.223 Shortage?

Quote from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20070817/ammunition-shortage/ that "albertacoyotecaller" posted.


"There's just a major shortage on ammo in the U.S. right now," he said, pointing to his current backorder for 2.5 million rounds of .223-caliber ammunition. "It's just terrible."

Police say the .223-caliber rifle round is generally the hardest to find. Even though rounds used by the military are not exactly the same as those sold to police, they are made from the same metals and often using the same equipment.

​
 
Look, listen to reason. When was the last time you've seen military ammunition with a Winchester head stamp? Winchester is NOT on military contract for 5.56 ammo. Ronin had it right. The NATO standard for 5.56 is a 62 gr. bullet not 55 gr. that so many of you here are looking for.

^^^^ Just because some hillbilly cop has fallen for the same old story doesn't make it any more believable. It's like saying the cops are always right.

FWIW, if any of you posters here are old enough to remember the first Gulf War over 15 yrs. ago, the same old story was going around then too.
 
just to give you a heads up.

Two weeks from now Bass Pro (Vaughan-ON) will be receiving a big shipment of UMC 223 rem.

I asked , it will be first come first serve.
Good Luck.
 
to all of you that are panicking about the lack of ammo, i will buy your now worthless rifles chambered in .223 for 10% of their market value.
it pains me to purchase so much scrap metal, but since the holiday season just passed the Christmas spirit of giving is still strong within me... baby Jebus and Santa have appeared to me in a vision and told me to extend this selfless offer of aid to ease your suffering.
 
jennis said:
Being diverted to A-Stan
Click to expand...

The capacity of the U.S. to produce ammuntion for the military is far greater then is being used in Afganistan. Far more .223 or 5.56 was produced for and used in the Viet Nam police action and there were NO shortages of primers, powder, bullets, cases, or loaded ammuntion.

Just how much ammo is being used over in the Middle east, how much is being stockpiled, and how much is being diverted to clandestine operations slated for "later"?
 
Well, you can always get 223 somewhere.

The real advantage of 223 is its low cost. Other than that 223 is a normal cartridge. And we all know there has been no surplus 223 for a while.

So, yes the shortage is real.
 
Don't know about loaded ammo but at this very minute a buddy in Mississippi is trying to start loading .223 . He's been dealing for years with MidSouth shooters supply and Natchez shooters . These are big players that move a lot of product and they both have a small quantity of Federal primed brass but absolutely nothing else and they don't know when they get any. They both have Federal , Winchester and Remington .223 brass on thier websites , but they don't have any. Cheaper than Dirt lists it also but they don't have any either. Don't call me on it , call them .
 
michaelsabre said:
Well, you can always get 223 somewhere.

The real advantage of 223 is its low cost. Other than that 223 is a normal cartridge. And we all know there has been no surplus 223 for a while.

So, yes the shortage is real.
Click to expand...

The shortage is very real but is the shortage because the U.S. is using so many cartridges in Iraq? Munnitions contractors being what they are with ready governent contracts would be cranking more than enough ammo out for the military. Remember during the Viet Nam era, .223 supplies to the public never ran low. Something else is happening.
 
I'm probably heading down to the States next week, I'll hit up a gun shop and see what they have stocked up on. It's usually .223/5.56, 7.62 X39 (extremely expensive), .308, 9mm, and .40.

I like to look at all the pretty guns we can't own!!!
 
Well, if there is a "real" shortage it likely has more to do with hording and fear mongering than anything else. OMG, here's a war on! Holy ####, metal prices are through the roof! Given enough excuse, I'd buy more than I needed due to nothing more than fear and having the security of knowing I have lots on hand.

As I mentioned already, anyone who has been in this hobby has heard it all before, especially during the first Gulf War and not so long ago when the word was out that NRCAN was looking to impose stringent restrictions on inexplosive reloading components. Lots of guys stocked up before that ill-conceived notion was birthed.
 
10x said:
Munnitions contractors being what they are with ready governent contracts would be cranking more than enough ammo out for the military. Remember during the Viet Nam era, .223 supplies to the public never ran low. Something else is happening.
Click to expand...

It is no mystery what is going on, the answer has already been provided, in the Institue for Strategic Studies document that was linked earlier.

But the underlying truth was a dwindling war reserve and a reduction of the country’s capability
to produce munitions. The gap between required and funded ammunition rates is very evident
starting in FY92 and continues through FY02. These dates roughly correspond to the end of the
Cold War (realization of the peace dividend) and the ramp up following the terrorists’ attacks of
2001.
The reduction in funding during these years also affected the United States’ ammunition
production capability resulting in a steady decline since the Cold War. Since 1989, there has
been a 68% decrease in the capacity of the munitions industrial base. The number of facilities
mirrors this decline. Government owned facilities fell from 28 to 13, and privately owned
facilities decreased from 163 to 69. The production of small arms ammunition has been
consolidated in a single government owned facility at Lake City Army Ammunition Plant at Lake
City, Missouri.

When the cold war ended, the peaceniks assumed there would be no big wars in the future, and they reduced ammo purchases and consolidated and closed ammo production facilities. The result was a drawdown in war stores, and no capacity to quickly restore it if and when it was needed. There are now a total of only 82 ammunition production lines in the U.S. (probably counting just counting metallic centrefire). During Vietnam, there were probably over 200.

It also states in this document (dated 2005) that over 350 million rounds per year are being purchased from commercial sources. If you don't think this means Remington, Federal and Winchester, it is you with your head up your arse.
 
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