What's Going On With Ammunition? - JM4 Tactical Holsters

10.25.2023

A couple of years ago ammo was nowhere to be found. There were a host of problems ranging from supply shortages to manufacturers being unable to staff the plants because of the bad cough going around at the time. Since then, the supply of ammunition has come back to a degree, and the prices have dropped somewhat.

However, I think I can make the argument that ammo prices will never return to what they were before 2019. Gone are the days of being able to find a box of ammo for 5 or 10 bucks depending on what you get. Now, the same ammo costs 15 to 25 dollars, and there is no end in sight.

Will there be another ammo shortage in 2024?

Going on right now and making matters much worse, is the simple fact that there are wars and rumors of wars taking place around the globe. Some nations are already in a munitions shortage, and I have a feeling that things are going to get a lot tighter in the coming months regarding the cost and supply of our freedom seeds.

I’m not positive it’ll be as big as it was during the cough, but I see trouble on the horizon.

There have been several events that have taken place over the past month or so that have already sent shockwaves throughout the industry. Let’s discuss them briefly, right now before moving on to where I think we’re headed with all of this.

Lake City

First up on the list is the simple fact that Lake City, which is the US Army’s manufacturing plant that also sells overstock and pulldown ammo to civilians and commercial re-loaders, has now been told to stop selling to civilians.

This is a big deal because a good chunk of the remanufactured ammo you get from the smaller folks all the way up to Winchester, use Lake City. This is going to leave a glaring hole in the industry for 5.56 NATO, which could cause a shortage and subsequently a price spike.

Hornady

Second is the Hornady plant explosion that took place last week. We all know that gunpowder is explosive/flammable, so it should be no surprise that something like this could happen. In fact, every so many years this sort of thing does happen, but the timing is not good. I mean, it’s never good, but hopefully, you get what I’m saying.

Hornady is one of the bigger manufacturers out there, and this could put a damper on supply, especially in the odd-ball hunting cartridges and self-defense handgun rounds. I’m not sure which part of the plant suffered in the explosion, and I know that at least one person lost her life.

Time will tell how this impacts the ammo supply, but I’m guessing that even if it doesn’t hurt, it certainly won’t help matters.

Vista Outdoors

More recently, as in I got this news over the weekend, is the fact that Vista Outdoors has reportedly sold all of their munitions manufacturing. This is not small. They own the following ammo companies, and these are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head:

Federal
Remington
CCI-Blazer
Lawman/Speer

They just recently bought Remington which kind of pisses me off that they bought it only to sell it to an overseas company, but here we are nonetheless.

What does all of this mean?

With all that is going on throughout the rest of the world with wars and idiots roaming the streets of our own country, you should buy ammo whenever you can. I do believe that we haven’t seen the last of the ammunition shortages, and think there is a chance that things take a turn for the worse again.

Therefore, I urge you to do what I am, which is to buy more ammo in the calibers you have. If you haven’t already, I’d also think about pairing your guns down to only a few different calibers so you don’t have to stock a bunch of different cartridges.

Other manufacturers coming online:

Also important to make note of, is that there are other manufacturing plants coming online. One example is Palmetto State Armory with its AAC line of ammo. They started small, but they’re producing a lot of ammunition right now which helps a lot.

I’m hopeful that this steady stream will fill most of the holes. If there is one thing that PSA does well, it’s making affordable stuff to get into the hands of everyday Americans.

I know those folks personally, and they’re good to go.

Where do we go from here?

Sadly, ammo is going up in price. And, it’s getting harder to find again. I hope this is short-lived, but if there is anything I know after working for the gun industry for over a decade as a writer for several of the biggest publications out there, it’s that we’re a conspiratorial group.

All this means is that most of my friends are already panic-buying ammo, and I’ve personally got a bunch of stuff in my cart, too. Stay tuned, because it might get bumpy ahead.