Yep, mining companies are making record profits. There may even be a little cash left over for them to pay what they owe under the CERCLA for the mess they left in various places in the US.

The rising price of ammo hasn't "gone unnoticed" (as the article says) at most firearm forums.

Of course the war explains a lot, but I get the sense that there's a lot more non-military hoarding going on than people realize. Having thousands of rounds of ammo at home is surprisingly not uncommon.

Well, I don't know about you, Chris, but I am frankly sick to death of the owners of belt fed Class III firearms and their bitching about surplus and new ammo prices and availability. Those 1919 owners (and now there are semi versions, too) shot up all the .30-06, then they bought 7.62 NATO conversion kits and shot up all the 7.62 NATO, they bought 7.92 conversion kits and shot up all the 8mm, and now the dirty scum are converting their 1919s to Russian 54R so they can shoot up all of it. I love machine guns, but geez guys, give the rest of us a break!

So who can blame the owners of a few lowly Mosin-Nagant rifles for trying to hoard what surplus 54R that's left? I myself only have one 8mm Mauser rifle, but I bought over 1500 rounds of surplus Turk just so I would have plenty of ammo when I retire and have time to go shooting once in a while. I'm trying to do the same for 54R.

Beltfed machine gun owners can blame you, that's who. If it wasn't for owners of cheap "Saturday Night Special" surplus long guns, beltfeds wouldn't have such a hard time finding ammo in quantity. BUT NOOOOO. Selfish, "once in a while" shooters instead prefer to nickel and dime the ammo supply for no other reason than to be able to put a thumb in the eye of a shooter who has a rifle that "once in a while shooters" are envious of.

I think I'll order a few pallets of 54R now.

"Well, I don't know about you, Chris, but I am frankly sick to death of the owners of belt fed Class III firearms"

I should be so lucky...

I have to fire my .223 one trigger pull at a time.

Mr. Y:

Even seen any pics of "The War Wagon"? It is a trailer, see. A big white trailer that has doors on both sides that raise up. There are like 5 water cooled belt feds mounted to the floor. Maxims, Vickers, Brownings, the works. After a while, the operators can't even walk on the floor of the trailer for all the empty brass piled up by the 1000 count.

The funny part is that quality surplus 7.62 NATO (South African, Aussie, Portugese) has gotten so expensive that it is literally too valuable to shoot.

Oh yeah, I have a legal machine gun, but it ain't a belt fed. And frankly, I don't want one.

Yes, oil up the reloading press, but have you tried to buy any primers lately?

Bare shelves at Sportsmen's Warehouse, Midway says "out of stock no backorder."

The reloading press won't do much good without primers. Powder is also getting hard to find. It's not that it's expensive, it just isn't available.