A Message From Federal, CCI, Speer And Remington On Ammo

[Golddollar]

I too have been on the receiving end of complaints, insults and tirades from individuals and groups that had little or no understanding of the issue at hand. It was part of my job to help them to understand without appearing condescending or rude. Sometimes those individuals or groups went away feeling better and with a better understanding of our side of things and sometimes they didn't but they could never truthfully say that they went away feeling insulted.

As a leader, whether in the private sector or public, handling stress is part of your job and nothing is to be gained by talking down to people. Being arrogant, curt or snarky to others certainly reflects poorly on the person who does it and often on the organization one represents. I believe that Mr. Hornady's manner of relating the same message was much better than Mr. Vanderbrink's and almost certainly better received by most who have watched both videos.

I have had similiar experiences and I concurr with everything you said. I was going to create my own post but you have basically covered everything I could have said.

I always kept in mind that no matter how upset or abusive a caller got (and there were some who were very abusive), if afterward I was asked the question "Were you disrespectful/impolite/Did you raise your voice to the caller?" I wanted to be able to reply quickly with a straight face "No" rather than "Yes, but . . . ."

 

[Grayfox]

There's a similar thread with this video on another site I visit. Over there everybody is supporting this guy. I, for one, have a very low tolerance for rude and stupid. Vanderbrink did a much better job of dealing with it and explaining the situation than I would have.

 

[UncleEd]

I suspect supply would be greatly
increased if ammo makers weren't
committed to producing so many
designs in each caliber.

For instance, you want 9 mm, then
only in round nose jacketed, 124 grain. Or
.44 Mag, then only flat point jacketed
in 240 grain. Or .30 rifle, how about
all spire point in one weight.

 

[Old 44 Guy]

I thought he did a good job. More folks are owning guns now & need ammo, for sure. Demand is high so ammo factories are doing their best to keep up. Cry, bitch, moan all you want but that is the thing.

 

[ancient-one]

I don't think that many, if any on this Forum are doing the things talked about. We grip and complain to each other about the availability and prices of ammo. It would be interesting to know how much harassment that he has actually had from the public. He is probably hearing from the the dealers and distributors more than individuals. Anyhow it is good to now we have so many more shooters.
I have no doubt that ammo manufacturers are operating at capacity. The nasty phone calls from shooters????????????????????

 

[Faulkner]

I've not noticed an ammo shortage myself. I learned my lesson when Slick Willie was in office that you make hay when the sun shines.

 

[Farmer17]

I guess there will always be the ignorant and naive people that will think there's no ammo because the manufacturer's are storing it in a secret warehouse, or not making any because they're lazy or just want to screw their customers. When there is zero ammo on the shelves I would not think the new gun owners are buying all the .303 British, 32-20, 6.5 Swiss, 416 Rigby, 45-90, 280 Ackley Improved, 25-35, 32 H&R Magnum or all the dozens of other calibers that are not real popular. While watching the rioting, stealing, burning and violence on TV I WOULD think every single American would want some additional ammo.

 

[old bear]

I have watched the video several times, Under the circumstances, Mr. Vanderbrink used great deal of restraint in his comments. No one likes being the target of intentionally misleading comments about themselves and the company they run. Even though there is no mention of it, I assume there were a number of threating messages aimed at Mr. Vanderbrink, his staff, or family.

 

[ancient-one]

Did anyone consider that the threatening messages may be coming from someone other than shooters? There are organizations trying to disrupt everything that has to do with guns including ammo. They don't operate in the open and little is known about them.
A few come to mind. A UN organization in OKC that was pushing hard for open borders and restricted gun rights. They did have, until a few years ago, their minutes on the Web but got smart and took them down. There was a Chapter in Tulsa also. There were and probably still are Chapter's in all major cities.
The Peace House in Bethany OK that stands with every extreme movement that comes along. Not lovers of shooters.
The ACLU is no friend in general of the gun industry or owners. They have in a very few instances sided with us.
These are just a few examples. Check around your area.

 

[Jon651]

One particular thing that disturbed me in Mr. Vanderbrink's video is he said he had people SHOWING UP AT HIS FACTORY with their complaints, innuendos and conspiracy theories. I know that they want to be friendly to the public and their customer base, but this has got to be a genuine waste of time for whomever has to deal with these folks and repeatedly answer the same questions over and over and over again.

Dealing with these conspiracy theorists over the internet is one thing, but some of them can be a little scary in person (I'm thinking Pizza-gate, here...).

 

[LVSteve]

Did anyone consider that the threatening messages may be coming from someone other than shooters? There are organizations trying to disrupt everything that has to do with guns including ammo. They don't operate in the open and little is known about them.

Judging by the number of ammo conspiracy theorists where I work, the disruptive organizations don't need to pick up the phone.

 

[brucev]

Well stated. Plain. Easy to understand. What's not to like? Sincerely. bruce.

 

[Tytan01]

OK...my two cents....

1) Good Ol' Jason should spend less time making Youtube Videos and more time making ammo. People are mad at him and his multiple companies because there's no good reason for him to be out of EVERYTHING. For MONTHS ON END.

