Federal had a $5 per box rebate this time last year on their hunting ammo. My son and I loaded up on 30/30 for $9.97/box and got the $5 rebate for each box up to 10 boxes. I can’t load it for $5 per box and am set for a lifetime no more than I shoot my 30/30’s.

Here's a thought narrow down your lines.
In Federals 45 acp line, you have Champion, American Eagle, Hydroshok, HST, Syntech, Punch, Black,Train and protect, etc.

It doesn’t take much to crash a plant activity..
raw materials supply is usually the main reason production cant keep up with the demand..
Even something simple like the packaging can delay the production.. if you don’t have the boxes how can you ship the ammo out?

To these basic concepts we should also consider the beerflu.. if an entire company or department get locked down for 10-15 days it’s a real nightmare to keep a business running..

Finally we should also consider the international market.. whats happening in the US is also happening globally. I want my ammo too

FWIW:
Cheaper than Dirt is being charged with price gouging:

https://www.statesman.com/story/news/2020/12/16/gun-website-price-gouging-pandemic/3932523001/

Sorry...…  
"......FWIW...... every time we've had a panic like this ...... when ever someone doesn't think the numbers add up....it has been proven wrong.  
I'm sorry, "this-go-around" is no different then the last 7? times...........  

So whenever you think the numbers don't add up..... .... it'll be disproven in a year or so...….  "

I could buy into this theory, except the video in the OP suggests everything is hunky-dory and production is fine. Are you suggesting he’s lying?



What will be disproven? I haven’t presented anything to disprove.  I just note that the “explanations” we’ve seen are contradictory.

Eleventy million new shooters?  Range traffic looks pretty normal to me. Are you suggesting Suzy Soccermom, who doesn’t really shoot, is building an ammo fort?

Don’t think he’s lying but rather being vague.
Production may be fine meaning they’re doing their best 24/7 despite the global pandemic.. still the demand is too high and sometimes there’s very little a company can do..

Yes. Crap happens. The problem is trying to do things the Toyota way. Just in time manufacturing doesn't work in the ammo industry.

Something as simple as not having the labels for packaging will slow shipping. That's why I think bulk packaging is the way to go right now.

The CEO isn't lying. We're working 24/7, still hiring at my plant (CCI), and still expanding.

Also LEO and DOD contracts take precedence in some cases.

Another point is,
You can hire and expand now to fulfill the extra orders.. but is it a wise choice? I don’t think so.

what will happen when the market will go back to a normal situation?

What is a company going to do with extra employees and toolings when they’re not needed anymore?

There is no ammo conspiracy. Let's try to apply some logic for a moment...

-Millions of new gun owners
-raw materials shortages (primers, powder, lead)
-complications with the workforce due to the wuflu "guidlines"
-reductions in ammo imports

and, perhaps most importantly, the people who buy the most know enough to buy as much as possible when it is available. Which they did.

Add jn contracts that need to be fulfilled and a perceived panic that has people paying triple or more from normal pricing and anything that isn't spoken for already with contracts and back orders is going to keep moving as soon as it hits shelves.

If you are a member on a gun site or consider yourself a gun person and don't have at least a reasonable supply at this time that is a failure in your planning as this could be seen coming for months. If you really thought ahead you stockpiled components and are still loading for less than the old "normal" pre-panic pricing.  If you didn't you're screwed now as components have dried up. Why is that? They're being used to load ammo and are subject to the same issues noted above.

Would you expect to be able to drive your car for a long time if fuel dried up? How about food stocks - do you have enough in the cupboards and freezer to last more than a few days if you can't get to the store?

I could imagine telling my customers Lockheed, Boeing, Honeywell, GDLS, Eaton, Northrop Grumman, etc. I'm tired of hearing them bitching about our delinquencies.

What a fucking douche bag.

