally did was just stopped at WalMart on my way to go shoot and pickup 500-1000rds of .556 mm and we would shoot most of it up in a couple of hours. Single shot, well aimed fire. I don't normally shoot the Wolf brand because you could normally get American made, brass cased rounds for just a little more. I have shot Wolf before and have no problem with it, I just suspect the propellant is more corrosive. It really doesn't take long to go through hundreds of rounds of ammunition target shooting, especially if you have several people shooting.

Actually yes. Beer. Last summer I stopped on the way to my son's bachelor party, again at WalMart and got some beer. I got to the counter and they said I couldn't buy it because it exceeded twenty gallons. They got out a calculator and started multiplying the ounces per can or bottle, times the various counts per pack, 12,20,24,30, whatever. Turns out I had to put back two twelve packs of Blue Moon 12oz. bottles (288 ounces). What was really ridiculous was that after they'd done all their math, no one knew how many ounces were in a gallon. I told them 128. They didn't believe me. I said 32 ounces to a quart, four quarts to a gallon, 128 ounces. That really blew their mind. They sent someone back to dairy to look on a gallon of milk. While we waited I said, well the way I figure it I can have 2560 ounces, where do I stand? Besides, since when is there a limit on the amount of beer you can buy? It's apparently another of the do-gooder rules that seem to be proliferating, the manager I was dealing with may not have known how many ounces were in a gallon, but knew all about the new law. Apparently, it is meant to prevent people from buying large quantities of beer for teenagers parties, and to prevent convenience stores and small bars from buying beer at WalMart and selling it without paying the additional taxes on it. The latter part confused me at first because you are paying sales tax when you buy it at WalMart. When the stores/bars buy it off the truck its tax exempt because its for resale. Then it was explained to me that the amount they buy off the truck can be tracked and the amount of tax they owe can be calculated.

 

USMCP made the exact point I was going to make (about ammo, not beer). I usually go through at least 500 rounds in one session at the range. I'm not poor, but I'm not wealthy either. Some folks save money by reloading. Some save with volume purchasing (anyone ever heard of Sam's Club or Costco?).

 

At the end of November I bought 1,500 rounds of ammo for my .22 rifle (an old Marlin semi-auto). There was plenty available at Black Friday sale prices. Last week I went looking for more, but no joy. The big box stores, the local gun shops and all the online vendors are sold out of everything. It started with the cheap bulk stuff but now even the high end match ammo is gone. I've never seen anything like it before.

 

There's a fellow who runs a small bullet company up here (note, by "bullet" I mean the proper definition -- AKA "the pointy thing at the end of your round of ammunition") that I spoke to a few days ago. The stocks must really be running low in the States because he said there's a lot of Americans making big purchases from him (both by mail and in-person). The sad thing is, even with all the ridiculous restrictions we have to deal with, our gun laws might end up being more liberal than yours (I'd never thought I'd say that).

 

Just a question...given that some ARE stockpiling...how long could one expect the rounds to be safely usable, given proper storage?