Where’s All The Ammo?

PART 3 | DEALERS

Ammunition sales have been through the roof for the past year, with production lagging very far behind. Firearms retailers are seeking inventory anywhere they can find it, while manufacturers scramble to produce what they can. In this evolving landscape, SI asked five retailers what their inventory looks like now, and what they see coming for the rest of 2021.

1. “It’s a perfect storm.”

Bill Roney has owned The Outdoorsman of Santa Fe in Santa Fe, N.M. for 47 years. His father was the director of sales for Remington, and Roney himself was the assistant to the director of international sales at Remington. He has owned both wholesale and retail companies and has manufactured ammunition himself. All this to say: He’s not a newcomer to the ammunition side of the industry.

“I’ve been in this a long time, and I’ve never seen a situation like this,” Roney said. “We’ve asked all our vendors a lot of questions about what’s going on and the answers we get are the demand is high, raw materials are limited because mines and factories have been closed due to COVID, we’re depending on the importation of brass, steel and copper from China and the U.S. no longer produces any lead whatsoever. All of it has created a perfect storm.”

Shotgun shells for dove and quail are unavailable, according to Roney. Also unavailable are .270, .30-06, .30-30, .300 Win. Mag. and .243. He hasn’t seen any of those calibers in at least six months.

”The panic will go away, normal buying will come back and everything will be strong. I can’t even begin to guess when it will happen; if I knew, I’d play the lottery.”

Francis Misantone, Owner The Bullet Hole Sarasota, Fla.

“In my questions to my vendors I have asked if they can give me any assurance we’re going to get anything by hunting season,” Roney recalled. “Their answer was ‘We can give you no assurance.’”

Going forward, Roney said consumer demand is influenced by too many factors to predict what’s going to happen.
“If availability of product remains limited, then demand is going to continue to be very high,” he predicted.

If manufacturers were suddenly to ship significant amounts of ammunition, however, it would start to satisfy demand and ease consumers’ psychological concerns.

“If this happens, then demand would moderate,” he contends. “But if you’re asking for my clairvoyance, this is what I see: I see our administration announcing their next major project is going to be gun control, and it’s going to result in more fear and uncertainty in the market, and it’s going to cause even greater demand for product. This means manufacturers aren’t going to be able to keep up with it, so there’s still going to be greater demand than there is supply. I think we’re going to see extraordinary demand throughout this calendar year.”

Roney is maintaining open orders for this year to get whatever he can, and is buying ammo from whomever he can, including estates.

“We buy aggressively, and that’s how in the past 10 months we’ve had at least some ammunition to sell,” he noted.

2. “20% of what we normally have.”

At Legendary Guns of the West in Phoenix, Owner Dave LaRue said he keeps thinking the supply of ammunition is going to improve this year, but so far, the situation has remained unchanged.

“We have about 20% of what we normally have,” he stated. “What we do is save ammo; I think we have three cases of 9mm put back right now. We sell customers a box of ammo when they buy a gun. It breaks my heart to do that because the whole point of having a gun is to go out and shoot and learn your gun. We’re doing this on 9mm, .380, .38, .357, .40 S&W, .45 ACP and .45 Long Colt.”

LaRue’s suppliers are keeping him informed about what’s going on, but in general the feeling is not much is going to change any time soon.

“Salesmen want to be upbeat, and they say they’re going to have some stuff for us, but this has been going on for a year,” he said. “I just don’t see an end in sight. I used to say this would be over by now, but now I’m thinking maybe by fall it will be over. I can’t give you a concrete reason to base it on, but I just don’t see any real changes.”

A supplier will call and ask if he wants eight boxes of something, LaRue shared, and occasionally he’ll get a case of ammo, but it’s the most he can get at one time.

“I’ve bought ammunition from people at gun shows, from someone who was going out of business and from customers who bring in ammo boxes that look new and untampered,” he said. “I won’t sell reloads because of the liability, but other than that, I’ll do whatever I can do to get ammunition.”

One thing this country is known for, according to LaRue, is a good ability to meet demand for products.

“I hope the manufacturing capability will increase so there’s more available,” he said. “Demand seems insatiable at this point. I’m not worried about overbuying; at this point I would buy anything I could get.”

3. “Worst I’ve seen it.”

Francis Misantone is one of the owners of The Bullet Hole in Sarasota, Fla. He’s talked to several ammunition manufacturers and gotten basically the same story from all of them: People were laid off because of COVID-19 and primers aren’t available.

“Our inventory levels are horrible,” he shared. “This is the worst I’ve ever seen it. We’re the oldest gun store in the state of Florida; we’ve been open since 1947 and I’ve owned the store since 1982. I’ve never seen it this bad getting ammo.”

