A bud of mine who is @ the Silver $, called me & said they're out of ammo, the Fl state shoot is this week. also rumor has it San Antonio is out of ammo, also
My understanding is every round of ammo being produced this year is already spoken for and current back orders are well into next. Winchester and most of the others take price increases nearly every quarter as the components increase. Word now is that Winchester is taking a 25% price increase on Primers, which will dramatically affect reloading and live ammo pricing. Nothing like a little Salt for the wound already created by Covid, and hopefully will see some light by Summer, or many Shoots will suffer with maintaining attendance!
I was in the Silver Dollar shell room this afternoon (3-24). It is true, no 1-1/8 ammo left. They did have some 1 oz left, but not a lot. They have no idea when/if they will get more. Bad omen for the rest of the year.
Friend called a few days ago and said they had a five flat limit per day. He said guys were haulit out like mad everyday.
I talked to someone at San Antonio in the last week. They said they have ammo and for the Southwestern Grand you can buy it for the events you have paid for. You cannot buy ammo from them to practice there.
Prices are not the issue,supply and demand is the culprit Target Shotgun loads are not the high demand ammo for the manufactures only a small portion of their annual sales.
In my truck at the dollar waiting to shoot and saw a guy handing 2 others 100.00 bills, later I saw all 3 bring cases of ammo to his truck. By the looks of his truck bed he did it more than once.
In the last 4 or 5 months, only ammo I have seen anywhere is a couple of boxes of AA - 28 gauge at a Wally world.
Got a call from my neighbor two days ago, said he was at W-M and they had four 4-packs of Winchester universal Game and Target 12 ga. loads. He was buying three of the four, all he was allowed. I got there in 15 minutes, in time to pick up the fourth and final 4-pack. They also had three 4-packs of Federal 20 gage Game loads. They've had 11 boxes of Federal and Winchester 28 gage loads on the shelf for the last two weeks.
For the last several months I take a day a week to go shopping for ammo. Today was shopping day, I went to: 3 Wallys, 2 Rural Kings, 1 Academy, and one local owned place. Nobody had any ammo except for the one Wally which still had a couple of boxes of 28 gauge, the same they had a couple of weeks ago. On the bright side there should be NO Clay Target shortage for a while. Every week I go to the Wally nearest me to check on ammo. Today I asked about a box of clay targets with a torn box sitting on top of a stack of targets. Seems like I had seen that same torn box the last few weeks. I asked Wally sporting counter guy how many clay targets they have been selling? He said he can't remember the last time he had to bring targets out on the floor. He said guys would come in and pick up a 4 pack of shells then a case of 90 clay targets. Now since there is no 4 pack of shells nobody is buying targets either.
Two weeks ago, I ordered two flats of Top Guns at $110 a flat. Got a notice this evening that they are out for delivery. Pretty expensive "value" loads, I'd say..... I go to the Sportsman's Club every Wednesday to shoot 5-stand. Three rounds @ $5 a round is $15. Three boxes of these shells is $33. One hour drive to the club and another hour back home is 8 gallons of gas at $2.80/gallon. Costs me just over $70 for an hour's shooting with the boys. I may have to go back to work.
Yep, and here in Florida at a local range 5 Stand, Trap & Skeet are $10.00 / round + TAX and shells for sale at $15.00 / per box. For $27.00 for a few minutes of fun, not to mention the 40 minute ride one way, got me out of the game. Collecting is getting cheaper than shooting.
Shooters arriving for the US open at Sparta are reporting ZERO shells at local WalMart. They said the SCPT shooters had wiped them out. They reported that the Sporting Goods mgr. says no word when they will get ANY more shells and that Federal has canceled their current order.
Meanwhile here in Canada many brands of ammo are still easily attainable. Problem is having somewhere to shoot it! Shoots keep getting cancelled due to covid restrictions. We finally went to the first shoot of the season on the weekend in SK(we live in AB where all our shoots are getting cancelled one by one). Ammo isn't a problem and retailers that have it seem to have ample stock as when they get in not as many are buying it due to nowhere to shoot. Cabelas had the their Herters line,which is made by Winchester and imo a Super Target load in black hulls on sale the past week $3 off per box with a shipping fee of $4 per flat of 10 boxes shipped to your door. The wife and I ordered 10 flats, should have ordered 20. We also picked up 34 flats of Top Gun as well as 6-7 flats of Remington and Kent 20ga for skeet and shooting pigeons at last years prices. Cabelas also had their Herters steel 3" 20ga waterfowl loads reduced $20 per flat so I grabbed 5 flats for the upcoming waterfowl season. Grab it while we can as it sounds like it might get gobbled up before it clears the border from now on...
Well I was in local Walmart this morning. They just got in a shipment of ammo - 2 cases. The 2 cases were in Federal 12 gauge flat cases. I was there while the guy opened the cases up this morning. 2 boxes of 12 gauge steel Duck loads and a few sleeves of CCI - 22 caliber shells in case. I didn't stay to see what was in final case - I knew it wasn't going to be what I was looking for. To hell with it. I got enough ammo to go shoot the Indiana State for a COUPLE of days, if I decide to go since I can only shoot a couple of days, after that - I'm through. I've had multiple health problems last few years - not going to spend anymore time looking for ammo. Local sports bar has plenty of beer - you can find me there till ammo becomes READILY available. I'll be the one wearing the "Remington" STS hat, come tap me on the shoulder when ammo becomes available again, depending on what the barmaid looks like I might rejoin the shooting community.