by Jason Vanderbrink is the president of the division that makes Federal, CCI, and Remington ammunition. He releases a video on Friday regarding the ammunition shortage. He tries to dispel some of the misinformation, rumors, and out-right lies.
I think he has got it right – the increase in new shooters has increased the demand for ammunition. When you add that, COVID-19, and the need to train new employees, it does account for a good deal of the shortage.
I guess the ammo makers are out of excuses to start the years long process of increasing production capacity now that the cyclical panics are coupled with a large increase of regular customers.
Should be a win for everyone… years from now.
That’s the part I don’t get. Seems like there have been significant shortages since the Obama administration. Assuming all the conspiracy theories were false, why wouldn’t ammo production have been ramped up when it became obvious that this was a long term issue? That’s sort of how supply and demand generally works, unless there is another factor in play.
Because the shortages are cyclical and the companies are dealing with excess capacity followed by extreme demand. You can’t turn a factory on and off like a light switch. The nice thing about ammo it is keeps. Yesterday, I shot the last of the 22lr that I had stockpiled back in the Clinton administration. So buy it cheap and stack it deep to ride out the cycles.