Hunting seasons are approaching, but hunters across the United States are having a hard time finding a necessity to carry out their excursions: ammunition.
For the second year in a row, hunters are being faced with a shortage of shotgun shells and bullets.
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"We've never seen it like it is now," Jim Rauscher, owner of Joe's Sporting Goods in Little Canada, Minnesota, told the Star Tribune. "It's hard to plan a hunting trip when you don't know if you are going to have ammo."
Like most things these days, the ammunition shortage can be blamed on the COVID-19 pandemic, along with a record sales of firearms. While facing staffing issues and supply shortages, manufacturers are trying to produce as much ammo as they can. Jason Vanderbrink, a vice president at Vista Outdoor, which owns the Federal, CCI, Speer and Remington ammunition brands, told the Associated Press the companies are shipping ammo as fast as they can make it.
Still, many gun store shelves are empty. When gunowners are lucky enough to find ammunition, prices are often sky high. There's also an issue of stockpiling. Some retailers have limits on how much ammo one person can buy, but other stores allow a single person to wipe out their entire inventory if they can afford it.
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While uncertainty remains whether or not hunters will have as much ammo supply as they'd like, the best advice is to buy rounds when you can find them.
"We're hearing from the manufacturers that fall hunting loads are again going to be hard to come by," Rauscher said. "Everyone is getting a little, but nobody is getting a lot."
Mark Oliva, director of Public Affairs for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, said hunters are going to face issues with ammunition for quite some time.
"Costs are higher than they were before the pandemic and increased market demand, but that’s largely the free market at work. The laws of supply and demand are dictating those prices and right now, demand is still outpacing the supply," Olivia told the Tyler Morning Telegraph. "The ammunition is out there. It is just going to take a little more resourcefulness than checking with the local gun shop to find what you need."
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