If you’re as concerned about the current ammo shortage as I am, please take fifteen minutes to listen to this podcast from Federal Cartridge.

23 COMMENTS

  1. Seems there are many reasons why ammunition is in such short supply on store shelves in America. One of the main factors is that there are no longer any functioning lead mines in the U.S.A. because of draconian government restrictions put out by the EPA. Lead is a major component of bullets and now we have to import a substance we have huge quantities of but cannot mine out of the ground. I believe most of the lead used in manufacturing now is imported from Canada, Mexico, and China which does not have the onerous restrictions on mining as America.

    The same thing is currently happening to fossil fuels, especially oil which we have one of the largest reserves in world, but will soon be importing in ever increasing quantities from the Middle East. No doubt Crooked Joe and his family and friends will be getting huge monetary donations from OPEC and other foreign oil producers for their help in making America dependent on others for energy again. Biden’s no skill son Hunter may soon become a billionaire like John Kerry and the Clintons. Of course, if one believes Hanoi John, the world will end in just nine more years so we won’t suffer for too long. Let’s party hardy until then.

  3. Greetings Mas,
    That pod cast was definitely informative if in fact what he said was true about the ammunition shortage. Brings to mind the situation in Wyoming’s Powder River Basin with the Coal business facing uncertain times along with oil and gas. My son-ion-law works for Black Hills Energy and he is wondering is he is going to have his job long enough to retire. Their power plant uses coal from the Wyodak coal seam and right now that future is uncertain. On the ammunition front, I certainly hope that more comes available in the near future especially .40 Smith & Wesson for my Glock Gen 4 Model 23.

  4. Much of what I heard makes absolute sense. On the other hand, Mr. Vanderbrink skipped over question about the federal government demand for ammunition like the liberal MSM does to questions they want to deflect and ignore.

    • It’s not unreasonable to speculate that our government, especially now under the control of Demoncrats will place orders for massive amounts of ammunition. Filling those government contracts will result in less ammunition for the civilian population as the military and law enforcement have priority over us lowly peasants. Federal agencies want more ammunition stockpiled in case they have to engage the people who may cause trouble for the current regime and need to be suppressed by force. The government has the funds to buy huge amounts of whatever they want and they get better prices than what we can buy it for. It’s using our tax dollars to work against us, depriving us of ammunition with our own money. Those sneaky liberals are diabolical for sure.

      The number of people waiting in line at my local Academy Sports to open on ammo delivery days are increasing and supplies are lower. Previously, ammo was limited to 3 boxes per customer and now it’s only 2 boxes. Fortunately I don’t need any ammo, but I do help my less fortunate friends by trying to get the calibers they need. With a limit of 2 boxes of ammo at many big stores and most smaller gun shops don’t even have any of the common calibers, it’s difficult to “hoard” the stuff, so that argument doesn’t make much sense. The only ammo that lasts more than an hour on the shelves at my local Academy Sports is 28 gauge field loads. The most popular ammo is 9X19 and .223 which only the first few customers get and they had to wait for hours in the parking lot to obtain it.

  6. OK, so we can’t find reloading components because they are being consumed by the manufacturing of retail ammunition for the additional 8+/- million new gun owners. Again, OK, so we should see at least something show up on the shelves. I see a little bit of popular ammo now and then, at 5-6 times normal prices, but where the hell is the rest of it? Even garages and double-wides have capacity limits.

  7. This blog is timely for me. I have been “snowed in” for the last few days and, therefore, have had time to do a project that I have put off for years. Namely, to conduct a detailed inventory of the commercial ammo in my personal stockpile.

    About 15 years ago, I conducted an approximate “pen and paper” inventory of my ammo. This time, I wanted to do it right. I wanted to create a detailed database table of my ammo which could then be exported to a spreadsheet for processing.

    Anyway, I completed the inventory today. When the final numbers were completed and crunched in the spreadsheet, I found out that my total stockpile had increased by about 50% above my previous figure. This was because I have been purchasing ammo, wherever I spotted a good deal, for the years of the Trump Administration.

