Scarcity of ammo in the US ?

A recent caller on the Michael Savage radio show explains it this way(he is an ammo manufacturer). The feds cannot take our guns(2nd Amendment)but they can take our ammo. The government orders more rounds than the manufacturers can produce. The contract states, the government order comes first. All the ammo manufacturers running 3 shifts cannot make enough, fast enough to supply every one. Instant shortage. Now, they may not even take delivery of the millions of rounds, but the goal has been achieved:Make it hard for the ordinary Joe to get ammo. If this goes on long enough, no one will have any ammo. What good is a gun without ammo? Not only does this make a shortage of ammo, but reloading components become scarce also, because of the government orders.

Hello "Space Cowboy"!

You pose an interesting question. I was a bit surprised by Mike's answer, I didn't realize the homeland Security contract specifications mandated priority delivery over any other purchaser!

Recent events, including, but not limited to Newtown, have contributed to the ammo shortages in the US. If you followed the news, there have been numerous instances in the news of "shootings" involving AR type arms, and the media and our elected officials are jumping on the ban and confiscation bandwagon, to such an extent, that many are pushing legislation that blatantly defies major provisions of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

As a result, there has been a massive wave of panic buying, and prices have skyrocketed! This includes not just rifles and ammunition, but ammunition components and accessories! Prices are rising due to many fears. Yes, people are hoarding, but manufacturers are not cutting back. For example, Sierra is following their normal production schedule ... apparently they make certain quantities of certain bullets at different times,. They are scheduled to resume manufacturing of the Sierra .224 80 gr MatchKing in about 7 weeks, and the speculation is that they will increase the numebr of bullets destined to be made.

As I remember it a few years back when the Palma team flew to South Africa, each team member was limited to perhaps 100 rounds of ammunition, and had to make their own or buy their ammo in South Africa ... I would suspect a shooter is restricted in the number of rounds they can cross the border with, such as would be a typical load for a hunt ... again, maybe 50-100 rounds.

Good luck and good shooting!

The Department of Homeland Security has purchased nearly 2 billion rounds of ammo, mainly .40 hollow points, with contracts stating the ammo company must supply the government before anyone else. This uses up all the small primers and powder needed to make most handgun ammo. This, along with the panic buying, has created the shortage.

As for the calibers you mention, 7.62x39 is actually plentyful here in the midwest, but .223 (especialy the brass cased stuff) is hard to come by. Plus, not too many people want to run steel-cased corrosive ammo their AR's they overpaid for (so happy I bought mine last spring... I would not be able to even get it now because Ruger is so backordered).

We actually had several rampage shootings in a row, where the weapons were all purchased legally.

It all finally stacked up after Lanza, Holmes, Loughner, etc and there was the inevitable push-back. I recently walked into a Cabellas (which is normally stocked up huge) and saw all the handgun ammo was missing and not a lot of rifle ammo.

Your question got me wondering though about the difference between US and Canadian gun laws. I get the impression you haven't been having any major rampage shooters since the 70's. I could only find this one reference:

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:OsWPgVg...

And then I found this long article if anyone is interested.

http://www.google.com/search?q=mushroom+bullet&hl=...

The specter of a Gun ban and/or gun confiscation under the current Obama regime.

we don't support commie arms production because the US keeps them in check instead of kneeling down, unzipping their pants and getting to work Aye.