I’ve spent the better part of two (2) days tracking down ammunition for my PD. Here is the outcome.
The Federal distributor (one of the largest on the east cost) has no .40 ball or 165 HST hollow point. Although he has several tens of millions of rounds on order, Federal cannot give an accurate delivery date. The usually quote forty-five (45) days from the time of order. If a Federal agency needs what he has on order they get priority. The 5.56 availability is even worse. For training, all he has if 50gn HP rounds in stock. Agency price id $81.00 per 500 rounds. When the last of this is gone they may be no more practice ammo available for an indefinite time. Price on this particular round is going to increase into the $120.00 rang on 1/1/07. XM193 is non-existent with no anticipated delivery date. When (if) it is available the price increase is expected to be over 85%. (I know Pat, its not real ammo!) He had plenty of the bonded SP rounds available @ $160.00 for a 200 round case.
The availability of Winchester .40 is better. I was able to land 15 case of white box 165 gn from the State contract vendor. Agency price is $130.00 until 1/1/07. The new price has not been set. No Win .45 or 5.56 ball. The factory quoted late 2007 for delivery of additional 5.56 ammunition. Again, a hefty price increase is expected.
The dealer for Remington had no .40 or 5.56 ball. The .40 was quoted as 90 to 120 day delivery. He actually laughed when I asked about the 5.56 ammo. He could order it be could not estimate a delivery date.
In 23 years of LE work this is the first time that we cannot get ammunition! How is availability is your area?
Mike