is the ammo "shortage" slowing firearm sales?

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x_wrench

x_wrench

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for a time, almost everything and anything on the shelve (except shotguns) was flying out the doors, because of the anti-gun movement in Washington D.C.. but now that all of that has slowed down, and since the so called "ammo shortage" has not, it makes me wonder how much this is slowing gun sales. why buy a firearm, if the place you are buying it from, can not even sell you enough ammo to sight it in, let alone have enough to shoot, and have fun with?! i see hunting rifle ammo on the shelf quite often. but handgun ammo, and especially rimfire ammo, has been missing long enough for the shelf's to collect a fairly thick layer of dust in many stores.
 
I think they kind of go hand in hand, so to speak. I was talking to a friend of mine who works at an LGS and he told me not only is the ammo shortage hurting the sales of rimfire and centerfire handguns, it's also forcing the cancellation of a lot of local CCW classes. Without ammo a lot of applicants can't do the range qualification portion of the procedure.
 
I'm gonna have to say that the AWB being out of the picture now (for the time being) is probably what has slowed firearms sales..... That and maybe everyone that wanted one, got one.

Ammo is coming back around just as firearm sales are slowing down. Folks have calmed themselves thank God!
 
huntsman said:
I don't know how there can be firearms sales without firearms, check out gun genie or Bud's, very little stock shows up.
Click to expand...


Youre right about gungenie; I don't look at buds much.


But when I go to stores, I see lots of guns of many flavors and still not much ammo (but ammo has gotten a little better)
 
I think it did but firearms are returning to the shelves in MN along with ammo. I just left a LGS ant they had a pretty good supply of M&P, Glock, and Sig's in stock. My range customers are finding ammo (except .22lr) in most stores.

Personally, at my local Walmart, I picked up a couple of boxes of Tula for a customer for about $10.50/box. On the same shelf was a fair amount of .40 & .45 100ct/ WWB.
 
I only have anecdotal evidence, but I think the firearms themselves are coming back.

Slowly - but faster than .22 ammo is, anyway.

My LGS has said that business was off the charts for a few months post-Sandy Hook, and then slowed considerably. Ammo sales were keeping him above water during that time. Now things are starting to even out.



For the record, I have noticed that a lot of fairly desirable .22lr arms (both new and used) seem to be lingering much longer than they used to and I think it's directly related to the difficulty in procuring ammo. I've also seen a few more 9mm guns on the used rack than before, for what I suspect is the same reason (to a much lesser extent).
 
I think more guns would be sold if they were available at fair pricing relative to retail.

I saw a Ruger SP-101 in 22LR the other day in a store. Three months ago, it would have sold within minutes of hitting the shelf if it was priced half way reasonably. I view it as a sign that the manufacturers are beginning to meet demand. Demand for firearms is not unlimited as they are not the cheapest toy.

Most people believe that it is a matter of time for ammunition to catch up with demand. If things are the same as in January/February in a couple years, then I think this would impact new gun sales. But for now, No.
 
I think there are 2 things at play here:

People are buying now that weren't making gun purchases at all before all the hype.

People with existing firearms are buying less weapons due to spending extra cash on ammo and reloading supplies for the guns they already have.

I would guess that after the spike in weapons sales it will take a while for them to climb back to pre-panic levels. Just a guess.

Edit: example: I would love to get a .357 but the price of once fired brass is still crazy high and hard to come by. Not to mention adding a powder is not something I'm willing to do right now.
 
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Not going to say what or where, but one of my "Holy Grail" guns had a recent price drop at a local LGS. Soon as I can sell my .22 I am going to get it.
 
I imagine that there are some cancellations. In fact I filled out the paper work for a rifle and they put me on hold for the back ground check and a week later I called they said still on delay status. So I waited another week and called again, same thing. So I canceled the sale not because I couldn't wait but because I started shooting some of my less popular guns(hunting rifle for example ). The point being as while your waiting for whatever reason life happens and you change your mind.
 
Definitely its slowing down bec of the high prices. Not all have the dough to buy expensive ammo. THe ones getting them have the dough to scoop them as fast as they come up the shelves.
 
My Gander has display cases and racks FULL of guns - all types. Except for .22, the ammo shelves are also well stocked...........
Folks complaining about high prices - they are what they are - you do not have to buy at the current asking prices.........wait it out, bit if someone else buys your gun that you wanted, then it wasn't over priced
 
I'm seeing more and more ammo at Cabelas, and local Academy stores in the DFW area of Texas. They are still restricting the amount you can buy at once, but it's a good sign they are in stock.

Even .22 lr sometimes.

Ken
 
Except for .22, what ammo shortage? We can find almost every type in actual gun shops, because they charge market prices-
we all know that Walmart does not.

Today, other than .22 I found everything in the shop in Hernando MS. He had plenty of .223, .308, .303, Swiss 7.5..., many types of handgun rounds.
Even online distributors and private sellers have every kind of ammo. "Ammo-seek", "Gunbot" etc can help.

Many of the people claiming that the panic has Not cooled off a good bit, have only a profit motive. They are the ones selling at very inflated prices on Armslist TN, GB etc.
.18/rd. for 5.45x39 (AK-74), .25/rd. for 7.62x39 and .20/rd. for 7.62x54R are not considered very high, unless compared to ammo prices over six years ago.
 
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If you can' t buy a .22 anytime of the day, then its still not normal yet. .22 LR is the benchmark and the most widely used.
 
nathan: True, and it's easy for me to forget about all the new types of AR clones, or actual AR uppers which must use .22LR.
The only .22s here are the ancient Savage and later Romanian Trainers (M-69).
One of the most fun guns I've ever handled is the Smith/Wesson M&P 15 with a scope (but the price..).

My hope is that the availability of most other types is creating less demand for .22, thereby reducing the flippers' success on Armslist etc.
 
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it's stable and coming back to what is probably best described as a new normal. but things are still tense and will react poorly to even the most subtle suggestion of new restrictions, govt intrusion, or AWBs....
 
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