What were the worst ammo shortages in the past 20 years?

[ATN082268]

What were the worst ammo shortages in the past 20 years? I am fairly new to firearms and was curious about the shortages and price spikes of ammo. Thanks.

[Cheapshooter]

22 rimfire. Probably the most sought after, and price gouged. Starting to show up more, and although some places are still price gouging to a degree, others are more reasonable. Still not back to pre ammogedon level though.
22 WMR (22 magnum). Slowley coming back, but still pretty hard to find.

[lamarw]

Now, It goes back over three years. You still can not get .22 Rim Fire at a reasonable cost. Their are certain reloading powders like Unique and W-231 that are hard if not impossible to come by in bulk.

Do a search on this Forum or just go down and look through thru the Ammo and Reloading section or the General section of this Forum for all the information you will ever want to read.

The shortage in my opinion is due to the huge jump in firearm purchases after the school shooting and the last Presidential Election. They were the major earthquake followed by lesser tremors in the form of minor and major criminal events. Every person who buys a gun, and a lot of them for the first time, will buy ammunition. You can go research background checks for firearm purchases. Where that spikes, you can also figure ammo purchases spike.

Enjoy your research, there is tons of data on any gun forum you want to do searches on. You do not have to pose the question only use the search function on any of these forums.

[Guv]

22 Magnum Still!

[Bayou]

My Rule of Thumb:

Buy it when you see it, not when you need it because when you need it, you may not be able to buy it.............

Bayou

[WIL TERRY]

Actually, IF you know what you're doing, NONE. I've never EVER seen a single shortage in the past 50+years that stopped, or even slowed down, our shooting.
BUT...you gotta use your head for more than a hatrack, think further than your nose or the end of your dick, and ALWAYS buy what is available THEN !!
ALWAYS !!
And so it goes...

[Lucas McCain]

During WWII my father told me stories that he had a 30-30 he bought just before the war started, come deer season during the war when he went to the hardware store 5 cartridges is all that he could get for the year. Same way with shotgun shells. If there was the slightest chance of missing, you never took the shot. All the deer that I remember Dad shooting I only remember him shooting twice a couple times in 30 some years. He shot fine iron sights right up till when he quit hunting.

[johnwilliamson062]

the 22lr shortage now has to be the longest and worst. Heading into the election I can't see it improving any until the fall. May know better after the votes for today are counted, and we have a good idea who is going to be running n the general.
The 2008 shortage only lasted about 18 months for 22lr as I remember it.

I'm not an expert on this and haven't been keeping clear track of what is available or anything, but one thing I think some miss is that there is still a less drastic center-fire shortage, just not of the main caliber. The companies aren't doing the set-up with downtime to do odd-ball cartridges as often so those cartridges are not very available. Not all the loadings of common cartridges are available all the time. There is a lot more flexibility in the production of center-fire cartridges and the market is much more elastic for many of the less common cartridges and loads.

[BigJimP]

I think .22 got hit the hardest...

...but in my view, most of the shortage was created by hoarders and profiteers..../ guys hoarding case after case of it - and guys buying & holding it and gouging folks when shortage got worse and price went up ...

I refuse to getc sacked into it.....

[RickB]

I'm not aware of any loaded-ammo shortages that did not revolve around the Obama Presidency?
There have been a number of "scares" over the years.
I remember there being a big stink when Oly Arms chambered their AR pistol in 7.62x39, and it threatened the importation of cheap commie ammo (steel-core ammo for handguns had been declared "cop killer"), but I don't remember if it really caused a supply problem or price problem?
There was a shortage of primers for reloading, twenty years ago, but it didn't really last very long. It did create a "new normal" for pricing of about 1.5-cents per primer, when it had been 1-cent for years.

[Quentin2]

I have to go along with the .22lr ammo shortage of the last 4+ years. And really, it's been tough since the 2008 election off and on. Many times since that election I've seen bare shelves where 9mm and .22lr used to be. And 5.56/.223. I even bought a cheap .40S&W LE trade-in Glock to take advantage of the abundance of that caliber while 9mm was scare. Yeah, it's been tough off and on for almost 8 years.

I haven't bought .22lr in years, just lucky I grabbed a brick here and there over the years leading up to the shortage. I have enough for another year or so then will feel the hurt. Hopefully the light at the end of the tunnel isn't the HillBernBiden anti2A express!

[FrankenMauser]

Other people speak of this "shortage" thing that they say is going on.

But I haven't had any problems.

My grandfather taught me, long ago (in regards to more than just ammunition)...

Buy it cheap and stack it deep!
You may not be able to next year, next week, or even tomorrow.


.22 LR shortage? There's plenty on my shelves.
.22 WMR shortage? My ammo cans stuffed with factory-sealed 500-count bricks say otherwise. (My favorite, now-discontinued loads, even.)
Pistol powders hard to find? Well, I haven't seen much in the stores, but there's plenty in my powder magazine.
Primers disappearing? Nope. Not only is my primer shelf well-stocked in every variety that I use, but I've picked up about 18,000 primers at good prices during these so-called "shortages".

One thing that I have noticed is glaringly absent from all gun shops: 5.7x28mm FN.
What are the poor 5.7 guys going to do!!!!???





(The preceding post contains serious, sarcastic, and facetious statements.)

[Damon555]

The 22 ammo shortage that is ongoing is the worst....Everywhere I go it's the same story. You gotta get here before the old, retired guys who wait in line to buy it as it comes off the truck. The clerks say it's the same guys week after week clearing them out....It's tough to compete when a guys gotta go to work.

[Sevens]

The last genuine ammo shortage I can recall outside of rimfire was .380 Auto and I wanna say it was around 2007-8 or thereabouts.

