Monday, June 24, 2013

The Ammo Shortage By the Numbers

The experts at AmmoLand downplay the conspiracy theorists and simply put elevated ammo prices on market dynamics:

I haven’t seen anything that suggests foul play of any kind, to me, it’s strictly supply and demand, and it shows you what panic in a market looks like... Rationing and price spikes are the result of demand far outstripping supply...

...A trusted source provided this:

“Take for example .22LR ammunition. The industry as a whole (all manufacturers combined) is setup to produce 4,200,000,000 (4.2 Billions) .22 LR annually. That is running all the machines, full capacity all the time, all manufacturers together.

There is NOTHING they can do to produce more.

That corresponds to 230,137 cartridge per State per day, which is 460 bricks of 500 .22lr per day per State. That means that if less than 50 people per day in each State are buying 10 bricks of .22, it is enough to dry up the entire supply as it is being manufactured.”


News from ammo makers seems OK too, but it’s right to be wary. Trust but verify. How do you do that?

If you don’t have ammo, you’re stuck in a high market. If you’re like many Americans, you’ll comfortably ride this out until the market corrects.


Hat tip: BadBlue Gun News.

4 comments:

TheFineReport.com said...

The private sector just might come through on this: being demand will only increase, ammo maker stock will likely rise in value, and ammo makers will invest the windfall into increasing manufacturing capacity -- which will result in more sales.

Thanks, Barry!

Anonymous said...

Wait a minute. The industry may have the CAPACITY to produce 4.2 billion rounds per year but that does not mean they do it.

When demand for the higher calibers is great (and we know where a lot of that is going) the .22 lines sit idle while workers turn out .9 mil.

You need to know a little about manufacturing in order to understand what's going on with ammunition. Capacity does not equal output.

creeper

Karl said...

I bought some ammo today at the only place it exists: gunbroker.com.

Why sell ammo off of shelves when you can auction to the highest bidder?

I paid probably 75% over retail.

The MUSEman said...

Hmmm.... Might be tough to manufacture more ammo, even with the increased price due to rising demand...even Uncle Sam is a bit worried:

http://www.almc.army.mil/alog/issues/SepOct10/spectrum_smallarms_ammo.html

Just sayin'