The ammo shortage. A well thought out plan!

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I think any one of us could have guessed that people on both sides of the aisle would be stocking up on guns as well as ammo over the last few years and especially the last year. Ammunition manufacturers new damn well that this was going to happen so why didn't they substantially beef up production? Sure I understand the military gets the bulk of them in one form of the other but what about us. Is the shortage just designed to make primers rare and scarce just to double the cost. It's very hard to believe that the major .22 ammo makers would have been churning it out as fast as they could and upgrading their production facilities tenfold. Am I wrong suspecting that we are being porked and porked hard? If I'm missing something of substance please let me know. I just feel they're playing us for fools.
I have 3,000 small pistol and 2500 large pistol Left but I shoot a minimum of a couple hundred rounds a couple times a week so it is not going to last. This covid thing has been stressful on the front line but at least I'll get my first dose of vaccine in the next week or 10 days. Until then I need to spend some time behind the Dillon 550b just to relax.
 
I don’t think anyone could have seen the complexity of 2020 other than those that were responsible for orchestrating it.

This time last year, I bought 20,000 CCI primers because they were offering a $100 rebate when $500 in primers were purchased. I did it because an election year was rolling in and learned from the past.

I too have questioned WHY on gods green earth didn’t companies seem to have planned for THAT at least, but maybe they DID. This year has been a total shit show...people buying shit they don’t even have guns to shoot it out of kind of shit show.

I’m very lucky to have been able to get everything I ‘need’ for the next few years (mostly because I cast some of my own bullets, and accidentally stocked up before the SHTF), but I think people are going to be hurting WELL into 2021, unfortunately.

I did read an article a couple of weeks ago that Remington ammunition is reopening a plant in NY to help with demand, so maybe some relief there once they get back up and running.

p.s. I also have a 550b and see no reason to upgrade...ever. I love that and my SDB...and my rock chucker for my match loads.
 
I think any one of us could have guessed that people on both sides of the aisle would be stocking up on guns as well as ammo over the last few years and especially the last year.

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I have 3,000 small pistol and 2500 large pistol Left but I shoot a minimum of a couple hundred rounds a couple times a week so it is not going to last.


So if any one of us could have guessed it was coming, why didn't you?
 
So if any one of us could have guessed it was coming, why didn't you?

Exactly. None of us did. I ‘suspected’, but nobody ‘knew.’

I only stocked up on primers because I’m a cheap f*** and I saw a good opportunity to get a deal on something I knew I would use eventually.

March 17th I saw the writing on the wall with what was about to happen and ordered 25000 more primers from Powder Valley the day before they went out of stock (basically for good) and had them shipped to me in Indiana (I MAXED out the hazmat with that order...down to the ounce, lol) but even THEN I didn’t know (nor did anyone) the extent of the f***ery that would ensue from COVID/Floyd/elections in 2020.

It’s crazy to think about things having SERIOUS potential for getting even WORSE from here!!!
 
I handload, I cast, and i've been buying small quantities of reloading components and raw lead every couple weeks over the past 7 years. Currently sitting on 90,000 rounds worth of reloading components, and about 900# of lead. Dam good feeling being completly independant of stupid gun panics.
 
I handload, I cast, and i've been buying small quantities of reloading components and raw lead every couple weeks over the past 7 years. Currently sitting on 90,000 rounds worth of reloading components, and about 900# of lead. Dam good feeling being completly independant of stupid gun panics.
[thumbsup]
 
I handload, I cast, and i've been buying small quantities of reloading components and raw lead every couple weeks over the past 7 years. Currently sitting on 90,000 rounds worth of reloading components, and about 900# of lead. Dam good feeling being completly independant of stupid gun panics.

Lead and primers are hazardous materials. You need to purge them immediately.

I'll be right over to help.
 
