https://www.wideopenspaces.com/ammo-shortage-nosler/?Posted by Travis Smola
Nosler's President Addresses some of the rumors on the ammo shortage.
If you own even one firearm, you have noticed the massive ammo shortage affecting the United States right now. Most shooters will probably agree with us when we call this shortage one of, if not the worst we have ever seen. We are not sure how things are in your area, but here in Michigan, the shelves have been nearly bare of everything except birdshot for months.
Ammunition companies have heard the outcry from the public. Now they are addressing the concerns and the causes for the shortage head-on.
Firearms YouTuber Colion Noir recently spoke with Nosler President/COO John Nosler about the shortage and what caused it.
https://youtu.be/NzZgGChsyDIThere have been a lot of theories floating around the online gun communities as to why this shortage is happening. We are not too surprised to hear that the rumors about the government taking all the ammo are blown a little out of proportion. It simply seems there was a perfect storm for disaster on the ammo supply front with multiple factors in play. Take a contentious Presidential election/political season, combine a worldwide pandemic causing fear and uncertainty. This in turn causes ammo panic buying and hoarding, scalpers trying to profit, and nearly 7 million new firearms owners in 2020. Put all those things together and the seeds are ripe for a shortage the likes of which we have never seen before.
It does not help things any that many factories were unprepared for what hit them. The thoughts by Nosler seem to echo a lot of the statements recently made by Federal/Remington President Jason Vanderbrink. He announced that Remington has only in the last couple of months re-opened production at their Lonoke, Arkansas ammo factory. Remember that Remington also filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in July of 2020. Having one of the major ammo manufacturers temporarily out of the game likely did not help things any.
It turns out that firearms sales are showing zero signs of slowing. The National Shooting Sports Foundation recently announced that a record-breaking 5.5 million firearms were sold in the first three months of 2021 alone. If this trend continues, 2021 has a good chance of beating out 2020 for the biggest sales year ever. The U.S. saw 21 million guns sold last year.
Nosler is now running ammo operations 24/7 and we are guessing most other ammo manufacturers are doing the same. Hopefully, things will start to turn around here soon on availability. I checked a sporting goods store yesterday and saw both rifle and handgun ammo on the shelf together for the first time in roughly a year. Granted, none were super popular rounds where I live, but it is a huge improvement over no ammo at all!
