Deer season is firing up in a lot of places. A lot of people will be taking to the woods in hopes of bagging them a nice buck or a fat doe for the freezer. Especially since it seems more people are hunting this year.

However, those gearing up for hunting season may well be able to hit a bit of a problem. It seems the ammo shortage is set to become an issue.

Just days ahead of the 2020 gun deer season in Wisconsin, there’s an ammo shortage. No matter where hunters go, rifle ammunition is hard to find, and in many cases, the shelves are empty.

In 35 years of selling guns and ammunition, Arlyn Bradley can recall a few times when there’s been a rush on ammo. But like so many other things in 2020, this year is different.

“Not like this, there were shortages before but it was always just a few, the real popular like the 9mm, .380, ‚223, but it’s everything right now, I mean everything, it’s unbelievable,” says Bradley, owner of Bradley Gun Sales in Denmark.

Whether it’s smaller gun shops like Bradley’s, or big outdoor retailers in Northeast Wisconsin, supply and demand is far from balanced.

“If we would have ammo for everybody that called, it’d have to be coming in by the semi load, it’s unbelievable, every day the phone just ring, ring, ring steady,” says Bradley.

Honestly, that sucks.

To make matters worse is the fact that a lot of people don’t stock up on their hunting calibers. They buy a box or two at the start of the season, shoot whatever they shoot during the season, and then plan on using anything left over to check the zero on their scope. I know a number of people who are likely to be in a bit of a pickle right about now.

Sure, those who hand load may be fine, but what about the rest?

Online doesn’t even seem to be much of a hope, either. Everyone is low on ammo and we’re not likely to see that change anytime soon. It kind of makes you wonder just how many people will start taking up archery as a way to put meat in the freezer. Archery tackle appears to be in abundant supply, but hunting with a bow is different than with a rifle. Some won’t really know how to make that jump while others simply won’t want to.

Yeah, this is 2020 for you. We’ve seen shortages of pretty much everything and now even hunting for your own food isn’t even a solution since a lot of people won’t have ammo.

Hopefully, some of this will settle down in the near future and we can put this craziness behind us. Unfortunately, it won’t be anytime soon. We’re looking at months, if not longer, before things settle down and ammo supplies normalize. That’s assuming that they ever do, which I do but would be remiss not to acknowledge the possibility that this is the new normal.