As we get closer to hunting season, you might want to start looking for ammo now, if you haven’t been looking already. Especially when it comes to shotgun shells. Rifle cartridges are hard to find, too, but most of us don’t shoot nearly as many rounds out of our rifles as we do with our shotguns. You’re going to want to have a good supply with a variety of shot sizes on hand before the season starts, because we’re in for at least another year of empty ammo shelves.
Panic buying is certainly one of the reasons for the shortage. I’m sure there are several people in just about every town who have an entire garage full to the rafters with stockpiled ammo. That might be a little excessive, but I can’t blame them for wanting to make sure they have that ammo in case they need it.
And production of ammo is down, too. This causes more panic buying, which just exacerbates the problem. Production is down because of the shutdowns caused by the pandemic, and the problem isn’t limited to the facilities making the ammo. It’s also affecting the supply chains both of raw materials to the factories and the distribution of the finished product to the stores.
On top of that, more people have been buying new guns than ever before. Last year, we had 21 million background checks for gun sales. This year, it’s still well above the average, with 9.8 million background checks so far. And you can bet the people who bought those new guns also bought ammo to go with them.
But the Remington Ammunition factory is back up and running, and that’s good news. It accounts for a sizeable percentage of the ammo made in the U.S. each year. So there should be some relief soon, but we’re not out of the woods yet.
Make sure you have what you need for the hunting season. It’s going to get even harder to find than it is now once the seasons start opening.
