How is ammo shortage affecting you?

[Old Dog 19]

The ammo shortage has affected me quite a bit. Although I had purchased 500+ rounds for the calibers I shoot before the madness I have to ration it and tend to not use what I have until I can replace it. Here are some of the ways the ammos shortage has affected me.

 

1. Ammo cost about twice as much as I used to pay so I am poorer and buy less.

2. Instead of shooting once a week I do not even shoot unless I can first get some replacement ammo for what I will be shooting. This has resulted in shooting once every two months now.

3. Even when I go to the range I now only shoot a mag or two of my main two carry guns just to make sure both gun and shooter are working well.

4. I had bought 4 .22's in snub nose, rifle, semi auto and full sized revolver sizes thinking that it will allow me to shoot every week cheaply. However, bulk .22 ammo is nowhere to be found around here and stores are breaking up the bulk packs they have and selling it in baggies, 50 rounds at a time for ridiculous prices. So I am hording .22 and holding it as long as I can without shooting it. When I do shoot it, I limit the rounds to 50 when in the past I would shoot off a few hundred. I sold all but my S&W 617 and Ruger LCR .22 mag. as I could not feed that many .22's anymore. No more $16 for 500 round bulk packs for sale anywhere I can find.

5. I used to buy about 10 guns a year but now do not plan on buying anymore guns due to the high cost of breaking them in for carry and the high cost of feeding a strictly range gun. I normally shoot 200 rounds of practice ammo and 100 of carry before I trust a new carry gun and sometimes I have to try different brands or types of ammo so that round count can go higher if the gun is ammo fussy. So no more birthday, anniversary or Xmas guns for me this year. I am using my ammo only for my main carry and home defense guns. All secondary guns and range guns are collecting dust in my gun safes as there is no reason to shoot them since they are not working guns.

6. I thought I was semi retiring to a nice place near a public gun range where I could use the extra free days I now have to shoot more but now am trying to find things other than shooting to do with my extra free time so my life has been affected by the ammo shortage.

7. I introduced my cousin who lives in the same retirement community as me to shooting and we used to go together and now he cannot afford to buy ammo so our time together with our only shared interest is no longer there an I have not seen him in the last few months when I used to see him twice a month.

8. Last and not least is that I now spend a lot of time on the internet hunting for ammo when I could be doing something else. I have put items in my cart and kept shopping only to go back to check out and find that the item is no longer in stock. Now I buy immediately when I see it as I did today with some .380 ammo that I know will jam in one of my guns but is the only ammo available that I could find in the last week that is not ridiculously priced. It is sad when you think Blazer aluminum cased ammo at $29 per 50 is a bargain but my only other choice was some imported stuff at $40 per 50.

[mipafox 438]

Not really affecting me. The Ammo Zombies (AKA "Shamblers") always size me up at Walmart but I tell them I got nothing but a party and a reload. They are still staring into the empty blackness of the ammo case when I leave. I wonder how long they stay there.

[DSD1026 48]

This is a great topic. Being new to the "sport" (or hobby or whatever people think of it as), this obviously affects me greatly.

 

Extremely high cost of entry. Purchasing my first gun in this market proved to be quite "interesting". Ultimately, i had decided on a CZ 75B, which as most know, are pretty rare these days. I overpaid for the gun I found/wanted when I did find it. A bit less than a few other had gone for, but more than MSRP. Once I decided on that gun (and after I got my FID and P2P's) I decided to try to start getting ammo for that gun (9mm). By then, 9mm ammo was impossible to find. I had also decided on getting a .22lr pistol with my other P2P as well as getting a 22 rifle. Thus, I began looking for 22 ammo as well. If I thought 9mm ammo was hard to find, cheap .22 ammo was nigh on impossible to find.

 

I did buy a few boxes of 9mm ammo when i saw a "good" deal online. And by good deal, I mean less than $19 or $20 per box. According to those who have shot for years, the prices are crazy high, but I think that we may be seeing new definitions of ammo pricing. I got a total of 8 boxes of ammo, which as anyone can tell you, is barely enough to break in a new gun. Luckily, I found another 10 boxes online for a half-decent cost. I have only had my gun for about 3 weeks now, and I have only been to the range once (200 rounds, which at the time was half my stock).

