The usual statements, from the usual people, about the usual ‘solution’. The free market abhors a vacuum, and while any departure from the 5.56 ammo market will eventually be filled it would be unreasonable to not expect economic law to occur in the short term: when supply is low and demand is high, prices go…up.
No one has enough ammo. More is, by and large, always better. Unless you’re swimming or on fire you cannot have too much ammo. The savvy survivalist, if they don’t already have a goodly amount of the stuff, should take this as a warning that there may be some changes coming up in the market and prepare accordingly.
Minding my own business, I walk into the shop and ask my buddy how he’s doing. “Just the guy I wanted to see”, he says as he plops two cardboard boxes on the counter. “I just got these over the counter. Three hundred bucks. If you don’t want it, it goes out on the shelf for more than that.”
Ok, so I look through it….full boxes, factory ammo, of 9mm, .45 ACP, .30-06, .22, and one lonely box of .444 Marlin. Did some math in my head annnnnd….
“Okay.”
Funny thing is, I don’t even have a .30-06. And I own exactly one pistol in .45 AARP and i never shoot it. But…for the price it seemd like a reasonable deal, And I can always sell it off for about twice what I paid.
The .22 ammo will go on my ‘range ammo’ shelf, and I’ll probably squirrel away the 9mm ammo somewhere. I suppose I should get a .30-06 at some point for the same reason everyone should have a .22 rifle – the ammo is pretty much everywhere.
So, while some opportunistic Ferengi at the gun show was trying to get $110 for a brick of small pistol primers, it appears that even at dealer prices its around $.07 for primers. Lets run some numbers:
Primer = $.07
Jacketed bullet = $.13
New brass = $.15
Powder = $.02
Thats about $.37 per round to reload a simple 115 gr FMJ 9mm. Now, to be fair, if I use once-fired brass the price drops to $0.22 each. But, here’s the thing, I can buy factory ammo at about $.24/round.
It’s hit the point where it is literally cheaper to buy factory ammo than to reload your own. And that isn’t because the price of factory ammo has come down, but rather because the individual components for reloading (esp primers) has gotten so ridiculous.
Well, if its a case of pay me now or pay me later…I guess I’ll just buy factory ammo for now and spare myself the work.
There’s a reason to stockpile things, especially consumables, in large quantity and this is a good example of why.
In terms of ammo packaging, there really isn’t a lot of choice out there. Once you get past ammo that is packed in an ammo can at the factory, you really don’t see much other than the usual cardboard boxes.
Fiocchi had their ‘Canned Heat’, a pull-top can that held loose ammo (which has been adopted as packaging by a couple small outfits) but it isn’t something you find very easily. For durability and environmental protection, nothing seems to beat the ubiquitous green GI ammo can.
However…..
There is what is colloquially referred to as the ‘battle pack’. This is a heavy plastic or vinyl pouch, very similar to what MRE’s come in, that holds several boxes of ammo. The idea is that you dont have the weight or bulk of an ammo can, but you do get the environmental protection. Here’s some military ones I picked up a while back:
Those vinyl pouches? Battle packs.
It’s not a bad way to store ammo for run-out-the-door use. I’d store it in an ammo can for transit between locations, but for ‘grab a rifle and pack and run out the door’ situation it’s quite handy. And you can just tuck it on a shelf somewhere and it’s pretty much good to go as long as you protect it from crush damage.
Unfortunately, this kind of packaging of ammo is usually (not always) seen only on military ammo. However, PMC has brought us this:
PMC Battle Packs
PMC has their own version of the battle pack, and being a curious survivalist I picked some up to examine. First off, I like PMC ammo. About thirty or forty years ago they were a somewhat unknown brand and often relegated as ‘cheap foreign ammo of dubious quality’. Nowadays, its a different story. The South Koreans live a SCUD’s launch away from some crazy North Koreans….as a result, they take their ammoand weapons manufacturing pretty seriously. I mean, technically they’re still at war since the 1950’s. I’ve been very happy with the quality of their ammo and regard it as same or better quality that Rem. or Win.
They offer their battle packs in the usual military rifle calibers and all the common pistol calibers. The packaging isn’t as durable as, say, a steel ammo can, but they are pretty handy for packing away in a bugout bag.
So this came across one of the social media platforms and someone sent it to me:
Be nice if it was true, but who can say? A good question might be “Why would some Euro ammo maker team up with PSA when they could just bring their manufactory over and make ammo without PSA’s help?” Well, a good answer might be that PSA is taking some of the financial risk in exchange for something like exclusive distributor rights and, of course, they already have a network of dealers and wholesalers. Or this might all be BS. But the notion that you can make 5.45 and 7.62×39 as cheaply in this country seems terribly unlikely. Unions, higher material costs, greater regulatory processes, etc, will all conspire to make US-made steel-case AK ammo as expensive as Hornady/Rem/Win 7.62AK. But…mondo props for taking a chance.
The free market, like nature, abhors a vacuum. The only question is if it’ll work.
