Are they needed

[degreen]

A little while back I read a thread on how hard it was to find brass, and how ammo manufacturers could not keep up with demand. So I looked at my "Cartridges of the World" book, and was stunned at how many cartridges there are. That's not including all the wildcats and foreign jobs. So are there cartridges that should be discontinued on a large scale to open up more production of the more popular cartridges?

 

[Mikecr]

Yes, by far most cartridges should be dropped, but there is no process to get rid of things still in use, or that someone deems useful..
And who would choose what stays or goes?

 

[RockyMtnMT]

Free market takes care of this.

Steve

 

[Lefty7mmstw]

A little while back I read a thread on how hard it was to find brass, and how ammo manufacturers could not keep up with demand. So I looked at my "Cartridges of the World" book, and was stunned at how many cartridges there are. That's not including all the wildcats and foreign jobs. So are there cartridges that should be discontinued on a large scale to open up more production of the more popular cartridges?

A large part of the not keeping up part is them being afraid of capital expenses incurred adding machinery and labor to make more/ faster... they are afraid demand will recede and leave them holding the check with no way to pay for it...

As to not being able to find brass for many cartridges, many people are afraid to form brass from other cartridges. I do that when necessary and often because I feel like it as it is either tough or expensive to find correct head-stamped brass...

As to them being discontinued, many of the less popular like the wssm's are on a limited run basis lately... they will eventually revert to wildcat...

 

[shaughn]

Last time I talked to someone at Federal they were running 24 - 7 and the less popular were on a limited run, usually while they were refurbing dies and tooling for the in demand cartridges.

The shortage is directly related to panic buying and hoarding, simple as that.