I was reading this old post by gun blogger Mr. Completely about ammo shortages and he made a compelling point. Can the ammo buying spree of many gun owners (including myself) really explain the shortages we’re seeing?

I’m pretty sure that’s NOT what’s causing the shortage. Here’s why. The manufacturers are making ammunition as fast as they can, producing more than they did last year. The consumers are buying everything that shows up on the retailers shelves. The fishy part, though, is that none of the retailers are able to get anywhere near the amount of inventory they were getting last year.

In short, the manufacturers are building lots of ammo, but the retailers aren’t getting it. It appears to be disappearing BEFORE it gets to the stores. It’s getting pushed into the pipeline at one end, but it’s not coming out the other. It appears there is a “leak” in the pipeline. In most cases, between the manufacturer and the retailer is a distributor, a warehouse that buys from the manufacturers and sells to the retailers, often called the “Middle Man”. Some of the big outfits, like Walmart, do their own distribution. I’ve talked to the guys in my local Walmart and they tell me they can’t get anything. Ace hardware, the same story. Sportsman’s Warehouse? Cabela’s? Pretty much the same story. No ammo, no powder, no primers. Just about everything is unavailable.

It looks like somebody, somewhere, is sitting in the middle and soaking up most of the production. The military? Why would they be stocking up on calibers that they don’t use? Law enforcement? Not likely.

I have no idea what’s going on, but it just isn’t adding up. I do know that if you want to disarm a country and you haven’t been able to ban their guns, if you can dry up the ammunition and reloading supplies, you have essentially disarmed them, even if they DO still have their guns………..

Hmmm. I’m not sure but I have noticed the big boxes aren’t re-stocking some calibers (like my precious 20ga slugs) at all in my neck of the woods. It’s possible they’re sitting on ammo waiting for demand to reach a point where they can charge even more outrageous sums due to the metals prices spiking, but right now we’re paying insane premiums as it is. I’m paying more than a dollar a bullet for .327 Federal, and can’t even get .32 H&R. Don’t talk to me about 20ga, I just saw a box of ten slugs at Dick’s going for over $20. The shelves at my Wal-Mart have not restocked certain calibers since the crisis began, but I find it hard to believe that manufacturers aren’t upping their production to take advantage of the demand.

Anyone else have theories?