Posted on 02/15/2013 12:03:59 PM PST by EXCH54FE
Big time ammo company Hornady released a statement Tuesday commenting on the ammo shortage and shed light on some key questions they’ve been asked repeatedly.
The Hornady booth at SHOT Show 2013. This year they introduced “Critical Duty” ammo.
“The current political climate has caused extremely high demand on all shooting industry products, including ours,” Hornady said in the statement. “Empty retail shelves, long backorders, and exaggerated price increases on online auction sites – all fueled by rumors and conjecture – have amplified concerns about the availability of ammunition and firearms-related items.”
The company asked that you, the consumer, not let Internet rumors on the ammo shortage influence or scare you into paying any outrageous prices. And stressed that if information about Hornday’s supply doesn’t come from Hornady, don’t believe it. Here are the rumors they addressed in the statement:
Q: Have you stopped production, or has the government forced you to stop?
A: Not at all.
Q: Did you stop selling bullets so you could only make loaded ammunition?
A: Absolutely not.
Q: Since we can’t find your product you must be selling it all to the government.
A: Nope, less than 5 percent of our sales are to government entities.
Q: Why can’t you make more? Ramp up production? Turn on all the machines?
A: 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at guns.com ...
These guys better get hoppin’! Screw 24/7....I want some 57/50 like Obama do!
After seeing so many empty walls and empty shelves here in Jacksonville for the last few weeks, I today found a large sporting goods store with an impressive inventory of everything including ammo, high-cap mags and “tactical” rifles (though the $1300 price tag on a bare-bones Bushmaster kinda stung a little bit. Seems to be about $500 more than what they were pre Sandy Hook). The salesman said their prices were high because they kept a good stock during the “drought”, buying at the top of the bubble but he’s starting to see more inventory return so hopefully the prices will stabilize.
That 5% that they sell to the government should be the LAST 5% that they fill.
This whole shortage of gun related items is interesting and to me, surprising. I am 66 and have never seen anything like it.
I do recall a couple of times during Viet Nam when there was ammo shortages but neither time lasted very long. When the first assault weapon ban came along, there was some panic buying but again, nothing like this.
Maybe people know something I don’t but I just keep thinking the shortage will end and keep being wrong. I personally don’t need any but if I did it would really bother me.
His position has been from the git-go that it's US that are buying up all the guns-n-ammo. There are just so darn MANY of us that it has a major effect. And people who don't normally react to rumors (like my husband)are out there buying ammo with the rest.
You see the same thing with bread and milk when an ice storm threatens. Only this administration is MUCH more threatening than an ice storm, so people are buying a lot more,and they're buying it continually, every time Obama says or does some new outrageous thing.
Thanks for posting! Finally, some information from the source.
As an article stated yesterday,
this is not the behavior of a society fearing a gun ban,
this is the behavior of a society preparing for war.
I need some and I’m bothered by it. Mostly, because I should have bought something last year. I think people intuitively know something is going to happen in which guns and ammo will be good to have.
Dad said it took months for the supply to get back to normal. But if the Commies had landed in Savannah, we were ready!
I toured the Hornady factory a couple of years ago. Anyone traveling on Interstate 80 through the middle of Nebraska owes it to themselves to do the same. It is VERY impressive. Tours were Monday thru Thursday.
Right now, I am just glad I handload — and cast a lot of my own bullets.
That Obama ain’t much of a president—or much of a human being for that matter—but he is one h$ll of a guns and ammo salesman.
Last I saw was the year that Janet Reno got salesman of the year. (Yes, I said salesMAN.)
People bought up so much that when pressure dropped off, the gun shops had low sales for a while, as folks used their previously purchased supplies.
Even better than Clinton!
When the DHS comes knocking, they should just say “NO, not until the people have first been served”.
Si vis pacem, para bellum.
[If you wish for peace, prepare for war.]
-- Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus
My Brother-in-Law was flying Neptunes during that time. They would fly right over the Soviet ships taking photos, I think he said about 20 feet over their highest part. He said some would throw stuff at them and some would wave.
My other Sister was working as a clek/typist at Hurlburt Field. There were Cubans everywhere and bunches of B-26’s, each one with 8 fifty calibers in the nose. Of course they were not very effective against Cuban/Russian MIG or whatever they were, jets.
Cheaper than Dirt knuckled under to the gun-control fanatics awhile back, didn’t they?
SHTF... pronounced, around my house, “shift”.
Yeah, ditto. Thanks for posting credible info rather than blog posts filled with conjecture.
Difference was, at the time we were pretty sure the government was on OUR side . . . .
The forklift driver's cousin gets his ammo well before you do.
They still have inventory so I have been buying from them.
We lived in DeFuniak Springs at the time.
One day my Sister who normally rode in a car pool, was brought home by a Cuban who looked like a twin of Desi Arnaz.
My Mother saw him and told her she was not dating a Cuban. Sister told Mother that every girl on base wanted to go out with him. Didn’t change a thing. Mother put her foot down and that was that.
If America was physically invaded like a real war and every single person with a weapon needed ammo we would be screwed.
The ammo companies should be already on a war time footing regardless of what the government says. Its all about We The People.
We will fight for America if Obama won’t.
We need the ammo.
Cheaperthandirt needs to change their name to Cheaperthanplatinum. Have you seen what they are charging for pmags?
