Since ammo is made with expensive automated machines manufacturers are limited by their machinery on how much they can ramp up production.The other thing is that the manufacturers have to be ramping up production as fast as they can, there's money to be made here, and the faster they get the product out while prices are high, the more money they make. This will start to increase the supply curve after a while.
People that buy up ammo are scalpers and I share your annoyance with them. I will never buy anything from them. Now and forever.I get annoyed everytime panic buying and hoarding happens, regardless of the cause.
There is always a small percentage of shooters who will buy up whatever they can find with an intent to re-sell at inflated prices. There are also a percentage of retailers who will inflate ammo prices - beyond their cost increases - in a time of crisis, citing "demand" and pushing it was far as the market will bear just to make extra profit.
That was an epiphany I had, that lifetime warranties aren't a big deal to me anymore.Between years of stocking up and Arthritis now limiting some of my handgun shooting activities I am confident that I have enough Handgun ammo and components on hand to last me for the rest of my life.
I learned from President Clinton. I stocked up on powder and primers Wednesday morning after President Obama's first election win. Gun show specials added to the inventory, and now a lifetime supply has been achieved without a reduction in shooting activities.
At age 72 that is easy to do.
One of the tragedies in the US today is that we've forgotten about ethics, more more correctly redefined ethics as "if it's not illegal, then it is moral and ethical". That applies to things like long range hunting, just as much as it does to people buying a store's entire stock of toilet paper to re-sell, just to make a buck.
If we don't stop acting as individuals with no thought to the common good and our moral and ethical obligation to help others when we can, within the scope of the constitution and individual rights, we soon won't have a nation worth living in.
If you can't help others, at least conduct yourselves in a manner that doesn't harm others or infringe on the rights of others. It's called "civility" and it's gone out of style.
..... Sure, would-be scalper scumbags would still be scrambling to buy up dozens of boxes at the first sign of trouble, but the only person who would get screwed is them since everyone else would already be stocked up and thus nobody would buy their marked up ammo, nor would they need to because the ammo companies wouldn't have to scramble to meet demand......
Spring 2019: Federal 5250 rd case .22 lr 36 gr plated HP's, $199 before the $40 rebate. OK, send 2. I guarantee before Summer's end (unless madness subsides) folks will beg me for a box @$60. I guess I'd be a "scalperscumbag" if'n I turned that $320 worth of ammo into $1200. Which I won't. I'm too old to **** around for money that ain't "life changing." Joe
Although we all know that once prices on anything shoot up, they're unlikely to go back to where they started, but there are signs of hope.
No surprise that 9mm, .223, 5.56, and 7.62/39 are most affected, but I'm seeing other calibers seem to be getting back to normal. For example, .38 has similar pricing to where we started, and some places have .357 that's close to pre-panic levels.
I'd like to finish reading this thread but I'm going to reload so I can do some shooting tomorrow.