Shortages are across the board at Misantone’s store — .380, 9mm, .38, .357, .40 S&W, .45 ACP and .44 Mag. are all dried up.

“The bigger calibers, such as the .44 Mag., were the last things to run out,” he recalled. “Now, even .22 is next to impossible to get. We had plenty at one point. We had thousands of rounds of .22 ammo, but when all the other stuff ran out people started shooting their .22s and it went by the wayside.”

Misantone deals with seven large distributors, and none of them has any ammunition at all.

“They’ve all called me and apologized and said they have nothing at all they can sell me,” he informed. “They say nothing is available right now.”

Some retailers do have small amounts of ammunition, and a few of them are selling it at exorbitant rates.
“To me, that’s not an American helping other Americans. It’s just gouging for the bottom line and I hate it,” Misantone added.

Misantone predicts demand is going to continue to increase because customers have become more fearful as ammunition has gotten harder to find.

“When they see anything, they grab it up,” he noted.

Eventually, Misantone contends panic buying will subside.

“The panic will go away, normal buying will come back and everything will be strong,” he concluded. “I can’t even begin to guess when it will happen; if I knew that, I would play the lottery.”

4. “Prices are turning off some buyers.”

Rex Harrison, one of the owners of Gunnies in Orem, Utah, claimed nothing in his ammunition supply has improved in 2021.

“Despite what CEOs are telling people online,” he noted, “manufacturers are not shipping. They say they’ve shipped more than they ever have before, but I don’t know where it’s shipped to because customer access to it, pretty much nationwide, is nonexistent.”

Harrison has a moderate inventory of odd calibers that are slow movers. Overall, however, he only has about 5% or less of what his normal inventory should be.

“Federal and Remington seem to be nonexistent,” he said. “I was told by a staff member they’re not shipping anything local; they’re filling contract quotas. I don’t know who it would be to, other than the U.S. government, different agencies or foreign shipments.”

”I’ve bought ammunition from people at gun shows, from someone who was going out of business and from customers who bring in ammo boxes that look new and untampered. I won’t sell reloads because of the liability, but other than that, I’ll do whatever I can do to get ammunition.”

Dave LaRue, Owner Legendary Guns of the West Phoenix, Ariz.

Harrison had most of one shipment of ammunition simply disappear.

“We had an invoice come through and we knew the ammo was in the pick and on the truck,” he said. “Then it disappeared. Our invoice got zeroed out and we received two cases out of about 50 we should have gotten.”
Harrison believes the demand for ammunition will continue to increase — with the number of firearms purchases alone indicative of rising demand.

“One executive said, assuming each person who purchased a gun also bought two boxes of ammo, is more than the company would produce all year,” he noted. “Another major manufacturer added they have maybe five years of production in front of them with their current orders. I don’t see those orders going away.”

Harrison’s strategy for the rest of the year has been to place orders with smaller, local manufacturers.

“We’ve placed as many orders as they say is reasonable,” he shared. “They’ve worked with us pretty well at getting us into their queue for orders, and they’re usually first in-first out.”

He also has been looking at what it would take to import ammunition directly.

“We’ve talked to two different importers and gotten some supplies coming,” he said. “Some of it has arrived already; they don’t last very long. But prices are getting close to three times what they were prior to the shortage, and it’s turning some buyers off.”

Although his suppliers are communicating with him, Smith doesn’t think they know much more than he does. One local ammunition manufacturer told him they don’t have a consistent supply of components; they may be able to get bullets, brass and powder, but they can’t get primers.

“There’s a breakdown along the supply chain,” Smith observed. “It’s the same thing I’m hearing from all the manufacturers. There are just a few manufacturers that make primers, and I’ve been told it’s been the hardest thing to get in any quantity.”

Smith is optimistic, however he’s heard there are some big imports of ammunition coming from overseas. Those shipments keep getting pushed back, but everything looks like it’s going to arrive in U.S. ports around June, he said. Whether or not an influx of ammunition from overseas would help U.S. manufacturers catch up with their orders, though, is open to question.

“I was talking to one of the sales managers at Hornady, and he said if he didn’t take another order and everyone actually takes the orders they have placed, he wouldn’t have to take another order for two years,” Smith shared.

At this point, Smith is keeping track of what he has coming in, and he’s prepared to cancel orders if he suddenly has more ammunition than he needs; having a couple million dollars in backordered product is pretty nerve-wracking.

“I’m paying attention to market trends, and I’m depending a lot on my sales reps,” he said. “Things will eventually calm down even when they don’t seem like they’re going to. I’m depending on a lot of people and avenues to let me know when it’s time to start slowing up.”

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