gary reeder
Dave, you are way off base here mainly due to one thing
Sunday, May 23, 2021, 16:10

your comment "Point is, almost every other “consumable” is back to “normal”. Right now nothing is back to normal. The toilet paper shortage was a joke, probably started by a couple of housewives that couldn't get the brand of TP they wanted and posted it on Facebook and that was all that was needed to start the rush. There was plenty of TP to go around, until people stated hoarding and buying it by the car load.
A friend at a car dealership mentioned they cannot get the cars and trucks the people want. Car parts are non existent. I just had work done on my Ford and it took weeks to get parts. A friend who owns a large furniture store said his warehouse is empty and he can't get anything to fill it up. The radio station where I cut my commercials for the shop has had to lay off most of their sales, people as why should their clients advertise when they don't have anything to sell. Any manufacturing plant that was shut down for close to a year is either having problems getting the metals, chemicals and other items they need to get back to making products or they are still shut down and may not open again.

Many of the products we need to build and finish our custom guns are way behind. We are getting some guns out but not as many as I would like. Our customers have been extremely patient and I appreciate that, but we are not getting as many guns finished as I would like. Most of the materials we need to finish the guns are way behind. Items that normally take 2 weeks to get are now taking 3 to 4 months, if then.

Very few of our distributors have any accessories in stock. Everything is back ordered. No gun shop can order anything. Some of the gun manufacturers and ammo manufacturers are putting out some product, but very little. When they do they ship it to our distributors. Our distributors call us every morning and tell us something like..."we got 10 guns in last night, we can let you have 3 that you had back ordered." Or "we got a case of 9mm ammo in yesterday, we can let you have 6 boxes". That is how it is going. Mainly the things we are getting are what are on our back orders. The ammo supplies are not the only thing that is in very short supply. Try buying an RCBS press. Or any reloading supplies. Try finding primers at less than $400 to $850 per brick. Try finding powder. Most of it is sitting in container ships off the coast of California. And why won't they let them dock and unload the powder. No, "every other consumable" is not back to normal. Not by a long shot.

Building materials are available but at 300% to 400% higher prices than a year ago. Ammunition is over a billion rounds behind. Why? Because people are scared and won't quit buying. Our dealer magazine said there are between 8 and 10 million new gun owners today. They know nothing about what they should do and their friends are telling them they need to get 1000 rounds of ammo just in case. The dealer's magazine says the average gun guy goes into his gun shop one, maybe 2 times a week and normally buys something once a week. The new gun buyers are going into their gun shop everyday and they buy something every week, usually several somethings, mostly ammo. If each of those 10 million new gun buyers buys a box of 50 rounds of ammo 5 days a week, that is 250 rounds of ammo. Now multiply that times 10 million. What is that, 2.5 billion rounds per week? There is where our ammo is going.

Steve Hornady is a good friend. We built the very first 17 HMR revolver for him. He has 3 1/2 shifts going 24/7 365 days a year trying to catch up. With 2.5 billion rounds going out the doors of the guns shops every week, do you think he is going to catch up?

That new Remington plant in Lonoke Arkansas is cranking ammo out as fast as they can, but like every other ammo manufacturer brass and lead are in extremely short supply. Our plants for brass and lead here in the states were for the most part shut down by Obama so now they depend upon supplies from South America.

You saw the list of companies above that are not taking orders and those that are not expecting to deliver anything in 2021.

The shortage is real and I don't see it getting any better anytime soon. And no, every other consumable is not back to normal, nor any where near back to normal.