Ammunition shortage makes holiday gift giving difficult

Gun shop owners say that despite guns often being a high-demand gift, one thing is different this year. There’s an ammunition shortage.

The Owner of Gulf Coast Clay’s Gun Club, in Collier County, Correy Rugg, lives and breathes guns. So you can imagine how much he’s heard about the recent shortage of ammo.

“It seems like anywhere you go if you want to buy any kind of ammo at all it’s really tough to come by,” Rugg said.

Corey says there are two reasons for the shortage, panic-buying during the pandemic and the presidential election.

“Coronavirus shut down a lot of the manufacturers which supplied all the ammo and now all their inventory is gone and with all the panic buying everybody’s just starting to try and catch back up,” he said.

Thomas B. works at Tactical Research Weapons. “As far as ammunition goes it’s extremely hard to come by,” said Thomas.

Thomas B. says they’ve had plenty of people coming in looking for ammo. “Not only is it short but it’s also getting pretty expensive to the point where people won’t buy it unless they feel desperate enough to which we have had a few people do,” he said.

Just down the street at 75th Bunker and Morgan Firearms owner Gary Garrison finding the ammo is about knowing where to look. “They’ve gotta find it I’m not leaving my secrets out sorry,” he said laughing.

But people are stocking up!

“In case something crazy happens. I’ll leave it at that,” Garrison said.

So, if ammunition is on your shopping list this holiday season, be ready to look around, drive farther or pay more.