Mahoning Valley - As Ohio and Pennsylvania gear up for hunting season, it's becoming harder for marksmen to get their hands on ammunition.

Precision Shooting, a gun shop in Austintown, usually sees its shelves full. But now, they're almost completely empty.

"Before, you could buy as much as you wanted. Now, you're very limited if you can find them at all," Tom Rinehart, the store manager, said.

The same can be said for Miller Rod and Gun, in Struthers.

"This is uncharted water to a lot of us dealers," Michael Miller, a spokesman at the gun store, said. "In the past, we knew what was happening. Now, we're sitting here going 'wow, this is just weird.'"

There are many factors playing into the lack of ammo available and the issue has been going on for over two years.

"Our business has increased one thousand percent since the beginning of the pandemic," Rinehart said.

The hike in demand coincided with the onset of the pandemic.

Dealers say whether due to panic buying in the early shutdown days or because of extra cash consumers received through stimulus checks, the overwhelming demand has also led to a dramatic dip in supply.

"The ammo companies can't keep up," Rinehart said.

With hunting season set to begin this November for Ohio and Pennsylvania, dealers say the dynamic of having a high demand for ammo and low supply of it could get even worse.

"We get, probably, fifty to seventy calls a day on, especially, the .450 Bushmaster and the .350 Legend cartridges," Rinehart said. "And that's been happening since about May probably."

Because of that, hunters can expect to see a hike in prices for ammunition this season compared to past years.

 "It's not very cheap anymore. This has become, as much as I hate to say it, a rich man's sport," Miller said. "You have to have a decent amount of money to fire a gun anymore."

Rineharted added that archery is becoming a popular choice for hunters amid the shortage in ammo and price increase in guns, silencers and more. 

Dealers say they do have hunting ammunition in stock, however, they added that marksmen may need to be prepared to stock up ahead of this November.