by John Markwell | Contributing Editor
This was pretty typical of the shelves of centerfire rifle ammunition seen in all stores during the author’s travels.
With hunting seasons approaching many folks are becoming more concerned (if that’s possible) about the availability of ammunition in the US.
As this is written, we have just returned from our annual varmint hunting excursion to the West. Over a period of 45 days we shot a pretty good load of varmints (prairie dogs and some gophers), drove a tad over 8,000 miles through ten states, and visited a “few” firearms emporiums. From West Virginia to Idaho, here’s our report on the ammo and reloading component availability situation as we saw it from late May up until July 14.
Like most gun folks we find it hard to travel and not stop at stores, large and small, that cater to shooters.
There are a lot of them between our home in West Virginia and the western states we traveled to in pursuit of varmints.
Late May: Most of the retailers we visited early on in our travels had pretty bare shelves. Unless you were looking for shotgun shells, there was little ammunition to be had. In late May, handgun ammo was almost nonexistent throughout the Midwest and West. Even the high end defensive rounds priced at $1+ per round were scarce and .22 long rifle was almost impossible to find. What little .22 ammo we saw was generally priced at 10 cents per round or more. We stopped in at Buckeye Sports east of Columbus, OH, on day one of our trip. They had a small quantity of CCI MiniMags in 100-round boxes for $10 with a limit of one per customer. Centerfire rifle ammo was either feast or famine.
Some stores, and not necessarily the big ones, had a pretty good supply of hunting ammo in most common chamberings, except for .223/5.56. You might not have found your favorite .270 Short Mag load but there was some .270 SM to choose from as well as other popular calibers. Most outlets had limits on the amount of ammo that could be purchased.
Reloading supplies in late May were harder to find than ammunition, with most stores limiting the amount that could be purchased. Powder, primers, bullets and even cartridge cases were extremely scarce. Except for some commercial cast bullets for the .45-70, shotshell primers and .500 S&W brass, reloading supplies were tough to find.
Generally, the shelves of the stores like Cabelas, Scheels and Bass Pro Shops, as well as smaller stores, were devoid of any reloading components. Staff at many outlets said reloading gear like presses and dies were also becoming scarce and hard to get. Surprisingly, many of the stores that had something left to sell were not price gouging too badly; and then there were the others that we hope shooters will remember when things return to normal.
We spent much of June shooting in South Dakota. The few retailers we visited while varminting in SD were not fairing very well when it came to ammo and components. The common refrain from retailers and ranchers alike was that they couldn’t believe there was no .22LR ammo to be had.
Places like WalMart sold out of whatever pittance of handgun and rimfire ammo they received before the day of delivery was over. Believe me, the ranchers who let us shoot their prairie dogs appreciated a brick of .22LR as a thank you more than money.
By mid-June we had moved on to Montana and the centerfire rifle ammunition situation seemed to be easing some. The Big R store (a large ranch supply store with a big firearms department) in Havre, MT, had a pretty deep inventory of centerfire rifle ammo except for .223/5.56 and other varmint shooting calibers. The clerk at Big R said they couldn’t seem to get common handgun ammo in any sort of volume and, while we were talking, a couple of different folks stopped to ask about the availability of .45ACP and 9mm ammo.
There was none. The gopher shooters in northern Montana were suffering from the lack of rimfire ammo, not only .22LR, but .17HMR and .17Mach2 as well. There was none to be had.
In previous years when we stopped in at the Havre Big R they usually had a pallet or two of bulk Federal .22LR hollowpoint ammo sitting front and center in the gun department. Not this year. And reloading stuff? It was conspicuous by its absence wherever we stopped.
Throughout northeastern Montana the situation was much the same at all the retail outlets we visited.
In late June we took a break from varmint busting and traveled to Salmon, ID, to pay a visit to our old friend, Ken Hackathorn. We traveled west across Montana and then south towards Idaho. The Bitterroot valley has a pretty good bunch of small gun shops as well as a Sportsman’s Warehouse in Missoula, a couple Bob Ward’s sporting goods stores in Missoula and Hamilton and, of course, a couple of WalMart stores. Interestingly, every store I visited in late June had a great inventory of AR platform rifles, accessories, and magazines. There was no .223/5.56 ammo, but lots of rifles and AR stuff. Shooters in the Bitterroot country seemed to be doing pretty well in the ammo department by late June.
