Amid Booming Gun And Ammo Sales, Arms Makers Aim Not To Get Burned Again

Forbes ^ | Aug. 18, 2020 | Aaron Smith

[PROCON]

Gun and ammo makers are staying cautious ahead of the election despite surging sales, because they remember all too well the crash that happened after the election of President Trump.

Gunmakers can barely keep up with demand. Sales have been booming since the start of the pandemic, fueled by fears of coronavirus and civil unrest. FBI background checks have been breaking records. Makers of guns and ammo are reporting double-digit increases in revenue. Handguns are flying off the shelves and ammo is selling out and getting scarce.

“It’s the 2013 shortage all over again,” said Brian Rafn, a gun industry analyst who recently retired from Morgan Dempsey, referring to the run on ammo during the Obama administration. Rafn, whose family owns shares in Sturm, Ruger, said that nowadays buyers of popular ammo like 9 mm have to hunt for it from store to store like “the guy who’s buying milk during the hurricane.”

But gun and ammo makers are hyper-cautious about ramping up manufacturing capacity. They don't want to get burned like in 2016, when sales surged to record levels only to implode on Election Day. Sales then were driven by fears of gun control fueled by mass shootings, but those fears evaporated with the election of President Trump, a Republican endorsed by the National Rifle Association. Gun sales plunged immediately after his election, resulting in layoffs and sliding stocks for Sturm, Ruger and Smith & Wesson.

[PROCON]

The limited supplies of ammo my gun store gets in recently are from Fiocchi, FMJ and HP.

[trebb]

I was talking to a guy who says he can’t find any 38 Special rounds...I’ve been stocked up for a while so haven’t been shopping to find out what’s in supply and what isn’t.

[headstamp 2]

[[[I would be bold about adding roles in shipping/logistics to ensure stock barely even sits on the warehouse floor.]]]

I assure you they would do it if they could. The demand out there is the highest since WW2.

Companies have to make realistic decisions about what they can do regarding production. No one wants to leave money on the table. They could lose everything including bankruptcy on the back end once demand drops. You can’t just sell everything off.

With regard to workers, its not Amazon. Ammunition manufacture takes skilled production workers to accomplish. Liability and safety demands it.

[Blood of Tyrants]

Hell, don’t attack the messenger.

[Svartalfiar]

go to ammoseek.com
search for .380
real time inventory hundreds of stores in one site
they have plenty

Not always. Try going to hose actual sites to buy some - doesn't work so well. My little bro was looking for 9mm, and I used them to find a bunch, but every time you clicked through to the actual website, it was all out of stock except for a couple boxen of the super-fancy stupid-expensive stuff.

[Ransomed]

The dumbest 10% of voters supposedly decide all elections based on who can sway them that cycle. They don’t vote based on any political philosophy they can coherently express, but vote based on non-rational things like physical appearance or which one was last predicted to win in the polling, or who the media said won the debates.

Freegards