    So, the current ammo shortage is of little concern to me. As long as I don’t take up competitive shooting, as long as my usage of ammo stays moderate (say about 100 rounds per month or less), then I have enough ammo stockpiled to last for a good long while! 🙂

    If it takes a decade for ammo to come back to the store shelves, I can wait. With the Democrats in power, it could well take a decade or more. The totalitarian leftists would view the concept of disarming American Citizens by shutting off ammo supplies as a “winning formula” to help keep them in power.

    • TN_MAN:

      From your wisely vague description of your inventory, the liberals will say you have an extensive arsenal and a massive stockpile of ammunition and reloading supplies. In fact, you may even be a possible major arms dealer and/or black market supplier to international terrorist organizations. No one needs more than 50 rounds of ammunition for any legitimate purposes like hunting or target shooting. Possession of 100 powerfully destructive cartridges or more will definitely put you in the class of a Merchant of Death.

      Several friends of mine have migrated to central Tennessee and wanted me to move there too, but I’m worried about all the hillbillies lurking around and brewing their moonshine in the woods. At least you guys can claim the great prophet Al Gore as a native son. 🙂

      • @ Tom606 – “No one needs more than 50 rounds of ammunition for any legitimate purposes like hunting or target shooting.”

        Oh No! I went to the range today and burned up over 100 rounds in light shooting to check some of my reloads! Then I stopped by a local restaurant for a barbecue sandwich for lunch. Who knew such activity would put me in the “Merchant of Death” category? 🙂

        I guess I need to disarm and become a vegan so as to “get woke”!

        As for Al Gore, when one considers that his father, Albert Gore Sr., served as a member of the “Old-Time Swamp” for 18 years and that young Albert Jr., himself, was born and raised in Washington, D.C., then I think that you may be mistaken about proclaiming Albert Jr. as a “native son” of Tennessee.

        Washington, D.C. is his true home. During his 2000 Presidential Run, he carried his home of Washington, D.C. but lost Tennessee during the election. If he had carried Tennessee, the whole Florida “hanging chad” mess would have been moot. I am afraid that carrying his home of Washington, D.C. was not enough to secure him victory. 🙂

      • TN_MAN:

        You are a Merchant of Death since a chicken, cow, or pig was viciously murdered to give you that delicious barbecue lunch. You should be ashamed of being a barbaric carnivore instead of peaceful vegan. I stand by my previous post about vegans, although I have no personal experience concerning their taste. 🙂

        Quite a few Demoncrat poll workers in Florida during 2000 became fat from eating numerous paper hanging chads taken from newly created Gore ballots. At least those chads provided much needed fiber for those sneaky people’s diets.

        I didn’t know Gore Jr. was raised in D.C. but do know that his heroic secret exploits in Vietnam was the inspiration for the movie character Rambo. Every night, Albert Jr. would put away his typewriter and apply camo to his face, tie up his hair with a black bandana, and grab his large Bowie knife and compound bow to sneak out into the bush to wreak havoc among the Viet Cong and NVA. It’s possible he was in Afghanistan too (Rambo 3), helping the Mujahadeen fight the Soviets who were aided by KGB secret agent Donaldmir Trumpolov whenever that evil guy could sneak away from his cover assignment as a wealthy New York City based real estate developer.

      • @ Tom606 – “You are a Merchant of Death since a chicken, cow, or pig was viciously murdered to give you that delicious barbecue lunch.”

        It was a pulled pork barbecue sandwich with baked beans and potato salad on the side. So, it was Arnold that got the chopped up and put on the grill. As I told a friend one time, I am certainly a member of PETA (People for the Eating of Tasty Animals). 🙂

        I like to think that it was the good folks of Tennessee that, ultimately, kept Albert Jr. from the Oval Office. As I noted, if he had won Tennessee, Florida would be moot. Instead, he lost Tennessee and then lost Florida too after the SCOTUS ruling.

        Not only did he lose Tennessee, he could not even carry his old congressional district! See this link:

        https://apnews.com/article/fd953acb79bdd578c09f5e641cd9077c

        Native Son? Not. 🙂

      • Well, since Prince Albert cannot truthfully claim to be a Native Son of Tennessee, he could say he’s a Native Indian like Ward Churchill or Elizabeth Warren who are both honest beyond reproach.