I think any one of us could have guessed that people on both sides of the aisle would be stocking up on guns as well as ammo over the last few years and especially the last year. Ammunition manufacturers new damn well that this was going to happen so why didn't they substantially beef up production? Sure I understand the military gets the bulk of them in one form of the other but what about us. Is the shortage just designed to make primers rare and scarce just to double the cost. It's very hard to believe that the major .22 ammo makers would have been churning it out as fast as they could and upgrading their production facilities tenfold. Am I wrong suspecting that we are being porked and porked hard? If I'm missing something of substance please let me know. I just feel they're playing us for fools.
I have 3,000 small pistol and 2500 large pistol Left but I shoot a minimum of a couple hundred rounds a couple times a week so it is not going to last. This covid thing has been stressful on the front line but at least I'll get my first dose of vaccine in the next week or 10 days. Until then I need to spend some time behind the Dillon 550b just to relax.

Do you work on the front line that makes you eligible to receive the first vaccine dose in 7 to 10 days?
 
So if any one of us could have guessed it was coming, why didn't you?

I guess it's because I'm a moron my friend. I've got a few hundred pounds of lead and buckets of once fired brass. I've got plenty ofTitegroup, W231 and a few others. I also have plenty of .22. (well at least for now). I even have plenty of ammo that I don't reload. A 1000 rounds of 7.62 and about the same of .223 and I don't shoot much of either so I'm ok with that.
What I failed in doing was stocking up enough primers and shooting handguns is my poison of choice.
Glockster... My wife, daughter and myself have been frontline participants in C19
for more months than I care to count and we've witnessed a lot of lonely deaths of people who didn't even have a family member to hold their hand to comfort them. I'm hoping to get my first jab pretty soon good Lord willing.
 
I guess it's because I'm a moron my friend. I've got a few hundred pounds of lead and buckets of once fired brass. I've got plenty ofTitegroup, W231 and a few others. I also have plenty of .22. (well at least for now). I even have plenty of ammo that I don't reload. A 1000 rounds of 7.62 and about the same of .223 and I don't shoot much of either so I'm ok with that.
What I failed in doing was stocking up enough primers and shooting handguns is my poison of choice.
Glockster... My wife, daughter and myself have been frontline participants in C19
for more months than I care to count and we've witnessed a lot of lonely deaths of people who didn't even have a family member to hold their hand to comfort them. I'm hoping to get my first jab pretty soon good Lord willing.

As I was building inventory I found myself loosing track of what I actually had. I started using Excel to inventory my bullets , powder , and primers. I load 15 different calibers and I found that I was way off on "matching" components. Had way to many large rifle primers for what I had for bullets. Had way too much W748 powder for bullets and so on. Now that all my inventory is in Excel I can easily track and manage the individual types and keep my inventory correctly "balanced"

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I guess it's because I'm a moron my friend. I've got a few hundred pounds of lead and buckets of once fired brass. I've got plenty ofTitegroup, W231 and a few others. I also have plenty of .22. (well at least for now). I even have plenty of ammo that I don't reload. A 1000 rounds of 7.62 and about the same of .223 and I don't shoot much of either so I'm ok with that.
What I failed in doing was stocking up enough primers and shooting handguns is my poison of choice.
Glockster... My wife, daughter and myself have been frontline participants in C19
for more months than I care to count and we've witnessed a lot of lonely deaths of people who didn't even have a family member to hold their hand to comfort them. I'm hoping to get my first jab pretty soon good Lord willing.
I'm sure somebody would trade a case of SPP for a shot of the anti-rona vaccine
 
As I was building inventory I found myself loosing track of what I actually had. I started using Excel to inventory my bullets , powder , and primers. I load 15 different calibers and I found that I was way off on "matching" components. Had way to many large rifle primers for what I had for bullets. Had way too much W748 powder for bullets and so on. Now that all my inventory is in Excel I can easily track and manage the individual types and keep my inventory correctly "balanced"

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Those primer quantities get multiplied by 1000 I assume?
 
