For the last month I've been scouring the web and local gun shops for primer, bullets and powder. I managed to get 8lbs of Titegroup from Powder Valley a week ago, but the next day they were sold out of that and just aboue everything else every since.
I was at Acher Arms this morning and the guy there said that the manufacturers are releasing to the distributors but the distributors are selling only to the highest bidders on the online auctions, where ever they are. That's how they explained charging $9.99 for a box of 50 .22LR.
Anyway, I don't believe that "panic" buying by citizens is accounting for the nearly total dry up of all aspects of the ammo AND component shortage. Over the last 10 months the Feds placed orders for about 1.6 BILLION rounds of small arms ammo (9mm, .40, etc). During the Iraq war the annual consumption of small arms ammo by our armed forces totaled to around 100 million rounds a year. The Feds are purchasing enough ammo to wage an Iraqi type war for the next 15 years!
I have mentioned this before, asking who it was they were going to make war on? Over the last few days it dawned it me that they are waging an economic war on those who own and shoot guns. Basically, if you can't buy any ammo, or just very small amounts sporadically, your guns are worthless, and so is the 2A. The Feds have found a way around the 2A by making ammo scarce using their purchasing power to tie up the entire ammo manufacturing and supply chain. The Feds don't have to shoot that much ammo. Just stack it in warehouses and seal them up. It could take several years to produce that much ammo and there isn't anything preventing them from making another big order when the last one is almost filled, thus keeping the ammo supply in constant shortage or non-existent. Obama is a smart person, probably one of the most clever people to occupy the Whitehouse since Reagan. This is the kind of trickery he would think up.
Bottom line: it could be November before supplies loosen up, if they loosen at all. The guy at Acher's isn't even sure there will be adequate supplies of ammo any time this year. NO ONE but the Feds and the ammo makers know. A question arises: "What about foreign ammo makers and importing of ammo from them?" In a free market place they could step in and fill the demand. What's keeping them from doing that? Feds?
Only those who have been preppers or wealthy enough to buy ammo in bricks or case loads amounts will have ammo. Normally, they would use their stash to do some target practicing or even hunting, but replace their supply. Now, will they even hunt at all and limit their target practice to the bare minimum because they can't easily replace or even reload their spent ammo?
Have we been snookered?
