Another Ammo Buying Frenzy?

Here we go again, another ammo buying frenzy evidently is well underway (and please note I did not say definitely underway but the evidence seems to support that such is the case).

BATFE recently announced that it is moving to remove the exemption for 5.56x45mm M855 ammunition as armor piercing ammunition which would in effect make it illegal to manufacture, import or sell within the USA (at least in the commercial market). I got that wonderful news at three different sources:  Knuckledraggin My Life Away, at Nobody Asked Me and at their source: the NRA/ILA. (I obviously was behind the times on that one since the NRA/ILA alert came out this past Friday; I have since resigned-up for alerts from them.)

That news spurred me on to check to see if I could find any available M855 at online retailers. I checked with 17 different online ammo dealers. Almost all of them that I checked were already out of stock although three (3) dealers had it at (one of them appeared to have it but did not list it as M855). In my opinion, all offered it at very over inflated prices – one for as much as about .72 cents per round (which would work out to about $720 plus dollars for 1K rounds). Here are the results of my search for 5.56x45mm M855 ammo, as of 1730 hours, on February 15, 2015:

AIM Surplus sold out of M855 

Able Ammo M855 out of stock

Ammo Man – while they have 5.56x45mm 62g, FMJ ammo, none of it is M855 

Ammo Supply Warehouse out of stock 

Cheaper Than Dirt none in stock although they offer 62 grain 5.56x45 

Classic Firearms – no M855 in stock 

Keep Shooting sold out M855 

Lucky Gunner M855 out of stock 

Midway USA M855 shown as out of stock or temporarily unavailable depending on brand 

Military Shooters no M855 in stock 

Natchez Shooter’s Supplies out of stock M855 

PSA M855 out of stock 

Surplus Ammo - ammo labelled M855 not available in bulk 

U.S.A.C. M855 none in stock 

Some of the above sites were indexed on www.gunbot.net as having M855 in stock within the last few hours prior to my checking the actual sites; however, when I checked with the actual sites they were almost all out of it. A few sites had it in stock but at inflated prices: 

Ammunition Depot had 150 round boxes of Federal American Eagle 5.56 NATO 62 Grain XM855 FMJ Ammo at $67.47 per 150 rounds (about .45 cents per round) see this link.  
 

Cabela’s has Winchester 62 grain, green tip ammo, for $12.99 per box of 20 (about .65 cents per round), see this link. Note: I am not certain if this is actually M855 spec ammo or not but it is shown as 62 grain, green tip.

J&G Sales has, what I think is, the outrageous price of $649.80 for 900 rounds (about .72 cents per round) of Australian Defense Industries M855, see this link.

Good luck finding any at a reasonable price within at least the next month. BATFE is accepting comments on the proposed change up until mid-March. Please see the NRA/ILA article on how to contact BATFE to oppose this change.

 

All the best,

Glenn B