Free Republic

Vista Outdoors, the parent company of ammunition brands Federal, CCI, Blazer, and Speer (among others), announced during an earnings call last week a yearlong backlog of ammunition orders worth $1 billion. “We currently have over a year’s worth of orders for ammunition in excess of $1 billion,” CEO Chis Metz said during the Nov. 5 call, calling the backlog “unprecedented.” “With demand far outstripping supply and inventory levels in the channel at all-time lows, we see strong demand continuing, and this metric informs our viewpoint of what a recovery or normalization could look like,” he continued. He added that he...

Polling places were not the only sites around the Region attracting long lines Tuesday morning. Customers rushed in first thing to the Blythe's Sport Shops in Valparaiso and Griffith and snatched up 80,000 rounds of 9mm ammo in 30 minutes Tuesday, according to Chief Operating Officer Kyle Goranson. The entire shipment that had arrived the night before is gone, he told The Times about noon Tuesday. This has been the way gun and ammo sales have gone since the COVID-19 pandemic took hold in March, Goranson said. He likened it to the rush that had left store shelves empty of...