Despite the recent influx of once-scarce ammo into the sales pipeline, Clinton Gerner reckons the ammo industry has not yet begun to fight. “It’s not just bad events and anti-2A politics that’s driving demand,” the Marine and Chief Executive of Capital Armament Co. asserts. “There’s been a huge explosion in the shooting sports and serious training for both average shooters and professionals. You’ll see more spikes and lulls in the future, but the general [ammo demand] trend will remain upwards.” CapArms is putting its money where it’s mouth is . . .
The ammo maker’s opening a 28.5k square foot facility in Sibley, Iowa. In the town of just 2,798 souls (up two in ten years) CapArms will soon produce small batches of high-quality ammo, much of it along the same lines as Winchesters ballistically-matched Train & Defend line.
“We released ours first,” Gerner told TTAG. That said, he reckons Winchester and CapArms won’t be alone in this concept going forward.
“When you’re in competition shooting ammo that’s as much as five or six inches off target because it’s not the same as your training ammo, you quickly see the benefit of matched training and competition ammo. For someone using their firearm for self-defense or in the line of duty, it could be the difference between life and death.”
Sibley, IA –Â Capital Armament Co. (CapArms) conducted a groundbreaking ceremony this morning for their new 12,000 square foot facility in Sibley, IA. This is the first stage of what will ultimately be a 23.5 acre facility with over 28,500 square feet of production and office space as well as 9 product test ranges.
The event was well attended with many local dignitaries as well as many of the key community partners that have help in CapArms’ relocation from their old facility in Minnesota to Sibley.
The company’s continued growth is looked at as a source of development for the Sibley area and has been widely supported by both the City of Sibley and Osceola County. It is expected they will employ over 40 people in the new facility when finished with stage one and close to double that in the next few years.
Right on!
Now, if only a plant for plinking .22LR would open . . . . 🙂
We desperately need a bunch more plants making .22lr plinking ammo to open!
There is huge pent up demand for .22lr. It is not only the hoarding shortage. People are also shooting a lot more .22 now than they use to. There are new “tactical” .22s. There are “defensive type pistols” in .22 like SR22, M&P22, etc. There are .22 handgun conversion kits, and AR15 .22lr conversion kits. There are tons more gun owners. Even longtime .22 gunners like myself have bought several new .22 handguns and rifles over the last few years.
Finally, because of the shortage over the last few years, everybody wants to “stock up” on .22lr. Ammo manufacturers need to realize that it is not a quick “boom bust” cycle like we had for the AR15’s. There is serious demand, and it will take years to meet it. Ammo manufacturers could make a ton of money cranking out massive quantities of .22lr.
Ammo manufacturers already make a ton of money cranking out massive quantities of expensive ammo and selling every round they make. Why would they make tons of cheap twenty-two?
Because .22 is the “gateway drug” to higher power weapons.
Because if you churned out a piddling amount of .22LR… say, oh, 25 million rounds per year… and you made only $.05/round on it, that would be $1,250,000 in before-tax profit, easy as sin. Making .22LR ammo is pretty easy (once you get set up) compared to loading up .223 ammo. No jacketed pills, only cast lead, no primers you have to worry about falling out, or getting contaminated. Only one type of smokeless powder you load, and the market would easily absorb everything you could make of one bullet type.
Much less complicated than loading centerfire rifle ammo.
@PeterW, the ammo industry doesn’t need a “gateway,” at least not while firearms ownership keeps increasing faster than the manufacturers can keep up.
Oh, we’ll see plenty of .22LR — at 15 to 20 cents a round.
That is the exactly the answer I give to people who walk into our range and ask “Got any .22s”?
Than I say to them “If I had an entire pallet of .22s for sale at a fair price and no limit on quantity, how many would you buy?” Their answer is always the same: most of it.
Dyspeptic, your numbers are way off. There’s no way Remington, Winchester, and CCI can profit $.05/round when retailers can barely sell it for even $.10/round, more like $.05-$.08. Manufactures work through distributors, who wholesale it to retailers, who sell it to us. I would be surprised if it’s even $.01 profit per round to manufacturers.
I paid $0.0476/rd at Cabelas for Remington Thunderbold 525rd box ($25) this week. NOONE is getting rich at that price.
If ammo manufacturers are selling every round of premium and higher-priced ammo that they make, what are the chances that they will make cheap .22LR?
Zero. And they like it that way.
i haven’t shot any .22lr since January 2013. That makes me sad. All I’ve been using it for is currency for guns that shoot more easily sourced ammo. I’ve got tons of it, just can’t bring myself to shoot any of it until I am certain I can just go to the store and replace it.
I’m in the same place as you. Which is why I’m looking for a 9mm carbine — and I don’t even like pistol-caliber carbines.
using it as currency
Well that’s smart.
What’d’ja get?
A 90’s Taurus 65 in 357 with a 4″ barrel and wood grips. Great gun. All that mass makes 357 feel like 9mm and 38 like 22. Plus I reload 38 (and 300BLK) already so double plus good. Feels weird that 357 and 300BLK use like identical powder charges.
.22lr is the new silver when it comes to making a gun trade even.
Yup. A lot of “conventional wisdom” died in the gun world in 2013. Pre panic wisdom encouraged new shooters to buy .22 or surplus guns because ammo was “commonly available” and “cheap”. Psh. These days it seems like you can find 30-06 cheaper and more abundant than any military rounds or .22.
You can readily find .22 for 10c/round online. That is still way cheaper than any other rifle round out there, including 5.45; most certainly much cheaper than .30-06.
I think we should all get together and make ourselves an ammunition factory.
We can setup in Tyler Kee’s parents back pasture. There should be plenty of space there. Tyler’s parents can pay for the plant concrete slab and the rest of us and throw in for the structure.
Checking the veteran status of the owner or owners of every business you mention will get complicated, but maybe only fair if you are going to do so for some. Not everyone advertises it.
I am sold on Winchester Train & Defend 9mm. Works good, concept good, there is cheaper ammo available, and you get what you pay for. Practicing/sighting in with HP ammo you are going to carry will even up the costs pretty quick. I’ll probably have to look into .45 ACP, see if I like that, as well.
This is excellent!! Best of luck to them.
Good for them.
I bet the anti-gun people are having mini seizures over it.
I had to laugh about the town that only increased their population by two in ten years. Reminds me of the little town I used to go through all the time. It never changed it’s population. Every time a baby was born, some guy left town!
“Every time a baby was born, some guy left town!”
That’s funny right there! Reminds me of the first time a girl showed up at my high school in one of those shapeless Mexican dresses which were somewhat popular in the early ’80s. Three guys didn’t show up for classes for a week!
Other players would enter the market, competitors, but with the ATF exercising the monopoly-granting wand…
Comments are closed.