Finally after a year of the pandemic, there’s been some movement in the ammo supply in central Iowa. Nothing is “over” of course, but I’m at least seeing signs of hope. Which is strange as I’ve said before, 100% of the people use toilet paper (which has been over for awhile), but only 3% – 6% of the people are active shooters. And re-loaders are even a smaller group than that. So why the shortage going into its second year?
From this video and talking to other shooters, Bass Pro and Sportsman’s Warehouse are getting the reputation of being a little deceptive. They’re alleged to be letting their employees scoop up what little supply comes in. That makes sense from what I’ve seen. Big box stores getting in 10 boxes of 9mm? That’s ridiculous. 1 brick (10 – 100 packs) of primers? That’s a joke. Those stores on a weekend could sell 3,000 boxes of 9mm. They could sell a 1,000 bricks of primers.
Then most of these stores act like the only ones who can make primers are Winchester, CCI, Remington and Federal. Why? These stores regularly sell firearms related products from Mexico, Philippines, Brazil, Argentina, Russia, Croatia, Turkey, Germany, Czech Republic and others, so why not primers? None of this makes any sense. You can’t make money if you don’t have product to sell. Why aren’t they going overseas to get that product?
Why this ridiculous loyalty to domestic producers who every 10 years gut your profit margin? I do not get it.
But as to the movement I’m seeing, last Saturday Scheel’s had boatloads of .223 rifle ammunition. On Wednesday they had a ton of 9mm. Theisen’s yesterday had a good amount of Aguila 9mm and .22 LR. Walmart isn’t getting in .22 every week, but a couple of times a month lately. And why this is significant, is that like those SOB’s running the gun show this weekend in Ames, the more supply the big box stores have at an honest price, the more pressure it puts on the gun shows to quit their price gouging.
The other bit of ‘movement’ I’ve seen, is that after sitting over a year in bankruptcy, Remington ammunition has been picked up by Vista Outdoors (who also owns Federal, Blazer and CCI). They’ve been producing now for a month or so. Green boxes are hitting the store shelves. So the ammo is starting to show up, God knows when the primers will.
[The other funny thing about all this is “perceptions”. 2 years ago 9mm at rock bottom prices for a box of 50 (Armscor, Blazer, Aguila) was $8 or $9 dollars a box. Now in the middle of the shortage Theisen’s was selling Aguila for $16.99, and we thought that was a great price! Its double what it was 18 months ago.]
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