2) He wouldn't be out of everything for months on end if he didn't sell his entire inventories to the same 5 Gun/Ammo Hoarders every week. And how do I know he's selling to the same 5 guys every week? Because these 5 guys post "Look At What I Got" videos every week on Youtube and without fail, they are always rolling a fresh pallet or 4 off the back of a truck in to be shown off on camera. My LGS can't manage to scrounge 2 boxes of 357 to save their lives and these jag-offs are pulling in PALLET LOADS every week. And why can they do that? Because Good Ol' Jason is selling it to them instead of rationing his production out so the entire rest of the country can get some a taste.

This guy exists because of the gun community....the gun community doesn't exist because of him. He needs to do better. All the bullet makers need to do better.

 

[rockquarry]

OK...my two cents....

1) Good Ol' Jason should spend less time making Youtube Videos and more time making ammo. People are mad at him and his multiple companies because there's no good reason for him to be out of EVERYTHING. For MONTHS ON END.

2) He wouldn't be out of everything for months on end if he didn't sell his entire inventories to the same 5 Gun/Ammo Hoarders every week. And how do I know he's selling to the same 5 guys every week? Because these 5 guys post "Look At What I Got" videos every week on Youtube and without fail, they are always rolling a fresh pallet or 4 off the back of a truck in to be shown off on camera. My LGS can't manage to scrounge 2 boxes of 357 to save their lives and these jag-offs are pulling in PALLET LOADS every week. And why can they do that? Because Good Ol' Jason is selling it to them instead of rationing his production out so the entire rest of the country can get some a taste.

This guy exists because of the gun community....the gun community doesn't exist because of him. He needs to do better. All the bullet makers need to do better.

Perhaps more to the story than what is stated here. Credibility and YouTube aren't necessarily compatible.

 

[waffles]

While S&W forum is a bit of an oasis, the gun community, Q peeps, and other similar groups have been nutso and getting worse on this kind of stuff. I absolutely do not blame the CEO for doing a video of this type, especially if they're at the point of getting visitors to their facility demanding answers for their conspiracy theories, it only takes one guy like the weirdo who showed up to a DC pizza shop with a rifle because he bought into "pizzagate" nonsense for things to get way too real. I don't think I could get away with making a video like this, but I respect them for putting out a straightforward message rather than just nice guy corporate bull****.

 

[Jack Flash]

To me it was nothing more than an infomercial, long on generalities and woefully short on details.

I don't blame him for being p.o.'d about complaints, rumors, and conspiracy theories, but the way to counter those is by stating, with some kind of numbers, what the current situation is.

He says they have hired "hundreds of new employees". So is that 200, 800, what? And for the figure to have meaning, what percentage of your workforce is that, spread across how many factories? You would think the CEO would know this, and since it isn't a secret, tell us.

He says "We are doing our damnedest making 22LR/9mm/30-06."
"... making more than we ever have."
"... making ammo every minute of every day."
To illustrate, he shows bins of loose cartridges and pallets of ammo boxes. I guess that proves they are making something, but not a whole lot more.
It would be nice to have some numbers to go with these hand waving explanations. The last quote in particular: what is a day? An 8 hour shift 5 days a week? Three shifts 24 hours a day 7 days a week at every factory?
That would make it a lot clearer. Why couldn't he say?

Finally, he says something about shipping ammo every day. But how is it being distributed, is it any way we could consider fair?
Like shipping it to customers using a formula based on what they ordered two years ago, so that the big guys don't hog it all while the little guys are left out in the cold.

Like I said, I don't blame him for being p.o.'d. I do blame him for not telling us much more than we already know. Really just a little pep talk and nothing more.

 

[DonsBayou]

I've been in the retail hardware business for 32 years and at the beginning I believed that the customer is always right.
But eventually I reached the point where I understood that a customer who was abusive to my employees was just too big of a pain to tolerate and have invited a few of them to take their business elsewhere.
The people who interface with the public have a difficult enough job without having to put up with jerks.
If a customer has a legitimate problem and wants to complain then we patiently listen and try to fix whatever is wrong but vulgar or abusive language or the threat of physical violence will get them thrown out of my store (and we can handle that too if need be).
But one thing we never do is initiate an angry or insulting confrontation with a customer.
The customer may not always be right but the customer in the end is the only reason we are in business.

(I'm not the best at posting and somehow this got attached to the wrong post and not to the one I intended to respond. Sorry)

 

[PPS1980]

Prices do seem to be, slowly, coming down and availability seems to be increasing at this point.

 

[rwsmith]

Notice he didn't say anything.....

....about PRIMERS!

I hope when demand for ammo peters down, primers will show up, too.

 

[Troystat]

The math he used is very helpful, in some ways the ammo shortage reminds me of the toilet paper shortage right at the beginning covid crisis there was a run on paper products and last month when the epidemic exploded we had another run. unlike all the new shooters though in regards to toilet paper we don't have a huge increase in the numbers of a**holes. Have a merry Christmas everybody and stay safe.