Status of Gun Industry

[Variable]

Bill:

That's because this is a solicitation, not the end purchase.

Ammo is expensive and normally the first wave of budget cuts will include training and training ammunition. First wave of cuts ... not the second or last. The first to go is training and of the training, the most expensive is the training that sucks up ammunition.

The truth is that the public is panic buying.

LR1955

That is probably mostly it. I can at least confirm what Bill said for my little sector of the Fed .gov. Training is cut to the bone, and ammo is next to non-existent. If there are mountains of cartridges they certainly aren't where I'm at. Qual ammo is bare minimum, and proficiency ammo is out of the question. It sucks.

I'm effectively cut off. I won't touch my personal ammo fort, and can't get any at work past just shooting bare minimum quals at quarterly. My daughter is shooting her bb gun freely though. Perhaps I should hoard those before they dissapear too???LOL!:eek: :confused:

[bwaites]

Bill:

That's because this is a solicitation, not the end purchase.

Ammo is expensive and normally the first wave of budget cuts will include training and training ammunition. First wave of cuts ... not the second or last. The first to go is training and of the training, the most expensive is the training that sucks up ammunition.

The truth is that the public is panic buying.

LR1955

That is most certainly the biggest piece of it. The Feds aren't buying .22, and there is almost none to be found. Bits and dribbles, nothing more.

What's interesting is that its been going on for months....At some point, people have to run out of disposable income for ammo, don't they?

[Nukes]

There must also be panic buying of Bamaphones. I have been looking for months and have been unable to obtain one.

[rickOshay]

Because this thread is about the gun industry, I thought you might be interested in how the CMP is doing:

Jan 11 - placed order for Garand and 20 enbloc clips
Feb 04 - placed order for 200 rnds Hornady .30 - 06 ammo (@ $1.24 per rnd including tax and shipping)
Mar 12 - order filled for ammo
Mar 17 - order filled for rifle and enblocs

We'll see when the orders ship, but it looks like they are living up to their pledge of 60 - 90 day lead times.

[LR1955]

That is most certainly the biggest piece of it. The Feds aren't buying .22, and there is almost none to be found. Bits and dribbles, nothing more.

What's interesting is that its been going on for months....At some point, people have to run out of disposable income for ammo, don't they?

Bill:

You were not reloading when the last big scare hit during the Clinton Administration. Mid 90's as I recall correctly. You could not find ammo, powder, primers, or brass for about 18 months. It took about another year before the shooting public had enough faith that Clinton wouldn't ban something for stocks to build back up. Fortunately, I had quite a stockpile of primers, powder, bullets, and brass so weathered that storm.

I do not think it will last as long this time. I figure about eight months before you can probably find any component you want. Probably less time for loaded ammo as, unlike the 90's, loaded ammo today is immensely expensive and people can't afford to buy cases and cases of it like they did during the last scares.

I believe the NRA and the LEA guys on the forum.

LR1955

[bwaites]

My biggest interest is "who raised the prices?" I have a local outdoor store who is still selling ammunition as it arrives.

Their prices are up slightly on ammo, but premium .223 like Hornady loads are only very slightly more than they were in November, and .22 is still only minimally up, when they get it. They've had cases of .22 over the last few months. They sold Blazer 500 round bricks for $20 a few weeks ago. That leads me to believe that the factory prices haven't gone up much, but that some stores are really jacking the prices, perhaps because their distributors are doing the same. That local store has earned my respect.

I will remember who jacked prices crazily when things come back to normal. I have no problem with profits, but this whole thing seems a bit contrived.

[bwaites]

Bill:

You were not reloading when the last big scare hit during the Clinton Administration. Mid 90's as I recall correctly. You could not find ammo, powder, primers, or brass for about 18 months. It took about another year before the shooting public had enough faith that Clinton wouldn't ban something for stocks to build back up. Fortunately, I had quite a stockpile of primers, powder, bullets, and brass so weathered that storm.

I do not think it will last as long this time. I figure about eight months before you can probably find any component you want. Probably less time for loaded ammo as, unlike the 90's, loaded ammo today is immensely expensive and people can't afford to buy cases and cases of it like they did during the last scares.

I believe the NRA and the LEA guys on the forum.

LR1955

That makes sense. Fortunately, I listened to you and others, and although I hadn't experienced it, I stockpiled as much as I could.

My sons and sons in law are just getting into the shooting sports as young marrieds, and they are frustrated. New 5.56's, but no ammo. I'm scraping all the .223 brass I can find together, and I'm buying whatever bullets I can find for them. But its a tough road for youngsters!

PS....anyone with scads of .223 brass that wants to help out will be greatly appreciated!

[KentuckyBuddha]

I just got a thousand in the other day from Top Brass. Deprimed, reamed, full-length sized, trimmed, and cleaned for $200, or with CCI#400 in it for $240.

[bwaites]

I just got a thousand in the other day from Top Brass. Deprimed, reamed, full-length sized, trimmed, and cleaned for $200, or with CCI#400 in it for $240.

You sending that my way? Thanks!

[KentuckyBuddha]

Actually, I certainly can spare it! (I forgot I had it on backorder...and got 500 pieces of Lapua brass and 100 of Norma to try first) lol But, I reckon you can still get them from the source. : )

[bwaites]

Actually, I certainly can spare it! (I forgot I had it on backorder...and got 500 pieces of Lapua brass and 100 of Norma to try first) lol But, I reckon you can still get them from the source. : )

Nope, sold out, not taking orders! Its a crazy world! Cheapest I can find now is $275/1000.