I am sure everyone here has noticed over the last year ammo and reloading components have been harder to find and often higher priced when you do find them. In my observation some stuff has become easier to find like .223 ammo, some stuff has become harder to find such as reloading powders for shotguns and other stuff remains extremely scarce such as 22LR.
There has been lots of speculation as to the causes. It became clear to me last evening it is fear based demand and not a government attempt to minipulate the markets of ammo and components. A manager of a really large shooting sports store near me said the aggregate sale of ammo and reloading supplies in the last 10 months was equal to what the store sold in the previous 10 years. A ten fold increase in consumer demand.
The question is, how long will such a demand continue and how long will it take manufacturers to catch up? I think we all know the source of the fear. Perhaps if there is a change in control of the US Senate this fall some of the fear will go away. Maybe, but the real change will not come until Nov '16. That's a long time and if history is any guide there will be another mass shooting between now and then and that will fan the flames of gun control and the fear that goes with it. So given that I for one do not expect to see a significant change in ammo and reloading component availablity for the next two plus years.
This huge demand has and will keep prices high. Hard to believe that many metallic cartridges are $1.50 to $2.00 a round. Little wonder why so many shooting ranges are relatively quiet.
I don't just wonder when this will end but how it will end. I suspect it will mean more people owning guns and fewer people shooting them.
-- Edited by nhcrowshooter on Wednesday 19th of March 2014 01:58:11 PM
The fact that the gov has ordered millions of rounds has something to do with it as well.
I was told by a factory rep that .22 LR ammo manufacturing was put on the back burner to pursue manufacturing ammo for the large gov orders. Kind of makes sense to me.
I sure didn't vote DEMEROID. However both parties are really corrupt. I remember one congressman calling himself a "moderate" was the most left wing congressman until when he was replaced by a REAL Leftie commonly KNOWN as a leftie not running around lying about themselves like her predecessor( a R.I.N.O.) who only got "conservative" at campaign time!
Panic has a lot to with it. I know guys that buy every box of .22 LR they can find. But they haven't fired a gun in over ten years and they don't hunt. They tell me that they're buying it because in years to come they probably won't be able to get any.
When I tell them that they're causing the shortage and prices being raised, they end the conversation.