Smith & Wesson CEO gives grim insight
into future of ammo shortage
BizPac Review,
by
Vivek Saxena
Original Article
Posted By: Imright,
6/20/2021 5:43:31 AM
An ammunition shortage that began during the coronavirus pandemic and the heated 2020 election reportedly continues to plague manufacturers as Americans remain committed to stockpiling as many guns and as much ammo as possible.“It’s widely known the ammunition shortages continue. There is still a lot of interest in firearms,” Smith & Wesson CEO Mark Smith said this week to Fox Business Network.The data backs his statement. A survey conducted by the market research firm Southwick Associates in April found that, out of 1,800 ammo customers surveyed, 75 percent had already experienced out-of-stock issues this year, down by only 5 percent from the record high recorded in 2020.
Reply 1 - Posted by:
F15 Gork 6/20/2021 6:34:22 AM (No. 821076)
The warning flags went up during the Clinton years.......if you failed to act, too bad for you.
13 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
hershey 6/20/2021 7:19:02 AM (No. 821126)
There is ammo available, but, the price is out of sight... stopped in a local gun shop and the guy said he didn't have any 380 but it was going for $35 a box of 50....too bad I didn't hoard a pallet of it ...i'd be rich....I always check gunbot.net and they list a lot but when you click through the stuff is mostly sold out....
11 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
sanspeur 6/20/2021 7:43:34 AM (No. 821152)
There is the squeeze play banks were doing to not lend /finance/ allow their cards to support guns & their ammo mfg . Remember the bloomberg initiative to “cancel “ every firearms endeavor it could pressure ? And banks were happy to be professional bullies &2nd amendment deniers
10 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
homefry 6/20/2021 7:47:23 AM (No. 821153)
I looked at some 45 hollow points, 66 bucks for 20!!
8 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
privateer 6/20/2021 7:58:39 AM (No. 821169)
I foresee the development of some sort of laser attachment, applicable to any handgun, and a target receptor to react to same, that will allow practice without burning through actual ammunition. A permanent cartridge with a recyclable firing cap that actuates the laser emission, perhaps.
6 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
planetgeo 6/20/2021 8:20:45 AM (No. 821201)
THIS is how they're going to take away our guns without having to actually take them away..
17 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
jimboscott 6/20/2021 8:38:36 AM (No. 821217)
I have about 300 pounds of mostly FMJ in 9mm, .45 and .40
Wonder what that's worth these days?
8 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
TCloud 6/20/2021 8:45:05 AM (No. 821226)
Since the Clinton years, I have been able to keep 2,000 rounds for six different calibers and rotate out or keep older stock as I buy new. For me 2,000 rounds is a minimum amount and keep a goodly number of high cap magazines on hand in a prepped mode if you like! Was at a range recently when a Man wanted to buy at a high price any 5.56 I had or could spare! Politely let him know that I could not help him!
8 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
Hazymac 6/20/2021 9:00:50 AM (No. 821243)
Especially since the widespread social unrest millions of former non-gun owners have armed themselves, and the new lawful gun owners span the racial spectrum. Self-preservation is a universal principle as well as a constitutional right. Two years ago, stacked on the floor at the local indoor range (and retailer), cases of 1,000 rounds of 9mm 115gr ball ammo were $170-180, a reasonable 18c a shot. Now the same is 50c a shot, or more. So practicing is about three times as expensive as before. Everything else in center fire is more expensive than 9mm. Some online ammo sellers are starting to see availability loosen up in some calibers, most notably 9mm and .45 ACP. But .38 Special, .380 ACP, and .357 Magnum supplies are still tight.
Getting a Dillon, RCBS, or some other good brand of reloading equipment might not be a bad idea, although I have heard that small pistil primers are scarce. But for regular practice, reloading is a good idea. Maybe production from the ammo companies, which is at an all time time high, will catch up with demand.
9 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
gop_guys 6/20/2021 9:09:24 AM (No. 821253)
As a NRA member, I get the gun mags each month. They state now that Remington is out of bankruptcy, they are producing ammo around the clock. I see things getting better.
11 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
chumley 6/20/2021 9:29:11 AM (No. 821272)
Availability is slowly improving. You can get most modern calibers, though you pay dearly for them.
Obsolete military surplus calibers are another matter. You used to be able to buy it by the case for less than 10 cents a shot. Now, when you can find it, its 60 cents to a dollar. And the surplus guns have skyrocketed. A Russian Mosin Nagant used to go for $60. People bought them for cheap camping guns. I recently saw them for sale for over $500.
4 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
GustoGrabber 6/20/2021 9:32:41 AM (No. 821274)
Another example of government nationalizing by regulation, indirectly, to control out put and usage.
6 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
Strike3 6/20/2021 9:37:31 AM (No. 821282)
Slightly old news but I would suspect that it depends upon where you live. I find everything that I want is available but high-priced. I won't be caught low on ammo because of the price though, the Zulus have a lot of tribesmen. Most of us vets stocked up in the Clinton-Obama attempts on the 2nd Amendment. Note that the Hair-Sniffer has been in office for six months now and has done a lot of damage but hasn't touched the 2nd Amendment. Even his feeble old brain recognizes that as a losing proposition.
