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Is lack of ammo starting to hurt participation?


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12 hours ago, motosapiens said:

 

it's affecting my practice, but not my match attendance until at least mid summer.

This also holds true for me. I shot my first match back in June and it's only gotten harder and harder for me to find decently priced ammo as the months have gone bye. I agonize for not stocking up 2 years ago, when I was casually shooting. 

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I still shoot all the 3 gun matches and shotgun matches i can find in , but have started shooting my 45 acp revolver at the local pistol matches cause i have a large supply of large primers and bullets and just keep reusing my brass.  

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It just occurred to me that I have enough ammo and components for 2021, if I shoot some .22, .38, and .45 instead of a steady diet of 9mm.  I am old enough that rationing to allow for 2022 shooting might be overly optimistic.  Can't take the STI and Dillon to the old folks home. 

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It'll be a while before I burn up my 40 components but I do have a back up plan if it gets really stupid. Years ago when I moved from my $800 Limited Minor 9 to a quality Major 40 pistol my buddy did the same. But he bought a 45 Edge in Chrome. Then he saw the bonus of my 40's mag capacity and said he was selling the 45. I bought it jokingly saying that Ill transition from Irons 40 to 45 when my eye sight starts to fail before I'd jump to CO. I get the feeling that the SPP's are going to be in greater demand than LPP when they finally become available. I already see where the LPP's are ~20-25% cheaper in the local gun forum sales. I feel sorry for the shooters that picked up the sport in 2019....see their ammo and components going through the roof....I bet their wives are not up for the Gun Broker $250/1k  primer purchases .

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On 12/2/2020 at 12:30 AM, Twinkie said:

One other observation is my home club has public membership (a for-profit club) and the amount of new shooters is huge. Mostly they are wearing all black tactical gear and shooting 9mm or .223. There are a lot of whole families going to practice or become familiar with guns. 

Our local range has been seeing a ton of new shooters lately as well.  Few seem to be interested in matches due to the ammo situation, but they may be ready to try when it becomes available.  

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Just bought a nice 6”  new to me Limited gun .40 late this fall with the thought of getting back in the game but between super limited available ammo and seemingly nonexistent primers, it looks like it was a wrong time to jump back in so I may just now sell it...🤷🏼‍♂️

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1 hour ago, SGT_Schultz said:

 

Dirty, bacteria and virus infected masks that people reuse, never wash, touch all the time, then touch other things/other people.

You're missing the point. Compliance matters above all else.

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Well, there are a few things that we have some degree of knowledge on.

 

To be certain COVID has impacted the demand for two things - guns and ammo. The gun piece, to some degree, is good. It was estimated by the NSSF not too long ago that 40% of purchases were from first time gun owners. That has to be good for our industry.

 

Paired with that is that training has also ramped up. I know a training facility near by is essentially booked out through at least three quarters of 2021. And a lot of those classes are elementary type "intro" classes so to some extent the new gun owners are intending to shoot (that's my interpretation at least).

 

So the ammo shortage is now perpetuated by a few of those dynamics. Unprecedented demand by many of us that have "been there, done that" with shortages and tend to buy when the opportunity presents itself. And now with an estimated 7mm new gun owners at least some increase in new demand. 

 

As I mentioned in an earlier post I personally witnessed this impact match participation. People trying to figure out how to shoot and Area match and maybe foregoing a local match or two to do that. 

 

The other dynamic though is that it is fairly well documented that ammunition plants are running at max capacity. Vista recently did a video addressing this. The one component that I'm fairly aware is an issue, and has been mentioned many times in this thread, is the availability of primers and more specifically SPP. That does seem like it's an issue and was not helped by disruption when Remington was going out of business. 

 

So unprecedented demand, new demand, some supply constraints but also historical production says that at some point things will begin to balance. I saw an article recently that an online seller had 9mm still instock a couple days after announcing it, albeit at still higher prices, but still had it. So maybe things are slowing to a very small degree. 

 

The other "industry" things I hear though is that ammo will be the last to catch up. In other words guns will slow down before ammo will. 

 

So my guess is match participation will slow. And matches will also adjust slightly so shooters consume less ammo. 

