Semi-update: I was at a WalMart’s today and saw a couple dozen boxes of .40, 9mm, .380, etc… I think I found the reason for the increase in supply. Almost 40 dollars for a box of, presumably, 50 rounds. .45s are going for a little over $1 a round.
Supply and Demand 101.
Around here, the “550 packs” at Walmart (550 round boxes of .22LR) are almost impossible to come by. When a Walmart gets some in, they sell out within an hour.
What an alternate universe.
Nah, ammo’s hard to get in Canada too. All these Americans are buying it all up and there’s precious little that Canadian stores can get.
At least we have some Canadian remanufacturers that can help the supply north of the border.
-trupa, Canadian handgun shooter.
But at least there’s no insane panic that you have to clean out WalMart(*) as soon as there’s any stock, is it?
(*BTW, that alone – ammo at WalMart – takes it into the parallel-universe realm for many of us)
Hoping so. Just fucking ridiculous how much ammo people are scooping up the split second it appears on store shelves. Then there’s people like me, who can’t even go shooting because there is no fucking ammo available!
Well, they have to buy all the ammo now so that they’ll have nothing to show for it when Obama takes all their ammo away.
It’s ingeniously stupid.
If the Government were actively involved in trying to ban or limit Spam (pork product in a can), or batteries, you’d see folks buying up the available supplies. Blaming the hoarders, in light of the current administrations blatant anti-gun stance, is unfair and illogical.
If and when the Government ceases their irrational thrust toward eventual disarming of the citizens, I gather shelves will be well stocked with ammo. Hoarders may still hoard, but the stores will be restocked right away and target shooters can once again make impromtu ammo purchases on the way to the county dump or public range.
You should admit there’s an element of irrationality of the buyers’ side as well. Ammunition manufacturers are almost certainly exaggerating the possibility of confiscation in order to drive up sales.
No, the first one - Og Roosevelt.
This. I’d also be interested to find out the origin of the “Obama’s gonna raise the federal tax on ammo by 4.723 gazillion percent, so stockpile nownownow” rumor. Sadly, I know at least two people who have been telling me this for over five years now.
The whole “the guvmint is gonna take away our 2nd ammendment rights by taking away our ammo not our guns” is an old, OLD trope in the gun owner community. I remember hearing it from both my Grandpa (back in the clinton administration) and my best friend’s mom (back in the early post 9/11 Bush days). The belief that the government is always on the brink of raising taxes insanely on ammo or making it flat out impossible to buy it by buying it all up themselves is nothing new or unique to Obama.
I suspect they were tied to the last two presidential elections or inaugurations.
Yes. 22LR is the last to catch up to the demand, but everything else is reasonably well-stocked.
And then there’s those of us who stockpile ammo as a matter of course, and who have ridden out this shortage with nary a flicker of concern. I will admit I’m getting a bit low on 9mm. I think I only have 500 or so rounds left. 
I have an ammo can of 840 rounds of 5.56 x 45 mm, with bandoleers and stripper clips. I think I have a couple/few hundred rounds left from the last time I bought it. (Or I may have shot it all up.) Since I don’t actually shoot the guns I have, this will last me a long, long time.
Hell, back in the 70’s, Johnny Carson joked that there was going to be a shortage on toilet paper, and suddenly, there was…
Things like this stun me. I have never, ever, ever, in all my life, seen a store out of ANY common ammunition around here (Kansas City). Every Wal-Mart, K-Mart, gun store, etc. I’ve been to has never run out of 9mm, .22, .44 magnum…prices did increase by about 10-30%, true, but I always could find any ammunition here I wanted. The only ammunition I saw brief shortages of was .223, but then it always seemed like you could at least find 1 or 2 boxes on a shelf.
It’s nuts to sell a 44 magnum in any environment unless one really just didn’t care for it in the first place. It’s an extremely versatile round - from 44 special for defense to 240 grain jsp hunting rounds to big 300 grain +P thumpers. And it’s a cartridge that will never become obsolete. Even once caseless ammo becomes the new standard in 50 or a 100 years, they’ll still make .44 mag.
Well, consider this … ammo doesn’t deteriorate much if stored correctly. You can’t hoard gasoline … it goes up in price, you pay whatever they want, but ammo … buying a bunch locks in the present price. There’s no downside if you have room to store it. If it becomes scarce, you’re covered; if it goes up in price, you are at an advantage. If it goes up in price and then becomes very scarce, it’s become an investment. “Irrational” isn’t the word I’d use.
The one possible potential problem would be if guns and ammunition were banned. If you are inclined to let the Government confiscate your weapons and ammo, you take a loss, but if you successfully hide your stash, then you have a useful survival cache.