6 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
red1066 6/20/2021 10:20:15 AM (No. 821337)
I already have something like that #5. I bought it before I bought a gun. It's basically a laser bullet with small batteries.
2 people like this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
Vaquero45 6/20/2021 10:20:22 AM (No. 821338)
New gun owners have put a definite crimp in the ammo supply. If you were already a gun owner and didn’t have 200 rounds on hand when this nonsense started, shame on you. I saw this happen when Clinton was elected, and when Obama took office.
I’m glad I started reloading 30 years ago.
7 people like this.
Reply 16 - Posted by:
Rumblehog 6/20/2021 10:27:35 AM (No. 821347)
This is why I bought up the ammunition stocks last year. There are a number of them and they have done well.
The Feds are buying up a lot of ammunition and creating this shortage. I know a person in my town with a Federal law enforcement officer as his neighbor. During a conversation in their front yards the LEO reaches into his Federal vehicle and pulls out several boxes of .40 Cal S&W ammunition and hands it to him. He told him to go ahead and take them, because they get so much ammunition they don't know what to do with it all.
So, the Feds are buying it all up and denying citizens the right to purchase it through commercial channels? Whatever happened to the TWO channel supply chain in this country, where civilians had one path and the military had another entirely? The Govt' did not "raid" store shelves of ammunition made for the civilian retailers. What's up these days?
8 people like this.
Reply 17 - Posted by:
DVC 6/20/2021 11:13:28 AM (No. 821396)
I'm one of the 17%, because this isn't my 'first rodeo'. Been through these shortages in past years and when ammo got back to normal prices, I vowed to never be short again. Plenty of ammo and components to make more on hand.
#1 gets it exactly right.
2 people like this.
Reply 18 - Posted by:
DVC 6/20/2021 11:16:54 AM (No. 821402)
Interesting side note. Yesterday an old coworker that I haven't seen or heard from in about 7 or 8 years left a message on my phone machine. He said he had "a firearms question". AFAIK, he had never owned a gun in his family previously, but everyone at work knew that I was "a gun guy", and a few of us went shooting together a few times.
We are playing phone tag right now, but it will be interesting to know what he wants to know.
Lots of folks buying guns now that never had one before.
6 people like this.
Reply 19 - Posted by:
Heil Liberals 6/20/2021 12:05:58 PM (No. 821437)
1775
Lexington & Concord
are still alive.
4 people like this.
Reply 20 - Posted by:
mc squared 6/20/2021 12:06:46 PM (No. 821438)
#7; Worth? Your life if you sell it.
5 people like this.
Reply 21 - Posted by:
DVC 6/20/2021 1:55:21 PM (No. 821499)
#5, too late to the patent office. Those have been in production for many years now, probably at least 25 for high end users. I used one that our company security department had at least 20+ years ago. For the last 10 years they have been pretty affordable for home practice.
Certainly a useful training aid, but actually, a GREAT deal can be learned from "dry fire". If someone is starting out today, if they start by getting some basic instruction in handling, safety, grip, stance and how to align sights and squeeze the trigger properly. And then once you know what to do, lots of free 'dry fire', clicking the hammer without firing, while observing that the sights hold very still, and stay on or very close to the target will teach you a large part of what you need to know. Of course, recoil control needs to be learned with real ammo, but if you get very skilled at dry fire, you WILL be way ahead, and have a huge advantage.
4 people like this.
Reply 22 - Posted by:
DVC 6/20/2021 2:01:53 PM (No. 821504)
#9, all primers are nearly unavailable, and the few you find cost as much as loaded ammo in many cases. Three years ago, a primer was about 2.5 to 3 cents, and I could load a typical .38 Spl or 9mm practice round for about 6-8 cents, casting my own bullets.
Now primers are "cheap" at 9 or 10 cents each, and I have seen some offered at 35-50 cents for just the primer, basically what a loaded handgun cartridge should cost. Powder is in extremely short supply, too. Even bullet molds to cast your own are usually sold out. I got a new lever gun, needed a different mold, waited 6 months for it to get back into stock. That batch was gone in two days.
Unless you had primers, powder and molds on the shelf before the stuff hit the fan, you are pretty much going nowhere fast in trying to start up in reloading right now.
4 people like this.
Reply 23 - Posted by:
RuckusTom 6/20/2021 2:24:02 PM (No. 821525)
Load your own.
1 person likes this.
Reply 24 - Posted by:
snakeoil 6/20/2021 3:45:24 PM (No. 821598)
Hope this isn't off topic. Watch the Outdoor Channel which features lots of hunting. But most of the hunting of deer and bear is done with bows. Am not aware of an arrow shortage. Even though we are in runaway inflation due to The Crash Test Dummy, supply and demand will, I hope, end this problem.
0 people like this.
Reply 25 - Posted by:
rikkitikki 6/20/2021 6:53:08 PM (No. 821699)
I could be wrong, but maybe the televised images of burning cities last summer, and then defunding of the police, together had something to do with the run on ammo....
3 people like this.
Remember when Obola was in office and the big buy ?
2 people like this.
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