By FRED BONNER
For the Washington Daily News

If you’ve been to the local sporting goods dealer looking to buy some of the more popular ammunition such as .22 long rifle, .380, 9mm, .223, or .308, you’ve probably been disappointed. It seems like about everyone has been about sold out for weeks now and the situation does not seem to be getting any better.
Even shotgun shells for upland hunting which were usually sold by the case were being held to the allocation rate of three boxes to a customer. It sounds like it’s a good time to stock up on birdshot. You’ll probably have to buy them three boxes at a time though.
The same things hold true for certain kinds of guns. Try to find a Ruger 10/22 or even a magazine for this particular rifle and you’ll probably be disappointed again. Even rifles such the usually easy to find Russian Mosin-Nagant bolt-action army rifle (or ammunition for it) and you’ll probably see a dusty place on the floor where cases of these military surplus items used to be.
Blackmarketeers on the Internet are asking unbelievable prices for hard to find types of ammunition or gun accessories. Most Internet sales sites such as Craigs List do not allow firearms to be sold on their site but the sellers have found sneaky ways to disguise their products. Surfers on the net are warned about scams on hard to find products too.
I just returned from a trip to Texas where guns are a way of life to the residents and the story is the same. No matter where you go looking for guns or ammo in America these days and, story is the same.
What is going on here?
Apparently gun owners and “preppys” (Folks who are becoming “prepared” for the worst) are stocking up on guns, ammo, non-perishable food, medical supplies and about anything that they seem to feel might be in short supply if the “S— hits the fan”. It’s no longer any joking matter. These folks are dead serious.
A word of warning is in order for the readers here though. Beware of a lot of unsubstantiated BS that you find on the Internet.
One such rumor had to do with Bank America credit card holders being turned down when they tried to buy guns or ammo with the card. I checked with several sporting goods dealers who held that particular credit card and they said that they were having no problem using the card with their gun purchases.
Another rumor claimed that the mega sporting goods dealer Cabelas was tacking an extra sales tax onto every purchase having to do with gun or ammunition purchases. Supposedly the newly required tax was to cover some of the cost of Obamacare.  Not one dealer that I talked with had heard of this tax.
Several ammunition and firearm manufacturers met in Texas last week to discuss the shortages and released information on where each of them stood in the midst of this shortage. Their reports are not encouraging.
“Smith & Wesson-is running at Full capacity making 300+ guns/day-mainly M&P pistols. They are unable to produce any more guns to help with the shortages”.
“RUGER: Plans to increase from 75% to 100% in the next 90 days”.
“FNH: Moving from 50% production to 75% by Feb 1st and 100% by March 1. Remington-Maxed out”!
“Armalite: Maxed out”.
“DPMS: Can’t get enough parts to produce any more product””.
“COLT: Production runs increasing weekly…bottle necked by Bolt carriers”.
“LWRC:Making only black guns, running at full capacity…can’t get enough gun quality steel to make barrels”.
“Springfield Armory: Only company who can meet demand but are running 30-45 days behind”.
In short the ammunition manufacturers felt that every caliber was now allocated! We are looking at a nation wide shortage of all calibers over the next nine months. All plants are producing as much ammo as possible with 1 BILLION rounds produced weekly. Most of this ammunition is for the military followed by law enforcement. The ammunition allocated for civilians use falls behind military and law enforcement demand.
The outlook for accessories for shooting enthusiast’s guns and reloaders does not sound very encouraging either. Just a few of their short reports are discouraging.

“MAGPUL is behind 1 MILLION magazines, do not expect any large quantities of Magpul anytime soon”.
“All Remington, Winchester , CCI & Federal primers are going to ammo production first. There are no extra’s for reloading purposes… it could be 6-9 months before things get caught up. Sorry for the bleak news, but now we know what to expect in the coming months. Stay tuned, we’ll keep you posted”.
One large wholesaler states that they “didn’t know when they’d be getting anything back in stock, from magazines to rifles to pistols. Manufacturers were running full-bore, but couldn’t come close to keeping up with market demand. It wasn’t just the AR-15s, the AK-pattern rifles, the M1As, and the FALs that were sold out. It really hit me when I realized that the World War-era M1 Garands, M1 carbines, and Enfield .303s were gone, along with every last shell.
“The ubiquitous Mosin-Nagants — of which every gun store always seems to have 10-20 — were gone. I’ve never seen anything like it. Every weapon of military utility designed within the past 100+ years was gone. This isn’t a society stocking up on certain guns because they fear they may be banned. This is a society preparing for war. Barack Hussain Obama, Dianne Feinstein and the rest of the Statists have done more to promote gun ownership than the NRA ever did. Well done, Democrats”.