In a nutshell:

Concealed carry legislation worked it's way across the US, new licenses ruled the day and seemingly overnight, a nearly dead caliber was the HOTTEST new caliber for small, concealable carry guns.

And then... Obama was elected. Which sold a zillion guns, many in .380, and caused a panic and a run on everything and .380 ammo was the single most scarce of any item.

[rickyrick]

For me 08 era.

No .223, 9mm and the like.

I recall not being able to shoot for quite a long while, felt like two years... Probably was.
I gave up on 22lr since then at some point.
All of 2015 I bought .223 every payday, even though I've shot several thousand of it. I've slowed down shooting but steadily buying .223/5.56, not a lot but a few boxes every paycheck in 2015 and 2016.

[drobs]

Couple generalities - recommendations for a new shooter:

Without going into financial ruin - I recommend you "buy it cheap stack it deep."
Buy bulk factory ammo online (500 to 1000rds). Or every paycheck buy a couple boxes of ammo at your local gun shop or Walmart.

The goal with stocking bulk ammo is you will have ammo the next time a rush on ammo happens and it's nowhere to be found.

Except for 22LR - save your fired brass. It has value and down the line - you can sell it or reload it.

[johnwilliamson062]

Or every paycheck buy a couple boxes of ammo at your local gun shop or Walmart.

I recommend you piggy bank some cash and buy in bulk as drobs first suggested. There are two good reasons to buy like that. First you will save a little money. Second, and more importantly IMO, you will end up with all the same ammo. I keep an assortment of 22lr and 9mm around just to test new guns, but the bulk of my ammo is all one load from one manufacturer.

[upstate81]

Try living with a current shortage straight into the introduction of the Safe Act like us unluck new yorkers have been dealing with. For a while even common rifle rounds like 243 and 30-06 were being bought up!

[Skans]

.22lr
.22 magnum
.22 short
.380
9mm was impossible to find several years ago
.223/5.56 was impossible to find about 5-7 years ago
45 acp was impossible to find around same time

About the only calibers that could be easily purchased during the "shortage years" was .40 S&W, 7.62x39, 30-30, 38 special, and .357.

The ammo shortages seemed to coincide with two things: Obama election and prepper shows on TV.

Actually, you can find any ammo you are looking for in large quantities on the internet - you just have to be prepared to pay "inflated" prices.

[rickyrick]

Cheaper Than Dirt angered many folks.

My hats off to Academy Sports for never once raising a price, other than

[mag1911]

The last genuine ammo shortage I can recall outside of rimfire was .380 Auto and I wanna say it was around 2007-8 or thereabouts.

I heard one of the major ammunition makers used their 45ACP line to make 380 while they rebuilt their 45 tooling on a yearly basis. They decided to keep their 45 line running during that time so 380 production dropped by whatever percentage they supplied and it became scarce. I remember it getting up to $90/bulk box of 100.

During that time I bought a refinished Colt 1908 from a friend for $300. He included three 100 pack boxes of 380 WWB in the deal since he wouldn't need it anymore. So in reality, I bought his ammunition and he threw in the pistol.

[johnwilliamson062]

I heard one of the major ammunition makers used their 45ACP line to make 380 while they rebuilt their 45 tooling on a yearly basis. They decided to keep their 45 line running during that time so 380 production dropped by whatever percentage they supplied and it became scarce. I remember it getting up to $90/bulk box of 100.

I could be very very wrong, but I was under the impression there are no dedicated lines like that. Pretty much all centerfire ammo can be run on any of the centerfire lines and they switch caliber to caliber. More efficient to go bigger and bigger instead of more lines.
Would be interesting if someone has worked at one of the ammo manufacturers and could give definitive information on the subject. I can see where 9mm and 45 ACP could justify a near dedicated line for a company like Federal.

[Sevens]

Perhaps -- but we have to keep in mind that only the powder and primer are interchangeable across the different caliber offerings. So for major manufacturer Brand X to produce .380 Auto ammo requires a whole lot of .380 brass and 85-95-100 grain blunt round nose .356" slugs.

Not that anyone other than poor little -ME- and a few other screwballs were looking for them (and you screwballs know who you are! ) but during that nasty Barackolypse, .312" component bullets simply ceased to exist and you could barely dig deep enough to find any proof that these slugs had ever been ANYTHING but a myth from a previous generation. Yeah... we were having fun with the relatively new .327 Federal Magnum and it's a safe bet that the run on guns and ammo was not directly affecting the market for .32cal bullets. It is safe to say that knee-deep in to the early Obama years, the buying public was not clamoring for .32 S&W Long or .32 H&R Magnum either.

The bottom line? The select few manufacturing facilities that had the capability to produce a jacketed .312" handgun bullet were spitting out 9/45 at 100% of possible capacity. Would be no stretch to guess that Hornady, Speer and Sierra took, oh... two or maybe FOUR years off from making any .32cal jacketed pistol bullets at all.

My point is that it isn't just the final product that decides what caliber of ammo hits the shelves, it's also the brass and component bullet supply that makes that even possible.

[shootbrownelk]

It's not long lines of old retired guys buying up all the ammo. There are no lines at WallyWorld anymore, There are no retired guys. There is still a 3 box limit on rimfire. The only thing that's the same as it was 4+ years ago is that there is no ammo to hoard. Zilch...Nada.... I've seen a couple of small shipments come in at different times over the last year or so. I picked up some .22LR. But .22 magnum is non existent. It's been like this ever since Sandy Hook. If Over-the-Hillary somehow avoids prison and gets elected....well, you ain't seen nothing yet!

[rickyrick]

The election has a high probability to go to Hilary Clinton