A nationwide ammunition shortage has some Central Texas sporting goods stores struggling to keep up with one of their busiest seasons.
Unique Guns in Waco and Weber's Guns in Temple said over the past year, their inventory has been much lower than usual.
"For small businesses, it's even harder because our size and volume of ordering is just not that of a big box store," said James Whitmire, manager at Weber's Guns. "So it's difficult for us as well to get the orders coming after those guys."
The shops say supply chain issues, as well as higher demand for firearms and ammunition, are to blame for the shortages.
"Right now we're in hunting season, so a lot of people are either getting into it or have done it for a long time," Whitmire said. "Then there's a scare that you can't get ammo, so the demand does go up."
Whitmire said Weber's is able to help find alternatives for people who can't find the exact kind of ammunition they are looking for.
Unique Guns owner Hani Sidarous said his shop has about half of the ammunition it usually carries, but the last few weeks, things have been getting better. A hunter himself, he said that he was able to get all of the supplies he needed this hunting season.
"We don't have overstock. It comes in and goes out, it comes in it goes out," Sidarous said.
A survey from Southwick Associates found that 80 percent of all hunters ran into out-of-stock issues last year.
The same survey found 75 percent of hunters had the same issue this year. The survey also found that 72 percent of people bought more ammunition because of supply uncertainty.