 

We'll do what we can do. 2021 is setting up to be a very volatile year for the gun world. Most believe it will remain strong at least through the first half. Then ... it's anybody's guess. Things could fall out of bed, or there still remains the possibility that demand remains strong all the way through 2021. 

 

I have had a strong supply of my match ammo for a while. And that's still the case. I could shoot all the matches I want next year and still be good. That said, if I get a chance to get a few thousand rounds back into the magazine ... I will be doing so. 

 

 

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I will be shooting a few more long range rifle events.

 

I have right about 15K LRP which will last me for at least 5 - 7 years.  The amount of rifle powder and bullets I have will last at least 2 years at this point.

 

Ever month I keep replenishing rifle bullets and am about to make another case buy of coated bullets.

 

Still have right at 14K spp/spm/srp and occasionally bite the bullet and buy another 1K of them at the market price.

 

Still going to do the state match, a Tim Herron class, and a level 2 in Michigan.  Probably area 5 as well as long as it isn't 3 states away.

Edited by SGT_Schultz
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40 minutes ago, SGT_Schultz said:

I will be shooting a few more long range rifle events.

 

I have right about 15K LRP which will last me for at least 5 - 7 years.  The amount of rifle powder and bullets I have will last at least 2 years at this point.

 

Ever month I keep replenishing rifle bullets and am about to make another case buy of coated bullets.

 

Still have right at 14K spp/spm/srp and occasionally bite the bullet and buy another 1K of them at the market price.

 

Still going to do the state match, a Tim Herron class, and a level 2 in Michigan.  Probably area 5 as well as long as it isn't 3 states away.

A5 KY again

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Well, it is getting worse. There are exactly 36 registered shooters for the match on Sun.  Normally, if you are not singed up in the first 60 seconds you are waitlisted.  I'm afraid they may cancel the match.

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 Like a lot of us, I watch ammo availability fairly closely and it's my "sense" that .22lr and 9mm is becoming slightly more available.  Stores seem to be getting it more frequently and it doesn't seem to be selling out as quickly (a day or so vs. an hour or so!), e.g., prices haven't come down but availability has increased a little.  I suspect this is because the 7+ million new gun owners have shot the 100 or so rounds they bought with their new gun and have now bought another 100 or so rounds to have on hand.  The vast majority of them will rarely if ever pull their gun out of the nightstand drawer again.  So, demand will ease.  Once 9mm becomes more readily available, even at elevated prices, frequent shooters (like us and others) will start laying in a larger supply - maybe slowly, but it will happen.  That will keep prices up until the majority get enough to feel comfortable that we can weather the next shortage.  At that point, demand will slacken and prices will start to come down (and primers will once again be available).  Best guess (just a SWAG) is this will happen late this summer.  Of course that's all predicated on no new "disruption" that causes new fear and panic.  Whether this is the way to bet or not, who knows???

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Local matches we are seeing several guys shooting 45acp, as they have depleted and or saving their 9mm for 3 gun matches.  I've been shooting this revolver now for a few months at the weeknight indoor match. 

 

 

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4 hours ago, Underwood said:

Local matches we are seeing several guys shooting 45acp, as they have depleted and or saving their 9mm for 3 gun matches.  I've been shooting this revolver now for a few months at the weeknight indoor match. 

 

 

Nice. I can approve of that...

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A new club in MI just started doing steel Challange this a couple weeks ago. They had max participation this past sunday. Lots of rimfire as they decided to go legit and already had a rimfire group. But I'd say at least 20 of us shooting 9mm. 

 

My biggest fear for match participation is being able to travel freely. I think travel bans are going to be a bigger detriment then ammo. 

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14 hours ago, Bakerjd said:

I think travel bans are going to be a bigger detriment then ammo. 

 

I think not.

 

I can't buy components that aren't in stock.  But if there's a road I will go where I please, when I please.  And so will many others.

Edited by SGT_Schultz
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On 1/4/2021 at 6:28 PM, j1b said:

And matches will also adjust slightly so shooters consume less ammo. 

This is what we did for the January indoor match.  Normally we try to shoe-horn 100 rounds into the four basement range stages.  This weekend's match has a round count of 82, specifically to address the ammunition shortage.

 

BC

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