        Instead of treating the corpse of that poor pig with the respect it deserved, the restaurant worker(s) brutally ripped the flesh from it’s bones to satisfy their barbaric diners. Even vegans are not so benevolent as one could heard the agonized screams of helpless beans and potatoes as they are savagely transformed into food for ravenous customers.

        As far as devouring Arnold, his co-star Eva Gabor will have her cousin Zsa Zsa slap you in the face like she did to that police officer who gave her a traffic ticket a few years back. Take that, you nasty carnivore!

      • Having lived in TN your understanding of mountain people is a myth as long as you live and let live…gee that sounds like the Constitution. They are friendly as long as you prove to be trustworthy unlike Yankees.

  8. I just spent how much a box for .22rf!?! I had an ok stash… but my friend want her daughter to learn how to shoot. How do you say no? I just spent 15$ MORE that the usual for 100 rounds. Daughter better be learning to cook to!

    • That’s a lot of money for 100 rounds of .22LR ammo. Recently at my local Academy Sports store, I picked up a 100 round box of CCI MiniMag .22LR for $8.99 because I wanted to try out this ammo. I have several cases of other brands bought whenever it was on sale before 2020 so am not hurting for .22LR but still want to find the best ammo for my various rifles and handguns in that caliber. The latest price I’ve seen for this ammo is $9.99 now.

      I would recommend using a BB/pellet gun for initial training of your friend’s daughter before she graduates to shooting a real gun. Practice a lot of dry firing too.

    • My humble advice is to tell your friend that you would provide the guns, equipment, and knowledge to train her daughter how to shoot, if they provide the ammunition. Problem solved.

  9. In the 1960s the business community was interested in plastics. There is a line about that in the film, “The Graduate” I think. In the 1980s business people were into personal computers. In the 1990s the big growth industry was the Internet, or, more accurately, the World Wide Web, since the Internet was created in 1969. The big growth industries of the present and future are probably healthcare (especially geriatrics), energy, preparedness supplies (especially food) and ammunition. I wonder if the regular business folks will invest in ammunition stocks and companies, and maybe even create new ones. I am told ammunition is a highly regulated industry, so that bars new entrants to it.

    It would be so nice to see lots of production and competition in ammo production, so the products would be plentiful and inexpensive. Prices being driven down by competition, the wonderful attribute of capitalism. I write that as a consumer though, not as a business man. A business man would probably stay away from ammo because he would consider it prone to booms and bust periods. I don’t really know. I am not a business man, but I have tried to teach my brain how to think like one, so I am speculating.

    • Black Hills Ammunition would be the model for anyone wanting to start their own ammo company. They started as a modest sized firm and now makes hundreds of thousands of rounds of handgun and rifle ammunition and have large contracts with the U.S. military for specialized ammo. I still have several cases of their .223 reloads purchased in the 1990’s when I had ordered ten cases and it’s some of the most accurate ammo I have in that caliber. The problem now with starting an ammunition company is finding components to make the cartridges, especially the primers. Then there’s always the uncertainty that a regime hostile to gun ownership like the current one in D.C. may ban or severely limit our ability to exercise our God given rights to self defense and having fun.

      • Tom606,

        Good example of a new ammo company. I guess ammo companies, and the rest of us, better start acquiring rights to lead, brass and copper. Maybe we could get friendly countries to also supply us with ammo or its raw materials. We certainly don’t want any hiccups in the supply of ammo. The production of ammo may eliminate poverty in some countries, so that would provide an incentive to mine those metals.

        Then again, we could simply ask Elon Musk to develop ray guns, so we wouldn’t need lead, brass and copper as much in the future.

      • Roger:

        I would prefer to use the phaser pistol which was lifted from Mr. Spock when he was busy examining an issue of Playboy magazine which he found quite fascinating and logical. No ammunition needed with the phaser.

        However, it’s low on power and I need to find some di-lithium crystals to recharge it. Maybe some company in China makes those.

    • Everything is regulated these days. Pretty soon, you’re going to have to be certified to use the toilet, and have to show a license to a government inspector when you have to pee.

Comments are closed.