> I saw a couple shops online that had ammo for handguns/rifles/shotguns
> There was even a shop that sold shells for a 28 gauge shotgun?
http://www.gunsandammo.com/files/2013/03/Ammo-shortage.jpg
During the last panic—when ammo and components were in such short
supply—many people started throwing out conspiracy theories. Ammo
makers were deliberately making less ammo, or hoarding it to drive up
prices. That was not the case; the fact of the matter was avid
shooters and politically astute gun owners were worried about not
being able to get the ammo and components they needed, so they bought
a lot more than they usually did.
So why is it worse this time around?
First, ammunition manufacturers have been running at or near capacity
for at least 10 years. Some of their production is still earmarked for
military contracts, even though the U.S. military’s presence overseas
is being reduced. But the fact of the matter is most ammo makers have
barely recovered from the last ammo-buying panic. Nobody who makes
ammo has had it sitting around getting dusty on their shelves. They
were barely able to keep up with commercial demand before the country
went into panic-buying mode.
If the demand is so great, why aren’t Winchester, Remington and other
companies expanding so they can make and sell even more ammo? It’s not
that easy. First, to expand any business requires a lot of time and
money, and there are never any guarantees. Who’s to say next year
nobody buys any ammo because everybody bought it this year? In a
business as political as the gun and ammo industry, sales spikes are
common.
Hornady gets those questions so much they have a section on their
website that answers a lot of the frequently asked questions.
As to why they can’t just “make more,” Hornady’s response is simple:
“We’ve been steadily growing our production for a long time,
especially the last five years. We’ve added presses, lathes, CNC
equipment, people and space. Many popular items are produced 24 hours
a day. Several hundred Hornady employees work overtime every week to
produce as much as safely possible. If there is any question about that
—please take a tour of the factory. You’ll be amazed at what you see.”
As Hornady’s Neal Emery told me recently, “We are producing as much as
we can, much more than last year, which was a lot more than the year
before, etc. No one wants to ship more during this time than we do.”
That’s not to say ammunition makers aren’t expanding when and where
they can. Black Hills Ammunition recently moved into a much larger
facility. Remington has been toying around with the idea of expanding
their ammunition-making capabilities for quite some time.
“Even though we’re in the middle of panic buying, we don’t see the
demand for ammunition going away any time soon,” Keith Enlow, Freedom
Group’s senior vice president and ammunition manager, told a group of
writers recently.
Remington’s official line on their current ammunition production is as
follows: “Remington is at full capacity at this time in a majority of
categories of ammunition. We are continuing to look at how to increase
capacity and supply our ammunition products to the various channels of
distribution/sales that we support.”
Second, during the last big panic, it was really only the avid
shooters or politically active gun owners who saw a threat and
responded with hoarding—excuse me, “bulk purchasing.” This time, it
appears anyone who owned a gun perceived a threat, and anybody who
didn’t own a gun—but thought it might be a good idea to own one—not
only went out and bought a gun, but as much ammo as they could afford.
That’s another point. Since Obama took office, there have been 65
million NICS checks done. Even if only two-thirds of those resulted in
guns bought, that equates to 40 million new guns in the hands of
consumers. All those new guns need to be fed, in addition to all the
others still in the hands of consumers.
Is there a way to prevent such a shortage in the future? The only way
to sidetrack panic buying/hoarding is to have a huge surplus of ammo
on the market—which would probably drive the price down. Ammunition
makers aren’t keeping supplies in reserve to drive the price up;
honestly, at this point they could charge whatever they wanted—and
they would get it. As Emery told me, “As far as preventing this again,
we don’t have much to comment. We will continue to grow and expand our
capacity to meet high demand.”
I think the current situation is best summed up by what I heard a
clerk in my local gun store say to a customer: “We are not
experiencing a gun or ammo shortage. We are experiencing a customer
surplus.”
Read more:
http://www.gunsandammo.com/2013/04/02/ammo-shortage/#ixzz2SXzf9xx3