When is 22 ammo coming back

And given the high start-up costs of opening a new rimfire plant, and the risk that increasing production would flood the market and hurt profit margins, the companies have little incentive to do so.

Long story short, nearly a decade after the. Discounted offers are only available to new members. Stock Advisor will renew at the then current list price. Average returns of all recommendations since inception. Cost basis and return based on previous market day close. Investing Best Accounts. Stock Market Basics.

Stock Market. Industries to Invest In. Getting Started. Planning for Retirement. Retired: What Now? Personal Finance. Credit Cards. About Us. Who Is the Motley Fool?

Fool Podcasts. New Ventures. Search Search:. However, even as COVID lockdowns were in place, the federal government declared all firearm retailers essential businesses , allowing gun shops and big-box stores to remain open for business, further driving up sales. In April of , the FBI recorded over 2. Exact numbers regarding ammunition purchases are unknown, but it is reasonable to assume that gun owners bought a substantial quantity of ammunition alongside their new firearms, potentially totaling billions of rounds.

Following the murder of George Floyd in May and the subsequent protests against police brutality, the second wave of nationwide firearm purchases began, resulting in a tremendous number of both new gun sales and new gun owners.

By January , that number had risen to 8. Remarkably, among these 8. Although electoral seasons traditionally cause a surge in gun sales, as gun owners buy guns and ammo in preparation for unfavorable election results, the amplitude of this phenomenon in reached new heights, creating a third wave of mass purchases. Already exhausted by the lockdown panic-buying and the aftermath of the George Floyd protests, most gun retailers nationwide had only a fraction of their usual inventory for the elections.

Online sales fared no better, with most products remaining out of stock for several weeks, sometimes months on end. Many platforms experienced widespread price gouging and scalping issues, resulting in resellers exploiting the current climate to sell guns and ammo at prohibitively high prices. Ammunition manufacturers in the United States are currently operating at full capacity to address the demand.

However, the demand remains far greater than the supply. Currently, the hardest calibers to purchase, both in terms of availability and price, are also among the most common. These include. In the wake of the first and second waves, a significant number of shooters turned to handloading, manufacturing ammunition of their own rather than buy it from stores.

Among other polarizing political topics of the election was gun control. Whether these proposals will gain any traction or hold up in the courts is another question.

Yet with a pro-gun-control majority now in Washington, firearms owners new and old are paying extra attention. This heightened state of awareness has created fertile ground for misinformation to take root regarding the lack of ammunition on store shelves.

The most popular whoppers purport collusion between the big ammo companies to stockpile ammo and drive up demand, as well as a secret directive from the Biden administration to withhold ammo from citizens and only sell it to the military.

While these conspiracy theories are certainly tasty to chew on, the truth is as bland as an unbuttered slice of bread. That number is staggering. While gun sales traditionally spike in election years, the unforeseen pressures created by the events of created unprecedented, history-making demand — and it was impossible to see it coming.

According to Tom Taylor, chief marketing officer and executive vice president for commercial sales with Sig Sauer, there is no sinister plot afoot. There is no shortage of guns and ammo — we are manufacturing more than ever. Supply can simply not keep up with demand. Large manufacturers such as Vista Outdoor are experiencing the same challenges related to supply and demand. Those million rounds are over and above the quantity required to meet previous peak production metrics.

Ramping up to meet these demands does not happen overnight. Expanding production means additional shifts, which, in turn, require a larger staff that must be trained. Finally, Vanderbrink pointed out his beefed-up infrastructure only works efficiently when a commensurate inventory of raw material is available — in particular, primers and brass are in short supply.

Ammunition manufacturing plants being pushed beyond production capacity is only one part of the problem. Hungry and in some cases greedy customers share some of the blame as well. Around the holidays, I encountered a young shopper at my store who did not own a firearm chambered for a rimfire round but felt he should buy a bunch of.

While hoarding is certainly not helping the situation, one can understand that type of response, especially considering the past 12 months have been such a roller coaster of anxiety.