Episode 234: What To Do During An Ammunition Shortage

Salty goes solo to talk about what to do, and not do, during an ammunition's shortage like we have when this podcast is published.

Check us out at Beans, Bullets, Bandages & You!

Leave voicemail for Salty (May be used on a future  podcast): Click Here To Leave Voicemail!

Transcript

Salty: 0:00

Hello, everybody and welcome to the show that show the most important and critically acclaimed podcast that was recorded in our car and today we are not we we are Me, me myself and I am heading down the road today all by my lonesome spaces off there at work teaching them kiddos teaching the children. Well, okay, college students are not only children. So welcome to the show today getting ready, I want to get right to the subject, it's going to be about nutrition. And when I'm recording this show, at the end of January of 2021, there's a ridiculously huge ammo crunches there often is in America. And my subject today is how to deal with getting through ammo crunches, if you're on the spot and have been caught short. So that's gonna be the topic today. And I'm going to give you a little background ammo crunches are something that's happened from time to time more So recently, then, in way back in years past, because there's a lot more gun ownership than there used to be. In fact, new gun owners are a large part was driving the current ammo shortage. And there's also a change in the retail space to go along with that as well, which, on the surface doesn't necessarily translate to the ammo shortage. But it translates into a distribution change and a loss of distribution efficiency, what am I talking about, I'm talking about the fact that Walmart doesn't sell a lot of the ammunition it used to. And for all of its shortcomings, Walmart had does one thing very, very, very well it gets the distribution, right. If it gets something in it gets out of the store. And with the recent changes in corporate policy, ammunition is of many kinds is no longer available at Walmart. And up until recently, with some of the same problems going on, they've cut back even further as to what is available. And that change in the pipeline is but kinks everywhere. If you talk to or listen to people, the gun manufacturing or the ammunition manufacturing companies, they're making ammunition 20 473 65. And they're making more ammunition than they've ever made before. They're pumping it out the door. So where is it? Why can't people just go to the local gun shop and buy and pick up a couple boxes of nine millimeter?

Unknown: 2:56

Well, I

Salty: 2:56

mean, the answer, that's pretty obvious. First of all, there's the hoarders, the people who come in and buy the limit every day that they can get it no matter the price. And dark people are out there like that. In the last big ammo crunch. Following Sandy Hook. Back when Walmart was still selling ammunition across the board, all kinds of people would come in and they would literally stand in line waiting for the ammo shelves to be stocked and they were standing in line and then buy them. And then they would take that ammo that they bought at Walmart at Walmart price and take it to the gun shows a double or triple or quadruple the prices. If you want to go to a gun show and pay double, triple quadruple the price for a box of ammo, you can still get ammunition because in a sense, the hoarders are still out there. out. This is a prepping podcast and so I need to express the difference between a prepper and a hoarder. a prepper is somebody who buys and stores things in a time of plenty. For example, if I ordered a case of nine millimeter white box, full metal jacket for plinking and I did it in a normal time. Okay, I mean it's done that many times. That's not hoarding. That's just buying a stock of ammunition to shoot. Were I to be doing that today with the idea of keeping that so that nobody else could get it or turning around and marking it up and selling it. I would be a hoarder and a gouger. I personally have some ammunition that I would actually sell right now because I'm I'm over stocking a few calibers I'm not ridiculous, but you know I've got but I can't really figure out a way to do it because I want to make sure that You know, that I do it in a responsible manner, I'm not going to sell it to just anybody because I don't know, I'm not I'm not a firearms dealer. I'm not. This is not what I do. Okay? And I don't want this code back at me, somebody shoot somebody with his ammo and I get sued for it, you know, that's not, you know, I'm not insured for that. So I'm very hesitant to do that sort of thing. And I could not in good consciousness sell ammunition that I bought for $10, a box of 50 for a nine millimeter. For what these people are charging. I went on to everybody's favorite gouge gun site. I'm not gonna mention the name because these guys have lawyers and they will sue. But let's just say they are claimed to be more inexpensive than soil and leave it at that. And I saw the price of a box of white, a white box. It's just range Full Metal Jacket, ammunition. normal price on that. If you go to a gun store, full retail 1250 for a box of 50 This is the cheap stuff. 120 bucks. Are you kidding me? So okay, salty. We all know this, we all know what's the problem, you're just talking to us? There's a problem. We know there's a problem. Give me answers. Okay, I'm going to give you answers. First of all, do not buy any of that stuff, don't buy any of it, just skip it. Do not buy range ammo, do not buy Full Metal Jacket ammo. At those prices, period, End of discussion, don't do it. There will be days in the future when you can pick up your range ammo. Alright. This may mean you don't get to shoot for a while, or you may get to practice dry firing or whatever. Because, you know, it's just the way it is. I would rather spend that money on a laser targeting system that you can practice with lasers, you know, the guns that simulate lasers, I'd rather spend that money on that and then have that in the practice with that, then spend five to six times what ammunition is actually worth to buy it for range, ammo, there's my caveat. If you need carry ammo, if you need personal defense ammo, then, I mean, if you buy a gun and you just literally have nothing to shoot in it, I can see getting a box of, of 50 whatever the cheapest thing you could buy just to get you know, get excited and get broken in. I can see that but not man, this is not the time to be buying new stuff. If you need range ammo, it's just not the time to buy it. It's better to come up with a plan be better to do something else. And that that means like I say by laser stuff, dry fire practice, take training. Do all kinds of other things. Work on familiarizing yourself with accessorize ation. Look into calibers where the ammunition is available or is a lot less difficult to come up with. Okay, look 12 gauge, it's a lot easier to find 12 gauge right now i'm not saying it's everywhere you look. There's 12 gauge, but it's a lot easier to find 12 gauge right now, it's a lot easier to find even though it's not particularly cheap, the off gauge or off caliber ammo 32 ACP you can find some point 16. Again, you can find if you happen to have an again revolver, which I do. I got a whole case of the stuff, so I don't need it. But you can find that stuff. You can find the off caliber stuff if you really need something to practice with. And reloaders I'm coming back to you in a bit because I can hear you screaming out there. Reload, reload, reload. Yeah. Well, where are you getting your primers? Where are you getting your powder? Come on, reload us. Where are you getting them? Where are you getting those? Those largest small primers right now. They're not on the shelves of my gun shop. They're not on the shelf of yours either. So you know reloading is great as long as you have the supplies bought ahead of time. Okay, getting back to what to do. 12 gauge is barely available. It's also outstanding home defense round. It's fantastic home defense round. I was looking at another website I see in Steelcase risky ammo made in barnaul factory in what used to be the Soviet Union. Not really sure if they're in the Ukraine or where exactly that is. But it's made that's where it's made. normal price on it's five bucks a box of 20 current price $44 No, do not buy steel ammunition at $44 No, just no don't do it. Use an alternative. Okay, so personal defense ammo if you need it, buy it, because it is what it is, if you but if you have your ready magazines filled with personal defense ammo Personally, I have three reading magazines. And I have them filled with my favorite type of personal defense ammo. Which by the way for nine millimeter is gold dots, in case you're wondering. Although I also like coordinated criddle critical defense, I like them both actually, Liberty Liberty stuff, I kind of like it too. It's I often put that in my carry gun simply because it's so light, it keeps the gun away. Now. Personal Defense ammo, if you need it, you got to buy it, whatever it cost, but you're not shooting it at the range right now. So this is not something you're going to be shooting up anytime soon. We hope concentrate on the stuff you can get and wait for it. Things will become available sooner or later. Unless it just doesn't and if it just doesn't you just if it just doesn't. There's there's times when you don't you know you didn't get on the boat. You got to get on the boat. If you're not on the boat. Sometimes you miss. You snooze, you lose. If you were familiar with three vy, you can go back or if you're not you can go back and do a search on how many times I've been you know, begging people screaming people now is the time to buy. ammo is everywhere. It's dirt cheap. You can find sales on it by by by a good friend, young man I used to work with he's now changed jobs. But he's a good man, young man. And he kept buying these guns like oh yeah, I gotta get me this, I gotta get me that he bought a, he bought a 223 St. He bought a. m one. He bought all these really great guns. And I'm like, Man, you know, this is a couple years ago, like, buddy, you just got to stop buying guns, buy some ammo to put in those guns. I know it's not as sexy. I know, it's not as fun, I get that. But if and when there comes the next shortage, you will thank me for stopping you from buying a gun for six months or nine months and just buying ammo for the guns you've already got stock yourself up a reasonable amount. So you could shoot and ran into me in the grocery store the other day, he came right over to me says You were so right. You were so right. Everybody else was just flailing around. He said I got great deals on two or three guns because guy sold and they don't have any ammo to shoot with him.

