Poll: Ammo Shortage to Continue Through 2021

I don’t see any toilet paper, either.

The pandemic may be (almost) over, but Adam Smith’s “invisible hand” is still giving us The Finger.

The famous economist Adam Smith may have referred to the machinations of a healthy capitalist society as being like an “invisible hand,” but if you’re a shooter, it feels like that hand has been giving you the Rigid Digit since about February 2020. Ever since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, gun store shelves have been empty–and, thanks to supply and demand, any ammo you do find is priced high enough to make your nose bleed. There’s good news and bad news today, courtesy of outdoor industry thinktank Southwick Associates.

Let’s start with the bad news, shall we? Southwick Associates surveyed about 1,800 people who regularly use ammunition back in April 2021, and their findings show that demand for ammo will remain strong well into 2021. This, they believe, will happen despite the fact that the pandemic is coming to an end. They say that there are multiple reasons for this.

The roots of the shortage go back to 2020, when 80% of consumers encountered “out of stock issues” while trying to purchase ammunition. Seventy-five percent encountered out of stock situations so far in 2021. That’s only a tiny increase in available stock. Naturally, this meant that 79% of the people polled reported either fully or partially reducing their target shooting and hunting outings as a result of depleted ammunition shelves.

So, we already have a country of shooters whose ammunition supplies are lower than they’d like. In fact, nearly two-thirds of ammunition consumers report their current ammunition inventory was lower than they would prefer. When asked how much more ammunition they would like to have on hand, 43% reported “much more,” while 38% reported “a little more.” Only 17% were satisfied with the amounts they currently had on hand.

When asked why they desire more ammunition, key reasons included:

• Uncertainty about future ammunition supplies (72%). This is especially true among consumers 45+ years of age.
• Uncertainty about future restrictions on ammunition purchases (70%).
• Uncertainty about future economic conditions (54%).
• Increased shooting and hunting activity (26%). This was more common among the 25-34 year-old consumers.

“At some point, demand will certainly soften,” reports Rob Southwick, President of Southwick Associates. “However, frenzied purchasing and empty shelves often fuels further increases in demand. We do not see demand softening in the near future.”

What about that good news we mentioned earlier? Well…

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