Where Has All the Ammo Gone? (And Primers, Brass…)
“Sold Out” is the message these days at retail stores, gunshows, and online merchants. Our readers have reported that big outlet stores such as WalMart are completely sold out of loaded ammo in popular calibers. At a Sportsman’s Warehouse store, the shelves were bare (see photo below). Likewise at a gunshow we attended last week in California, vendors sold out their supplies of rifle primers… down to the last box. Many online e-merchants (including Grafs.com, MidwayUSA, and Wideners) are completely sold out of small and large CCI, Federal, Remington, and Wolf rifle primers.
What’s going on? Is this a wave of panic buying or are there other factors at play? First, it’s pretty clear that shooters nationwide are laying in large supplies of ammo, bullets, and primers. This is motivated by fears (justified or not) that Congress is contemplating new taxes on ammo and reloading components. Also, there has been increased demand for ammunition for the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, and that has siphoned off some of the supply of primers from CCI and Federal. However, the primary cause of the shortages is “panic buying” and hoarding by gun owners. Amy Bruno tells us that none of her suppliers have notified her of any production issues. CCI, Federal, and Remington are cranking out as many primers as ever, but supplies are selling out as soon as they hit the shelves.
The Good News
Nammo Lapua reports that a large shipment of Lapua cartridge brass should be arriving in the USA and clear customs within the next 10 days. This will include 220 Russian, .243 Win, 6.5 Grendel, 6.5×47, 6.5×55, 7.63×39, .308 Win, 30-06, 7.62x54R, and 338 LM brass. This shipment will also include loaded ammo, plus Scenar bullets and Lapua rimfire ammo. Also, a second container is due around the end of March. Hopefully that will include 6mmBR brass also. Check with major vendors such as Sinclair Int’l, Grafs.com, and MidwayUSA. Midway is listing 3/14/09 as the “Date expected in-stock” for Lapua .308 brass.
Bruno Shooters Supply has significant quantities of CCI and Federal primers in stock (mention 6mmBR.com when you call). However, all Rem, Winchester, and Wolf rifle primers are sold out. Here’s what Bruno’s has as of today, March 6th:
CCI BR2 Large Rifle Benchrest (quantity 50 1K boxes): $49.95/box
Fed 205M Small Rifle Match (quantity 383 1K boxes): $43.95/box
Fed 210 Large Rifle standard (quantity 122 1K boxes): $32.95/box
Amy Bruno also reports she has 55 8-lb jugs of the hard-to-find VV N133. She doesn’t know when the next shipment of Vihtavuori powders will arrive.
Powder Valley has the CCI BR2 Large Rifle Benchrest primers in stock at $37.00 per thousand. Unfortunately, Powder Valley is sold out of almost all other rifle primers.
Similar Posts:
- Primer Availability Report — Wolf Primers Have Arrived
- Sources for Wolf Primers — Inventories Selling Out
- Powder Valley to Receive Truckload of Wolf Primers This Week
- Bruno's Has Wolf Small Rifle Magnum Primers
- Lapua Brass Arrives at Vendors. Berger 105 VLDs at Bruno's.
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I’m not sure that Sportsman’s Warehouse is indicative of the ammo and reloading supply situation in general… The location near me has been totally “cleaned out” for a couple months now, while the nearby Cabela’s and Academy stores have had sizeable supplies of popular ammo and components come and go.
Several of the employees at Sportsman’s Warehouse have hinted that internal changes (management, ownership?) have resulted in supply-chain issues.
Something else is up at Sportmans Warehouse,besides not having powder- brass- primers or bullets in stock for nearly a year now, their inventory of gun cleaning supplies are 20% of what they used to be.
Lots of fishing stuf and high end optics.
March 20: Our large sportman’s store in West Central MN is out of most ammo, and primers. Store owner went to Fleet Farm this last week, guy ahead of him bought 15k rounds .22 rimfire. He bought every .22 that was left, for his own use.
March 20: Same store owner said that Sheriff and police departments were notified last week by ammo reloader in Alexandria MN that contracts for ammo will not be filled because military no longer selling empty brass, but destroying it. Laid off 25 of their 35 employees.
I understand panic buying, but besides that, what in Hell is going on?
It turns out that Sportsman’s Warehouse is closing quite a few stores around the USA, including the location near me in Round Rock, TX.
Mystery solved – now I understand why they weren’t bothering to restock the shelves.
sorry, I should have been more clear, our local “Shooting Sports Outlet” is out, plus others. And I found on the web the DOD directive about destroying brass…seems to be true, but why?
I believe our government is buying from all sources of ammo. It is tough to find ammo on the internet too. This may be a precursor to political moves planned for later on. All ammo even .380 is averaging .50 per cartage. Some sites claim the armed forces are not selling spent brass to reloaders any more causing more of a shortage. If your going shooting better shoot .22 rimfire.
kalifornia, la basin looking at seven out seven stores.
no pistol, no rifle ammo on shelfs. found 17 mm lots of it.
found shot gun boxes unlimited.
out of stock , nothing on shelfs , no back orders allowed.
tried to buy 22lr rifle, ten day wait, but 3 to 6 months back order.
no 22 lr ammo to find. just costly five time price per box.
thanks OB.
