Anyone know why the ammo dried up? Many stores are out of stock on lots of firearms too. What is left is way over priced. So what's the true story? This didn't just start either. It goes back at least a year.
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You can't "pick up the slack". CCI did a great video showing that they are challenged due to COVID but are barely keeping up. It's just that demand is outpacing production, and neither appears to be changing. Not like CCI wants to make a new factory just to catch up for a year or two. None of the others would want to either. Demand is high, and it will take years for production to increase if demand stays there. The likely scenario is like toilet paper, eventually people will get enough and they can catch up to demand. But that will likely take a much longer time. For preppers, there's basically no amount of ammo that's "enough".
In a capitalist country, when demand is outpacing supply it encourages people to expand to keep up or competing startups come in. Ammo manufacturing isn't rocket science. The same simple components have been used for over a century. That means there's no big barrier to entry. This shortage didn't start with Biden and it's not like a short term issue anymore. Guns have been flying off the shelves for years and they all need ammo. People need to be trained to shoot and inexpensive ball ammo is non-existent unless you're willing to spend up to $2 per round.
Re-loaders can't find primers which is nothing more than a cap that triggers the firing of the round. Here again, if demand is so high, why aren't there expansion of supply to meet demand? We're not talking rare earth elements here.
I seem to recall reading that George Soros was behind the purchase of Remington a few years ago. Could he have his fingers planted inside the industry and is purposely not allowing manufacturing to ramp up to meet demand? Something is going on here to prevent the manufacture of ammo to meet the needs of the American public.
Panic at the start of the pandemic, new gun owners at the start of the "peaceful protests", and facilities being shut down due to covid and having to ramp up production slowly with reduced staff once they were allowed to resume.
Obviously, supply and demand is the reason for the prices now. Simple economics.
Good thing I always stockpiled and didn't wait for a pandemic ?
Quite simply, because demand is far outpacing supply. It all started when Covid hit and all the riots started. People started buying more guns and ammo. Manufacturers can't keep up. You can still find them online in places like gun broker.com but prices are way up. You'll pay, but you can still get both guns and ammo.
Record gun and ammo sales. I heard this January broke every record. My husband was recently in a store and was able to grab a couple of boxes of ammo right as they restocked. By the time he circled the store the shelves were empty.
???
This exact thing happened for my husband at a store. They just got four boxes of his new rifle ammunition and he came home and said sorry. 350 bucks. I was fine with it.
A lot of what ppl are mentioning in this thread are all part and parcel. I am only speculating, but there's a little bit more to it.
Ammo reloaders are also finding it hard to get ahold of primers.
I think some of it goes back to Obongo wearing out the Military, and then Trump kicking in big budget bucks for resupply.
Between Obongo buying up mass quantities of handgun ammo when he was in office (for what exactly, we never got a satisfactory answer), Trump military resupply, Covid shutting down factories, and record numbers of sales, you get what we got right now: A 2 year wait on orders for some factories.
I hope it continues. I hope the demand is constant and sustained, and the firearms and ammo business has to expand bigly in the coming weeks, months, and years.
That more than anything will fuck over the gun controllers and gun grabbers.
Its called demand way above supply
I think there's more to it than demand uptick. The increasd demand was a reaction to supply shortages that I believe are strategic and unrelated to market demands. New companies would have already picked up the slack if geo political suppression weren't at play.
My husband and I have been looking everywhere. We need more ammo for my .40 and have called and gone to gun stores miles from where we live and nothing. Granted we do have an Arsenal in our basement safe. But definitely need more ammo for my gun
I got my .40 when I was trying to become a police officer because being a cna made me think being a nurse wasn’t for me. Until I realized being a police officer wasn’t for me. My personality is to help others in a different way. As a nurse. But when I got mine I got the smith n wesson mp series. This was in 2015/2016. We got the magazines for it. Just sucks with low ammo sales and even the ability to find ammo because I love going to the range to fire our guns but we dont want to waste ammo when there is clearly a shortage. Sucks
ammoseek.com
I have a few hundred rds of .40 and no longer own a .40. I thought about buying a .40 again just so the ammo isnt lonely.
Millions of new gun owners that is why. Federal couldn't keep up with demands.
And the price never recovered after Obama. Pre-Kenyan, 7.62x39 was anywhere between $125 to $150/1000 and 5.56 ran $150 to $220/1000 depending on location. The good old days.