I have cases of 7.62×39 in the Deep Sleep but it was never a primary or even secondary choice. Until someone circumvents Empty Shelves Joe’s import ban, I’ll just stick to my .223 stuff. This is a good example, though, of things to consider when picking a caliber. With virtually no domestic 7.62×39 production in any meaningful quantity, you’re pretty much relegated to imports. And relying on unreliable imports is a recipe for fail.
So about this time last year I had set up the big Dillon 1050 to run off some .357 Magnum using my favorite load. And I discovered…much to my amazement…that I did not have nearly as much .357 Mag brass on hand as I thought. And it was a hell of a time to try and order more. But, I did. And was told it was backordered. And backordered. And backordered.
Until today:
Thats 4,500 pieces of brand new .357 Mag brass. The Dillon will be getting quite the workout this weekend. And when I’m done, I package it in these from repackbox.com. They store neatly, uniformly, and take up a bit less space than the usual plastic box.
My goal is to have about half of these loaded by Sunday. And to take my Marlin .357 out for a spin and do a little shooting.
Me: Still have that Wolf 7.62×39 ammo you wanna sell? Him: You want it? You’re not gonna like the price. Me: How much? Him: Twentyfive cents per round. Me: I’ll take it all. Him: :::Suspicious::: Why are you buying all my ammo? Me: Maybe I know something you don’t… Him: Like?
And, yeah, he had no idea about the import ban.
Yeah, I had plenty (for my needs) of 7.62AK ammo but I can always resell this for a profit but, lets e real, it’s just gonna get bunkered.
In case you missed the news, the Biden-figurehead administration has put the kibosh on the importation of Russian guns and ammo. On its face, it seems like a repeat of the Clinton-era Chinese gun/ammo ban.
Life Goal #267
I would imagine the smart money is creating new packaging an trucking all that Tula ammo over into some border country where it will be relabelled and imported in a grey-market fashion.
I have very few guns in 7.62×39, a pair of AK’s and a pair of SKS, and I bought my ammo a long time ago. Plus, the 7.62AK guns were never more than a tertiary level of backup for me. When the wheels fly off of civilization, it’s gonna be .223 and 9mm topping the charts.
But, it’s further evidence that things like imported ammo are ‘uncertain goods‘. Can a US manufacturer make 7.62×39 ammo? Of course they can. Can they do it cheaply to the point that it’s worth competing with the literally billions of rounds the Russians and Chinese have produced and already recovered their capital outlays on? Heck no. Thats why no US manufacturer has ever really gone heavy into 7.62AK production. As a result, American shooters became dependent on cheap imported ammo. Which is now neither cheap and nor imported.
This is not to say that having an AK or SKS or Ruger American in 7.62 is a bad idea logistically, it just means that, going forward, it’s less of a good idea. As I said, I’ve stocked a goodly amount of 7.62, and I know people with tens of thousands of rounds of the stuff sitting in their basement, so in those cases there’s no real reason to ditch your AK. But, if you didnt have an AK, and were thinking about getting one today, you might want to rethink the ammo situation and perhaps get a .223 AK or just skip the AK and grab an AR.
Lesson to be learned: a consumable product, like ammo of a particular caliber, that is not supported domestically and is available almost only though imported channels is not something that can be considered as ‘reliably sourced’.
Guns and ammo remain a bit hard to find these days. I am absolutely aghast at the prices 9mm, 223 and other calibers are bringing. I started preparing against an unsatisfiable demand like this many years ago. I am very much not concerned with my own gun/ammo/mag situation. But…I find it interesting how many people who identify as ‘preppers’ or ‘survivalists’ are frantically trying to source this sort of stuff. I suppose if you’re a relative newcomer to the game it would be understandable that you’re a little light in the ammo department… but I read some discussion forums where people have long histories of being ‘preppers’ and they’re moaning about how that can’t get ammo. Not sure how that works. Guns and ammo are, literally, the first thing most people buy when they decide to get into preparedness. How can you have been a survivalist for any length of time and not have a goodly amount of ammo on hand? Ok, yeah, if you had a house fire…or your spouse took it all when she ran away with her boyfriend…or your meth-addict nephew stole it all outta your garage…or a hurricane washed it all out sea….maybe I could understand it. But otherwise….nope.
Whats the local market like here? Armscor 9mm, which is pretty low tier stuff, is clocking in at around $0.75 per round. I see .223/5.56 going for$0.90. I haven’t even got a number for .22 LR because I almost never see it. Magazines are still fairly abundant, but the guns themselves are getting scarcer. Primers may as well be made out of unicorn farts. Oddly, shotgun shells aren’t terribly scarce. As I’ve said before, the Current Situation is proving a few things out…like the fact that this nation runs on .223 and 9mm. (But if you have a .40 S&W, you’ve got a better chance of finding ammo then pretty much anyone.)
Everything I read says not to expect the situation to change this year. And thats before the Biden gang gets their deranged mitts into all the ‘commonsense’ legislation they want to put forth.
For the umpteenth time in the last year, the Current Situation is making me think that my ‘unconventional’ lifestyle may not have been a bad idea…especially in regards to the stockpiling of ammo. Interesting times.
