Nationwide Ammo Shortages: The Ammo is Gone

UPDATE: This article still get’s a lot of traffic, so I wanted to do a quick update for those who land here. While the ammo supply has rebounded in recent years, what happened in 2013 should serve as a reminder to those who neglect their preparedness planning of how quickly things can go bad. With so much anti-gun legislation making it’s way though congress, and with so many turn-coat republicans now supporting efforts to kill the second amendment, these shortages while likely become an increasing part of the firearms market landscape. 

In 2019, we’ve had:


Jan 27, 2013 – The Ammo Shortage/Panic has dried up supplies around the country. Hopefully you listened to us and stocked up a long time ago; if you didn’t you won’t be finding ammo anytime soon.

With the national dialogue being dominated by gun control, people have been buying up ammo like nothing I’ve ever seen. The waiting list on semi-automatic rifles, handguns and ammunition has grown so long that a number of major retailers have actually told their stores to stop ordering because their orders cannot be filled.

I have received word from a number of sources that most of the major retailers in this country will not be receiving any significant resupply of ammo for at least a couple of months.  The problem has gotten so bad that even police departments are starting to feel the effects.

Police departments around the country have started rationing ammo supplies and cutting back on training exercises to make sure their active duty officers have enough ammo to do their jobs. A number of public officials have actually started to call for new legislation that would allow police departments to buy up huge stockpiles of ammo before it ever becomes available to the public.

Retailers Can’t Restock Ammunition Inventory

Even before the talk of a coming gun ban started, ammo was becoming hard to find. From fears of an economic collapse to the general distrust of our government, Americans were starting to realize that they needed to be able to protect themselves. Once the government announced they were coming after guns, the supply of everything started to dry up.

Bass Pro will not receive new .22lr ammo shipments for 3-4 months.

This morning I talked to someone over at Bass Pro who informed me that they can no longer get .22lr ammo from the manufactures. According to my source at Bass Pro, they have been told by a number of major manufacturers that they will not be sending anything out until at least April.

9MM looks even worse.

The same source informed me that most 9mm ammo is looking even worse. In fact, their popular Remington® UMC 9mm Mega Packs are on backorder until December 2013.

Bass Pro Handguns
Bass Pro Empty Handgun Display
Sportsman's Warehouse Gun Case
Sportsman’s Warehouse Semi-Automatic Rifle Displays Completely Sold Out

Walmart Tells Stores to Stop Ordering Ammo

A contact we have at Walmart told us they are no longer sending any 9mm or .22lr ammo to their stores. This was confirmed by a manager at a local Walmart who told me, “He just got a memo from the corporate office telling them to stop ordering ammo.” According to Walmart, the problem is due to a lack of supply from the manufactures.

How long these ammo shortages will last is anyone’s guess. With so many retailers bowing down to political pressure and voluntarily suspending sales, it doesn’t look like things will be getting back to normal anytime soon. My guess is that ammo will be hard to come by for at least another 6 months, possibly even longer. And based on what I was told out at the SHOT Show, AR style weapons and semi-automatic rifles will be hard to find for at least another year.

If this doesn’t wake people up I don’t know what will. If the Ammo supply can dry up this quickly, what do you think will happen to the food supply during a major nationwide emergency event?

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28 Comments

  1. Well, this is bound to happen. When people start to lose trust in the government, they will resort to finding ways to protect themselves and arming themselves is the best way to do that. I just hope this serves as a wake up call to everyone because as pointed out in the post, what more if a food crisis is looming? Then we will see those empty shelves in supermarkets.

  2. It is the Waco’s hording that is causing the problem, not the govt.
    It is like when the weather man predicts snow and the crazy’s go out and buy out the grocery store. We get an inch or so of snow, yet the shelf’s are empty.
    Went to the gun show in VA this past weekend. There was plenty of ammo of all calibers at obscene prices!
    Don’t be a victim of the Crazy’s, relax, it will be ok. When Obama got elected the crazy’s thought the world was going to end, remember???? Well guess what, we are all still here.

    • Obama has been in for only 4 years. The country isn’t going to go down that quick. Relax? You don’t look out the window much, do you?

