It would be nice to know they are trying to meet demand.
There's this war thing and all by the way.
Police departments around the country are having a hard time getting ammo too.
ATK, Alliant Tech Systems, runs the Lake City ammo plant as well as Federal and Speer.
They made about 1.4 billion rounds for military contracts in 2006 (the last year they have reported stats for).
They announced that they are running their plants 24/7, and are building more production facilities.
Rumors surface now and then that they have even scavenged equipment from the civilian plants to increase the production output for the military.
Even in non mil calibers there is commonality of materials and if it's being diverted to meet the military needs first, there's plenty of reason for shortages.
Add to that all the increased training by the myriad of LE agencies post 9/11 and you can see quickly how ammo use has gone through the roof.
Lake City for example made 425 million rounds in 2002, now up to 1.4 billion and climbing, in just 4 years. I would not be surprised to see the 2008 numbers approaching 2 billion rounds. That was the DoD goal.
That's a LOT of ammo. Lake City supplies about 80% of the military small arms ammo.
Then you have guys like Black Hills making the specialty stuff, Mk262Mod1 and the like. These factories are cranking out ammo at an unprecedented rate, it's just not going to the civilian market for the moment.
Due to reported shortages, General Dynamics was awarded a contract to make ammo as well. From an October 2005 report from DoD:
* The goal is for production of as much as 2.0 billion rounds of small-caliber ammunition annually.
* The first 1.2 billion rounds of ammunition each year will come from ATK Lake City
* Followed by an additional 300 million rounds from a second source.
* The next 300 million rounds increment each year will again come from ATK Lake City
* If the Army needs an additional 200 million rounds, it will be provided by ATK and/or the second source.
General Dynamics wound up being that second source. GD was already making 20 and 30mm rounds.
It will be interesting to see if the Obama massive troop reductions cause a drop in small arms ammo usage. Might be a boon for us civilians as the ammo companies try to find new customers if their biggest one stops or slows its' buying.