Posted on 11/25/2021 9:11:42 AM PST by Right Wing Vegan
Soaring demand for guns and ammunition comes from a range of demographic groups
Just two companies, Vista Outdoor and Olin Corp, meet the bulk of America’s demand for ammunition, and chiefly through two long-established brands. Remington, part of Vista, was founded in 1816, and Winchester Ammunition, owned by Olin Corp, started in 1866. Because of soaring demand for bullets, both firms are enjoying the sort of heady growth that only new businesses usually enjoy.
Three times a day, queues of pick-up trucks appear outside Remington’s ammunition plant on the outskirts of Little Rock, Arkansas, to bear away the fruits of round-the-clock shifts. It is a sharp reversal from last summer, when Remington went bankrupt for the second time since 2018. Production had been reduced to a trickle of bullets made from whatever raw materials could be coaxed from suppliers, who had no certainty of being paid.
Even as Remington languished—it was then owned by a private-equity firm, Cerberus Capital, which appeared more focused on complex financial transactions than on expanding the firm’s sales—the ammo market took off. The biggest factor was covid-19 and associated restrictions, which encouraged millions of people outdoors to hunt and target-shoot. Background checks on gun purchases, a measure commonly used to track the market, had been increasing annually, but last year they shot up by an unprecedented 40%.
Remington has been able to increase prices seven times. It has unfilled orders worth billions of dollars. Retailers of ammunition surveyed by the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), a trade group, said they could have sold three times more ammunition during the first half of 2021 had it been available. Vista, Remington’s new parent, has infused working capital and increased the size of its workforce. The unit’s operating profits this year are expected to be similar to the $81m that Vista paid for the business. As for Winchester Ammunition, its revenues for the third quarter nearly doubled year on year, to $400m, and its gross operating profits nearly quadrupled.
The ammunition and gun industries pray the good times will last. In the past demand surges came when gun-owners—mostly white and male—feared new restrictions. Now it is about new demographic groups. A survey by the NSSF shows that the proportion of recreational shooters who are female has increased from 19% to 25% between 2006 and 2019. By now 28% of gun owners are Hispanic, 25% are black and 19% are Asian. Gun clubs are springing up for every niche. The Pink Pistols, for example, a shooting and social group for sexual minorities, has 48 chapters across America. Its motto: “Pick on someone your own calibre”.
Political opposition to firearms remains strong, causing businesses to shift operations of late to places that might be a tad friendlier. Remington’s licensed firearms division is moving from New York to Georgia, where gun laws are more permissive, and Smith & Wesson, another legendary brand, has recently said it will up sticks from Massachusetts to Tennessee. But customers for guns and ammo seem to be popping up everywhere.
9 cents for 22LR! Prices are not nutz! Yeh, we all paid 2-3 cents at one time for 22, but that was long ago.
I need to go to the Appleseed Project. I got a bunch of ammo 10 years ago meaning to go but I got sick. With neighbors all around, my practice is limited to my .22 cal air rifle.
I have no doubt they are worth it, but they’re too rich for my budget. That much money is better spent funding ammunition for our current handguns.
Speak for yourself. My 7.62x39 is gone. Not one single round available in 50 miles. It can only be found online for 3x what it was 6 months ago, if you could even find it back then
Sure. Had nothing to do with the mostly peaceful protests
I have done it several times, not recently. And while my natural abilities will never make me a Marksman, what I learned made a significant difference in my accuracy with a rifle. I learned how to properly train instead of reinforcing bad habits.
It is quite interesting. You can do all of that training with a 22, and then the next day take a larger caliber rifle to the range and see a noticeable improvement in your skills.
Hodgdon and IMR are scarce...
Powder and primers are still pretty scarce, but some brands are starting to show up. The price? Through the roof, but at least some products are showing up and available to those that need em.
Didn't that motivate folks to provide for their own security?
“As a handloader, I don’t understand why the manufacturers can’t meet the demand for bullets (projectiles), especially lead bullets. It’s the simplest component to make, isn’t it?”
I’m a manufacturer, although we aren’t specifically firearms oriented at the moment. Material pricing and time of delivery have been inconsistent,ever since the covid hysteria started.
Lead and brass distributors are dependent on foreign suppliers. Those foreign suppliers are facing extreme pressure to maintain current or even increased production schedules.My guess is labor shortages plus lack of domestic producers is playing a part.
Keep reloading your brass shells because that material is getting harder and more expensive to get.
Aluminum is next. You should be reading articles about supply problems within 3-6 months.
Aren’t environmental and free trade zealots a wonderful bunch?
The author refers to the Pink Pistols as being a group sexual minorities. What the heck is a sexual minority?
In the adult age group women outnumber men in this country. Thus making men the true sexual minority - and the only sexual minority since there are only two sexes. I don’t think a group of men band together and call themselves The Pink Pistols.
If he is referring to a bunch of trannies and 52 gender yo-yos, if anyone should be banned from owning firearms it is they.
Powder is available, if you aren't picky.
Primers are hard to get and are 2-3x what they were 2 years ago.
I learned 25 years ago to stock deep, so no worries here.
“Powder and primers are still pretty scarce, but some brands are starting to show up. The price? Through the roof, but at least some products are showing up and available to those that need em.”
That’s good to hear.
Availability should continue through 2022, but higher pricing is unavoidable.
“It is what it is”
“IF” is a Big Word
FRiend.
I thought Arizona might be
More available and
Reasonable in Price,,,
Ah No!
Obama killed our last lead mine.
They think it’s caused by the pandemic. Let them go on thinking that.
As others have pointed out, the author misses on this one:
The biggest factor was covid-19 and associated restrictions, which encouraged millions of people outdoors to hunt and target-shoot.
The biggest factor was a growing sense of societal breakdown and loss of a feeling of safety. This was not, contrary to what the progressive activists in the media are claiming, restricted to evil white males with a sense of anxiety over pending minority status, as the author shows it cuts across all demographics. Further evidence is in which firearms are hottest selling: conceal-carry semiautomatic pistols, largely 9mm, and semiautomatic sporting rifles, principally in 5.56 x 45 and 7.62 x 39. At its worst the ammunition shortage affected all calibers but it is those principally associated with self and home defense that felt it first, worst, and longest.
The people are arming themselves because they can, and they suspect that the highly organized and funded efforts to change that might succeed. Anticipated shortages stimulate demand, whether in toilet paper or firearms or anything else. Everyone can see the insane hate campaigning in the media that shows no sign of abating, and everyone is responding accordingly. Stop the hate campaigns and the pressure will ease.
Small pistol primers are pretty much impossible to find.
Before the Kung-Flu hit you could buy 22 LR for 5 cents a round all day.
$25 a brick or even less.
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