Jessi Cole
TSS has made a big impact on turkey hunting and the turkey hunting industry in the past decade. It has fundamentally changed how hunters approach range, patterning, and confidence in the field. TSS has increased a safe, successful shot at a turkey from a max of about 30 yards to a max of about 50 yards. And turkey hunters know just how crucial that extra 20 yards can be in the woods.
TSS has also become an “insurance” option for hunters. Turkey hunters travel the country, take mornings off work, spend hours and hours for one opportunity at a bird, and often invest significant time scouting and preparing for a single encounter. They spend hundreds and even thousands of dollars each season on gear, travel, and lodging, and the price of an increased guarantee at a dead turkey is a price that’s very much worth it for these dedicated hunters. They are willing to pay that premium price.
These days, that premium price continues to climb higher and higher, and TSS shells are becoming increasingly hard to find. While TSS used to be easy to find, more and more ammunition brands are dropping TSS options from their catalogs. In many cases, manufacturers are shifting toward blended loads with lead and TSS as a way to reduce costs and price while still offering a more effective kill. Some hunters even claim false advertising and zero tungsten being offered in shells marketed as mixed. Whatever the case—TSS has certainly become harder to find and much more expensive to buy. The result is a market filled with both uncertainty and skepticism among consumers. The new nickname for tungsten is "black gold."
Tailgate theories often include current wars and tariffs, but Jared Lewis and Jason Lonsberry, founders of Apex Ammunition, sit down with us to tell us their personal experience with both sourcing and selling TSS. Apex Ammunition is known for their TSS shells; TSS is their bread and butter. They’ve got the right answers and explanations to the shortage and price hike questions that most turkey hunters have.
Jason and Jared say, “85% of the world’s supply of TSS comes from China. And if you’re looking at the relationship between China and the United States, it’s not looking great right now.”
They say China is in a “stockpiling” mode right now, sitting on their own stores of tungsten and buying up scraps from other countries. “China is moving across the globe and buying tungsten en masse,” according to Jason and Jared. This aggressive acquisition strategy is tightening global supply and driving up costs across multiple industries—not just ammunition.
In 1980, they said, something similar happened. China hoarded and stockpiled tungsten in order to crash the market. It put a lot of people out of business and destroyed a lot of investments into new operations. China does this in order to continue to have a stronghold on the precious earth metals and minerals, they continue.
“The trade war has gotten to the point where it’s about total control. They’re holding on to what is valuable to them,” says Jared and Jason.
The opportunity and silver lining in all of the trade-war drama is that the few United States suppliers of tungsten are now making commercial-grade tungsten, in addition to their Department of Defense-grade material, in order to fill the need for American companies looking to source tungsten. These companies are new to the commercial platforms, but they are working to supplement the growing need for commercial-grade tungsten. While still developing, these domestic efforts could reshape the supply chain in the coming years.
“The opportunity has been created to fill that space and get away from being reliant on China for tungsten. The United States has plenty of it, Canada has plenty of it…Are we going to be in short supply of tungsten forever? I’m going to bet not. Capitalism will do its thing and suppliers will rise up and fill that need and space.”
While bigger companies with thousands of SKUs have quickly dropped TSS from their offerings in order to save on cost, Apex, a medium-sized company, is able to be nimbler and work with alternate sourcing strategies in order to provide products to their loyal customers. That flexibility has allowed them to stay committed to TSS while others step away.
They continue, “We’re not worldwide economists or anything, but we’re close enough to the space to have a grasp on what’s actually happening. We’ve heard people say, ‘TSS is dead.’ It’s not dead, it’s just going to be a bit delayed. I think that people need to know—hey, it’s cool! Things are a little funky right now, but things don’t get fixed overnight.”
The two founders of Apex Ammunition have about as good of a finger on the pulse of the tungsten and TSS situation as anyone, and their optimism about the future—as well as their own company’s ability to navigate the current murky waters and continue to provide product to their customers—shows that TSS is here to stay. Their perspective offers a level of reassurance to hunters who are watching prices rise and availability shrink.
As turkey hunting gear continues to evolve and excel in the woods, the ammunition that hunters use needs to be able to perform accurately and with deadly intent as well. Accuracy and reliability remain non-negotiable when opportunities are limited.
That extra insurance for the turkey hunter playing a season-long game of chess with an old gobbler who gets one shot to kill him, the turkey hunter driving across the country and taking all of their PTO for one opportunity, the young hunter shooting their first turkey—all of these scenarios and more call for the usage of TSS.
And despite the fear, despite the rumors, and despite the current market challenges, it’s here to stay.
Watch Jason, Jared, and Nick, all veterans, hunt in the below Mossy Oak Honor episode.
