We have a chain of employee-owned general stores up here in the NW called Bi-Mart. Their prices on ammo are usually very good. (If you live near one, you'll already know this, but do support them; they do their best to bring good prices for sporting goods, fishing suplies, etc.).
http://www.bimart.com/stores/index.aspx
Their ammo prices are basically so good that even though I have direct access (FFL, WA St. Biz & Dlr licences) to the distributors, those guys really don't give me such hot deals, and by the time I pay the UPS Haz Fee and shipping, I just buy most of mine, even for re-sale, from my local Bi-Mart . However, as you have all seen, the availability of ANY ammo is extremely limited! I now get calls from folks all over the state asking me if I have 22LR ammo. At first I thought they were kidding, I mean, this is America, for Crystzsake! No frickin' 22 ammo?
The various conspiracy theories are, mostly I think, unfounded, though I was pretty sure of them myself for a while when the ideas of serial-numbering bullets, each individual flake of powder in your loads, and also tattoo'd on your brain-stem, plus of course, serial-numbering ALL McDonald's hamburger patties AFTER they've been cooked, so as to avoid obliterating the special ink by hot oil;
sigh...
Anyhow, I called a friend @ CCI, who as you guys all know, make almost ALL of the primers in this land, and he said that our two wars have pretty much used up even the most surplus surplus of our mil-surplus ammo, and that the military is eating up all new orders. That doesn't account for un-availablility of .380, I sincerely hope
[!!! plink, plink, die, Taliban... plink...] but hoarding certainly does, and good for all of you, I feel. Now at least it's in the right hands, I say!
My local Bi-Mart manager of sporting goods attended a company meeting last week and they had a presentation from their distibutors (Northwest Sports I think?) who said that right now WalMart has placed a MASSIVE order for primers, ammo, etc., that CCI & others are all working on, due in their stores beginning in about 4 months. Wow you say, 4 months? By then we'll all be dry as wooden gods, as my sainted grandfather used to say. I mean ammo-wise.
But it does seem to be mostly hoarding. My few suggestions now:
1. Save your spent centerfire cases, even for your .32ACP. If you don't want 'em, send them to me. I'll keep them; I think for
many reasons we'll become a nation of conserving hoarders from now on. And justifiably so!
2. When we do get a return to some ammo availability, set aside,
at a reasonable rate of acquisition soz we don't continue to drive prices off scale, a few extra boxes every month. Oh say, 4 - 5 bricks (1000 rounds) of 22 standard, plus some high-Vs, and even a few boxes (say 200 rounds) of the 22 shotshell stuff. Good in a plinker handgun for pests or for getting a few starlings for dinner that evening.
("Honey! Guess what I brought home from the fields tonight? Start up the Barby, honey; these'll go good with that home-brewed hootch I made last winter! Yee-Hahhh!".)
3. Really seriously consider getting into re-loading if you're not already. Don't buy another rifle, but rather a good Redding or RCBS or Lee or whatever, press, dies and powder scale. all for about, oh $350 for most everything you'll need.
Yes, I'd say to get into it properly right now, with a bit more than the basics, and with enough to reload for, say, .223, 30-06 or 7 Rem Mag or whatever, plus for your .45ACP
(good on yah, BTW, for THAT choice!), 9mm
(a bit whimpy, but a widely available mil-round), and perhaps the .380
[plinkkity plink... "Ouch!" says the thuggo as he advances his 345 lb meth-soaked bulk into your living room... "Ouch! Stoppit or I'll hurtcha!"
Now, my .45 auto; I don't think he'll even get the last part of"Ouch" out, do you?].
4. Consider getting one of those hideous all synthetic black-powder rifles
(in-line ignition, plastic plastic plastic, etc.) or perhaps you might already have a nice Pennsylvania long rifle, flintlock. In which case you are a made man, buddy! A few basic supplies, and you can even actually make blackpowder, though you need to do a bit of reading. For right now, you can shoot a
lot with a couple of pounds of Pyrodex, Triple 7 or even the real stuff. I load 45-70s and 45-90s with black powder and hit stuff out at 1000 yards!
5. You can also load pretty good handgun loads
(my 45 Long Colt with some FFG will completely perforate a black bear no problem, or drop a deer ditto, not an issue). You can cast a few bullets with very little equipment
(save, find or hoard /buy old wheel weights from your local tire store, old spent bullets and brass you can sift out at the base of the local target berm, etc.).
6. Buy yourself enough 12 or 20 ga to last you for a while, for possible hunting or defense use. (12 ga is always going to be the cheapest; 410 is oddly way more expensive...). Hard to argue with that fabulously well-known clackity-clickity-clack of a Rem. 870 being cycled in the other side of a darkened room! Add to it a barrel flashlight/ green laser and a SWAT extension tube, and you've got yourself
"the best durned goose or duck gun you can imagine, sonny!"
7. Also consider getting a good air rifle and practicing with that. Great for your shooting skills, hand-eye coordination, etc., and you can also obtain your quail and other small game without so much as ruffling any other being's feathers or ears in the surrounding area!
The situation will (might) change in the next year of two, and the nutball element in the White House
(you listening, Herr Holder?) 
will only be firmly grabbing that hot "third rail"
if they try to disarm or excise-tax all of the ammo and supplies legally used by the law-abiding citizens of this grand country. Can you imagine little "Monolito" down at the gang drug house trying to set up his Dillion progressive press to load up a few? Only the law-abiding, in general, are reloaders!
Which also brings to mind the need for increased security for all of your possessions. Buy a good safe suitable for your firearms and ammo. Keep 'em in there along with your cameras, ID, the spare refined plutonium for that little science project you're working on...
Well, endure it all, guys. When this all turns around, you'll probably never let your guard down again, and will always have a goodly supply of whatever you think you'll need. Keep set aside your social-sitch minimums, and then only use what you can replace beyond that. I'm actually considering, at age mid-early 60s, acquiring almost everything for re-loading I'll ever need for the rest of my life. If things get real cheap
ever again, then you can carefully hoard up for you and your kids! Hey, it's either four Big Macs & a gallon of carboanate sugar water for the family, or two boxes of 22 ammo or 12 ga stuff! Think about which is more important!
Oh, and also, do remember, and remind 'em later, which of your once-trusted dealers are now happily gouging you on pricing. They really didn't pay $55 for that box of CCI 200 primers; they're only just profiting off your current misfortune when they are asking and getting $75 per box. (Heard about that from a guy who stopped in to a big sporting goods staore in Tacoma last weekend. Amazing what greed will do, huh! And I thought we were a team!) They probably paid about $14/1000 wholesale. Remember the good guys!
Oh, and hey, thanks, Barry, for bringing this into clearer focus for us all. No-one's gonna grab our stuff for nefarious reasons, no matter how socially progressive you might think it is!
Keep on shootin' fellas and ladies!
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FYI & Update From Washington State
