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Guess the calibers! (courtesy gunbot.net)

Nick laid it out for you yesterday: the ammo drought rivals Austin’s dearth of H2O for intensity and longevity. According to the forecast, neither will end any time soon. Meanwhile, American entrepreneurialism is alive and well and living on the net. TTAG reader AS gave us the heads-up on gunbot.net, which automatically and electronically scours the Intertubz for right-now-yes-you-can-actually-buy-it-and-get-it ammo. Nearasdammit. Allegedly. In fact, if members of our Armed Intelligentsia could report back on the utility and accuracy of this website, we’d be much obliged. Note: someday this will all seem funny. Not.

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95 COMMENTS

  1. And now it becomes useless unless you camp on the site all day and watch it.
    Too many people already use the site.

    If you don’t get to the sales it lists within 2 minutes they are all sold out.

    Why did this info need to be published.

      • The cat has long been out of the bag on Gunbot. Gunbot has a beep feature when a new deal comes up. I’ve scored numerous times with gunbot and have donated to the operator as a thank-you. Criticizing a blog for blogging. Whatever.

        • Also AR15.com has an ammo thread devoted to finding ammo deals. These deals often pop up just before gunbot. Scored a few times off of that thread.

    • Worse than that, you have to get your order form completely filled out before the stock is gone.

      Sometimes that involves having a drivers license scanned and ready to upload in the limited time.

      Its a full time job to buy ammo.

      • Pro-tips:

        (1) pre-register an account on any sites you’re likely to buy stuff from

        (2) if it’s an established site, pre-register your credit card

        (3) make sure you’re logged in to the site on your PC and phone/tablet — enables you to skip the login step

        (4) know how much you have to spend and don’t hesitate if product becomes available within your budget — if you stop to think about it, you lose

      • Because only the “right” people should have this information.

        Two classes of people. Again. Still.

        • lol classism? Well now we’re all in the class that won’t get to buy ammo off of gunbot. Hope you’re happy

        • Well put. Seems as if elitism can be found everywhere, even here. I just felt it, like a kick in the solar plexus.

          LIBERTY. EQUALITY. Add your own third word. “PRIVILEGE” is verboten. It makes one no different from the folks we’re fighting.

  2. I have used it a few times to check prices and, when you click on the link it does infact take you to the website where the ammo was as advertised. Awesome link for sure and was quickly added to my favorites list!

  3. It works but not for much longer if it keeps adding users due to bloggers.

    I have lots of new 7.62 Commie, 9mm, and .22 bought via this tool. Better seller for shipping SGammo and Sportsmans Guide. Shipping varies a lot between the many sellers on there.

    Stock is only there for a matter of minutes, not easy to use at first.

    http://www.luckygunner.com/22-lr-40-gr-solid-centurion-5000-rounds

    just now, this item, a 5000 round case, 8 cents each, went from 61 cases to zero in 5 minutes.

    • And that wasn’t even an acceptable deal since 22lr should cost about 4c/round.

      Manufacturers haven’t raised their prices, just retailers.
      Just goes to show you the preppers are out in force re: 22lr.

      I wrote a script to watch gunbot. When it finds things I am interested it e-mails and sends me a text. That’s pretty much the only way to use the site and still get some work done during the day.

      • According to rimfirecentral posters, If you need .22, you’re just as well to buy the better .22 on gunbroker.

        The formerly cheap, better known brands like Rem and Fed have the biggest premium right now, since the newbies are just searching for the brands they have heard of before.

      • “And that wasn’t even an acceptable deal since 22lr should cost about 4c/round”

        Yeah, and gas “should” cost a buck a gallon.

      • Rick, Would you be willing to share the script to my email? I’ve been looking for a while now for a site like gunbot and your script would be a huge help to me. Shoot me an email if you get this. I would greatly appreciate it! Happy hunting (for ammo)! 🙂 Jason

    • Bravo Company will send you email notifications when their BCGs are back in stock. I’ve done it 3 times since December.

