When does the magazine shortage start?

[caverjamie]

I don’t know how much ammo I have, but it seems like plenty - until I get on here and read these messages. Y’all make me nervous. What I have better be enough cause I am not going to find any more ammo I can afford. I only have a couple mags for my pistols, but I am sure I have plenty for the AR.

 

[Expat]

Plenty of AR and AK mags. I probably could use more AR-308 mags. Ordered some more FAL mags. Okay on most of my pistols mags but could always use some more. Ordered some 1911 10mm mags.

 

[Ziggy01]

Seems to be common theme developing. I too have had several friends and family pop out of the woodwork looking for “deals” on guns, Ammo and mags...

I sent several of them a few links to purchase said items, just to get a text back asking if I could sell mine cheaper...the other stuff was “to expensive”.

It blows my mind that spending just a couple hundred bucks to protect your loved ones seems “to expensive” for some people. Yes, times may be tough right now, but I know several people asking for handouts that continue to purchase cigarettes and beer daily. When you have the “priorities” conversation they get mad...

 

[shibumiseeker]

I don’t know how much ammo I have, but it seems like plenty - until I get on here and read these messages. Y’all make me nervous. What I have better be enough cause I am not going to find any more ammo I can afford. I only have a couple mags for my pistols, but I am sure I have plenty for the AR.

If you have ammo for a few magazines of pistol and a few hundred rounds of rifle, and you have a few magazines to fill, then you have plenty for SHTF situations. You are not likely to survive more than one or two running gun battles and if you win you can scavenge more and if you lose, well you won't care. It's a TEOTWAWKI situation and you're going to be hunting for food, so will everyone else and game will be scarce.

Now, if you want to keep shooting recreationally for the next year or two until this cycle dies, well, then you're screwed.

If you want to set back a stock of magazines in the event the gov't decides to ignore its own Constitution and ban them, then you really only lose out on the possibility of making a ton of money if they grandfather in existing ones (unlikely) or becoming a criminal because you don't turn them in like a good little citizen.

 

[teddy12b]

I don’t know how much ammo I have, but it seems like plenty - until I get on here and read these messages. Y’all make me nervous. What I have better be enough cause I am not going to find any more ammo I can afford. I only have a couple mags for my pistols, but I am sure I have plenty for the AR.

I'd agree with what shibu was saying. I got a call from family saying he couldn't find any more 223 ammo. All I could say was, "How many mags do you have and do you have enough ammo to fill them"? He said he's got 4 loaded mags, and I said if you needed more than that they'd be studying the gunfight at military colleges. That's an exaggeration of course, but here's how I've looked at a supply of ammo. If you fired 1 round a day on average at wild game every day for a year you'd be at 365rds. If you took all the guns & mags you'd actually carry into a gunfight and loaded them all up add that number of rounds. If you had enough ammo for a year of wild game and two gunfights you're likely going to have more than enough for whatever we face in life.

The ammo I have bought and have around is stuff I bought on sale, so I can continue to have target practice, compete, train, and hunt with without interruption from the marketplace.

 

[drillsgt]

Sig mags seem a little scarce but i've seen a lot of online shops with Glock mags on sale.

 

[portercounty]

If D&H mags become sold out everywhere, we'll know there's a real shortage.

 

[WebSnyper]

Sig mags seem a little scarce but i've seen a lot of online shops with Glock mags on sale.

Seeing the same on Sig mags, but chocking that up to the Covid related supply shortage leading into this that Sig seemed to experience (selling guns with a single mag and a coupon to redeem, etc due to I'm guessing Italy and other places shutting down?). I see that Sig seems to be getting OEM supply going again, and that should pull through to the supply chain soon. Prices do seem higher of course, which can make already $$ Sig mags even saltier.

 

[caverjamie]

If you have ammo for a few magazines of pistol and a few hundred rounds of rifle, and you have a few magazines to fill, then you have plenty for SHTF situations. You are not likely to survive more than one or two running gun battles and if you win you can scavenge more and if you lose, well you won't care. It's a TEOTWAWKI situation and you're going to be hunting for food, so will everyone else and game will be scarce.

Now, if you want to keep shooting recreationally for the next year or two until this cycle dies, well, then you're screwed.

