swung by the bullet store - ammo availability

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Hopefully .22LR prices and availability will start returning to earth.
 

I am such a chump. mentioned to my co-worker that the hardware store had .223 at 23.99 a box. He said I'm so sick of them raping the public, it used to be 7.00 a box. So much for my comment "pre-freakout" prices.
 
I was able to buy ten 325 round bricks of Federal .22LR from our local WalMart for $14+ each last week. Guy at the counter told me there was no limit, but then wouldn't sell me more than 10. Guns are quickly becoming available (there will be some great deals on ARs in the coming months), and I think ammo will follow shortly thereafter.
 
Guys, I am starting to produce a series of videos on my own reloading techniques and tools.
It's here: http://www.coultersmithing.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=54&t=720&start=0
You'll want to check this from time to time, so far all I have up is finding, cleaning, separating the brass, but it will eventually be complete, and cover both the cheapest and easiest (not the same) ways to make both plinking/zombie ammo, and match grade stuff. Enjoy!

You don't have to have the money in this that I do - after all, I was doing competition and money-no-object at one point. You can get by with a lot less than I have, and I will be pointing that out in the series where appropriate.

Share and enjoy - and do note any safety tips I put out - they are REAL, they MATTER, and it ain't my fault if you ignore any of them (or any I forgot).
 
Thanks DCF. This is something that I would like to explore in the not too distant future.
 
I've recruited some help on this project as of last night - you should soon be seeing Dave Knight (who I hope will also become a member here - he's a great guy) helping out with his own take on the thing. Dave is eminently qualified, and a much better handgun shooter than I on top. He and I teach the CCW course in VA. In fact, we'll be teaching it to the staff of Motherboard magazine in the next couple of weeks - which is what prompted this. They are eager to learn, but noobs from NYC who have no access to this stuff, so I'll be providing the guns and ammo for their course. I figured, if I've got to build up a big batch of ammo for that, why not bring the vid-cam along?

I think it's important to educate media on this topic, and let them meet some real shooters, who are really responsible and level headed about it all - with no political baggage. We might start getting a little better treatment if the "fear of the unknown" is reduced a bit, and they discover first hand that just having a gun doesn't automatically make you Genghis Khan and bulletproof, that hollywood spews utter lies about all this, and so on.

I'm hoping to use the magic of hypertext to allow me to have one thread that just shows the basics you need to do this "at all" - but allow links out to specialized techniques threads for hyper-accuracy and reliability, as well as special purpose load design complete with the "why it works like this".

The idea is that way, we don't clutter the basics up, but allow people to explore at what level they want to work at their own pace. I think this is needed - the info is now spread out into hundreds, if not thousands of publications, all ones you have to pay for, and figure out the synthesis yourself, at present. And in fact, out of those thousands of publications, only a few are really good, so a list of which ones you might want to buy is a real pro-tip and a big money saver, so I'll be adding that as well.

In my experience, shooting is a perishable skill, you have to keep practicing. With the state of ammo supply, along with the costs - we are losing good shooters in the sport. Further, what use is a second amendment if no one has any ammo?

IMO, gun control means hitting your target - and only the intended one, not shooting at all if you can't be very sure of that. Most people, even gun owners (and if what I see on my range is indicative, this includes most cops), can't do that very well. I want to change that.
 
mike said:
In Houston they are rationing 9mm and .22 ammo at Academy to one box per customer.
Click to expand...

went to Academy in Austin Sunday to get some basketball stuff. They had every cal. except for .22 and .223 Clerk said there might be some .22 at customer service "if there was any left" but I didn't see any. LOTS of 30-30, which I was interested in since I was wondering if I got a 30-30 would I be able to find ammo. Lots of .308, american eagle 19.95 some as high as 44.

didn't buy anything gun related. Bought some carbon arrows. Went to the asian store and Bing got a whole van full of rice and fish, 300 dollars.
 
mike said:
In Houston they are rationing 9mm and .22 ammo at Academy to one box per customer.
Click to expand...

9mm, .22, .40, .45, .38sp, .357 mag, x39, x54, .223/5.56, and ,.308. 1 box of each up to 3 boxes total per person.

Since this is how Academy decided to best serve their customers, rather than government induced rationing, it is completely their right to do so. And I happen to like this policy since I and others can get at least a little ammo here and there at decent prices rather than none or 3x+ normal pricing for low end stuff.
 
For those lucky to live in a state that allows gun shows, I recommend attending. I have no problem buying as much ammo as I can carry!
 
dontdeBasemebro said:
Since this is how Academy decided to best serve their customers, rather than government induced rationing, it is completely their right to do so.
Click to expand...

But the government did cause the rationing:
* Indirectly by destroying the economy, striking fear in the people.
* And directly by its constant anti-second-amendment stance, massive ammo purchases and arming itself against its own citizens.
 