  3. Well I was in two walmarts yesterday and one had about 30 boxes of Winchester white 100 round 9mm boxes anx the other store had 6 boxes of rem 555 .22 LR and a 1000 round federal .223 box. Its slowly comming back

  4. Stock up on ammo, and also stock up on allies. Tell your family and friends to be ready, if they don’t know by now. A loner will have a hard time surviving, even with weapons! If you don’t manage to find guns and ammo in time for the collapse, then get a bow. You might want to get a bow even if you have a gun already, as you can always make more ammo for it and it’s stealthy. Either way, be sure to have a ranged weapon before SHTF. You can count on your aggressors having them.

  5. It is not logical to think that the “government” can buy up ammo supply. If people all of a sudden start buying up every box of ammo they see- it takes time for producers to react to this new demand. Folks buying 10K rounds of .223 are buying up in a weekend what the store used to sell in months. How can people expect distribution systems to handle that sort of increase in demand?

    Anyway- the real people laughing about all of this are the gun manufacturers and retailers. This panic is just filling their pockets and they will do everything they can to get as much panic money as they can.

    Expect in a year to see a crash in the ammo/rifle market. Once this calms down- those people with a garage full of ammo will need to pay down their credit cards and start selling some of it. Suppliers will also have increased production to add to the over-supply. I can’t wait- it is too expensive to go shooting right now- that is the real problem.

    • Certainly a realistic view on the current situation and the most likely outcome. Granted, it is good to be prepared. Of course things could change to some degree, and when our rights are brought underfire it spurs on our emotions….concern, rage,panic etc… I have to say, I personally do not want them to mess with our guns since common sense tells you that gun control will not stop senseless killing and violence from criminals and mentally unstable. And to these political morons, if all guns were gone then would bows and knives be next? LoL. For now I will wait it out and intend to stock when pricess fall. Obama is the best gun and ammo salesman the manufacturers have ever seen.

      • I don’t know……I think I will just stock up on toothpicks and rubber-bands before the prices go ballistic……

  6. We are our own worst enemy. We, as gun owners, have been greedy. The suppliers cannot catch up to our demands. People hoard because the said future looks very bleak for gun ownership, due to the threat of gun control. Other simply hoard ammo because they think in the short term, they can turn it around and make quick profit. We are just hurting ourselves when we do this. Due to our selfishness, we had cause more frustration than good to ourselves and gun community itself. Look around you, look what we’ve as a nation has come to. What good is a gun if there is no longer any ammo for all of us to enjoy it.

  7. I find it troubling that most of the news stories on the ammunition shortage in this country make little or no mention of the BILLIONS OF ROUNDS recently purchased by the Obama administration for NON-MILITARY federal agencies. Obviously, those purchases have some effect on the market. To not even address that fact seems rather odd.

    “Is Obama preparing for civil society’s collapse?!?”

  8. Am I the only one that is thinking business opportunity here? Where there is a shortage, capitalism will create a supply. Basic economics at work here. What we need is an entrepreneur and some investors. Prices may have to be higher than before to cover the cost of capital, but the supply would return. That is how America works.

  9. The only reason we don’t have ammo is because of all the preppers. There are people who have over 5K in ammo rounds stashed in their basement waiting for the end of the world to come. You people need help. Now the criminals will start burglarizing your homes when you are not there so they can take your ammo and your guns. The world is ending and so is your reality.

  10. Folks, the administration is *not* coming for your guns. And the trillions of rounds the government has bought work out to a rational supply for a decent training schedule. Still, the loonies seem to be grabbing all the ammo so that as ‘unbelieveable’ says, the criminals can steal it (they know who you are by your bumper stickers and decals) and share it with their buds.

    I have a reasonable supply for my humble, small-caliber guns, and when y’ll get tired of your old ladies yelling at you for stupidly spending the diaper money on more rounds than you’ll even shoot, I’ll resupply.

    Idiocracy gets a little closer every year. Geh.

    • Robin, that would be one hell of a decent training schedule. I read the other day that, based on the amount of ammo being used by the military to fight the war, some math whizz calculated DHS has bought enough to last 27 years.

