Why you can't find Guns and Ammo on store shelves:

Kerry & Kathy

Kerry & Kathy

Member #007
Location (City)
Fredericktown, Farmington and Viburnum MO
First Name
Kerry
Last Name
Owen
Firearm Industry info:

Interesting status report from Valley Guns in West Virginia :

Status of gun industry

Attention: to follow will be several IMPORTANT Info updates about the status of the gun industry currently, followed by an INVENTORY UPDATE: We traveled to Texas for Industry meetings concerning the shortages, here's what we were told.

Smith & Wesson-is running at Full capacity making 300+ guns/day-mainly M&P pistols. They are unable to produce any more guns to help with the shortages.

RUGER: Plans to increase from 75% to 100% in the next 90 days.

FNH: Moving from 50% production to 75% by Feb 1st and 100% by March 1.

Remington: Maxed out 750-800 weapons a day

Armalite: Maxed out.

DPMS: Can't get enough parts to produce any more product.

COLT: Production runs increasing weekly...bottle necked by Bolt carrier's.

LWRC:Making only black guns, running at full capacity...can't get enough gun quality steel to make barrels.

Springfield Armory: Only company who can meet demand but are running 30-45 days behind.

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.

MAGPUL is behind 1 MILLION mags, do not expect any large quantities of magpul anytime soon.

RELOADERS... ALL Remington, Winchester, CCI & Federal primers are going to ammo FIRST. There are no extra's for reloading purposes... it could be 6-9 months before things get caught up.

Sorry for the bleak news, but now we know what to expect in the coming months.
 
Is there any particular caliber affected more than others? I've heard .22 LR particularly, why those? i really haven't looked for 7mm, 30/30, or 44 mag (the 3 guns I have) but status on those?
 
Kerry, Graf's in St Charles had plenty of primers last week, but limited to 1000 per customer.
 
Purple Venom said:
Is there any particular caliber affected more than others? I've heard .22 LR particularly, why those? i really haven't looked for 7mm, 30/30, or 44 mag (the 3 guns I have) but status on those?
Click to expand...

All military rifle calibers...US and Eastern Bloc...GONE...or $1.25-$2.50 / round.

All pistol calibers...have doubled and tripled in price...if you can find them. Your .44mag is history as far as availability, unless you can stumble on a private stash somewhere.

All 22lr....500 rd bricks that I bought for $12.95 were selling at the last show for $80

Why .22...?...Because nearly every home has a .22lr pistol or rifle....and all the procrastinators who were convinced gun control would not get to where it is today....are now scared and paying any price to feed their weapons.

Some hunting calibers like 30-30, 30-06, .243, .270 have been affected to a lesser degree, but are still hard to find. What you may find are just the premium loadings at $2.00+ per round.

Niche calibers like the short and shouldered magnums have not been affected nearly as much if at all.

Old military calibers like 8mm Mauser, 6.5 Swedish, 7.5 Swiss are long gone. Some exceptions are 7mm Mauser and 7.62x54R Russian. But prices are much higher than eight weeks ago.
 
Grafs supply is gone, was there yesterday and bought the last CCI450s.
Dunns is also out as I was there on Tuesday.
 
thanks for the heads up. I was heading to grafs tomorrow or Tuesday. Guess I won't bother now. :(
 
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Explaination of shortages

Brownells Gunsmith Corner - March 2013

Shortages - They're Not A Conspiracy
By Jim Shepherd


Wherever you're accustomed to getting your shooting news these days, chances are you're hearing – repeatedly – that the industry is suffering from chronic shortages of guns, ammunition, and components, most particularly those designed to be used on the modern sporting rifle.

Over the past six weeks, I've been across the country, and I can tell you from talking with retailers in big cities like Phoenix, Atlanta and Houston to small gun shops in Tennessee, Kentucky, Arkansas, Mississippi, Arizona, Georgia and Texas that the shortages are real. I've also spoken at length with manufacturers, and they're all telling me the same thing: the shortages aren't driven by a government conspiracy or hoarding. They're being driven by demand. And a lot of that demand is fueled by new shooters, despite some politicians who would like you to believe that the number of U.S. households with guns is dropping.

The shortages most often reported concern the modern sporting rifle and accessories that politicians have targeted since the Sandy Hook tragedy.

Sure, there's unprecedentedly high demand for AR-style rifles, standard 30-round magazines, and the 5.56/.223 ammunition most of them are chambered to shoot.

But there's also a huge demand for standard-capacity magazines for today's modern striker-fired polymer pistols from Springfield Armory, Smith & Wesson, Ruger, Taurus, Glock, and many other manufacturers. Demand is also high for magazines for Ruger ranch rifles and virtually any other gun that accepts a magazine with a capacity of more than 10 rounds. Tried to find any 25-round magazines for a Ruger 10/22® rifle lately? Don't - unless you want to get really frustrated.

Executives at major gun companies, accessory makers, and the major ammo brands tell me they've seen periods of high demand before, but nothing so long-lasting or as widely varied as today's demand. They're doing everything they can to catch up on a growing backlog of orders. But here's the short version of that story: it's going to take time.

We don't realize how intertwined the varied shooting disciplines really are. You may have a hard time figuring out why you can't find reloading components for shot shells. But consider this: all ammunition shares some base-level components - powder, primers and projectiles.

The ammunition to fuel your gun of choice, be it a rifle, pistol or shotgun, is in competition with every other gun and ammo for the basic components and the manufacturer's machine time to assemble them.

Companies don't have independent production lines for every gun they make or every caliber of ammunition they load.

That time is shared across all their lines, and it's tough to pull the tools and computer controlled programming for AR-style rifles to fill other orders. Simple business sense says you have to keep working to meet the highest-demand orders. If buyers give up on buying your gun, they're going to go looking elsewhere.

So your favorite round or gun may be finding itself pushed further down the production schedule. As that happens, existing inventory shrinks - even if the demand isn't anything approaching those uber-hot black rifles.

You might be feeling the pinch, but it's not really some secret conspiracy to keep you from having guns or ammunition. It's the market reacting to unprecedented demand for products.

Some people snapped up guns and ammo when they could find them. They weren't buying them for their own use; they were planning to roll them out during the hottest demand times and make a killing by price gouging. Here's a secret from watching demand periods in the past: speculators very seldom make money. Usually, they lose money because they try to guess prices when they're the highest.

Unfortunately, they can't, or at least they haven't been able to in the past. Speculating is a risky business, especially when the demand will slack off as soon as manufacturers begin catching up. When they do - and they will - speculators will find themselves on the short end of the deal.

Reputable manufacturers, distributors and retailers haven't jacked up their prices. It's not that kind of industry, and the gun consumer has a very long memory. Risking your long-term success in order to make a short-term profit is the equivalent of booking the express train to failure.

Finally, it's not just "regular guys" like us who are looking for ammo. I know several TV show producers and noted gun writers who are out there scrounging for ammo just like the rest of us.
 
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