President of Federal, CCI, Speer & Remington ammo: Why ammo is hard to get.

[flyguy1]

A CEO generally shouldn't start off a talk complaining; the Hornady guy did a better job. It is hard, though, to fend off social media when so much of it is totally fabricated yet repeated as gospel.

Before covid, there were rebates on all kinds of ammo, both target and self-defense stuff. Cases of 9mil and 5.56 could be had pretty cheap, and that was good old USA made ammo. I stocked up, having lived through the Clinton years, and many others did too.
Now we have the perfect storm; covid, riots, cut backs in law enforcement, courts unwilling to prosecute violent offenders, and an anti-gun administration. Millions of new gun owners, etc.

Nevertheless, I sure wouldn't be investing capital in a new ammo factory right now not knowing what will happen politically. If ARs are somehow made illegal, what happens to those millions of rounds of 5.56? And, on-line ammo sales are forbidden, and LGS/Big Box limits you to 2 boxes?

And manufacturing went to "just-in-time" with little warehousing decades ago; not saying I agree with that, as we're sort of semi-preppers, just stating fact.

 

[sea2summit]

And yet NOT 1 staffer. Working to package all those loaded rounds... ZERO credibility. Loaded ammo doesnt do anyone any good at the end of a manufacturing line

Just curious. What's your approximate age and what industry do you work in?

 

[sea2summit]

cowards to worried about annual bonuses because they cannot live their inflated life without it

Do you have your next set of tires for your car? Oil filters? Next thanksgiving's Turkey?

Why/why not?

 

[jdyoung]

And yet NOT 1 staffer. Working to package all those loaded rounds... ZERO credibility. Loaded ammo doesnt do anyone any good at the end of a manufacturing line

Ever think they might want to remain anonymous.

 

[Lonnie Pendleton]

Those 9mm are filling a gov contract. Not public sales..

How do you know this.

 

[C-Crist276]

I feel for these guys... there are more cartridges now then ever. There is 3-4 new popular cartridges added every year, while having to still produce market staples...

10 years ago, 2010, there wasn't 6.5 creed, 6.5 prc, 300 prc, 26 nos, 28 nos, 30 nos, 33 nos, the list goes on and on...

now they have to produce all the new market fades in addition to the long standing rounds, all with 2-3 different bullet weights, in lead and copper, in entry and match grades.

We, the consumer, have diluted the market with so many options that it is impossible to produce sufficient supplies...

 

[sturner]

Thanks

 

[GLTaylor]

Clacka,
You need to get a life. There is no world wide conspiracy to undo your personal wishes!

 

[Rum River]

I've met and spoken with Jason Vanderbrink a couple of times, he came into a gunshop where I worked. Seemed like an okay guy. He and another fellow were just there looking around. Didn't even know he was president of Federal until I saw his name on his card when I rang up his purchase. After that his comment to his buddy of: "we should have more of a presence in this store" made a lot more sense.

Modern manufacturing at the level of major ammunition companies is far more involved than hiring some extra part-time help and putting up new buildings, it's just not that straight forward. As to focusing on the civilian market rather than government contracts - why would you blow off a dependable revenue stream when you're spending more money than usual to ramp up production?

 

[The Badger]

Makes total sense to me. Recently decided on a build in a cartridge & caliber I've not previously worked with. When buying brass instead of a box of 50, I bought two 50 counts. 100% increase in what I'd normally purchase to get started. As for bullets, bought two boxes of one bullet instead of one to try out, just in case those worked and I couldn't find them again. Another 100% increase. Then in case those didn't fly well bought two boxes of another to fall back on. 300% total increase in bullets from what I'd be normally purchasing for load development for just one rifle.

My piddly four boxes doesn't even come close to hoarding, but spread that across the whole spectrum of consumers, its a massive increase. Add in the surge in new shooters/consumers as well as the hoarding/exploiting, and there's no way any industry could keep up. Of course govt' contracts will always take precedent, that's bread and butter for them. At some point though all the unused components and rounds in the public's closets and on benches will start to stack up and production will begin to catch up. Just got to ride along till then.

 

[Rifleman97]

Its called. Build NEW. Buildings. And. Get your act together. Sheesh. This isnt hard stop filling govt contracts too

Calm down, there was absolutely no reason To build new buildings before the pandemic. And as someone who's worked in building a production line building (as a general construction worker) it takes time. Sometimes years to set up even once the building is done. It takes custom machinery to be built. You can't just say "okay build a new factory" and have it functional next month.
There's literally 7-8 million new gun owners all trying to buy ammo, even though they're building new plants it'll still take a lot of time to catch up to this new demand.

 

[sea2summit]

Calm down, there was absolutely no reason To build new buildings before the pandemic. And as someone who's worked in building a production line building (as a general construction worker) it takes time. Sometimes years to set up even once the building is done. It takes custom machinery to be built. You can't just say "okay build a new factory" and have it functional next month.
There's literally 7-8 million new gun owners all trying to buy ammo, even though they're building new plants it'll still take a lot of time to catch up to this new demand.

All true but there's also political (to include increased liability) threats to the industry now like never before. If I was a manufacturer I'm not sure I'd invest in expansion if I had enough capacity to meet contract obligations with one shift.

We need to be a little thankful none of them seem to have started taking advantage of the demand at their level and started adjusting prices to reflect the demand.

 

[shooters]

LR should add a "dislike" button. I would have given more than I can count to Claka6mm by now.

 

[General RE LEE]

I dont reload so no way I can go out and shoot any of my rifles right now or even buy a new rifle for that matter. This stinks. I have 5 rounds of 6.5 Precision Hunter left and that is for hunting.