  4. That’s a Great tool, However the prices are high at most places listed. I used to pay $0.25 a round for 9mm, Now the cheapest even listed is over double that (and its out of stock). 22LR is equally as high. So I can either not go shooting cause I don’t have ammo, Or not go shooting Because I can’t afford it. Awesome.

    • Cry me a river, Dr. elusive. I didn’t go shooting very often during my 10, yes 10 years of college, because I couldn’t afford the ammo, much less the firearms. Now I can stockpile and shoot. I also drove beaters for those 10 years. Now I drive a nice truck. This is the way it works.

      • So basically you’re saying that because you have more money you get to clean out the ammo before anyone else? The rest of the poor slobs should just suck it up and work harder? The “I got mine, too bad for you buddy” attitude will be the death of this country some day.

        Some guys run around, paying ridiculous prices to hoard ammo even though, because they make a lot of money, they’ll probably always be able to find it somewhere. The idea of “gee 2000 more primers is enough for a while, maybe I’ll leave the last box” or “do I really need to buy ALL the .40 to add to my stash?” never even crosses their mind.

        Incidentally, I do make a lot of money and drive a nice car, not that it matters, and I DID leave a box of primers and most of the ammo on the shelf. You’re welcome, random person that bought them.

        Enjoy shooting your stash and the knowledge that those guys you priced out of the market may just quit shooting and stop caring about YOUR 2A rights enough to support them.

        • You can also cry me a river, Raw-toe. Are you going to call me a “hoarder” when a future food shortage occurs because I have the foresight to have 6 months of food and a water purifier put away? Because I have a generator? Or two.

        • Even worse, I recieved a call from a client the other day. We were just catching up, then tells me a old FBI agent/buddy left him a duffel bag full of ‘FBI Duty Ammo’ and a shit load of tactical recoil slugs… So I ask if he would part with a box, you know since he just got a duffel bag full for free and was talking up a storm about this stuff… Nope.

          Next time, keep it to yourself.

  5. NO! This site was supposed to stay a (relative) secret! Geez can’t a guy get a line a little surplus every once in awhile…

  6. gunbot has been great to me. Good deals sell out fast, but if you keep the website up on your screen and select the notify checkbox, you can get in on some really good deals (based on today’s prices).

  7. RF,

    I know you’re in the business of reporting and sharing to help everyone, but in your altruism, you may have inadvertantly helped turn this site into another virtual Wal-Mart shelf, perpetually bare, with a bunch of hand-wringing preppers and hoarders hiding just around the next aisle, waiting for the shuffle of feet against decades-old linoleum, ready to fight to the death over every last round.

    But , thanks for the tip. Just scored 2 boxes of XTC for 19.99 each. I’ll take that, since nothing else out there is lower priced right now (and I’ll be DAMNED before I give CTD another cent).

    And for clarification, I <3 TTAG. You guys are the shit.

    -Bear

      • Nailed it. Funny how it also allows people to self-select for reporting on yet another un-monitored data base about their interests and activities.

        If I wanted a defacto gun registry this is *EXACTLY* something I would do.

      • More like ‘off target’…
        As mentioned above, the publicity will bring the speculators and mad-preppers to the site, which will deplete the stocks quicker and dilute the usefulness of the site. Also as mentioned above, people are already writing scripts to peruse the site and notify them. When you find a good fishing hole, just because you don’t publish it on the interwebz does not mean you are against other people finding and using it, if they find it on their own…

        • Information wants to be free. The internetz just speeds things up. Maybe you’d welcome temporary ISP outages in every area but yours so you can (i) get the notice, and (ii) put in your order.

          In fact, let’s keep people in the dark. It makes things so much easier*.

          * Makes people so much more compliant.

      • Exactly. But that’s not “elitist” or “two standards”. No sirree.
        FROG those other shooters here. ME DESERVE AMMO MORE.

