Ammo shortage: US sees launch of "subscription service" for ammunition

Noticed an ammo shortage at your local firearms retailer? Canadian shooters have seen rising prices and declining availability for the past year, but the situation here isn't as bad as it is in some regions of the US. Even prominent YouTubers are struggling to work around the issue. In many cases, ammunition just isn't available, and some American shooters are buying firearms in obscure calibres, because those are the only calibres left on their local gun store shelves. Who would have expected .32 S&W to make a comeback in 2021?

Just ask any Canadian online ammo retailer with a strong web presence: Americans are even calling, trying to buy ammunition from the Great White North.

With all that as a backdrop, we get this news from Vista Outdoors, company that owns multiple major ammunition and reloading brands in the US (Federal, Remington, Estate, CCI, Alliant Powder, Speer, RCBS). Vista says it is now introducing a "subscription" service for ammunition purchasing.

If you're wondering what on earth a subscription service is, it's basically a 21st-century repackaging of the old Columbia House record programs. Pay a set fee, and the retailer delivers products to your door every month, week, whatever. These days, the idea has spread far beyond the vinyl market. You can order beard oil, health supplements, all the essentials of life through subscription services these days.

Now, Vista Outdoors wants to launch a similar program that delivers monthly ammunition stocks to customers in the US. At this point, details are very limited. A Forbes write-up was unable to find out pricing for the program, or what calibres would be available; Vista's CEO says the company does not have those details worked out yet. However, he did tell Forbes that Vista will have hunting ammunition available, as well as hard-to-find ammunition in "funky calibres." In other words, it won't all be FMJ mass-produced .223, .308 and 9 mm.

While a subscription service for ammunition might sound a bit wacky, and possibly fraught with legal entanglement, even in the US, this is one way that Vista can maximize profits while potentially side-stepping price-gouging middlemen, a problem that's arisen in the US in the past year. Will it completely solve the problems facing the American firearms industry and its customers? No, but Vista at least is trying something new.

And as for the eternal question, what does this mean for Canadians: At this point, it seems highly unlikely that anyone would ever try to present a similar program in our country.

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