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Okay, but what I was getting at was that it was not a mandatory price/quantity control. Academy could have jacked their prices up and sold it all to the first guy in the door or jacket their prices up and still have rationed.

I agree that the govt doing nefarious things, but if the shortage was cuased by some non-governmental action, like a massive natural disaster that took out the supply of ammo making components, Academy would be faced with the same decision to make.
 
Ammo is starting to become easier to get and the prices are coming back down. Getting 5.56 is still a pain, and it's all over priced, but it's available. Here in Central Florida it can be had for about $0.32 per round, and if you look real hard on-line you can find it for as low as 28 - 30 cents per round. I think the days of $265 per thousand round box are probably over, but at least production seems to be catching up with back-ordered demand. I still have trouble finding .22 LR, which is odd since it isn't a military round or LEO round.

That said, firearms are also making a strong come-back around here, and those prices are falling rapidly as well. I wonder how much prices will overshoot to the downside when all is said and done?
 
gun show here Sat and Sunday, think I'll try to make this one (I have to work those days).
 
guy down at the railroad tracks had the back of his pick up full of cases of .223, 500.00 a case.
 
Well, things are certainly looking up a bit!

Shot shells have pretty much gone back to normal, they even have 500rd cases back out there (right under the tannerite, lol).

The local store is only restricting 9mm and .22, 2 boxes each instead of 1.

There was actually a fair amount of .45 and .40, mostly HPs though.

.223/5.56 is back on the shelves, however the cheapest stuff was $10.00 still. Looks like people don't really want it for that much (I didn't).

Out of the calibers commonly used in semi-automatic, high-capacity magazine fed centerfire rifles, 7.62x39 is by far the easiest to get from what I have seen. Plenty on the shelves and on the net, Russian steel going for $6/box or a little less if you grab a big case.

5.45x39 can be had on the net for a little over $4/box (as part of a case), but I still have never seen any at a store.

I don't remember what the .308 situation was though, never really considered getting a .308.


Like we like to say around here, BTFD!!!
 

I have a .308, it has become my "favorite" gun. We were all going to go shoot night before last but the kids said it was too hot. My buddies dog got bit in the face by a rattlesnake, so it probably wouldn't have been much fun anyway. Dogs ok, just real sick. 4 vials of antivenin
 
Wally world had a good stack of 40 & 45, a bit of 223 and a few other rifle calibers (no 308) one box of that TULAmmo crap in 9mm. They would still only let me buy 3 boxes though. Got the last 100 round box of Winchester whitebox, then 2 boxes of Federal 50 rnds/box. All FMJ of course. Out the door w/tax for $71.66 so just under 36 cents a round is not bad, at least now days that is. Also, no .22 to be found, heard of, or even rumors of it being available in our lifetimes.
 
http://ammoseek.com is neat because it shows you the $/round from a multitude of online dealers for any given caliber. Checked it just now and prices are still crazy. .22lr is listing (not sure if that means in stock) for ~$.13 and up per round. Last time I bought several thousand rounds, it was just under $.03 per round.
 
Prices are squirrely and unstable around here. I've been seeing absolute shortages of .22 since the shooting, but most other stuff is coming back around. 7.62 X 39 has dropped down to around .35 a round and 5.56 can be had [with a little searching] for around .32 - .37 a round. 30-30 is still up there as is 9mm and .40, but shotgun shells in every gauge except 20 is pretty available at nearly normal prices. 20 Ga. is rare as hens teeth around here, so I don't know what to make of that.
 

NO .22 here in central Texas. Whats up with that?
 

There's a few different sites like that, one thing to remember though is those don't usually include the shipping, and that can be pretty hefty on ammo. Here is another ammo price tracker.

http://www.wikiarms.com/
 
That's the one I use Jay.

Great to know there are several out there as well.

-Q
 
"Do to the government SHUTDOWN, everyone has forgotten about the DC Naval Base shooting."

Might as well add to the stack then...


Managed 2 boxes (still the limit) of Monarch steel 9mm for $11/box, that's normal!:clap:

Just about everything was looking pretty good, but .22 still hard to come by.

They didn't have any of the steel .223 for $6/box, but they did have 1000rnd cases of something (forgot what, xm855?) for $450, so $9/box. Not great, but if you wanted a big pile they had at least half a dozen of those cases, as well as a few dozen boxes of fancier stuff.

I even found some 3buck 20ga, which is the first 20ga buck I've come across at this store.

All in all, a good trip.
 
I went on a bit of a hiatus for a while there, but couldn't resist all the Black Friday debt accumulation. And Black Friday is apparently Black-two-weeks-before-Friday this year, granted the Christmas stuff has been out since mid-October.

