Where is the Ammo Really Going?

mncoolbeans

Lil-Rokslider
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Jan 1, 2019
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Minnesota
This got me thinking a lot. Yesterday had chat with my neighbor, he's been working at Federal Cartridge for nearly 20-years in Anoka, MN. He told me yesterday that that they make and produce 1-million Rounds of ammo per day there between Rimfire, Centerfire and Shot-shell, mind you he said again 1-million per day/3-shifts. They get shipped to Distributors then. One of my best friends/Hunting Buddy also works there but is the Buyer for all Ammo Components to keep the lines going and he confirmed this as well.

This is just one of the Manufactures People, just one of Many who produce Ammo. My neighbor really thinks there is one group out there buying up most of the ammo from the Distributors or once it goes to market.

Take a wild guess who's buying it all up or at least most of it. This really got me thinking.

He thinks this group is buying up close to 75% of all ammo once at Distribution. There should be more on the shelves out there.

Just my 2-cents. I know this has been Discussed to death but he gave me some real numbers on one of the manufactures, just one of them.

Yes, those two guys are great to have as friends if you know what I mean......lol
 

MattB

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It was the case during the early parts of COVID that the same group of retired white guys used to hang out in front of the local Big 5 for an hour or more before it opened to rummage through whatever ammo they got on the truck that day. My sense is there's a relatively small percentage of shooters who make up for a relatively large percentage of the ammo purchased over the last year.

They sounds like a bunch of tinfoil hat wearers...I mean, true patriots. 😀
 

Tod osier

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Fairfield County, CT Sublette County, WY
It was the case during the early parts of COVID that the same group of retired white guys used to hang out in front of the local Big 5 for an hour or more before it opened to rummage through whatever ammo they got on the truck that day. My sense is there's a relatively small percentage of shooters who make up for a relatively large percentage of the ammo purchased over the last year.

They sounds like a bunch of tinfoil hat wearers...I mean, true patriots. 😀

So you are saying old white guys, not middle age?
 

CHSD

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South Dakota
How many rounds does the government buy?

I am sure they are plenty of guys who buy it for it to sit in their basement, which is silly to me.
 
Joined
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A million rounds a day times how many manufacturers of that scale? 10 million rounds a day? So that's 3.6 billion rounds of ammo a year. Divided by 328 million American's. That's only 11 rounds per man, woman and child. Clearly we need more ammo to be manufactured cause my family is way over it's allotment.
 

txtransplant

Lil-Rokslider
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May 6, 2021
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Colorado
My guess is that most of the ammo is being bought by middle age white guys.
Occam's razor. There's not a conspiracy of some shadowy group literally spending millions of dollars a day to take ammo off the shelves (and... put it in a really big basement somewhere, I guess?). It's just tens of millions of ordinary gun owners buying everything they can find, over and over.
 
Joined
Dec 22, 2017
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538
Location
Maryland
Meh - some dude hitting the green button on the reload machine probably isn't the greatest authority on who's buying ammo.

Some people bought the ammo they would need (not for fun) a long time ago and probably buried it in the yard in mason jars.

The ramp in gun owners probably accounts for a significant portion of the current shortage.
 

txtransplant

Lil-Rokslider
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This article is over 3 years old, and it doesn't reveal some dark conspiracy. It just reveals that people who like toys and have access to an endless supply of money tend to spend more and more on those toys - just like the aforementioned old white dudes.
 
Joined
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Lenexa, KS
This article is over 3 years old, and it doesn't reveal some dark conspiracy. It just reveals that people who like toys and have access to an endless supply of money tend to spend more and more on those toys - just like the aforementioned old white dudes.

The article is funny.

Loading the Gun Locker – Federal agencies spent $44 million on guns, including an “urgent” order for 20 M-16 Rifles with extra magazines at the Department of Energy ($49,559)

Like, uh, duh, the department charged with maintaining our nuclear arsenal has security forces. I'm surprised it was only 20.
 
Joined
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Messages
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A million rounds a day times how many manufacturers of that scale? 10 million rounds a day? So that's 3.6 billion rounds of ammo a year. Divided by 328 million American's. That's only 11 rounds per man, woman and child. Clearly we need more ammo to be manufactured cause my family is way over it's allotment.

Very interesting perspective!
 

EastMT

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Eastern Montana
People are buying as much as they can and reselling it. I’ve seen the same dude and his wife in line in delivery day. They get the max of 5 boxes of 9mm/223 every time, each. You know they aren’t shooting 250 per week each. I’m sure they are reselling it and doubling their money. It was the same with 22lr a few years back.
 

Vandy321

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This article is over 3 years old, and it doesn't reveal some dark conspiracy. It just reveals that people who like toys and have access to an endless supply of money tend to spend more and more on those toys - just like the aforementioned old white dudes.
Nobody said it was a conspiracy, but your claim that organizations aren't spending millions buying guns and ammo is simply not true.
 

Rob5589

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N CA
Panic buying, Gunbroker resellers, retired dudes buying ammo just to have, etc. I was at my local range last Saturday at around 0930 and was just a beautiful day. The range was empty comparatively speaking. So people may be buying but, it doesn't appear they're shooting it.
 
Last edited:
Joined
Sep 13, 2016
Messages
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Location
Idaho
Panic buying, Gunbroker resellers, retired dudes buying ammo just to have, etc. I was at my local range last Saturday at was around 0930 and was just a beautiful day. The range was empty comparatively speaking. So people may be buying but, it doesn't appear they're shooting it.
I'm definitely not shooting. I've been holding on to the same 2 boxes of 200 grain accubonds for a while now. I'm not going to load those until I can find replacements.
 

CorbLand

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Mar 16, 2016
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You know what's even weirder? It seems to have a really high correlation to Democrats being elected president. It's a real chin scratcher.
Covid lockdowns was the batter being mixed. Civil unrest was baking the cake. Biden getting elected was just icing on the cake.

Most common calibers were scarce by August of 2020, then everyone turned to anything they could get their hands on.
 

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