Sportsman’s Warehouse predicts demand for MSRs will ‘level out’ in 2018

By Christen Smith

Sportsman’s Warehouse CEO John Schaeffer predicts the heightened demand for modern sporting rifles will taper off in 2018. (Photo: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)
A top executive for Sportsman’s Warehouse said last week the spike in demand for modern sporting rifles will level out in 2018.
Chief Executive Officer John Schaeffer made the statement during a conference call with investors Thursday while discussing the retailer’s financial results for the third quarter ending on Sept. 30.
“I think we’re starting to see the ending of the last peak in MSR increased demand and we’re going to start seeing, in 2018 I think, a more normal level of MSR demand,” he said. “I think that’s one of the reasons that while the hunting category is down, the use firearms, the hunting firearms and the shotguns on a unit basis were actually up for us.”
The retailer reported double digit declines in overall demand for guns and ammo in its third quarter, but said sales for modern sporting rifles and shotguns increased 6.6 percent over 2016 — the gun industry’s biggest year on record.
Schaeffer forecasted handgun sales would likewise fall in the coming year. “I think that’s probably going to go into 2018 a little longer because again those are for concealed

Source: Guns.com