Production nearing demand as run on ammunition

By ROB CHANEY
of the Missoulian

When it comes time to chamber a round for big game season, Montana hunters should feel sure there’ll be some rounds to chamber.

Sporting goods dealers couldn’t keep ammunition on the shelves for much of 2009 as a nationwide run on bullets and guns caught producers unprepared. Firearms makers and ammunition manufacturers paid 43 percent more excise taxes on their stock in the first quarter of 2009 than they did in the same period a year before, according to data gathered by the National Shooting Sports Foundation. Tax collections from handgun sales were up 65.5 percent.

But the kink in the hose appears to be easing.
“There is anecdotal evidence to suggest supply for ammunition is beginning to catch up with demand,” said NSSF spokesman Ted Novin. “In speaking with major manufacturers, they are operating 24-7, literally, to meet demands of customers. What I’m hearing nationwide is demand is continuing to outpace supply, across caliber lines, but it is tapering off.”

In the Missoula area, gun dealers reported some difficulty getting pistol bullets. But rifle ammunition was arriving in good quantities.

erry Brady, owner of Sportsman’s Surplus in Missoula, says “.45 long Colt (pistol ammunition) has been pretty hard to get, and .380 pistol has been tough. I think it’s smoothed out a lot. The real test is rifle ammo. We don’t know what the supply is. We have plenty of orders in the hopper, and we’re starting to see the rush already.”

Shelves at Bob Ward and Sons weren’t overloaded, but clerks there said they were able to get most of the popular calibers without much difficulty. Supplies for hand-loading ammunition were also close to normal, although brass cartridges were short for some calibers.

National surveys taken this summer showed many Americans believed the change of presidential administrations from George W. Bush to Barack Obama would herald increased government restrictions on gun ownership. NSSF reported that FBI background checks for new gun owners in June were
18.1 percent above the same month in 2008. Background checks are required for all individuals buying either new or used firearms from federally licensed dealers.

Stockpiles were roaring out the door earlier this year. In May, Bitterroot Valley Ammunition owner Darren Newsom reported a six-month back order on his supplies – the highest he’d seen in two decades in the business.

“We’re still several months backed up,” Newsom said. “On the manufacturing end, we’re not seeing it back off at all.”

The initial run was “100 percent political” Newsom said, referring to the presidential change-over. But he predicted another ammunition shortfall could develop later this fall as the U.S. military increases, activity in Afghanistan and other trouble-spots. He figured it would take three years of national production to replace the reserve stockpiles the military has used up over the past eight years.

“Every day, I’m seeing five to six military contracts come up for bid,” Newsom said. “That all takes away from the civilian market. If we get a military contract, you put it ahead of all other orders. It has to be filled first.”

Bitterroot Valley Ammunition is producing about 1 million rounds a week in all kinds of calibers and configurations. It has stores in Hamilton, Missoula and Stevensville, along with one production facility in Florence and two in Stevensville. The firm employs 50 people and still has expansion plans.

“We’re moving to a new building in November,” Newsom said. “I’ve been doing this 22 years. If I thought it was slowing down, I wouldn’t be expanding right now.”