Never thought I see the day 22 lr. ammo.

[Western]

Went to my local Walmart yesterday for a boat battery, went ahead and checked sporting goods as usual, not a round in the house!. Last week there was plenty of rifle type ammo (30/30,30-06 ect tra), looks to me like they just emptied the shelves.

 

[charlz]

Gun shops and ammo suppliers must be loving this.

I don't think it works out too good for the gun shops past the intial purchasing frenzy. Now they are in the position where they can't get certain guns and they can't get ammo and they can't get reloading supplies.... so what do they sell to make money for the bills etc? The last frenzy put a small local ammo manufacture out of business and this frenzy put another one out of business. They can't get components to make ammo with, the 'big boys' have the pull to get all the primers, powder etc being made leaving nothing for the small manufactures.

 

[Western]

I don't think it works out too good for the gun shops past the intial purchasing frenzy. Now they are in the position where they can't get certain guns and they can't get ammo and they can't get reloading supplies.... so what do they sell to make money for the bills etc? The last frenzy put a small local ammo manufacture out of business and this frenzy put another one out of business. They can't get components to make ammo with, the 'big boys' have the pull to get all the primers, powder etc being made leaving nothing for the small manufactures.

That is what i was thinking, if you cant buy inventory, then....what do you sell??

 

[Gunny]

It seems to me that a gun shop would have a hard time selling a gun if they couldn't also sell you the ammo it shoots!

 

[Western]

It seems to me that a gun shop would have a hard time selling a gun if they couldn't also sell you the ammo it shoots!

Gunny, you may be right to an extent, in my post a page back or so, I mentioned not 1 round at the Walmart I went to yesterday, but the gun rack was full of firearms???

 

[Depmandog]

I saw this on Firearm Industry Update I have not been able to find a direct link.......

....AMMO: Every caliber is now Allocated! We are looking at a nation wide shortage of all calibers over the next 9 months. All plants are producing as much ammo as possible w/ of 1 BILLION rounds produced weekly. Most is military followed by L.E. and civilians are third in line.

The Lake City Ammunition plant is only a couple of miles from me. Lake City has a current capacity of 1.6 Billion rounds per year, and supplies 99% of the Army's small arms (through .50 cal) ammunition. See web link.

http://www.almc.army.mil/alog/issues/SepOct10/spectrum_smallarms_ammo.html

I assume this does not include the other branches of the military, but being it is the Army, I would GUESS that this might equate to 1/2 of the ammunition used by the combined military branches per year. Somewhere around 3.2 billion rounds.

So a total production of a billion rounds per week times 52 weeks less the military's use of 3.2 billion rounds = 48.8 billion rounds for the other Goverment departments, LEO, exports and civilian use.

On the surface, that seems like there should be plenty to go around. What percentage of the population are active / prolific consumers of ammunition? What is the percentage of casual shooters or non shooters "stocking up" a few cases. Many many variables here.

I enjoy playing around with the numbers. Nothing scientific, just putting things into perspective. I purposely have left my numbers out, in case someone wants to play to...,but, you throw in guys who blast off 10k rounds per year.....some people hoarding a few thousand rounds...I can see why there is a shortage even with 52 bil annually produced.

I wonder how many rounds us civilians have stored....for the zombies or the ???

 

[Soundguy]

It seems to me that a gun shop would have a hard time selling a gun if they couldn't also sell you the ammo it shoots!

i see it all the time.

I've bought a few of my favorite guns from places and they had no idea where you might get ammo.

458 lott
218 bee
375 H&H mag
300 weatherby mag
and the list goes on..

 

[clemsonfor]

The Lake City Ammunition plant is only a couple of miles from me. Lake City has a current capacity of 1.6 Billion rounds per year, and supplies 99% of the Army's small arms (through .50 cal) ammunition. See web link.

Army Sustainment: Small-Arms Ammunition Production and Acquisition: Too Many Eggs in One Basket?

I assume this does not include the other branches of the military, but being it is the Army, I would GUESS that this might equate to 1/2 of the ammunition used by the combined military branches per year. Somewhere around 3.2 billion rounds.

So a total production of a billion rounds per week times 52 weeks less the military's use of 3.2 billion rounds = 48.8 billion rounds for the other Goverment departments, LEO, exports and civilian use.

On the surface, that seems like there should be plenty to go around. What percentage of the population are active / prolific consumers of ammunition? What is the percentage of casual shooters or non shooters "stocking up" a few cases. Many many variables here.

I enjoy playing around with the numbers. Nothing scientific, just putting things into perspective. I purposely have left my numbers out, in case someone wants to play to...,but, you throw in guys who blast off 10k rounds per year.....some people hoarding a few thousand rounds...I can see why there is a shortage even with 52 bil annually produced.

I wonder how many rounds us civilians have stored....for the zombies or the ???

Confused you said 1.6billion rounds a YEAR, so how can you say that they produce a BILLION a WEEK. I think you must of originally said that they should produce 1.6Billion a WEEK not YEAR?

Whats the other large arsonal that provides military, isint there another?

 

[charlz]

One of our local ammo manufactures went to the SHOT show in Vegas. They learned that over the next three years Lake City will be producing the 1.1billion rounds being procurred by DHS.

There are several millitary ammunition plants producing various products and all fall under the Joint Muntions Command:

Joint Munitions Command - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[k0ua]

There is another large munitions plant down by McCallister OK. I think that makes rounds for the military too. But I don't know what calibers they make. Lake City stuff is good ammo. I could use a few crates of 5.56mm now with lets say green tip 62 grain?

James K0UA