If you want to set back a stock of magazines in the event the gov't decides to ignore its own Constitution and ban them, then you really only lose out on the possibility of making a ton of money if they grandfather in existing ones (unlikely) or becoming a criminal because you don't turn them in like a good little citizen.

Ohhhh, I was kind of mixing up my comments on ammo vs magazines sorry. I literally have like 2-3 magazines for each pistol. I have about a dozen AR magazines. And then I probably have about 1000+ rounds of each caliber but haven't taken an inventory. I'm good for SHTF and some limited recreational shooting - but the stuff is starting to seem like ammo cans of precious metals, better left to sit in the closet just in case.

 

[shibumiseeker]

Ohhhh, I was kind of mixing up my comments on ammo vs magazines sorry. I literally have like 2-3 magazines for each pistol. I have about a dozen AR magazines. And then I probably have about 1000+ rounds of each caliber but haven't taken an inventory. I'm good for SHTF and some limited recreational shooting - but the stuff is starting to seem like ammo cans of precious metals, better left to sit in the closet just in case.

My goal after the first shortage I experienced was to have enough ammo, mags, and spare parts to cover me for any shortage lasting more than a few months. Then after the next shortage I experienced my goal was to start building a stock that meant I could shoot at my normal rate for the rest of my life without having to buy any. I hit that a few years ago and after that I'm pretty much viewing my ammo and mags as fairly liquid assets, so I buy some when I have a little extra cash, and I might end up making some money on it but that's not the goal. If I'm ever really desperate for cash I know I can sell it quickly even if I have to take a bit of a loss.

 

[Katana1]

I haven't had to buy ammo in a while, and lately I've looked. Seems like most everywhere ammo is bought up, and guns are bought up, but I'm absolutely shocked to see 30rd mags are still available everywhere at good old days pricing. For example, PSA still has D&H's for $10, Botach still has Okay mags for $11 each. I'm just sitting here scratching my head wondering if there's something I'm missing and not seeing. Is this something that's going to change closer to November?

Things change on a daily basis as things go in and out of stock. You can price mags, like the PMAG G3, on many websites. But, if you actually want to buy them, its a different story.

 

[DadSmith]

Usually it begins when you decide to buy more for your firearms and there are none to buy.

 

[qwickwire]

It has begun. I went to a LGS two times for over the past two weekends and I noticed their magazine stock was reduced by about half. I have also noticed that G17 Gen 5 mags are going out of stock at many popular online retailers.

I am also having a hard time finding standard capacity CZ 75 mags.

Even though we had some success with the recent ruling in California, there are still no shipments into California.

However, the magazines stocks might have been so high at the onset of the pandemic, we are only feeling the effects now.

 

[Gluemanz28]

I just ordered 10 G19 OEM Glock mags for $23 and some change each from Gun Stuff TV. Took a couple weeks to get it and had to sign for it but got them yesterday. Midway USA had them t the same price but had a limit of 3.

 

[qwickwire]

thanks for your comments. I had not heard of Gun Stuff TV. Perhaps I need to update my list of online retailers.

 

[Clay Pigeon]

I remember in the last magazine shortage that aluminum mags were going for $100 each or more and pmags went for $150. I couldn't believe that when I saw it. I learned my lesson from that and the 94 ban, but in both those cases when the guns and ammo dried up so did the mags.

When were Pmags 150 bucks? Not during the 94 ban, Pmags didn't hit the street until 06.....

 

[DoggyDaddy]

When were Pmags 150 bucks? Not during the 94 ban, Pmags didn't hit the street until 06.....

I assume he's talking about post Sandy Hook.

 

[Clay Pigeon]

I assume he's talking about post Sandy Hook.

Could be, I dont remember those prices at all.

 

[Expat]

I saw the Pmags jump to $100 while at the Shipshewana gun show post Sandy Hook.

 

[shibumiseeker]

Could be, I dont remember those prices at all.

You block out bad memories.

Post 94 it was the AK and 15+ round pistol mags that were hot commodities. Not as many people were into ARs because we had imported a metric crapload of AKs and SKS dirt cheap so everyone had one or twenty. I remember a G17 magazine going for over a hundred bucks in 1990s dollars.

Post Sandy Hook it was AR mags because suddenly the "build your own AR" movement had taken off so lots of people had them when ARs became more popular after the 94 sunset because of the import ban so AKs and SKS were going up.