Where does all the ammo go?

T

tonykharper

Well-known member
I have heard many times that bench rest shooters are a very small part of the ammo buying market. If you consider all .22 rimfire ammo, we certainly are.

But what about Eley Match/Tennex, and the higher priced Lapua and RWS.

Who, in this country, is buying all this high priced ammo? I don't think it is position shooters (just try to find a match to attend). I don't think it is silhouette guys. Not too many of them and very few use the high priced stuff.

Perhaps Dan Killhough, or Bob Collins, or anyone can shed some light on this?

Just asking!
 
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Probably just us dummies that keep hoping we'll stumble on to a lot that will elevate us above the bottom of the pack. Then stick in the closet,or shed, when the next hot lot comes to the warehouse. How many cases of" a brick of this and a brick of that" do you have laying around
 
Tony,
I believe in the U.S. market, Bench Rest competitors buy 40-50% of Match and Tenex. I do not know this for a fact because I do not know exactly where all of the ammo from Zanders goes, but based off how much I sell and to whom I sell it I believe that number to be pretty close. Sihlouette competitors use many different brands of ammo such as Wolf, Fiocchi, CCI, some Lapua, and some Eley. A few shoot Match, Tenex, Center-X, Midas+. I believe there are fewer bench rest competitors, but br guys shoot more.
 
tonykharper said:
I have heard many times that bench rest shooters are a very small part of the ammo buying market.
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Tony,

I think you'll find that that statement refers to the worldwide position, not the US one. ISSF position shooting etc has a huge following in Europe and elsewhere & you'll find that that is where the bulk of the premium ammunition market is.

John
 
In a typical handgun silhouette match, I will use 3 boxes of eley Match, and one box of eley standard. I think you would be surprised at the number of us handgun silhouetters that use Eley Match, some use the Tenex.
MC
 
Tony,
At one of our home clubs I share and test ammo with a national level prone shooter and I'd tell you that there are one hell of a lot more of these high level guys out there than we realize. Just think of the outfits like Champion's, Neal Johnson's that have catered to primarily them for a great many years.
 
All that ammo must go somewhere, at the Lapua/SK plant in Schönebeck, Germany they knockout 200 million rounds a year and that is just one of the ammo makers. It would be interesting to know just what the annual world consumption of rimfire ammo is.
 
In a typical ARA event, my wife and I will go through 6 boxes of Eley Match or what ever we can find to shoot. In other Schuetzen events, I will go through less then 30 rounds on our largest events. Mark one up for the BR guys.
 
John Kielly said:
Tony,

I think you'll find that that statement refers to the worldwide position, not the US one. ISSF position shooting etc has a huge following in Europe and elsewhere & you'll find that that is where the bulk of the premium ammunition market is.

John
Click to expand...

John,

I'm sure you are correct. When I lived in the U.K. we shot prone matches nearly every week, and when I was in Germany every village had a club that shot nearly every week. They do go thorough a lot of ammo in Europe. But I'm speaking of the U.S. market.

Earlier this year I had a conversation with a CCI representative, I was trying to see if they would be interested in getting into the high quality rimfire ammo market. They started out by telling me their Green tag was competitive with anything on the market. So then I provided them with a list of websites that listed match schedules and results. After the guy had a chance to study them he contacted me (I was impressed) but he went on to say we were such a small market they would not be interested. CCI is at full capacity now, and are selling everything they can produce.

Makes you wonder why we keep hearing about all this unemployment?
 
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