I wonder if McDonald’s could double their burger production overnight and still keep them in specification. We’re talking bullets here, not burgers.
I get the CTD catalogs along with several others. I always thought their prices were not that good tho they sometimes have some interesting things.
Day in and day out, I think CDNN is the best one to deal with.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2973702/posts
They said they were going to stop firearms. Then it was "assault weapons" and "high capacity" magazines. Then they kind of backtracked. Then they didn't. It went back and forth for awhile.
Weak sisters.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2973702/posts
They said they were going to stop selling firearms. Then it was "assault weapons" and "high capacity" magazines. Then they kind of backtracked. Then they didn't. It went back and forth for awhile.
Weak sisters.
The 33 rnd mag (factory made by Glock) for my Glock 26 is $189.97 from CTD but only $49.97 (backordered) from Glockstore.com.
I have never bought from glockstore.com...anyone here have any experience with them?
I don't think I'd put my foot down quite that hard, but I would explain to my daughter that there are some significant cultural differences that she would do well to understand before she started dating somebody from another country.
I would say the same thing if the guy were a German (except for a Bavarian, they are just good ol' boys in Lederhosen) or a Parisian Frenchman. Or even old country Irish.
American girls make assumptions about men and they sometimes get into trouble on that account.
At this particularly point, I don't care what the story is about the seller as long as the ammo is what I want, at the price I want, and the seller is dependable.
I'll get back to being political about ammo as soon as I come to believe the Marxists have given up trying to overthrow the Country.
war preparation is the only reason the democrats want to have manditory turn in/ confiscation.
we should be asking “why are you going to war with us citizens?”
The real question is how to discredit the MSM in a financially fatal way.
Did they have any free samples?
Yep. Completely agree with you.
People who used to buy a couple boxes of 20 or 50 rounds here or there for hunting or a weekend’s time at the range are now buying 500 to 1000 rounds in a single purchase... and coming back for more the next week.
Part of the problem is that the younger generation of shooters literally have no idea how to reload. They view any interruption of the supply of loaded ammo with very high alarm.
Older guys (50+) don’t get alarmed until they see the powder and primers disappearing from the shelves - which they’ve now done. Once that happens, the older, more calm guys, start getting worried.
As it is, the number of weapons being sold, the amount of ammo being sold, the amount of powder, primers, bullets, reloading presses, scopes, you name it being sold... this is not a garden variety buying binge as we’ve seen in the past. I saw the buying binge in the 1994 timeframe. It was a mere blip compared to this. People started buying more and more guns and more ammo from the moment Obama took office in 2009... and it has never stopped, only gone further upwards in numbers. I saw a detailed break-out recently, and in Obama’s time in office (which has just now passed four years), there have been over 65 million guns sold in the US. Nowhere in our history have guns sold at this rate ever before.
65 million guns. That’s a number that’s utterly staggering to me. To make 65 million guns requires production facilities that are staggering in their own right. 65 million is a bit more than half of all Mauser rifles ever produced, including clones, licensee duplicates, etc - in I can’t remember how many countries, from before WWI to after WWII - let’s call it a period of nearly 50 years. In effect, we’ve consumed/bought as many weapons in four years as the military industries of umpteen nations using/making Mauser rifles did in over 30 years.
To be fair, people who are just NOW deciding to look around for ammo can’t really be counted on. They’re late to the party, and you have to wonder if they really wanted to come at all. Sure, there are some serious patriots who will always want/need more ammo. Fine. But a lot of ‘Johnny-come-latelies’ have been buying out of fear, without a plan.
I’ve been reloading and stockpiling for 25 years. If I wanted to, I could make a fortune with what I’ve got, but I’m keeping it all.
If people are paying their price, who’s to say that they aren’t the ones doing the right thing?
Now, their capitulation following Sandy Hook has made me drop them, but charging a market price for a product in a time of insanely high demand is just good business and even better economics.
The owner of my local gun shop told me that the hold up was at the border. The US Gov’t was not allowing any imports.
I trust the man at his word, but have not been able to verify his statements.
Chargeing a dollar a round for .223 is nothing but plain old theft. No thanks.
Powder is scarce, but primers are scarcer.
does anybody work at a gun range, or know somebody that does?
a question for them, is a lot more ammo being used
than usual, for this time of year.
if the answer is no, the shortage will end
when everyone cycles thru their local gun store
and gets stocked up.
So am I.
But I think this may mean that I didn't buy enough when the prices were low. I've learned a lesson. Next time there is a shortage, I intend to have enough to make some money selling it if another shortage occurs.
Yes, one per tour. I got a 45 caliber 500gr heavy jacket bullet.
I don’t work at a range, but happened to visit my local one on Tuesday night at 6-7pm. They were limiting customers to one (1) box of 50 rounds per visit.
When we left, there was a line of 5 people waiting to get on the range (with 6 lanes full). On a Tuesday, at 7pm.
I went there a couple Saturdays ago and it was a 2hr wait so I left.
I went to the same range in August, and walked in on a Saturday at 11am with no wait.
Yep, we've been trying to find primers for awhile. I got excited when I went to one gun store and they told me "Sure, they had primers".....one box of 100. (.223) That's it. And even if they had more, they were limiting people to 5 boxes.
DH even heard one of the salesmen at his favorite gun shop tell a customer that Dillon Press is waay behind on orders. Anyone just now planning to learn to reload isn't going to get their equipment from Dillon any time soon.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.