Ammo Supply Problems - need your thoughts

[Hazcat]

The local commercial reloader has probems.  This is what I was told today.

David,
 
Gary told me that his standing order for primers has been cancelled by the company he's been dealing with for the past forever.  Normally, he says, he gets 250,000 primers from CCC on the first of each month.  When they didn't show up this month, he called his rep only to be told that they would not be honoring his standing order nor would they be placing him on back order.  They were not, the rep said, honoring ANY of the outstanding orders for primers from any of the OEMs.  Gary said he's been having a lot of trouble getting brass lately, but this latest issue has slammed him badly.  He is down to the last of his primers and when they are gone, he's done.

This guy is pretty large.  He supplies the local ranges, dealers and the cops.  Here are my thoughts..

"Something is going on here that we are not privvy to or that we are not seeing or that we that don't have all the pieces to.  It's getting near impossible to find ammo at retail or at wholesale.  I am starting to think maybe we shouldn't shoot up any of what we have unless and until we can get something to replace it with."

What do y'all think?

[cookie62]

Around here you can get 9mm and 22cal, but thats about it. No 223, 40cal., or 45cal.. Maybe a box or two here and there. I havn't seen any 40 cal. for a couple of months. Gets kinda old driving from place to place looking for it. I've been keeping what i've built up, and shoot when I can find some extra.

[Texas_Bryan]

That's how I'm doing it.  I've got my supply of .223, .45, and .270, it's my ammo I keep on hand at all times.  The .270 I'm not to worried about, but .223 and .45 are getting harder to find, at least in central Texas, and what I can find is going up in price.  So keep your stash safe and only go to the range with ammo you already have bought for the range, I don't shoot the stuff in my on hand ammo and then plan on replacing it.  Cause I may not be able to find it at retail.  On the plus side at Wally World in Austin they got Federal FMJ 100 packs .223 for forty bucks, still expensive but its cheaper than most others.  Personally my on hand ammo is Winchester Rangers JSP .223, Winchester Ballistic Silver Tips .270, and Winchester Elites .45(the renamed Black Talons).

[Overload]

Haz,
you read Michael's blog entry on it:
http://michaelbane.blogspot.com/2009/03/and-you-thought-it-was-just-me.html

I believe this is a ripple from the record gun sales the last few months.  People need to be able to shoot what they just bought.  The next stage might be people realizing they didn't need the gun, or bought the wrong gun, and there'll be a glut of used guns.

[Timothy]

I'm kinda upset cuz I burned up about 500 rounds of WWB in .45 ACP a few weekends ago.  Since then I can't find anything to replace it without paying about 20-30% more for it.  Should have seen it coming since our Wally World hasn't had any popular calibers in a few weeks.

I usually buy from my local guy anyway so the pricing I"m used too.  I have plenty of JHP in the safe though.  Once I found a load I (and my 1911) liked, I stocked up.

[Sponsor]

[TAB]

The federal goverment just redid the entire VOC/ heavy metal regs in jan(was ordered years back under bush) It hit the chemical industry very hard, its why the price of almost every builind material shot way up.  It could very well be this is fall out form that.  

[Hazcat]

Overload,

Yep, read that but this is a guy that has been doing business for many years and his suppliers are shutting him down cold!  That does not sit well with me.

In this area (St Petersburg, FL) you cannot find any of the 'normal' calibers (9mm, .223, .45, .40, 357, .38, .308, 30-06) anywhere at any price.  Even 12 guage is out unless you want 7.5 bird shot.

I am a good customer at a couple of places and they have nothing.  I have talked to people that buy much more than me and they can't find any!

This is getting absurd.

[Pathfinder]

I think I see a way to make a profit!!!    

I was just at Wally World at lunch, bought a box of .380 auto WWB, they had a bunch more. Left the .38Spcl on the shelf, may pick it up in a few days - we're supposed to get 10-20" of snow over the next 36 hours so I won't be going anywhere tomorrow.

Back to WW - they had other goodies, but some guys were there looking for 9mm and WW had none. No .45ACP either. Boxes of .40S&W though. And tons of 12ga everywhere. Gander had pallets of them last week.

If anyone want phone numbers, let me know.

[Hazcat]

Path,

You may think yer jokin' but we need to start thinking ahead.  If you see some good deals on 'normal' calibers buy it whether you shoot it or not.  Then we can trade stuff amoug ourselves.  It is getting real strange out there.

250,000 a month may not be huge to CCI (I don't know) but DAMN, if yer a long time customer with a standing order and they cut you off cold!?

That worries the hell out of me.

[MikeBjerum]

I was working in another town today, not one of ours but being a nice guy so a neighbor could go on a two week cruise, and took advantage of the location to check out some reloading supplies and ammo.  I need badly large pistol primers, powder, and factory .45acp.  I also wouldn't mind a few other calibers and other supplies.

The shelves at all three shops are bare.  All three, and I deal a lot with and trust the people at two of the three, claim that most of their problems come from huge customer demand.  They claim it is like nothing they have seen in their careers, and some of them have been at this for over 30 years.  They say as soon as a shipment comes in the shelves empty.  The longest they can keep anything is if it arrives on a Monday, because Friday - Sunday bring the rush.

The only thing they had that I would have considered was four 250 count yellow box umc .38 spl.  However, that is not a main caliber for me right now, so I didn't part with the $280.  They did also have green box umc .223, $11.99/20, that they weren't even unpacking from the cases, because the expect people to take it as is.

I've decided that I am just going to go on-line and put in some orders for reloading stuff and wait.  I hate doing powder that way because of shipping costs, but ...