      • No, DHS has bought enough to conduct a 27 year ground war using ammo at the same rate as the military in Afghanistan and Iraq. They’ve bought enough for training for over a CENTURY, that’s over 100 years (even assuming the unrealistically high estimates DHS said they needed for training trying to justify the absurd amount of ammo they purchased). Realistically its DHS has probably purchased enough for at least 200 years assuming past amounts of ammo used in their training exercises. And Robin (apparently like most Americans) doesn’t have any clue how much is a “trillion”, but he and everyone else is about to find out. And that discovery will accompany the bankruptcy of the largest economy in the history of the world, will likely place us in a state of civil war, and might well mark the beginning of the end of the United States of America.

  11. We are all more alike than different and we will need each other to survive this “shortage” and other hard times, whatever they may be. This is how we the people deal with problems in America and why we have any freedom compared to many other countries. We have let our guard down and now we must stand up to the wrongs and unjust control coming over us. Every day we each make choices that build or break the bond that keeps America strong. Not only it is our duty and right to teach and help others where we can, it just makes since. I think we will face greater conflict from our neighbors than from the Government if we can’t work together.

  12. I don’t understand the problem here. We are still a capitalistic society where smart people see a need for a product and create a new business to make same. Making ammunition is not rocket science so just what is the problem with creating 100 new start-up companies to manufacture product to fill the void? This doesn’t make sense and smacks of some kind of government conspiracy….holy crap, I hate conspiracy theories. Been trying for a month to purchase some 38 spcl ammo but I may as well be trying to buy triggers for a nuclear weapon…..wtf goes here?

  13. Check your local stores. Online ammo supply is available to the whole nation and while they get large shipments they are usually sold out within minutes. Check gas stations and your friendly local general/farm and fleet stores, they sometimes sell small quantities of ammo in their back corners. The smart shooters and preppers already knew this, but most of my scores have been in unlikely places. Sporting Goods stores and Wal-Mart are going to get hit first because they are the most obvious – but a local gas station had dozens of boxes of 9mm for weeks on end before some bastid came in and bought the whole lot. I was buying it every now and then but now I realize it was simply undiscovered. Now that same store won’t be getting ANYTHING – and I mean ANYTHING in until April or May. Very sad.

    Don’t stock pile to make money either. If you’re one of those freaks that buys up everything just to resell it on armslist for a gouging profit, STOP IT. You are not helping the situation and you are only being greedy. Just knock it off already and let the general public have some ammo. Before the restrictions I would buy 2-3 boxes at a time and leave the other 10 or so for other people. I did not hoard. It’s too bad other people had to and now we are all suffering because of it.

  14. Paranoia runs deep. Yes, have a few thousand rounds.
    However, people buying 20k of 22 long rifle is the only reason for this shortage. It was the same when Obama was elected, but not as severe. Then, Online gun shops jacked up 9mm from $10 a box to $30 a box of plain ole FMJ. Eventually it went right back down to $10.
    It will again, just as sure as the sun shines. The Government is not stocking 22’s. Preppers are.
    In totally over the top exaggerated amounts they cannot shoot in 10 years.
    I have plenty to last the 6 months until the manufacturers catch up, and when it sits on the shelf it will be right back to $20 for 500 rounds of plinking ammo.
    Everybody needs to relax, which I know is hard to do with talk of gun bans, but nobody is taking .22’s away of all things. I doubt even the magazine bans will occur, but got plenty of them as well.

    Right now that is falling on deaf ears, everyone is so scared, but I guarantee it will subside. Too many gun owners for the demand not to be met. Companies want to make money, they will make ammo.
    Just hold on and try to relax.
    Otherwise you are only making the sellers very very rich for absolutely no reason but fear.

  15. I would like to read or hear a report from the makers of ammo.
    I have not seen or heard a report by anyone interviewing Remington, Winchester, Federal and others who manufacturer ammunition.
    Is Homeland security buying everything? Including 22 caliber ammo.
    Why don’t they take the same stance as Magpul and other manufacturers. No bullets to the public, no bullets to the government!!
    Don’t they understand!! If the public CAN’T buy there guns, the public will have no need to buy there bullet’s. Out of business.
    It’s reasonable to me they know something.
    What is there comments on all the gun control issues??

  16. I bet all the other crazies are glad you told them. They can just drop by your place and scarf up the goodies. What was that address again?

  17. Since well over a hundred manufacturers and suppliers have vowed not to supply police departments residing in states that have, or are about to, pass gun control measures, those legislators will get a real good picture of what criminals will being doing if the cops can’t shoot back. Maybe they can borrow a few rounds from DHS.

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