Unknown: 12:54

There you go.

Salty: 12:55

So here's what I'll sign up. People who are have are hoarding now will want to sell later. So as soon as the stuff starts easing up, they're going to want to get their money back out of this. So the prices are going to drop quickly. When you start seeing stuff back out on the shelf again, and you will, there was a huge amount of new gun buyers in the last six months. And that's that's backing off. Because a lot of the people who were worried about the election, bought a lot of guns and they need the ammo for it. That's where some of this came from. A lot of this came from, there are other reasons I won't go into. And I'm not 10 what, tinfoil hat guy. So I don't believe in conspiracy theories about what's going on with the ammo. I have a friend in the industry. And he told me, there's a man I went to school with the man I trust, he works one of the biggest companies out there. I can't mention the name. But they're big. They're one of the big three or four. It's 20 473 65. And they're going hard at it or putting up more boats than they've ever pushed out. And those boats are going into boxes and those boxes are going to consumers, they're not going to the government. And this is a man I trust is a man I trust with my life. So the bullets are getting made sooner or later. And I suspect it'll be sooner, they're going to become a game vailable again, and as the prices drop, and as availability comes back towards normal. I don't know how many months it'll take. All of the sudden there will be a big access. That's exactly what happened after Sandy Hook. Finally, after all that time when we're 22 long rifle finally became available again. And then it was everywhere. And then you could buy you know, you can find great deals on this stuff because you know, they were still manufacturing 20 473 65 and yet people weren't buying it like crazy anymore. So that's when I bought And that's when you should buy to not now, you got to put that off. You have to buy, buy what's available. I know this is not what you want to hear, I want to log into this thing. Oh, he's gonna find me some great plus, now, I would avoid gun shows like the plague. Because frankly, we have a plague going on. Right? Now I wouldn't I, you know, I have no interest in going to a gun show none. I don't want to buy a gun from some guy. I'm just never going to be in town again. When I got good local people. Now, sir, I have no interest in buying guns of dubious backgrounds. Because I just have no interest in that I, I don't need that type of firearm. It just, I don't, I don't need that in my life. So we press on, we do what we can. I hope this information was at least confirming some of the things you may have been thinking. Hopefully, hopefully, I'm not the only person that thinks this stuff. And you can let me know that let me know in the comments, let me know in the of the article that I'll write to go along with this. Let me know on the telephone line, you can find that at our website and can call you can call in leave me a voice message. Who knows maybe someday I will do a listener comments thing. I was interested to know that we're in the top 10% of all podcasts worldwide, which I thought was really strange to think that many people are listening to us so it's kind of cool. Just a couple people driving down the road in our car talking, but you know, whatever. Alright, hope this was useful to you and we'll see you later.