State of the Industry report

Status
Not open for further replies.
The original FB report has been posted before. IIRC, there was some doubt voiced on the accuracty of the report at that time. No doubt it will be a while for things to settle down, the question remains how long? I think a lot depends on factors external (to the firearms/ammunition manufacturing industry) such as the economy, the success or failure of pending legislation, and the public perception of the shortage.
 
LGS tell me ammo and guns coming in BUT there are call lists on both and those get first pick so much of the stuff goes as fast as it comes in.
Prices are high but dealers say they are not gouging at retail level.
They do, however, have to price merchandise according to price formulas that determine and adjust for price increases based on current trends which means some items increase 1-2% in price EVERYTIME a new order is received.

Raw stock high grade steel IS hard to obtain in quantities right now as are copper, berillium, and lead mainly because all manufacturers are chasing the dragon at the same time and there are only so many sources for raw materials.
 
Why are people continuing to publish and link to some chain email as though it were good info? Google the names in that "report" and the only references you'll find to either as "industry insiders" will be this report. No prior info on either and no one claiming to know them. They claim some secret meeting in Texas. They post the "results" Jan. 25th, right after the real meeting, a little Las Vegas get together known in the industry as SHOT Show where real meetings did take place and none of this garbage was extrapolated.

Clearly there are companies running at capacity and shortages of raw goods but that does not validate fraudulent information. I see the link above does not mention the two "industry insiders" by name anymore, I wonder why...
 
OK folks, I spent a little time on my lunch hour tracking down some information.

A member at another forum with access to NSSF data has verified that ammo numbers posted are incorrect.

I spoke with Jessica, a Sturm Ruger customer rep. in Prescott, AZ who assured me production is currently and has been for some time at capacity. Consider the information on Ruger to be debunked.

I spoke with Dave at Hodgdon Powder Co. who chuckled at my inquiry, one of many he received this week. I explained the "report" to him and he assured me powder is shipping. Hodgdon purchases its powders from 3 sources; one in Canada, one in Florida and one in Australia. January 2013 shipments exceeded Hodgdon's previous record month by 19%. That was, if I recall correctly November 2008.

I could not reach Remington so I checked ATF.gov and pulled up production figures for 2008. I posted these elsewhere so I'll paste them here.

Pistols produced (2 facilities combined): 303,834
Revolvers produced: 215,955
Rifles produced: 38,373

For a combined total of 558,161 or 1,529.2082 guns/day on a 365 day production schedule. That is a slightly higher figure than contained in Mr. Ross' report, 5X higher. It is my belief in having reviewed S&W's reports and news releases of increased sales that the ATF numbers are closer to actual production numbers, if slightly smaller than current numbers based on record sales reported to shareholders for 2012.

I firmly believe that further investigation would yield similar results as every true industry professional I have contacted has dispelled the information contained in the "report". I have drawn my own conclusions.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top