What the Citizen Militia has been tellin you:
http://www.oas.org/juridico/English/treaties/a-63.html
I work at a gun shop in VA. We have an over-stock of AR-15s and .223 ammo. But no .380 or 9mm. We are low on reloading supplies. The only primers that we have are for shotgun. We have noticed that customers are running out of money. Some have to use more than one credit card to make a purchase. I think the end of the gun bubble is nigh.
As the economy has continued to decline, gun sales, and then of course ammo sales picked up last year. After the election, they went ballistic, and now we’ve gotten to the point where people are trying to profit from the situation. I went to a gunshow last weekend and there about 25% of the sellers seemed to have decided to add ammo to whatever they were selling to begin with.
So now you see 50 round boxes of 9mm that you can still get for $11.00 at Walmart, if you can get there sooon after the shipment comes in on the truck, selling for anywhere from $15.00 to $20.00 a box. Go to any manufacturer’s website and you’ll usually find a notice that they’re making it as fast as they can, and some of them are running 24 hour a day to do so, but they can’t keep up with all the new demand.
Personally, anytime I happen to run across any reasonably priced ammo, I snap up as much as I can because it ain’t getting any cheaper and it ain’t getting any easier to find, but I think we’re getting to the point where the people who are just buying it up to sell again are going to find that it’s not going to move the way it did before.
When it’ s going for twice what it went for before, solely because these ‘entrepreneurs’ are cornering the market, people start looking for other options. I see more and more guys gathering their brass up at the range for reloading, and I’m probably going to get one of those 22 Long conversion kits for my Glock.
I don’t think we’re far from the ‘entrepeneurs’ having a lot more inventory than they want, which will free up the new supply for the rest of us.
I’m getting sick of this crap. All these people are buying up any and all ammo they can find and afford, well I just want to go target shooting, and finding the ammo to do that is proving harder than I could ever imagine. I have been calling every ammo daler in my state — YES MY WHOLE STATE (CO) and I am unable to find any 9mm ammo at all for the last four months, I have to go to the gun show and get ripped off to go and target shoot, rediculous!!!!!! On the rare occasions when I am able to locate the ammo, I speed right over and it’s sold before I get here (this has happened on ten occassions total) I have all sorts of ammo on backorder from 1 month to 3 months ago and not received any as of yet.
For all you people buying all the ammo you can afford and making it hard for the rest of us remember this- if you really need to fire 1000 plus rounds at once-you’ll be shot and killed before you have the chance–so stop buying so much, buy a few boxes a month instead of the entire stock of the store so the rest of us can shoot–OH YEAH AND YOU’RE DRIVING THE PRICES SO FAR UP, and giving price gougers good reason to raise prices across the board.
[Edited for length]
Well Tom, I have been in the firearms business for fourty years, and this is what I have to say to you. I am an avid highpower shooter, so I feel your disgust at the American people for hoarding ammunition and supplies. And yes, I fell that this panic is a complete waste of energy and resources. I live in Wyoming, and I am having trouble finding ammunition as well. I have managed to stockpile three lifetimes worth of ammunition and supplies as well through the years. But if a person wants to pile the ammo up for whatever reason, then by all means, let them do it. This is their constitutional right. Just because you can’t dind it in time, don’t tell others to not buy it so you can go in and wipe out that store. Envy is a bad thing, let people saturate themselves so the ammo can come back. Some of us do indeed fire a 1,000 rounds per day. By the way, when will you Colorado folk quit coming to Wyoming to buy up our supplies?
It just does not seem like all of the manufacturers are working over time and still cannot meet the demand. This just does not make sense to me. If this were a simple case of supply and demand issues, there would most likely be pockets where components could be found, but such is not the case. If you have small pistol primers, give me a shout at jeremiah.bennet@yahoo.com and i’ll see about getting you a sale or more.
The weird thing is, this makes the paranoia hairs stand up on the back of my neck, and then come the crazy conspiracy theories and … well, that just is not a productive path to go down ….
According to the buyer for Bobs Gunshop in Norfolk VA (7years in the job) There has not been one shipment since December from any US manufacturer. When she spoke to Winchester rep he told her that no consumer ammuntion shipments have taken place in 2009 yet. He had no answer but did indicate they were not taking any new orders for the remainder of 2009!
I am not a conspiracy nut but this is weird!
Usually shortages are met with reduced shipments not eliminated. then big volume buyers are catered to (you know like WALMART) Walmart has not been receiving american made ammo you dont get much bigger than walmart for purchase power.
