Hornady Addresses Ammo Shortage

[PegLeg45]

From one horse's mouth.......

Hornady Addresses Ammo Shortage: We’re working 24/7

Big time ammo company Hornady released a statement Tuesday commenting on the ammo shortage and shed light on some key questions they’ve been asked repeatedly.

“The current political climate has caused extremely high demand on all shooting industry products, including ours,” Hornady said in the statement. “Empty retail shelves, long backorders, and exaggerated price increases on online auction sites – all fueled by rumors and conjecture – have amplified concerns about the availability of ammunition and firearms-related items.”

The company asked that you, the consumer, not let Internet rumors on the ammo shortage influence or scare you into paying any outrageous prices. And stressed that if information about Hornday’s supply doesn’t come from Hornady, don’t believe it. Here are the rumors they addressed in the statement:

Q: Have you stopped production, or has the government forced you to stop?

A: Not at all.


Q: Did you stop selling bullets so you could only make loaded ammunition?

A: Absolutely not.


Q: Since we can’t find your product you must be selling it all to the government.

A: Nope, less than 5 percent of our sales are to government entities.


Q: Why can’t you make more? Ramp up production? Turn on all the machines?

A: We’ve been steadily growing our production for a long time, especially the last five years. We’ve added presses, lathes, CNC equipment, people and space. Many popular items are produced 24 hours a day. Several hundred Hornady employees work overtime every week to produce as much as safely possible. If there is any question about that – please take a tour of the factory. You’ll be amazed at what you see.

In short, Hornady, like many other ammo and gun makers, are producing as much as they can, which is more than last year and a lot more than the year before that. And like any business they want to make their products available for those who want to buy them and in turn win the sale.

“We appreciate everyone’s understanding and patience,” the company said. “We don’t know when the situation will improve, so please bear with us a little longer.”


http://www.guns.com/2013/02/15/hornady-addresses-ammo-shortage/

[JC5123]

I have no issue with that statement.

I would be curious to know what the production rates are for ammunition and say, AR lowers? How many can a factory crank out in one day and still maintain the quality and tolerances that we all demand. I would guess that it's not as many as one would hope. 

[tombogan03884]

I was at the local wallyworld today.
They had a dozen boxes of assorted shotgun ammo, shot only no buck, no slugs.
2 boxes of 30-06, some 22Mag, 17 WMR and 22 shorts, plus 17 boxes of PMC .45(that was under $20/50)
Friend of mine was at the local pistol range yesterday, wanted a Brick of 22LR, they had 1 @$40
seemed to have plenty of range ammo in other calibers but NOTHING for sale.

I have no issue with that statement.

I would be curious to know what the production rates are for ammunition and say, AR lowers? How many can a factory crank out in one day and still maintain the quality and tolerances that we all demand. I would guess that it's not as many as one would hope. 

Assuming the company is already running at full capacity the only way to increase parts production is to add more machines that start at $125K each plus fixtures and operators .
You can not speed up the machining process regardless of quality the tooling simply will not take the strain.

[TAB]

I would say 125  is on the low side.     i would say it would be atleast half a mil to a get a machine up and running.  Thats assuming you have the space and capacitys to run it.  It takes a long time for that one machine to pay its self off, and one machine is not going to increase production that much.

[tombogan03884]

I would say 125  is on the low side.     i would say it would be atleast half a mil to a get a machine up and running.  Thats assuming you have the space and capacitys to run it.  It takes a long time for that one machine to pay its self off, and one machine is not going to increase production that much.

http://www.cncguns.com/downloads.html

In 2002 T/C Arms bought brand new 4 Robo Drill machines identical to the one at the linked sight for $100K each .
I have seen good used machines under $50K

[Sponsor]

[TAB]

Thats just the machine.  I am talking every thing needed.  From air, to power, tooling, training, hiring costs  etc etc.

[tombogan03884]

Thats just the machine.  I am talking every thing needed.  From air, to power, tooling, training, hiring costs  etc etc.

If they are already running machines the only costs for each additional machine would be 2 or 3 new hires per machine, by shuffling assignments and putting the new hires in places where a skilled worker was nearby while experienced operators got the new machines dialed in T/C manage to increase production immediately. The costs of tooling and electricity were negligible since it was only a small increase in existing budget expenses while we already had a cross training program in effect that the new hires were added into.

[Solus]

I would imagine floor space for any new lines would be a factor.  If  you have it there, no problem.  If space is tight, it could be a major concern.

The current site would need to be expanded, which could be costly and lengthy process, or impossible depending upon how much land is available.

Bringing up an additional site, no matter  how close, will introduce logistics/training/supervision problems and moving the whole operation to a larger facility can't be done in any kind of short timeframe.

[tombogan03884]

Depends on the current set up, space might be gained by moving machines closer together since with the possible exception of some barrel making operations there is nothing hanging out beyond the machine guards.

[Timothy]

My company recently began renting another facility to increase our machining capabilities.  It took nearly a year to become operational though one would hope that Hornady's management team isn't nearly as inept as ours!