Now is the time to stock up on ammo

[Hot_Sauce]

Remember the ammo shortage we had in 2008?

With the Aurora shooting I got a feeling us gun owners are going to get get screwed. And if they can't take away our guns. They are going to go after our ammo for them. So stock up now guys. Because I only see the price of ammo going up and a shortage coming.

I was checking out one of the gun forums I frequent and found this post:






I work in a Walmart in the panhandle of Florida as a sporting goods associate. There was a recent meeting between my supervisor, store manager and the regional manager as well as the store managers and regionals from the rest of the panhandle. The meeting was over hunting, gun and ammo sales for the upcomming season.

At the meeting was the usual chit-chat about how many we should order and at what price, the interesting thing didnt come up till the last half hour when they announced they had recieved a memo/email/appology from our ammo suppliers. They letter stated that to reach the demand from military contracts, foreign contracts and a new contract from the Dept of Homeland security they dont believe they can supply as much ammo this year to civilian contracts as they did in previous years. The next thing to be discussed at the meeting was whether or not ammo should or shouldnt be limited per-box per-customer per-day. This also happened immediately after the 2008 Presidential election at my store. At first it was 6 boxes of any ammo per-customer per-day, then it dropped to 4.....then it came to 2 boxes........

We still havent had word of if or when this would take effect or how long it would last but my supervisor talked to our regional manager about the issue after the meeting. He said in candor that he's never seen a Government contract ask for this much ammo before and the word at corporate is that there will be an ammo shortage for Walmarts in general through out the nation soon.

Like I said, get it while its here.

[owensaz]

Thanks for the insight

[TravelingJ]

The bitch of it all, is no matter how much ammo I want to carry, I have a weight limit to worry about.

[owensaz]

On ur person? Lol preparing for war?

[TravelingJ]

On ur person? Lol preparing for war?

I carry because I spend a LOT of time driving my truck, with my girlfriend and dog inside, and my RV in tow. Essentially, everything I know and love is behind that wheel. I have weight limits on my truck, and trailer, that I have to worry about at all times.

[Mickeymorris626]

I heard the DHS just ordered 450 million 40 cal HST HPs, that's a lot of ammo! Looks like they are preparing for "war" as well

[owensaz]

On ur person? Lol preparing for war?

I carry because I spend a LOT of time driving my truck, with my girlfriend and dog inside, and my RV in tow. Essentially, everything I know and love is behind that wheel. I have weight limits on my truck, and trailer, that I have to worry about at all times.

Ahh.. I thought you were saying walking around with mags strapped to your body.

[Pooh Bore]

I heard the DHS just ordered 450 million 40 cal HST HPs, that's a lot of ammo! Looks like they are preparing for "war" as well

That's either efficient ordering to lever the best discount or you guys are screwed because the little green men are coming !

Can someone work out how big a pile of boxes that is ?

[xFreebirdx]

I heard the DHS just ordered 450 million 40 cal HST HPs, that's a lot of ammo! Looks like they are preparing for "war" as well

That's either efficient ordering to lever the best discount or you guys are screwed because the little green men are coming !

Can someone work out how big a pile of boxes that is ?

Prolly a train freight cars worth. ;)


.

[Mickeymorris626]

Id guess its far more than that. Ammo is bulky and heavy. Either you stack the rounds in cardboard/plastic holders (which take up space) or you throw them in a bulk box (which doesnt compact as well as stacked ammo)

450 million rounds would be an incredibly large pile o' ammo. According to an article i read (no clue on the reliability of these facts) in one month during active war time in Iraq, the entire military uses 5.5million rounds a month (all calibers). Thats rifle, pistol and large bore rounds... soooo 450 million is quite a few metric shit tons of ammo.

[mwlabel]

This is nothing new. All of my local stores have been short-supplied due to large military contracts. And when it gets even worse, they limit the quantity per person so nobody can take the entire shelf. This has been going on for years now.

[bballbaby]

This is nothing new. All of my local stores have been short-supplied due to large military contracts. And when it gets even worse, they limit the quantity per person so nobody can take the entire shelf. This has been going on for years now.

what he said. I still have trouble getting .40 cal at my local wally world. And the price went up from $14/50 to $17/50 during the year I was away.

[LigaPrivadaFanboy]

Stocked up over the winter...haven't really seen prices change by the 1K rd. case since May. Combine the Aurora shooting with people getting nervous about the election, and you may very well have another ammo shortage.

[Hot_Sauce]

I guess I'm fortunate around here. I don't have trouble finding ammo for any of the calibers I shoot.

But if what that guy says is true. I'm sure it's going to be that way with other stores as well. When people realize there is a shortage. They will be try to get as much as they can or afford. Then we'll have a shortage like we did a few years ago.

That ammo shortage sucked!! It was a pita to find ammo for the calibers I wanted to shoot. And when I did finally track it down. They were selling it for like 25% more than what I paid for my last box.

[mdwest]

This is not an outrageous purchase at all...

They arent actually getting 450M rounds of ammo...

DHS has awarded what is known as an Indefinate Delivery / Indefiniate Quantity (IDIQ) contract where they CAN purchase up to 450M rounds over a period of time of five years...

The Federal Government sets up IDIQ contracts so that they can set aside a pool of money for anticipated needs over a period of time.. Typically they over budget these pools by a percentage.. if they accidently under budget it creates a seriously painful, long, and expensive requirement to either modify the contract to add more money or to re-compete the contract.. its far better to (and cheaper) to have a little extra in the bucket than to run out of money early and have to go back and "find" some more...

realistically, they will probably purchase 35-40M rounds a year for the next five years..

DHS is the third largest cabinent department inthe US government (behind the DoD and the VA).. they employ over 240,000 people.. and have 22 federal agencies under its umbrella... (everyone from customs and border protection to ICE to TSA to the US Coast Guard to the US Secret Service to FLETC (the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center).. all of whom have very large law enforcement and security departments....

When you consider that the average FLETC student will shoot close to 2000 rounds during an academy class.. and that they consume almost 20M rounds a year alone.. (this includes rounds fired for advanced training classes, etc as well)..

and that there are approximately 50,000 agents working within DHS that will consume the rest of the rounds in everything from qualification, training, and duty.. that means that means that they have a whopping 200 rounds a year on average, per agent, to get those tasks accomplished..

Back in my cop days we used to purchase a little more than 500,000 rounds a year for an 800 man department.. this covered everything from training to tactical team requirements to academy classes to annual re-qualification to duty loads, etc.. (625 rounds per office average... over 3x the round count that the feds are getting)...