Ammo shortage leaves some gun owners out
Joe Reamsnyder can always predict that gun and ammunition sales will spike every four years. Election season tends to drive some folks to stock up, he said. But Reamsnyder, owner of Westerville firearms store Velocity Works, said he never could have guessed what 2020 would bring. The coronavirus pandemic, civil unrest and election season have all severely affected stocks of guns and ammunition this year.
“All I can tell you is that I take 25 to 30 phone calls a day asking when I’ll have more ammo, and the answer is always, ‘I don’t know,’ ” Reamsnyder said.
Velocity Works’ website prominently declares its ammo shortage on the homepage with a message reading: “WE HAVE NO AMMO IN STOCK OR FOR
SALE WHATSOEVER AND HAVE NOT HAD ANY FOR MONTHS.”
This shortage of guns and ammunition isn’t just affecting central Ohio gun owners. As the United States is set to continue its record-breaking year of firearms sales, ammunition shortages have been reported nationwide.
Tyler Hendricks, manager of Metal Gear Armory in Lancaster, said he started to notice the first big surge of sales in late February as worries of the coronavirus began to intensify. “It was kind of like the toilet paper shortages and people not knowing what’s going on,” Hendricks said. The Lancaster store typically has four fully stocked shelves of ammunition for customers to choose from. Now, all that’s left fits onto one shelf.
The pandemic also affected manufacturers on the supply side, Hendricks said. Nationwide lockdowns in countries that produce raw materials to make ammunition, such as lead, have left some manufacturers scraping by.
The Remington Arms Company, one of America’s oldest and largest gun and ammunition manufacturers, filed for bankruptcy this year, putting a crimp in some suppliers’ inventory.
Firearms stores saw another spike in sales this summer after protests began across the country following the death of George Floyd, who died in June in the custody of Minneapolis police.
“It’s been a perfect storm to make people a little nervous,” said Doug Vance, co-owner of Vance Outdoors in Columbus. Vance said it’s been difficult to keep much ammunition is stock for
long. Almost as soon as an order comes in, customers are ready and waiting to buy it.
“There are plenty of times we’ve been out,” Vance said. Both Vance and Hendricks said their stores have put limits on how many boxes of ammunition a customer can buy per visit. Hendricks said smaller and family-owned stores such as Metal Gear Armory have had an especially difficult time keeping a supply. Where big-box stores have the capacity to purchase ammunition for the entire year, he orders everything on demand. Hendricks spends a few hours every day scouring the internet for more supply.
Vance said many of the firearms purchases at his store have been related to home security. But some Ohio hunters could be affected by these shortages, especially as this year’s deer-gun week approaches. In 2017, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources expanded its list of legal deer hunting guns to include rifles firing straight-walled cartridges, in addition to shotguns and muzzleloaders.
This change, Hendricks said, means some hunters who prefer rifles might have a hard time finding ammo this year, especially .350 Legends and .450 Bushmasters.
There’s still some hope though, Hendricks said. Most customers have been able to find 12-gauge shotgun shells, a common cartridge around Ohio’s deer hunting season. And industry experts expect firearms supplies to be back to normal by May 2021.
Until then, Hendricks said folks can look online for ammo (though they should expect higher prices) or be patient with stores.
“Our normal spiel is, ‘Hey, it’s 2020,’ ” Hendricks said.