  8. Gunbot is openly discussed on ar15.com’s ammo availability thread, so I don’t think it was a big secret or anything.

  9. What we have here is the great ammunition bubble of 2012-13, and it will end up like all bubbles — the last guy standing after the music stops will take huge losses from his speculative purchases. At some point the ammo speculators are going to run out of money and greater fools to sell it to. They will end up selling that $50 brick of Remington Golden Bullets for $10. When will this happen? Probably by the end of the summer if not sooner. Just like the Tech bubble of 1997-2000 and the following Housing bubble the day of reckoning for the ammo speculator is inevitable. The more people who figure this out the sooner the collapse will come. It is in our best interests to make sure that the speculators get the word that someday they will run out of other fools and be left holding the bag.

      • Nothing, Bubbles are a part of it. Human greed knows no end until it gets punished by the market.

        See: “Manias, Panics, and Crashes: A History of Financial Crises.” By Charles Kindleberger.

        • I think there have been a few attempts to disconnect supply and demand by introducing artificial barriers (e.g., constrained supply a la OPEC, artificial demand stimulation a la solar energy tax breaks and subsidies). You can check to see how those have worked but I see nothing wrong with letting this play out.

          Anybody who wants to be altruistic can take a different approach. Maybe set up an ammo trading site for people that can’t afford the current pricing premiums — sort of like a Food Bank. Consider having limited purchase quantities for people that meet a whatever criteria you deem important (e.g., no welfare). Basically, create an avenue for economically disadvantaged people to continue exercising their RKBA.

          Gun rights are civil rights!

      • Capitalism is great, as long as you are the one with the money and the power…

        When you’re an average joe working 50-60+hrs a week with a wife, kids, car payments, mortgage…just trying to get by…not so much sometimes…

        I do truely hope that the speculator and hoarders take a good hit when the market drops again.

        • Don’t waste your anger on “evil speculators” & “hoarders”. It’s just regular people responding in standard panic-mode to a false crisis engineered by your progressive ‘betters’.

          The best thing we all can do use this panic environment as a microcosm for what a larger, real panic will look like. Replace “ammo availability” with:
          1) clean water
          2) fuel
          3) antibiotics

          When those things become unavailable, we’ll see what a *real* panic looks like. And you damn sure better have some ammo when that happens.

        • Julius Nyerere to Jomo Kenyatta:

          “Capitalism is a man-eat-man system.”

          Jomo Kenyatta to Julius Nyerere:

          “Socialism is a man eat nothing society.”

        • Of course without capitalism, your “average joe” would be working 80 hour a week while the wife stands in line for a loaf of bread and 3 potatoes and would be living in a 3 room apartment with his family, his in-laws, and his wife’s 3rd cousin. Forget about the car payment, you can walk or ride the bus. Cars are for the “important” people.

        • I don’t consider more than the quantity of ammo necessary to fill the magazine on my self defense firearms a “necessity”. Plinking is a luxury, just like owning cars and eating anything more than beans and rice.

      • I personally have a number of problems with it, but will keep the bathwater, because I’m pretty attached to the baby.

    • You can’t directly compare this ammo situation with financial markets. The only things they have in common are rising prices and human emotions, but there’s way more variables involved here. Financial markets are generally a zero-sum game….someone’s win is someone’s loss. Not so with bullets….ammo is totally expendable. Either you stocked up cheap, or you didn’t. Just turn to simple history as a guide regarding ammo instead.

      Basically there were pre-9/11 prices, and pre-Sandy Hook prices. Both were sea-changing events that established new higher price levels. Elections can be included but they only had temporary impacts. Those who waited 10+ years ago for ammo to drop back to pre-9/11 prices…never happened. So what are the chances of ammo coming back to pre-Sandy prices??………

      • Not all financial markets are zero sum. Futures and commodity market are. In the latter you are placing a bet a price movements with someone who thinks they will move in the opposite direction. Stock and bond markets can be positive sum games. I buy at 25 and sell to you at 35. You collect dividends and hang on to the stock for 20 years and sell it at the equivalent price of 100. We both won.

        Markets are markets. Someone who buys ammunition at an inflated price in order to sell it at a higher price is doing the same thing that any commodities speculator is doing. You can even short sell ammo if you expect the market to collapse. There are no exceptions to the law of supply and demand.

