How bad is the firearms industry downturn?

[wired]

I think the HPA has little better than a snowballs chance in hell of passing through the House and Senate. Mainstream Republicans give gun rights a good talking but they seldom seem to do anything about it. All's quiet from the Trump team on rolling back BATF actions too . Gun barrels are still banned from import if they fit "assault rifles". Chinese ammo and guns still banned, MANY Russian guns are still banned from import, "Gunsmiths" are still required to pay State Dept extortion rate fees. Nothing has changed.

I dont think the HPA will help mainstream silencer companies to survive . Prices will plummet and the engineering intensity will drop along with it. It will be all about price.

 

[Gunner3456]

I was just thinking that they have to have some path from ID to Sacramento...

I heard some good things About Donner Pass.

 

[J&B Firearm Sales Inc.]

State Dept extortion rate fees.

We just got our notification for renewal of our $2250 annual fee for "registration" just in case we happen to gunsmith or manufacturer guns for a foreign military...

 

[Diamondback]

Oh, do not wind me up about the sh!tbuckets at State DDTC on ITAR... what's stupid is how they consider even a photo an "export," never mind hands-on even with no intention of it physically leaving the country like borrowing somebody's to try out on the range.

We shoulda let McCarthy finish the job he started with taking Commie traitor Alger Hiss's scalp...

 

[fxdl]

Look for increased prices in ammo if we start another ME ground war, Syria maybe? Meantime guys, who has the best prices on AR's and handguns?

 

[Diamondback]

@fxdl I think Palmetto's had some just-add-lower AR kits for below $400 recently.

 

[Diamondback]

Also, @fxdl , today and tomorrow only Primary Arms has Anderson lowers for $40 and LPK's for $30, limit 5 of each.

 

[MADrtcw]

I don't feel bad at all for firearm companies and their dealers one bit. all the price hikes after sandy hook; it's about time we've gotten back to reasonable prices. Just go's to show us how much the markup has been for so long.

 

[wired]

I don't feel bad at all for firearm companies and their dealers one bit. all the price hikes after sandy hook; it's about time we've gotten back to reasonable prices. Just go's to show us how much the markup has been for so long.

That was all distributor and retailer driven. I dont know of any mainstream manufacturers who jacked their wholesale pricing during the scare. If anything the run on guns kept companies that should have gone under a long time ago ( cough cough COLT ) to stay with us for a few more years.

I'll just be content to walk into wal mart and buy a brick of .22 for $14 . Not holding my breath though.

 

[Diamondback]

That was all distributor and retailer driven. I dont know of any mainstream manufacturers who jacked their wholesale pricing during the scare. If anything the run on guns kept companies that should have gone under a long time ago ( cough cough COLT ) to stay with us for a few more years.

I'll just be content to walk into wal mart and buy a brick of .22 for $14 . Not holding my breath though.

It's a surprise that Walbarf even HAS a guns/ammo counter given how they went PC after Sandy Hook... "AR's don't sell" my Dead-Fish-White @$$!

 

[PaulB47]

Don't worry about it. Some suppliers will go out of business, others will survive and pick up their sales. That's the market for ya. BTW I'm less worried about gun control now even though I doubt Trump will change anything. There are a lot of liberals buying these days; that should help ease the pain some, for the gun business.

 

[CoastRange57]

That was all distributor and retailer driven. I dont know of any mainstream manufacturers who jacked their wholesale pricing during the scare.

Agree. The manufacturers have set prices they will sell at to meet theirs and the stockholders profit expectations. The greed comes in at the lower levels. Firearms usually don't have a distributor level in them, the manufacturers sell direct to the dealers,and they got all ballsey and decided to make huge margins when they could.

The manufacturer could care less really about how the retailer sells their products. The manufacturers main concern is to sell the inventory and production runs at the price the accountants say to to meet the profit targets required to please shareholders and maintain financial health. The retailers have latitude as to how they want to price it, but you have to move volume if you give up even the slightest bit of volume. Fact is, a lot of these retailers are bad with spreadsheets, hence they have trouble. The gross margins on guns really is not that great and for ROI, the gun business would be one of the last I would want to be in.

I worked for a major turf equipment manufacturer, now a 3 billion dollar a year player. They distributed the commercial portion of their products to distributors in each state or every two states. These distributors then sold direct to commercial applications and set up local dealers to move the retail products. These distributors made good money, and the rich white men that owned them were easily making a million a year in net profits after all expenses.

Of course this made the equipment higher priced because it was a premium product, but market share sales suffered. The manufacturer lost a lot of control as to how the end sales were made and got tired of losing market share because of that extra layer of money going in the distributors pocket. They offered the distributors one chance to go with a new program, they designed it to basically screw them, but if they did not take it they yanked their distributor agreement. Which they did and made all the distributors company owned stores.

That solved that problem of the market share loss due to the distributor stepping on it. Manufacturers of all kinds of products are flattening out the distribution channels and improving margins and letting the retailers take the pricing challenges. Brilliant move really.

 

[CoastRange57]

It's a surprise that Walbarf even HAS a guns/ammo counter given how they went PC after Sandy Hook... "AR's don't sell" my Dead-Fish-White @$$!

Walbarf..that is a good one. The local Walbarf here is quite the attractant for criminals. The cops take down about 3 to 5 felony warrants a week, 3 or more drug possessions and several stolen cars. They sit down the road and use some bad azz optics to check the plates and faces, or just roll through the lot with the licenses plate recognition thing and just stack them up. They already have a pre plan for when the scumbags run and it is pretty cool that they get so many.

 

[wired]

Firearms usually don't have a distributor level in them, the manufacturers sell direct to the dealers,and they got all ballsey and decided to make huge margins when they could.

Theres still the Davidsons and Lipseys distributors of the world that handle a lot of the guns for smaller retailers that don't want to have to buy into the minimum stocking BS that the manufacturers require to be a stocking dealer.

 

[ramrod52]

I think ammo demand will rebound sooner than we might think. I learned to shoot with a single shot Sears 22 rifle.
When i look around i see a substantial number of 20 and 30 round magazines. We used to call those spray and pray firearms.

 

[CoastRange57]

Theres still the Davidsons and Lipseys distributors of the world that handle a lot of the guns for smaller retailers that don't want to have to buy into the minimum stocking BS that the manufacturers require to be a stocking dealer.

More dilution of margin in favor of the manufacturers. I used to love the manufacturers reps that would come out and want to ride around with me seeing our customers. I finally told them why do you give a f what I sell really, your sales goals are met when my boss buys the sh*t from you anyway.

My boss was putting 600k net in his pocket off my sales each year. I love it when the manufacturer can tell you what you have to buy to keep that dealer / distributor level, or they will cancel you and some one else is waiting to pickup your action. The of course since I was doing some prototype testing for them, my field changes that made maufacturing required me to sign off on the patent with nothing for that noble gesture.

 

[Certaindeaf]

It's so bad I think someone in Peoria actually scored some .22 ammo.

 

[nammac]

Look for increased prices in ammo if we start another ME ground war, Syria maybe? Meantime guys, who has the best prices on AR's and handguns?

Grab a Gun has some really good prices and 7.99 shipping on firearms...

 

[Diamondback]

Grab a Gun has some really good prices and 7.99 shipping on firearms...

Just got an email from them, Del-Ton Sport AR for $399.

 

[nammac]

Just got an email from them, Del-Ton Sport AR for $399.

Seen that too...

Tax refund time, so I get one new toy... But what should it be???