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AMMO MANUFACTURERS WORK TO MEET DEMANDS
Hunting seasons are opening in many states and some hunters are focused
hunting down their ammunition before they even get to the field.
The scarcity of ammunition is frustrating, but hunters and recreational
target shooters should know that ammunition manufacturers are working
24-hours a day, 7-days a week to meet their needs.
The ammunition problem isn’t new. It’s been a market factor for well
over a year and is rooted in the extraordinarily high number of firearms
that were sold over the past 18 months. Firearm sales skyrocketed
starting in March 2020 and set an all-time high record that year,
topping out at 21 million background checks for the sale of a gun. NSSF
surveys revealed that 40 percent of those sales were for first-time gun
buyers, an injection of over 8.4 million new owners. That pace hasn’t
slowed, and through August of 2021 there were another 12.4 million
background checks for gun sales, easily outpacing 2019 and 2018.
Those gun owners need ammunition. If each first-time gun buyer in 2020
bought just one box of 50 cartridges, that equates to 420 million
additional cartridges. For each of the 21 million background checks
total in 2020, that would put a demand of over 1 billion rounds if each
gun owner bought just one box of 50 rounds.
That unexpected, but welcome, increase of gun and ammunition buyers put
ammunition makers to the test. They have been working around the clock
to meet their customers’ needs, but caution that it could take 18-24
months to satisfy this new demand.
In addition to the new gun owners, existing gun owners have been buying
up ammunition at record levels over concerns of scarcity. Ammunition is
frankly being cleaned off shelves just as quickly as it can be stocked.
There is progress, however. Remington Ammunition is back to full
production and other major manufacturers report that they are making
more ammunition than ever before. Customer demand is simply
overwhelming. And while ammunition is returning to shelves, and although
prices and quantities aren’t nearly what they were prior to March 2020,
they are slowly returning to normal.
NSSF urges customers to be patient and explore all their options for
purchasing ammunition for the fall hunting season. Visit local retailers
and explore online ammunition purchases where it is available. Ensure
vendors are reputable and do price comparisons.
This hunting season will require a little extra patience even before
getting into the woods and fields. The rewards, though, are worth the
wait.
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