        • Those scenarios are too specific. Like I said, “generally” zero sum. The majority of people don’t buy ammo to resell like traders. Ammo doesn’t throw off dividends. If I shoot the ammo, it’s lost. If you shoot it instead, it’s still lost. Totally expendable. Doesn’t matter who bought it low or high, to keep or resell, …..someone’s gonna shoot the ammo.

        • Most people don’t buy ammo to speculate but a lot ammunition is being purchased for speculation. Because many retailers like Dicks don’t raise their prices to reflect supply and demand it has created an arbitrage situation. I can go buy a box of 500 rounds of Golden Bullets for 25 bucks at Dicks and then sell it to someone else in the parking lot for 50 bucks. We would all be better off if Dicks sold the box for 35 bucks and allowed the market to clear. Dicks is afraid that if they raise the price then folks like you will call for a boycott because they are price gouging.

          Note: Prices are for illustration only

        • So you honestly think, with a straight face, that this ammo “bubble” will crash, and prices will be normal again pre-Sandy Hook? Then wait it out and godspeed.

        • I have a pretty good track record. Pulled out the market in 1999 and 2007. So yeah, the market will eventually crash. The panicked hoarders will eventually run out of money and space and the speculators banking on panicked buyers to make a profit will lose their market just like the real estate market.

    • We are nearly one year past your prediction.

      I suggest you research the topic of a fundamental shift of the demand curve to the right.

  10. lol everyone with their panties in a twist like this site was some sort of secret literally every ‘where can i find ammo’ post on reddit has this link as the top comment

  11. Wait, so LuckyGunner was selling Tula .223 55 grain for 80 cents per round, and not only did someone pay that absurd price, but it SOLD OUT? It’s gotten much worse than I thought.

        • Turn, turn, turn. There’s a certain time and place for price controls. F’rinstance, say the price of a loaf of bread gets so high via, ummm, “capitalism” that only the top 1% are able to buy. In such cases, a remedy is the correct remedy.

          You don’t want middle-class people starving, right? You don’t want to have to sell your car to buy something to eat. RIGHT?

  12. Been using it a couple weeks. Amazing how fast ammo comes and goes.
    Really have to pay close attention but you can get ammo if you’re quick.

  13. you f^ckers.

    seriously.

    this is why you cannot have nice things.

    thank you for f^cking over people I know that are novice shooters and were able to find ammo so that they can learn because of this tool.

    Dont worry about that now toolbags. just clean the mother f^cker out and double the price on armslist. Its all good

    …………………./´¯/)
    ………………..,/¯../
    ………………./…./
    …………./´¯/’…’/´¯¯`·¸
    ………./’/…/…./……./¨¯\
    ……..(‘(…´…´…. ¯~/’…’)
    ………\……………..’…../
    ……….”…\………. _.·´
    …………\…………..(
    …………..\………….\…

    • Someone might need to go to anger management class.

      /jk

      The truly unfortunate part is that you’re frustrated with fellow gunnies instead of .gov regarding ammo purchases. Divide and conquer. The Jedi mind tricks are working.

      • the only thing special about me is that i actually purchased ammo in large enough quantities to hold off until this bullshit ends. Every shooter worth his salt did.

        Its ultimately a free market, but you are ultimately screwing over new shooters and you know it. That is what pisses me off the most about this.

        I call this entire situation the “Chinese AP conundrum”

  14. This is crazy. 30 Seconds after Gunbot posts 22LR for sale at JGSales.com, I’m already adding to cart. 30 seconds after that, the site is down. I think gunbot crashed the site.

    • Welcome to the new Progressive Paradise. Somewhere, Obama is laughing his ass off as he lines up his next putt.

      • Went to my local range yesterday. A 50-count box of CCI stingers retails for $15.99!!! Plus tax?!?!

        Ha! Ha! Jokes on you, Obama! The dollar has lost 80% of its purchasing power in the last 20 years!

        Last one in the poor house is a rotten egg!

  15. Look at what ONE tragedy and a few politicians did to the ammo and firearm market. Now just think if this was the fuel or food crisis and how quickly that would go down hill.

    This country is sitting on a fine wire… just waiting for next breeze to blow us into the abyss.