 

I did find a little bit of .22 ammo (Fiocchi canned heat) at what most would say a stupid high price, but its not as high as im seeing for Eley brand going for right about now. CCI Mini Mags? Yeah, right.. Winchester Bulk? havent seen any. Remington Golden Bullet? from what I have heard, no thanks. Basically, the only stuff I have seen online is cheap SE Asian brand, which is crazy expensive and Eley brand, which is even more crazy expensive. Luckily I do not have either .22 firearm yet, so I am not in dire need of it, but in the next month or so, I plan to get both the pistol and rifle, so I will want to be breaking in both, with almost no stock to do it.

 

Basically, high cost of weapon, high cost of ammo (when you can find it, which is not frequent) makes getting into this now the completely wrong time, but since I am so fascinated by it, I plan to stay the course. Many other new shooters will lose interest when they can't actually shoot much, I fear.

 

Some might not be as affected if they reload, but for the vast majority of us who do not, it just makes is hard, if not impossible, to really take off into it and get our feet wet. Unless you stocked up before the shortage, obviously shooting amounts will have dropped drastically.

[YWHIC 18]

I have just over 1K of my 223/5.56 for my AR, 1K of 762x54R for my VEPR, 300 rounds of 9mm and 100 for my 22LR rifle..

 

Can't shoot at all really as the fear of paying the $$$ money vendors want currently is rediculous.. I shoot about 100 rounds each time I go out on the minimum side..

 

My rifles are VERY lonely without their ammo..

 

[Kingsoverqueens 10]

It hasn't really affected me, yet, but we are getting close.

 

I will say, however, that we shot a bunch of 9 yesterday...more than I might have normally shot, but since I can get 9 and we're close to reloading and thus I'll have a more readily available supply of 9, I figured better to shoot that than a bunch of 22 that I can't really find at anything close to a reasonable price.

 

So, actually, I guess that's how it's affected us. We're shooting what would be normally more expensive ammo because I can simply get my hands on it.

[ryan_j 0]

I shoot not as much as I like to, and I'm learning to reload.

[Blake 50]

I have several thousand rds of all my calibers that were bought before the craziness, but I still thought twice before sending a couple hundred rds of 9mm down range with my new (to me) p30l.

 

Did it anyway, but I hope that prices stabilize by fall otherwise I will not have much left. I dont really want to stop/slow down my shooting when I just paid $600 to join a club lol.

[Shawnmoore81 623]

I hasnt. I did take a reloading class just in case though.

[67gtonut 847]

I stocked up before the election...... I just had a feeling.....

 

So I do have a few thousand rounds of 9mm. And with my arm injury, I havent been shooting lately.

 

But with that being said...... If the new normal is $15+/50rds of 9mm , that will effect my shooting in the future.....

[blksheep 466]

I have several thousand rds of all my calibers that were bought before the craziness, but I still thought twice before sending a couple hundred rds of 9mm down range with my new (to me) p30l.

 

Did it anyway, but I hope that prices stabilize by fall otherwise I will not have much left. I dont really want to stop/slow down my shooting when I just paid $600 to join a club lol.

 

I am joining this month. What time did u get there for the newby meeting.

[johnp 45]

I "stacked it deep while it is was cheap" so I'm not in danger of running out of ammo. But I have been shooting a bit less frequently, and going through ammo a bit more conservatively at the range.

[Bob2222 317]

I'm wasting more time than usual on the internet, waiting for GunBot to beep. And then I pounce.

 

I refuse to pay the silly prices. ( $0.58/round for Federal "Premium Gold" 22LR? Are the bullets really gold????)

[Blake 50]

 

I am joining this month. What time did u get there for the newby meeting.

 

Got there 45 min early for the february meeting. Parking lot was filling up quickly but I got in the last spot of the first round of shooters. It also allowed me to get a seat for the video and presentation.

[scarecrow 0]

I reload 38, 357 magnum, 40 S&W and 45 so I'm good there. Never thought I would have to start reloading 9mm but looks like I have no choice now. Have enough to last a few months. Maybe then I can score some primers. What really hurts is the shortage of 22lr and 22 wmr. Can't reload that and the prices right now are outrages.

[BCeagle 12]

I am just taking a few months off, I have over a 1000 rounds or 22, 9, .223 and 308 and about 600 rounds of 45.