Still no .22 to be found and limits are still in place. Maybe I should sell the .22s since it is cheaper to shoot centerfire.:flail:

The good news is that battle rifle ammo was well stocked. They had 500rd spam cans of Tula .223 for 160, not too shabby for a brick and mortar and they had a good half dozen of them along with just as many ammo cans filled with nicer stuff (like 62gr).

For those of a more easterly orientation, the usual variety of Russian steel case was there for about 6 a box, and even 100rd packs for the same rate.

That pretty much occupied my attention so I didn't get a good look at pistol ammo, but I do remember seeing some 40 and 45.

BFTD as usual, my friends.
 
Found 22LR in the wild last night! Really just got lucky, uber lucky at wally world. 3 times over! I went back to see if they had any .40 or .223, but all they had was one box of that tula crap in 40 and then a couple boxes 223 if I wanted to pay 2-3 bucks a round. Amazingly there was someone back there AND they asked if they could help. I told him what I was looking for and said their was nothing in there I wanted. I walked around the aisle and he was looking through the carts they had out everywhere to stock up for the sales today and noticed he was looking at AMMO BOXES!!! I asked if that had just come in and he said it had. He couldn't find any 40, just 45 and one case of 9mm. I asked if saw any 22LR and he said yes. I just about fainted! I then steeled myself to the fact that it was probably going to be something in a 50 round box for about $10/ box. Then he said it was the 550rnd boxes! I snatched the 3 up I was allowed by the walmarts laws then went and grabbed the wifey to get two more boxes! That left half the case, which was still sitting behind the counter, I don't know if I'll dare go out on black Friday, but I am sure it will be gone even if I did. Still scoring nearly 3K rounds of 22lr in one day while in the previous 11 1/2 months (after sandy hook, I was only able to get 2 boxes of 375 each being fairly spendy variety. So it does exist in the wild but you have to be in the right place at the right time.
 
Looks like it has been a while, so time for an update.

Swung by a couple of weeks ago and things were looking good. So good that store was quickly relieved the burden of a few spam cans weighing down their shelves.

I went back today to pick up some loose boxes for regular range time since I'd like to keep the cans sealed up. The shelves were well stocked except for 9mm and 22lr; the 22lr was acutally limited to 2 boxes at the counter.

But, there was something I had never seen before - commercial 5.45x39. In fact, I don't think I have ever seen 5.45 at a store, just the surplus cans online. They had Monarch in 30rd boxes for 9.99, which was the same price as their .223 and slightly more than the 7.62x39 (5.19). They had a decent amount too, maybe 30-40 boxes. Still, the 7.62 was much more available, probably over 100 boxes and a couple of spam cans to boot.

Last year when the supplies were coming back I, having been completely caught unprepared by the Sandy Panic, was keeping a very close eye on the availability of guns, mags, and ammo. I had not yet a defensive rifle and wanted to choose carefully one that would not be left high and dry (at least not as quickly as the others). Observation found that 7.62x39 was available sooner, in larger quantities, and at lower prices than .223/5.56 and 5.45 (except for price). Magazines are the same way comparing 7.62 to 5.45.

When it comes to shooing I would actually prefer the lighter recoil and lighter weight of 5.45, but I didn't want to be relegeated to buying only corrosive surplus over the net. Then the whole 7n6 dustup came about recently too; history has shown it is easier to ban foreign stuff than domestic stuff. I am wondering if that caused Monarch to ramp up 5.45 production.

Either way, I am hoping that 5.45 gains in popularity enough for the aftermarket to catch up with it. It would make sense since 5.45 is the standard through much of the AK world now (in terms of .gov use) and has been for a while. It should be trickling down to us more and more.

Of course this all hinges on keeping our keepers' feet to the fire and not letting them sneak in some sort of import ban, or mag capacity ban and the like.
 
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The .22LR is still close to non-existent in my area. I thought it was supposed to be getting better. I thought maybe the problem got worse when barry wanted to ban .223/5.56 ammo, but there has been a much better supply of that around so I don't think that's the cause. I guess that I'll stick with my theory that the manufacturers want to get people used to paying 20 cents or more a round for .22lr and a buck a round for .308. Just like lots of people now consider $2.70 "cheap" gas.
 
Around here, north Alabama, .22lr is available but still a little high. 9mm and 20 ga. is easy to get and prices are pretty reasonable. .308 is just too high at the local ammo dump. That's the only cal. I don't have a good stash of. I see cheaper than dirt has some that would be 20 cents cheaper a round than I could get locally even paying shipping. CTD has 1000 rds. of federal xm80 for $700 shipped to my zip.
 
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* bump *

Saw this on the local news last night:

Gun store owners see unprecedented demand for firearms

A Houston gun store owner says sales at his store are at an all-time high.
www.fox26houston.com
 
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