Cause of Ammo Shortage?

There are folks up here literally scrambling to find ammo of all kinds primarily for the upcoming deer hunt. It has not affected me or my family because we have an appreciable supply, and then some.

What are the real reasons this is happening?

Moosetrot

Antis

To me it’s probably a combination of two things. Both could be wrong but are my thoughts. The first is the supply chain is still probably trying to fill up from any shutdowns earlier this year. The second one is due to Biden/Harris most likely going into office. Maybe not as major as this one but I think we may had seen a similar run on guns/ammo when Obama was elected? Or am I making that up in my head?

8 months of record breaking gun buying
some shutdowns
hoarders
panic buyers...they're buying ammo for guns they don't even own

I can't find .22 LR bullets anywhere and I'm about out. Slowly starting to panic!

ammo suppliers keeping the supply low and prices rising, Hoarding and paranoia.

Ammo manufacturing may not have been considered an essential business. Then too, many of their workers may have gotten the virus and work literally ground to a halt when they did open. Plus, there have been millions of guns sold over the last several months. Same thing happened during the Obama years. As I recall, it was over 65 million. All those new gun owners needed to practice. Just like they’re doing now.

It's clear to me the guy at Walmart lied to me as to why the shelves were barren.

there are literal millions of people buying guns that have never owned a gun . They need ammo The production lines are running 5.56 ammo and 9mm 24 hours a day they are not going to retool their lines to make other rounds as long as those rounds are back ordered
Im sure does not influence .22 other than the brass , primer chemicals , and powder . This is probably because after the TP shortage there are alot more preppers than there were . plus .22 hording is cheap and easy . Im a natural at it

Went to a WalMart in Denver. Ammo was all gone in case. Customer asked for .22LR and clerk went to a distant storeroom and returned with a brick of ten boxes. He bought them all at $3.75 per box.

If you don’t see them, ask. Maybe in another locked area.

Just more shooters and getting ammo every chance they can. The new administration is going to clamp down on guns and ammo. Mike Bloomberg is go to make sure it happens.

Yes that happened when osama bin Obama was crowned

I could see the stores getting ammunition and quickly selling out because of increased demand, but the stores around here don't even get ammunition in more than very, very rarely, according to the employees, compared to what they used to. Unless something else is going on, they should be still getting the normal amount of ammunition in.

Keith

I moved to a larger town here in Alaska in June of 2012. Ammo supplies were good and prices pretty cheap. In December 2012, the Sandyhook shooting occurred. Panic followed as the talk of bans and laws effecting firearms and ammo got louder. 22 ammo mostly disappeared and 223 was also rare. Reloading components got scarce. Stores, like Walmart, said they would stop selling ARs. Took about a year before things got back to normal.
The current shortages are strictly due to panic buying I think. I also think this will last a long time. Maybe be all 4 years of Joey/Kammy!

All the above plus all of these riots looting etc... that have been occurring for several months now.

covid in March started gun sales higher , the great unknown , April Riots , cities burning set all new records for gun sales in a month based on background checks , May didn't help , June even pump shotguns were all sold out. July and August taught a lot of people a new lesson for them , the police nor anyone else are coming to help you when the Commies have your city on fire and all the police are tied up in riots and looting.

reloading supplies , ammo , guns , prices way up , availability way down still setting records for sales through September haven't seen new data yet

primers by October were selling at a gun show for 75 dollars a K
9mm at the gun show in early October was 18 dollars for 20 rounds bulk fmj in a sandwich bag

oh toss in an election year were the one candidate is shouting Hades Yes were are coming for your guns.

that about sums it up we have discussed this several times almost weekly on T-man when each new person discovers the shortage

Precautionary buying

Unstable future ahead, if you did not load up on ammo last year when it was available to all, heck Federal was pushing 1600 round Black Box .22 LR with rebates for up to 4 boxes you missed out. 500 bulk box of .45s were cheap in a brand name.

What can one expect to pay for a brick of .22 when found?

I have a friend that works for a major powder company. Couple days ago he told me that the day before when he got to work they were 281 orders behind. At the end of the day they were 289 orders behind. Everyone there is on mandatory overtime. The demand is more than they can keep up with right now.

Co hunt prices are stable at most stores. It sells as fast as it comes in though.

$29 to 45 that I've seen!

Having gone through the last shortage I can't believe anyone got caught short.

You would think they would of learned from the past shortages but nope. LOL

There’s at least one thread a week on this. Ammo suppliers are operating with partial shifts, and all lead processing was forced over to China by the last president. No lead means no ammo, which was their plan all along.

No kidding.

I saw this coming. Anyone that hunts/shoots should have a stash but darned if many don't.

No I'll not part with mine.