... people ... would be stocking up on guns as well as ammo ... Ammunition manufacturers new damn well that this was going to happen so why didn't they substantially beef up production?
The last I heard, ammo manufacturing equipment is an expensive capital purchase,
and can only be used to increase production by hiring and training additional workers.

Maybe there's insufficient economic justification to permanently increase manufacturing capacity
to cover temporary increases in demand.

I have 3,000 small pistol and 2500 large pistol Left but I shoot a minimum of a couple hundred rounds a couple times a week so it is not going to last.
What problem are you solving by shooting a minimum of a couple hundred rounds a couple of times per week?
What problem won't you be able to solve once you run out of ammo?
 
You don't have to be a reloader to be well-stocked up on ammo. You just have to understand dollar-cost averaging.

$xx / month for ammo. Some months it buys a lot of ammo, some months less. But anyone who didn't take advantage of the near-record-low ammo prices up until early 2020 wasn't paying attention.
This also works with Silver ASE's... [smile]

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Exactly. None of us did. I ‘suspected’, but nobody ‘knew.’

I only stocked up on primers because I’m a cheap f*** and I saw a good opportunity to get a deal on something I knew I would use eventually.

March 17th I saw the writing on the wall with what was about to happen and ordered 25000 more primers from Powder Valley the day before they went out of stock (basically for good) and had them shipped to me in Indiana (I MAXED out the hazmat with that order...down to the ounce, lol) but even THEN I didn’t know (nor did anyone) the extent of the f***ery that would ensue from COVID/Floyd/elections in 2020.

It’s crazy to think about things having SERIOUS potential for getting even WORSE from here!!!
Not really. I mean ive been through enough of these to have seen the signs early on. I bought 2 thousand rounds of 9mm and a few others. Of course my funds are not unlimited. Recognizing the signs and being able to afford thousands of rounds are two different stories. Granted i don't think anyone including myself could have imagined it would have lasted this long.
 
I think any one of us could have guessed that people on both sides of the aisle would be stocking up on guns as well as ammo over the last few years and especially the last year. Ammunition manufacturers new damn well that this was going to happen so why didn't they substantially beef up production? Sure I understand the military gets the bulk of them in one form of the other but what about us. Is the shortage just designed to make primers rare and scarce just to double the cost. It's very hard to believe that the major .22 ammo makers would have been churning it out as fast as they could and upgrading their production facilities tenfold. Am I wrong suspecting that we are being porked and porked hard? If I'm missing something of substance please let me know. I just feel they're playing us for fools.
I have 3,000 small pistol and 2500 large pistol Left but I shoot a minimum of a couple hundred rounds a couple times a week so it is not going to last. This covid thing has been stressful on the front line but at least I'll get my first dose of vaccine in the next week or 10 days. Until then I need to spend some time behind the Dillon 550b just to relax.

You’ve apparently never worked in manufacturing , if you did you would understand how much is wrong with your statement

what’s going on isn’t just limited to ammunition
 
It didn't strike me as unexpected until the gun shop I usually do business with told me that they cannot get any new handguns from their
wholesalers. Supply, meet demand...
 
When I caught the shooting bug, around 1983 or so, it didn't take me long to realize that buying ammo by the box made no sense. So anytime I needed ammo I'd buy a case or two. Not long after I realized that if I was going to continue shooting as often as I liked to shoot I would have to get into reloading. I bought a Dillon press and started buying as much powder and primers as I could. As luck would have it two LGs that I frequented were closing down, so I bought out their inventory of reloading material. To this day I'm still loading ammo with powder I bought for $10 or $12 a pound and primers at $15 per 1000.
I still have boxes of Hornady swaged pistol bullets that cost $1.50 per box of 100.
When Perry White (anybody remember his store?) In Ringe, NH was phasing out his shop I bought 20 lbs each of Bullseye, W231, Unique, 296, and Blue Dot, and every box of primers in the shop. My shooting buddies used to break my balls and call me a hoarder when I'd show them my reloading lockers.
Here it is 35 or so years later and I'm still reloading with the same stock.
About the only thing I didn't load up on was .22 cb longs. My favorite backyard plinking round. I just never imagined there would be such a thing as a shortage of .22 ammo! A brick was less than ten bucks so if I needed .22 I just buy a few bricks. Now I wish I'd have hoarded those too.
I'm always looking for a new business venture. Anybody want to start up a .22 ammo factory? Maybe a group venture. We could call it Northeast Ammo. How hard can it be? There must be some engineers and others here with manufacturing experience.
 
