It’s the first day of firearm deer season in Michigan, but with a nationwide ammo shortage, hunters are spending just as much energy tracking down supplies as they are tracking down deer.
“This is a time of year that up to this time for the last six weeks it’s just been hectic trying to get everybody in the woods and being able to get them on the range,” said Glenn Duncan, owner of Duncan’s outdoor shop.
And they’re still missing ammo.
“Most of us got about 20 percent of what we normally get per year,” Duncan said. “This year we had to go and take some stuff from c-z. Czechoslovakian company that was able to get some 30 odd six, two 43 and two 70 in but it’s not what people were looking for.”
Duncan said the price he’s paying for ammo today is what he sold ammo at last year.
He doesn’t want his customers to think he’s gouging them, it’s simply to stay in business.
“But the cost of ammo and stuff because of, it’s limited and stuff, and the cost of materials has gone up this year, the cost of labor has gone up this year, it’s made everybody have to raise the price up,” Duncan said.
Though the ammo shortage is the biggest problem for shops like Duncan’s, there’s a gun shortage as well, and plenty of empty pegs on the walls.”
“Just before the pandemic, all of us were thinking we had too much inventory. Too many guns, too much ammo, too much everything. Everyone was trying not to buy. And then all of the sudden overnight we went from not to buying to I wish I would have bought,” Duncan said.
Duncan’s is closed Monday through Wednesday but will be open Thursday and Friday to help you out just be patient.
Copyright 2021 WNEM (Meredith Corporation). All rights reserved.
