Wednesday, June 12, 2013

I Knew It Was Bad But Now It's Just Ridiculous

Everyone by now is all too familiar with the price and scarcity of ammo.
Some calibers are hard to come by and most places sell out as soon as it hits the shelves, if not before.
I first noticed it clear back in early March as I recall,trying to find the lowly.22LR round.
Not only could I not find any in quantity, I couldn't find any at all.

As far as I have seen, it is still as scarce as hen's teeth anywhere around here and the prices have gone through the roof.

Cheaper Than Dirt drew my ire especially a while back for wanting up to twenty five fucking dollars for fifty lousy rounds.

I used to be able to buy FIVE HUNDRED rounds for eleven dollars.
Yes, I can still remember that, it wasn't all that long ago.

Then I started looking at gun shows, it was still pretty damn pricey,I paid seven fifty for a fifty round box in late March.

Now ,the price of .22 ammo has gone up 400% since this time last year and it doesn't look like it is going to come back down any time in the near future.

That is insane.

Not only has the price gone through the roof, the availability is still nigh on to finding the Holy Grail.

It's not just .22 rounds either.

We Americans have bought so much ammo in the past six months that now the supply has dwindled halfway around the World because of it.

Firearm importers in Australia are being told to brace for supplies to run extremely thin or completely dry within weeks.

Importer Jade Cleaver says he has been buying more than usual in anticipation.

"We've been stockpiling ammunition in a sense so we don't run out," he said.

"Basically the American community is consuming the ammunition and the ammunition manufacturers can't keep up."

Australia's eight main firearm wholesalers source about 80 per cent of their stock from the United States.

American ammo producers are running around the clock and simply can not keep up with demand.

This was to be expected after the government decided that gun control was something it needed to do right after that crazy fucked in the head kid in Connecticut killed 26 people,mostly children, using firearms he stole from his mother after he killed her first.

We are all too familiar with that now too.

The little asshole broke so many laws doing it, I'm not sure I have ever even seen a total.

After the gun control frenzy took a shot to the solar plexus and got put on the back burner nationally, we all figured it would just be a matter of time until the gun and ammo buying frenzy would taper off but so far, six months later, the ammo shortage has yet still to start easing off.

Some of the gun manufactures have still got back orders that won't be filled for a year yet but ammo isn't as machine work intensive as a gun is.

At this point if you haven't already bought the ammo you think you need, you can expect to pay one hell of a lot more than you would have a year ago but a 400% increase for .22 shells just sticks in my craw.


7 comments:

Sixbears said...

When it got close to $20/brick I stopped buying, because that's too much to pay for .22. Still is in my book. Glad I bought up a bunch of that cheap stuff. Still, I must admit to being hesitant to target shoot for the heck of it any more.

Robert Fowler said...

The one up side is my business is booming. At the last 3 gun shows I have sold out of almost all of my pistol ammo. The prices I have seen at the shows on 22 make me sick. One guy had 500 round bricks priced at 100 dollars. A friend of mine told him he was part of the problem. Our last show was in the middle of April and I have been loading ammo and casting bullets nearly every day. I've never seen it this crazy.

Anonymous said...

Not gonna accuse you of being slow on the uptake ;-)but I figured it out in early January. There were 4 bricks on the counter at one of my local emporiums, the counter guy said the other guy could have 2 and since I was there I could have the other 2. I paid around $47 (for both bricks + sales tax) for them, a bit pricey but they were high end stuff and were the ONLY ones I'd seen for a while. At a gun show the very next weekend I saw a guy selling the exact same bricks for $120 - and he was getting it! The prices are starting to go down but I believe that the cheapest I've seen has still been around 55-60 bucks a brick. I have yet to see ANY at any of the local vendors at any price.

Phil said...

Robert, thanks for stopping by.
It's one thing to be a small business owner trying to make a living, you have a reputation to guard and protect so you are careful to watch the market and price your goods accordingly.
It is quite another thing to be a large business and charge whatever the market will bear on a daily basis to reap maximum profit, see Cheaper Than Dirt as an example.

While I don't see them suffering too greatly from lack of sales, I do believe that it is their large variety that is keeping them afloat.
I have seen quite a few people swear they will never buy anything from them again because of their lack of self control.
Me being one of them.

I also believe because of their lack of regard for their customer base that other sellers take note of what they are charging and getting away with and it creates a self feeding cycle.

Phil said...

Sixbears, Thank you,for stopping by on a regular basis, I really do look forward to your level headed views.

I have the same concern now about just running out and burning through a brick just for fun like we used to.
It is just too damn hard to resupply anymore.

I did "find" some that I had put in a box when we moved and forgot where it was so I can sit back and watch for a while while this situation straightens it's self out but I am afraid that the precedent has been set now and we are going to have to learn to live with outrageous prices from here out.

Phil said...

For sure I ain't the most observant sonofabitch around. ;)

I was slow to start paying attention ,that is a fact.
Once I did though I started looking hard.

Anonymous said...

wally world is slowly getting 22 lr for around 24 dollars for 525rds..soon it will catch up i live in Arkansas

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