So it appears as if we might be talking about near 100% elimination in consumer shipments. who is getting the ammo shipped from winchester? Millitary??? have we started using 44Mag, 9mm, .38 special in the military is such volumes that the manufacturers can’t make a case up for wallmart? I did not think 44Mag, 9mm, .38 special were the weapon of choice in combat???
Maybe you should read snopes. The military was going to destroy brass, but changed their mind within one week. That email is floating all around the net, but it is FALSE. Things are bad enough without adding to the panic with unchecked facts.
If you need ammo, powder, and primers, they are available. I picked up all of them at Bruno’s just today. You will need to order it, but they have quit a bit. I know because I happen to live in Phoenix and drove over and bought mine without paying any shipping. So it is there, you just have to keep looking.
From Georgia Arms Website.A hardy congratulation is due to our loyal customers, our good friends, and our fellow shooting enthusiasts through out this great nation! Due to the diligent and overwhelming effort of many thousands of you, calling, writing, and emailing our elected officials, DOD Surplus, LLC, has rescinded its prior directive that ALL small arms spent casings be mutilated rather than recycled. This was a huge victory for common sense and we would like to thank each and every person who made an effort and played a role in correcting this mistake. We at Georgia Arms are proud of everyone who took the time and had the courage to stand up for our rights. We believe, that by your outpouring of anger and dismay, you not only extended our liberty and freedoms but also took a stand for economic common sense in a time when we know our government should be trying to reduce costs at all levels rather than throwing money away for some politically correct reason or the other. Again, our hat is off to everyone who helped and thanks to God as well. We will roll up our sleeves and go back to work; we have 223’s and 308’s to build! (Below is a copy of the email we received from DOD on 3/17/09 @ 4:30pm)
(This was pertaining to an outstanding bid on a lot of brass that we won prior to the mutilation order. DOD sent us a bill for the brass after we had refused it due to the mutilation requirements. DOD on Monday sent us a bill for the brass and when we responded that we had already refused it due to the mutilation clause, we received this reply via email.)
I am sorry you hadn’t been informed –
Word came down that all shells 50 caliber or smaller CAN still be purchased without the mutilation requirement as long as kept in the US.
(As it was in limbo, I did not sent your EUC to Battle Creek until today, also why I have not contacted you for payment until today.)
Thanks!
Arana K. Wolin
Document Verification Supervisor
Government Liquidation, LLC
DOD Surplus, LLC
15051 N Kierland Blvd. #300
Scottsdale, AZ 85254
I checked with Brunos and found they did not have any primers (except for shotshell) available
any advice?
I don’t want to fill a basement or garage with ammo. I’m just a hobby/sport small arms shooter. Just need a few boxes of .45; 357/.38 spl; .380 and some .22 LR as well as .22 mag would be nice. When WalMart is out and the internet sources are dry, its a worriment…
I think its clear that there is a problem in the ammo world and good answers are not easy to find. At our local Cabelas is a sign that says the shortages are caused by a world metal crisis but I am unaware of that from other sources. In regard to the military using so much more for Iraq/Afghanistan, I think thats also unlikley. One problem in the ammo supply system is that within a few days of taking office President Obama did order that surplus military ammunition which would be 9mm, 45acp, .223, and 7.62 primarily would no longer be released for sale to resale contractors and would not be available to the public. That causes a considerable crunch because much of the law enforcement and competitive shooters are in those calibers. But all calibers are scarce and its clear to me, from talk at my range, that people are buying it wherever they can find it and as much as they can get. Its like gas the more we panic the higher price goes. Anyone who thinks that the Obama administration is not going to try sideway attempts to go after gun ownership simply is not paying attention. Its happening. Even though the public consistently says they don’t want it to happen, it is and thats scary government for sure.
Has there EVER been an ammunition shortage in this country outside of possibly WWII?
The Commiecrats have figured out that they don’t have to even try to take away the guns, just the bullets and there’s NOTHING in the US Constitution that says anything different.
[Edited due to offensive language]
I work at wal-mart in socal, there is no ammo here; neither does turners, not since October 08. It is scary, because we are one disaster from ….
If this poster is still looking for 9mm ammo, I have 4000 rounds of it in Boulder. I’m not a market-cornerer, just a guy who has switched completely to 45ACP and is making room in the basement. The ammo is mostly American Eagle 124gr FMJ and Speer Lawman 115gr FMJ, but there is a fair amount of Fed 9BP and other JHP. Let me know. I’ll sell it at the same price I bought it for before the election. Find out 2008 prices and let me know. melonman2114@yahoo.com
Well fellas, we’re here in 2013 and I’m saying, “Where is all the ammo?” I’ve got friends in the business who can’t get it because the suppliers who supply their stores are saying…they don’t have it!! So, when the store owner can’t get it I would say we have some other sort of problem going on here.
It is called “panic buying” with people stockpiling due to irrational fears of shortages … which produces a greater shortage.
Chill out guys.