Record-breaking gun sales empty store shelves of ammo

Feb. 28—TRAVERSE CITY — Fine shotguns are the name of Bryan Bilinski's game.

The longtime owner of Traverse City's Fieldsport Ltd. welcomed a major boost to business through 2020 and 2021 — at least some of it, spurred by unease, fear and uncertainty constricting around a tumultuous country.

While data from the FBI's National Instant Criminal Background Check System show spike after spike in gun sales across the nation, shotguns haven't proven Bilinski's best-sellers.

That would be ammo.

He hasn't seen ammunition shelves full in months, he said, and while Fieldsport primarily sells shotgun slugs, it's snatched up quickly.

Demand spurred high stock prices, at least in Bilinski's case — a typical box of shells runs around $6, normally. Now, it's closer to $8, and has been since the matter reared its head in early fall.

He said shops started to enforce purchase limits and refuse to let customers hoard product.

"Now, the problem's gotten really magnified," Bilinski said.

Suppliers seemingly changed tactics — rather than filling a few full orders, the approach sends smaller, partial orders to several dozen stores. Bilinski himself got in a few boxes' worth of a larger order.

"Getting ammunition's been very difficult," he said earlier this month. "They don't have hardly anything."

It only pushes the question up the chain to manufacturers, which seem hard at work in hopes of catching up.

A December 2020 statement from Jason Vanderbrink, president of Minnesota-based Federal Premium Ammunition and several other operations, dismissed theories and rumors of what was spurring the shortage. It's no conspiracy theory, he added — simply supply and demand.

His statement — offered on the company's YouTube page — insisted no plants boasted "secret warehouses" of extra ammunition, nor did any operations slow production to artificially inflate demand.

"You don't have to believe everything that's out on the internet," Vanderbrink said. "We are doing our damnedest to meet the demand."

He also offered a look at the math — from March 2020 to the video's mid-December publishing, Vanderbrink said the market saw an influx of about 7 million new gun-owners, which, in his conservative estimate, usually leave a shop with at least two (50-count) boxes of rounds per newbie.

A lowball estimate puts demand at 700 million rounds, divvied up between the U.S.'s manufacturers.

"That is impossible to do in nine months," Vanderbrink said. "And after a year like this right now, when we have hired hundreds of employees to support American manufacturing jobs, all I hear is (accusations that) we're not making ammunition."

Those workers need to go through training to make it out on the floor, Vanderbrink added, and it takes time to procure a greater supply of raw materials.

Still, the influx of workers and shifts is bound to level things out — someday, Bilinski said.

"If you're running four shifts per day, eventually you're gonna catch up," Bilinski said.

Novi-based Fenix Ammunition has seen the same trend, according to a report from nonprofit, policy-based news outlet Bridge Michigan. In mid-March 2020, the manufacturer's typical $4,000 in daily online sales skyrocketed to $40,000.

Some outlets, including the Associated Press, attribute much of the spike to the few protests in the wake of George Floyd's death that turned violent, the fear that a new, blue administration will make the process more difficult and particularly the weeks during and after the violent Jan. 6 insurrection at the nation's Capitol.

It's not solely panic-buying, though, Bilinski said. In his 25-year experience owning Fieldsport and with the specialized nature of his wares, he deals more with hunters and target shooters, who have their own ammunition needs. The shop's not hurting in sales — even among hobbyists, the market's drawn buyers of all sorts. Bilinski knows some paint those like him and his customers with the same brush as criminals. But guns are about much more than protection or violence. In places like the Grand Traverse Region, they're ingrained in local culture. Gun clubs, youth events and a resurgence of clay targets are only a few examples, he added.

"Just being in the great outdoors, getting fresh air, you don't need to wear a mask," Bilinski said, adding that the hunting trips, the deer camps, the youth target shooting events and pulling clays on a sunny afternoon aren't just a good time. "It's a needed escape from cabin fever."

Target shooters go through plenty of ammo, and even during deer season, the shortage took a toll.

"It's a problem," Bilinski said. "It's not even a good problem — you hate to see people who can't go out on a Saturday morning."

Run on ammo

The Associated Press contributed to this report.