 

I think the norm will become to always have a 1000 rounds of each on hand and then shoot anything over that. I may actually shoot the 45 because it is the only gun i wouldnt trust with my life on the line.

[SgtToadette 59]

Been tough on me.

 

I could usually go and grab ammo as I needed it for IDPA and range use. I haven't been to the range at all in the last 4-5 months and finding ammo has been a chore for matches.

[BlueLineFish 615]

I shoot less and when I do I just make sure I miss less..lol

[Old Dog 19]

I wonder how this shortage has affected attendance at matches. I know that most of us no longer go due to the high cost of ammo. Just too expensive on a fixed income for many. 9mm is selling for $40 a box of 50 for FMJ import brand if you can even find it. The last 3 boxes of 50 .45 acp Fiocchi I bought were $35 each. No .22 ammo at all to be found locally and online they only have the Ely or similar expensive stuff. I basically am finding other hobbies as my income get less and less each year as I slowly retire and the cost to shoot keeps rising too quickly. I just bought two guns simply because they were available after being hard to find for so long and were selling for less than MSRP. I do not need them right now but I figured that I would buy them now while I had the chance and at a good price.

[mipafox 438]

The only problem I have is people with one foot in the pool wanting to come shoot. Or people simply "curious." Not that there is anything wrong with that. I let them shoot 200 rounds of 5.56, 100 rounds of 9mm, and I know the replacement cost would be nearly $250. That's a lot of money.

 

I consider myself an evangelical firearms proselytizer. But spreading the good word is making my ammo bunker nervous.

[AlDente67 563]

I got very lucky with 9 and 22 back in December/January. Just picked up a box or two whenever prowling the stores. Now they have nothing, so I'm going to skip the range unfortunately. Gunbot occasionally pops up a decent (these days) deal on .223, but the rest is silly. I'm not killing off my supply at those prices. 48 cents each per .22 plinker rounds is a no-go for me.

[mipafox 438]

I shoot less and when I do I just make sure I miss less..lol

 

If more than half my rounds hit the target then it's time for me to give up

[Sigman 41]

It hasn't affected me at all. I reload, have supplies, and shoot as much as I want.

[AlDente67 563]

I reload 38, 357 magnum, 40 S&W and 45 so I'm good there. Never thought I would have to start reloading 9mm but looks like I have no choice now. Have enough to last a few months. Maybe then I can score some primers. What really hurts is the shortage of 22lr and 22 wmr. Can't reload that and the prices right now are outrages.

 

Cheyenne has some CCI 22wmr in stock if you are in the area.

[average joe 5]

I took up archery , reuse the arrows. Guns sit in the safe.

[Old Dog 19]

The only problem I have is people with one foot in the pool wanting to come shoot. Or people simply "curious." Not that there is anything wrong with that. I let them shoot 200 rounds of 5.56, 100 rounds of 9mm, and I know the replacement cost would be nearly $250. That's a lot of money.

 

I consider myself an evangelical firearms proselytizer. But spreading the good word is making my ammo bunker nervous.

 

I am like you try to introduce a few people to shooting each year. Most give up once I stop paying for their ammo. Others give up when they see how expensive the guns they like are. At today's prices I have not even attempted to introduce anyone to shooting since I live in a retirement community where they live on fixed incomes and watch every penny carefully. The last guy I taught did not want to spend more than $300 for a carry gun that he felt he would never have to use. He got discouraged when he could not get the guns he lusted after and settled for an LCP which he hates.

[brocglock23 4]

Shooting less but stockpiling more. Spending more on ammo then weapons. It's hard to be disciplined but I want to have it just in case SHTF even worse.

[DSD1026 48]

in this current market, you pretty much have to be all in or not at all.. dabblers will lose interest quickly or be priced out..

[bry@n 195]

 

 

I am joining this month. What time did u get there for the newby meeting.

 

You should get there for 6:30

[Fullblown9 0]

Im in good shape with 9mm, 22lr, 45 & 7.62 54r. been meeting some new friends stocking up. Its like a weeky club meeting.

[ryan_j 0]

I shoot not as much as I like to, and I'm learning to reload.

 

One more thing, this is making a revolver ever more attractive now. Picking up brass from a semi-auto can be (maybe it's not for you, but it can be) a ****, but with the revolver, no problem.