Just in time for hunting season and the holidays, gun shops are feeling the impact of supply chain backups. Ammunition in particular has been in short supply for months, and with a record number of firearms being sold this year, the demand for ammo is greater than ever. That has led to what some are calling the Great Hunting Ammo Shortage of 2021.
Some gun dealers have been forced to ration ammunition by the box. That is not the case at Collectors Firearms, where store president Mike Clark says they have been able to stock up on standard 9mm ammo. "Some smaller stores and shooting ranges and places like that are running out of ammo," he tells KTRH. "They just don't have a good way to get it...we do."
While CF has plenty of standard ammo, more rare caliber stuff, especially for older guns, is harder to come by. "Some of this stuff is not around anywhere, anyplace," says Clark. "We've even had to rely on people who've had some ammo stored up at their house and they don't need it anymore, so they come in and sell it to us."
When it comes to firearms, there is one area in particular where a shortage is looming. "There is going to be a real problem for hunters who want to buy a gun, because the shelves are going to be empty eventually here," says Clark. "So if you wait until the middle of December to go buy a hunting shotgun for Christmas, you may be out of luck."
The issue, Clark explains, is that many hunting shotguns are imported from overseas. "A lot of the more popular ones come from Italy," he says. "And they're either on a ship floating around in the Atlantic, or else they're over in some container parking lot in Georgia or something."
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