    • +1 on the abyss. Anyone that isn’t collecting the basics of beans and rice, water, ammo, guns and band-aids at this point has no one but themselves to blame later. A small supply of the basics is pretty inexpensive. You were warned.

      • I agree, J&D. Preparation is cheap right now for what really matters (as you mentioned above.) But, be prepared for “Beans&RiceBot.com”; and, I have my tongue only partially in my cheek.

  16. Another thread that sometimes beats gunbot is at calguns.net. Sure it’s only Californians using, but for instance there is usually 800 to 4000 users on their site, depending on time of day. They also have private arms sales forum, and another for ammunition. This is in addition to the ‘Deals, Sales, and Coupons’ thread.

    For instance it is late night now on west coast and there are this many reading the following threads in the forum.

    Private Firearms sales thread : 559
    Private Firearms parts sales thread: 205
    Private Ammo and Reloading components sales thread: 140
    Deals Sales Coupons thread: 120

    And there are over 2000 users altogether in the forum, plus additional ‘guests’

    P.S. if you sell on Gunbroker and do not ship to California you have far fewer bids on all your auctions!

  17. FYI just left the site found plenty of ammo @a fair price.Put your BIG BOY pants and f–king deal with it. With out ammo your wepon is a club. By what you can while you can along with other if you will ….preper supplies. Rely on yourself and only yourself

  18. Good post about realtime tracking of In-Stock Ammo. Actually, I have come across this website with the help of the search engine. I just visit Gunbot.com for take participate. So, finally i have created account into Gunbot.

    Now confuse id that how can i add ammo deals? I stuck at this point. Can anyone help me?

    We (Gun Holsters Unlimited) are one the online retailer of holsters, guns, ammo and accessories. I have also contact to support, but still i could not get any reply from help center.

    Help me! I am waiting for your valuable reply.

    Thanks,
    Arthur Rouse

      • Hello Sam,

        I have checked you website ammodatabase.com, but i can not find myself (gunholstersunlimited.com).

        How much time it will be taken to add me in your database?

        I am waiting for your valuable reply.

        Thanks
        Arther Rouse

      • Hello Sam,

        How Are you? Hope you are fine.

        I have one question…Still we have not getting any single visit from ammodatabase.com.

        is there any issue?

        Can you please check it out?

        if you don’t mind,,, let me know about Gunbot.net

        How to be list Gun Holsters Unlimited?

        I am waiting for your valuable reply

        Thanks
        Arthur R.

  19. If everyone would quit buying for a week and quit buying from ammo re-sellers you might see some relief. The thing people do not realize is ; we are the ones who set the price. Quit paying outrageous prices and stick to your guns. (pun intended) All you are doing is stockpiling anyway. Just relax for a while.

  20. Stop wasting your money on retailers and load your own. The retail market for everything but 22lr will die! The first rule of capitalism is buy low sell high. Noone makes a cent off any stock or commodity when its rolling, only when its struggling.
    Quit complaining about basic market fluctuation and make it work for you. Don’t be sucked in by panic buying. SHTF & prepper nuts will be the first to be eaten anyway cause they’ll have all the stock. Don’t listen to that B.S.! Safety in numbers is what survives, not “lone wolves”. Like many others here have mentioned, you should be more concerned about clean water than anything else, without it we’re toast!! So ride this trend out and make friends, you might need them some day. And by the way, RELOAD dummies!

  21. Hey Gunbot,
    Thanks for the realtime comparisons. It lets me see which one of the suppliers is scalping us. I will remember this when ammo is plentiful again! I shoot NRA silhouette with an Anschutz 1712.that loves Eley and Wolf.
    Lawrence

  22. I like gunbot, but they don’t regulate dishonest merchants.

    They advertise a low price for 20 rounds, but then you find out that it only applies to 1000 round purchases.
    They advertise a low price for ammo, but then you find out you must join a “club”.
    They advertise a low price, but never have anything in stock, they just want to draw you to their site.
    And finally, the dirtbags who advertise a price that is NEVER ever seen on their site, they are just trolling for suckers.

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