You’ve apparently never worked in manufacturing , if you did you would understand how much is wrong with your statement

what’s going on isn’t just limited to ammunition

I'm not sure I follow my friend. I haven't worked in manufacturing but I would think that CCI or Winchester would invest in manufacturing so that they would have product to put on the shelves when the competition didn't. These temporary shortages of primers and ammo in general seem to be occurring more frequently and with shorter periods of time between events so sometimes it seems that the shortage is perpetual. I wonder if it's due to collusion amongst the manufacturers.

The last I heard, ammo manufacturing equipment is an expensive capital purchase,
and can only be used to increase production by hiring and training additional workers.

Maybe there's insufficient economic justification to permanently increase manufacturing capacity
to cover temporary increases in demand.


The last I heard, ammo manufacturing equipment is an expensive capital purchase,
and can only be used to increase production by hiring and training additional workers.

Maybe there's insufficient economic justification to permanently increase manufacturing capacity
to cover temporary increases in demand.



I'm not solving a problem by burning thru a lot of ammo that I've reloaded. I'll be more concerned when I get to the point that I'm breaking into the white box stuff to plink. Other than having fun at the range I'm not sure how much ammunition I need. The availability of primers and powder will improve as it always seems to but the price won't come down to where they were previously. Ammo is like gasoline to shooters. We're gonna buy it even when we're knowingly getting gouged.
 
I think any one of us could have guessed that people on both sides of the aisle would be stocking up on guns as well as ammo over the last few years and especially the last year. Ammunition manufacturers new damn well that this was going to happen so why didn't they substantially beef up production? Sure I understand the military gets the bulk of them in one form of the other but what about us. Is the shortage just designed to make primers rare and scarce just to double the cost. It's very hard to believe that the major .22 ammo makers would have been churning it out as fast as they could and upgrading their production facilities tenfold. Am I wrong suspecting that we are being porked and porked hard? If I'm missing something of substance please let me know. I just feel they're playing us for fools.
I have 3,000 small pistol and 2500 large pistol Left but I shoot a minimum of a couple hundred rounds a couple times a week so it is not going to last. This covid thing has been stressful on the front line but at least I'll get my first dose of vaccine in the next week or 10 days. Until then I need to spend some time behind the Dillon 550b just to relax.

I think the problem here is you really don't understand how deep the hole is. At last count, by some estimation there are 6.5 million new gun owners in the US. Each of them gets a 9mm, 380, or 38 spl.... If each of them bought 6 boxes of ammo, that's 2 Billion.... BILLION rounds of ammo alone required to meet that demand. And that doesn't even include the demands from existing shooters, or other calibers. Given the stress on the market it's way been better than i thought it would be at this point.
 
I'm not sure I follow my friend. I haven't worked in manufacturing but I would think that CCI or Winchester would invest in manufacturing so that they would have product to put on the shelves when the competition didn't. These temporary shortages of primers and ammo in general seem to be occurring more frequently and with shorter periods of time between events so sometimes it seems that the shortage is perpetual. I wonder if it's due to collusion amongst the manufacturers.
Do you know what capital expenditures are? Do you know it costs millions of dollars to upscale an ammo plant, acquire and train new staff, etc.... ? I guess not. Nobody is going to dump millions for an ammo drought that will likely be mostly done with next year sometime..... that's not smart money.
 
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