Imagine if they got tired of the hate and quit.
Closed shop. Said I’ll take my money in this factory and sell it, live off that.  Fuck you and your zero ammo having stash.  
It’s fine bro. Let me the man work

This how ammo is made

"The lady doth protest too much, methinks" - Act 3, Scene 2 of the play, Hamlet

Look, conspiracy theory or not, it has NEVER been this bad. There is a shortage of everything firearm related, and very little, if anything, trickling into the system. It is as if they don't want the civilian population to be well stocked and ready for action.

I think the fuckery of the last ~week shows why.

Purely speculation...


I would guess they are also gettIng some heavy orders for ammo they are contracted to produce.  Most big contracts have a priority requirement where the vendor must fill it in a given time frame and a lot of agencies buy off big contracts like the DHS ammo contract.  

Agencies have strict qual and training requirements...and are always paranoid about not having ammo.  I bet a lot of big agencies are putting in 7 figure total orders for ammo of multiple caliber.  

The simple fact is online retailers are not receiving inventory, OR they’re not releasing inventory to the public
I have spent almost a year buying ammo with hyper awareness, monitoring the cadence/frequency at which over 30-40 online retailers have released ammo of various calibers and brands for sale.
There was a consistent flow all year long. I have every alert known to man, including my own bots, sniffing for in stock ammo, 24/7.
Simple fact is all online retailers smacked a wall at around the same time and everything came to a screeching halt. It is now only a tiny trickle of what it was as far as availability. This is fact, no conspiracy. A lot of the ammo, including less popular calibers has been halted altogether it seems.
Take S&B 124gr 300BLK for instance. That stuff would come in stock and sell very fast, despite price with a predictable cadence. Now, it’s simply gone from the online retailers. I haven’t gotten an alert for about 2 months, at any price.
One could say well maybe S&B has shifted their production capacity to the more popular calibers, like 9mm and 223 - nope - none of those have come into stock anywhere either. I would know, within seconds, if any of it came in stock anywhere.
The same thing has happened with most of the other brands as well.
So the thought that neckbeards are hoarding and immediately snatching inventory up from online retailers isn’t all true - it just isn’t there, at all, anywhere, for sale.

There are a couple of theories about this that I honestly don’t know what to believe, especially when I hear the Federal CEO claiming he’s never produced more, ever, than he’s producing now. What he’s producing isn’t going to the American public, I can guarantee as fact. It is not going up for sale on retailer’s websites. There are 3 small brick and mortar retailers I’m familiar with who haven’t received an ammo order in over 2 months, from anybody.

I could list about 7 possible scenarios as to what’s happening, but that’s all been done and I haven’t heard a proven answer either way.

While I think GunBroker is mostly neckbeards cashing in on what they bought @ low prices early in the year, I have also wondered if some of the larger retailers have moved to GB’s auction style, under various personal accounts to maximize profit. Still, the volume there isn’t anything compared to what normal retailers move.

So are warehouses full and retailers are trickling it out at insane prices?
Are primers really the problem for all brands and calibers? Wouldn’t primers be being made now at 10x the rate to catch up have fixed the issue by now?
Is DOD shifting / forcing all available capacity from all brands, all factories, foreign and domestic to give them top priority?
Anybody see the inside of of SGAmmo’s warehouse? Is it full? Empty? How about Midway’s?

What stopped the flow Mr. Federal CEO? How about telling us who’s contract(s) you’re fulfilling instead of bitching at us. You might be the busiest you’ve ever been, but it isn’t ending up in the American public’s hands.

I guarantee the uppers at Midway, Brownells, SGAmmo, TargetSports etc know exactly the cause of what’s going on - this is affecting their bottom line. They are fully aware of what has happened - I think they owe us an explanation, at this point, at this time in history what really is happening. This is unlike anything before and shows no signs of stopping, no light at the end of the tunnel.

What happens when the Xiden cabal puts the clamp on online sales?  Uses excessive taxation to drive demand down?  Goes even further and requires registration for all ammunition sales?

The 2nd Amendment protects the right to keep and bear arms.  Does it protect the right to buy (or even make) ammunition?

I would interpret the right to “bear” arms to include ammo. Since without ammo, the arms are pretty much useless. Now, will a court agree with that? Who knows at this point.