A nationwide ammunition shortage has trickled into Northeast Michigan, and gun retailers can’t order enough inventory to keep their customers happy.

At Bob’s Gun Shop in Alpena, owner Robert Skuse counts himself lucky to track down one box of ammunition to add to his thin stock.

Many ammunition boxes stretched across store shelves will do many of his customers no good, because the older styles he has in stock won’t fit newer firearms. The most popular ammunition is nearly impossible to obtain, Skuse said.

“It’s trying times,” Skuse said. “Here it is, hunting season, and we don’t have the ammo.”

News Photo by Julie Riddle Robert Skuse, owner of Bob’s Gun Shop in Alpena, discusses ammunition shortages seated next to shelves lined with ammunition boxes many of his customers can’t use.

Suppliers, short on both materials and workers, can’t fill orders, even for long-time customers like his shop, Skuse said.

Desperate for any ammunition he can get his hands on, Skuse recently purchased a box of bullets designed for hunting elephants.

He has more ammunition than the rest of the shops in the area, he believes, but he has to pay higher prices to get it. Employee Barb Cole has to spend hours online each day, tracking down spare inventory, Skuse said.

Some hunters, put off by steep prices local store owners have to charge as their own costs increase, decide the half-box they have at home will suffice this year, Cole said.

Scopes and other gun accessories are hard to come by, too. Skuse has a lot of guns in stock, but they’re not the kind his customers want, he said.

“I have to take what I can get,” he said. “We’ll get by.”

With 20 to 25 rounds in a box and a low harvest limit, most hunters have leftover ammunition from last year and are not worried the ammunition shortage will keep them out of the woods, said Adam Pilarski, employee at Adrian’s Sport Shop in Rogers City.

The store has limited supplies but still some boxes of ammunition on the shelves, Pilarski said.

At A-1 Woods and Waters in Hillman, owner Lisa Ferguson gets multiple phone calls and pop-ins a day asking for a popular bullet she hasn’t received from suppliers all year.

“They leave just shaking their heads,” Ferguson said. “But nobody’s got it.”

Aware of the nationwide shortage, she kept her ammunition stock in reserve until Nov. 1 so local deer hunters would have a better shot at finding what they need for rifle season.

She limits customers to one box of ammunition. Most understand the restriction, though some have the itch to stockpile if they see more than one box in stock.

“Why do you need six boxes?” Ferguson said. “Spread the wealth.”