Originally Posted by rwa3006
Originally Posted by copperking81
Originally Posted by rwa3006
Originally Posted by Bocajnala
The real question is will it return to "normal" or is this the new normal?

I'm sufficiently stocked up. But I'm hesitant to use any of it-because replacing it may cost me a fortune.

I have enough to hunt and stay practiced enough to hunt. But can't just go shoot recreationally like before.

-Jake


I'm pretty confident we'll never get back to even close to the normal we knew several years ago. In our business we are trying to forecast our component needs out for at least a year so we can assure we are still in business. That represents around 50 million rounds of ammo for our little operation. It's a big risk for us because availability is fickle, plus the stroke of a politicians pen could put us out of business in this current political climate.

The OEM component sources are gambling also. You can bet it's seriously discussed at every staff meeting if it will pay off to expand manufacturing facilities or not. The most obvious safe path is to run current equipment around the clock and do the best you can with what you have.

The changing from the Trump administration to the Biden fiasco has put the fear of God into ammo manufacturers for facility expansion and who can blame them? Every day we agonize over questions of expanding our business and if we will even be able to stay in business due to politics. Because of this we have increased our profit margins a little bit to cushion us from the increased risk we have now days. This contributes a bit to increased ammo price points among our peers, but I wouldn't call it gouging.

It might be a good time to go into business making innovative dry fire equipment.


Is capital available should you want to expand capacity or has that dried up? I could see where getting money right now to build up could be problematic.


I don't perceive capital being as big an issue to expansion as unstable politics which could drastically affect importation of powder and primers.

American shooters have been huge beneficiaries of the privatization of former Soviet Bloc factories which allowed them to feed our appetite. All Biden has to do is stop that flow and we are screwed for years.

At that point why would American companies go through all the expense and trouble to create infrastructure to fill the void when you might get politics that would shut you down?


Oh, I get it. I figured the finance guys did too and might be holding on capital until they see how it plays out. The overseas primer manufacturing is interesting... I didn't know about them.