North Dakota Short On Ammo- Here’s Why.

There's clearly reason for legitimate concern in North Dakota of the perceived Joe Biden vs Joe Shotgun narrative. So far, it is more of a battle of clips and automatics versus a war on ammunition.  This very well documented article from Dakota Edge Outdoors with Nick Simonson thoughtfully explored what the hell happened to all our bullets!  Spoiler alert...it may be pandemic related.

First off, it's a simple matter of supply.  The article suggests that due to an early Asian labor shortage in the opening period of the worldwide pandemic, gunpowder was not being produced at nearly the pre-pandemic rate.  Along with transport and travel restrictions, gunpowder still has a long way to go to supply shooting enthusiasts.

I've met him a few times, Darryl Howard is a great guy and local owner of a Bismarck gun shop and he does shoot pretty straight...

“It’ll be a few years…the shelves are stripped” says Darryl Howard, owner of Double H Gun Shop in Bismarck, N.D., on when things will return to normal in light of the current ammo supply, “I usually have about three or four feet of shelf front for 30.06 and two feet of .243 in different brands and loads and bullet weights, but we’ll be very fortunate to have a choice or two of 30.06, which is crazy,

So as not to say there haven't been millions of Americans that have become new gun owners in reaction to social unrest and the uncertainty of COVID times.  But many new gun owners did it to discover an activity that lends itself to social distancing. A lot of bicycles disappeard off the shelves for much the same reason. Of course, even with buying limts, there's always the hoarders.

The article makes an interesting turn into the world of competitive shooting and the challenges this shortage is presenting to high school and adult shooting leagues. So it's supply and demand...with supply being slow on the draw.

Let's have Daryl finish this up...

“You don’t have to shoot at or kill a deer for another eight months to be scrounging for ammo right now,” Howard says with a laugh, “everybody just needs to take a deep breath and be kind,”

Read that entire article and be kind y'all.