Whether you just bought your first firearm or you have been shooting for years, chances are you have been affected by the ammo shortage.
If you had the foresight to grab a pallet or drum, you get a gold star!
I’ve got plenty as I have always tried to keep a “healthy” stock. But visits have become much more purposeful…I go with a plan and 50rds (ish, sometimes a few more depending on performance), and I’ve reduced my range shooting visits to 1x per moth and primarily my carry weapon (saving the rounds from the other weapons). Rifle I limit myself to 10rds…every other month.
Although this past weekend I did take the .22 rifle out with the boys (7) on our backpacking trip and let them do some plinking…that was a few hundred rounds but it was for a good cause. 
Before the fiasco of Covid, and all of the other “events” associated with it, range time was 4-5 times per month. That abruptly ceased once ammo became limited, and I had a 3-month lull between range visits. Just recently was able to spend a little bit of time there a few days ago, having built-up my on-hand supply to minimal levels. Buying small qtys of ammo when I find it, and hanging on to it.
I managed to store enough surplus ammo that I’m not hurting. Yet. However, I have still altered my training. I’m not shooting any of my SD ammo at the range. I know how it works through my gun, and various batches of the same ammo have been consistent over the past couple of years. I am reducing the number of rounds per range trip. Essentially, I am working to stay at my current level of training and accuracy. Were ammo more available and less expensive, I would work toward more incremental improvements in certain areas.
But, that’s me.
My personal experience in purchasing ammo…their is no ammo shortage. You just have to be willing to pay the price.
Military and police forces have no problem obtaining ammo,so it’s out there. Manufacturers are holding out as ammo became a bargaining tool for currency. (Russian ammo manufacturing seems to be endless) I have no problem obtaining .45 acp fmj’s and HP’s, 12g in any shot/length and .223/.556 in any grain/jacket. Averaging 500/1000 rds to my door once a month.
Hasn’t impacted my personal training one bit other than getting range time and local gun store/range. Due to covid the range is restricted to every other lane allowed to be open and one guest allowed w shooter. Both have to be housed at same address. Still,not too awful bad getting range time. I go about once a month no matter the circumstances of the planets issues. One hour on my .45 and AR. Bout 100 rounds each.
My range ammo is this crappy Russian Tulammo steel jacket .45 Its complete garbage so im not losing anything by using it ant range, It’s nowhere near my everyday carry ammo. Shoots the same,just dont eject very well. (Damn steel heel swell)…anyway…PewPew
I’ve done a lot more dry firing with Mantis and a DryFireMag with a laser snap cap. It has helped me to focus on my trigger work to ensure it’s as smooth as possible. I combine this with a shot timer on my phone and I can practice draw and shoot accuracy/speed at home.
My range time didn’t change. I switched to .22LR and all stays the same.
Classes with Instructor looks a little different now. I’d say 75% of the time is dry firing, learning mechanics, checking details and correcting mistakes. It works for me. Once I know what to expect from 9mm handgun during live fire, I don’t need to actually learn and train everything using live rounds.
The only thing I’m missing now is “Vegas Drill”.
I still use it, but I’m cheating a little loading half of magazines.
I’ve adapted by paying more for ammo, when I can find it.
I have enough for the three handguns. Can I go get a couple boxes I want to twice a week and I still go to the range every other week
I’ve done a lot more dry firing with ELMS Laser (expert laser marksman system ) and use a shoot timer for drawing from holster and shoots fired.
I have resorted to predominantly dry fire training. The upside of this, besides economy, is I have been able to focus on skills I cannot train on at the local ranges. The two main areas I feel I have improved on is drawing both stationary and moving. The other area that has improved is acquiring sights quickly with both eyes open.
Lots of dry firing!!! From what I have heard, my CZ75c has an sensitive firing pin, so when I dry fire, I take the upper off. This way 1. no way I can n.d. and 2. prevent damage to the firing pin
Not quite sure I understand this - do you mean you basically field strip it and dry fire the frame with no slide as well as no sights? If so, you might consider loading snap caps instead to maintain the weight and sights as well as protecting the sensitive firing pin. I would also be concerned about damaging whatever part of the frame is stopping the hammer. My apologies if I misunderstood.
https://www.lymanproducts.com/brands/a-zoom
The ammo gods smiled on me Saturday. I started pulling gear out for November bird hunting and found a box of 200 9mm Federal range ammo I had forgotten about. I must have picked up the box when I bought shotgun shells last year, the $36 price tag brought a tear to my eye.
Well so, I’m mainly working on learning my trigger right now, its a hammer fire, so I can still dry fire with out the upper, but I do have some dummy/dry fire rounds coming in soon!!!
I had enough normal ammo stocked up at the beginning of this ammo shortage so I continued going to the range and just placed as many backorders as I could. Luckily, I never had to pay GB prices for 9mm ammo. If anything, I am probably going to the range more these days since there is no waiting list for lanes.
I also restarted reloading, which I haven’t done in 20+ years. Getting a used press and components was challenging, but I used my 9mm stock to trade for almost everything I needed. I also sold some 9mm to friends and I was able to use that money to buy primers way before they hit the $0.10/primer prices. So I’m good to go for range ammo for the next couple of years.
So far, the only thing impacted is how much SD ammo I use at the range. I still shoot the chambered SD round at the range, but did not do my planned 6-month refresh of rounds in the magazine by shooting them at the range. I took all the rounds out of my EDC mag, inspected them, but put them all back into a new mag (to rest the springs on the old mag). If the rounds in my EDC mag hit the 1 year mark, I’ll probably remove them and cycle fresh rounds in. However, I will probably keep the rounds in a box for now.
I have ammo too but, when I go to the range, I buy their ammo and hold on to the extra rounds. I buy the 556 100 rounds and usually only shoot half of them at the most. I do the same with the other rounds too, so, I can save my own ammo and still shoot.
I’m no where near out of ammo but I am doing alot more dry firing and using G Site. I got a great deal on .45 just before Covid-19 (range) but I am getting at my minimums of what I will not go below.
I had quite a stockpile going into the shortage,. I feel my inventory is adequate. I am still shooting two to three times a week, but I am limiting my formal trainings to every other month, since they were consuming 500+ rounds depending on the course objective.
After work, I go a little out of the way on the way home to stop at three different stores to buy ammo when available. Even with the “shortage” I am still finding ammo cheap and available, albeit in sporadic supply. With shooting at least 150 rounds/wk, I am still net positive and continuing to increase inventory. Thankfully I am still finding 9mm FMJ at prices comparable to early spring prices. I have been fortunate enough that my local range is allowing me to still purchase bulk ammo if needed at extremely reasonable rates.