When will ammo prices come down?

Does it matter? The price will be the price. I just hope that the shelves begin to get some stock and then prices will stabilize.

Why don't you start a poll asking "How many ammo prices threads/polls will there be today?".

22-rimfire said:

Does it matter? The price will be the price. I just hope that the shelves begin to get some stock and then prices will stabilize.

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Of course it matters. We're not all made of money you know. It's purely speculation at this point as to when supply will catch up, but it will.

None of the above.

Prices will come down when folks stop paying insane prices for ammunition.

Here locally prices are already coming down. Other than .22lr the gun shops all have a pretty decent supply, and prices are already down close to where they were before. I think that by June things should be basically back to about normal.

I think 6 months to a year.

There will always be a new normal higher price for eveything so that last choice is a bit perplexing. If its meant to say that todays price will not come down and todays price IS the new price. Nope, not gunna happen.

I'll be interested to find out what the prices will come down to when they do come down.
I hope that this shortage doesn't prove to ammo dealers/manufacturers that the market will bear higher prices.

It will be like gas, while the supply will loosen up and prices will drop they will not return to "normal".

When DHS stops buying 4.5 million rounds per year, stockpiling 1.6 billion rounds. In other words when we get a new Administration in DC that is Freedom Friendly.

It seems like when walmart has things in stock the price is not really that different than the pre panic levels. saw some steel cased 9mm for about 10.20 per box of 50 the other day; I know crappy quality stuff but acceptable target ammo given the current situation imo. Before the panic these boxes were a tad under $10. The trick is just finding it in stock.

I'm thinking a year to recover, expect the 5% or so increase that was announced. I haven't paid excessive prices. Just bought a box of xmp193 5.56 for 8.93 a box at walmart. Tulammo 7.62x39 was 5.13 a box of 20.

I'm only paying retail prices, but I have the comfort of having ammo for this shooting season so I can be selective.

Good poll, valid question. I voted 6 mos., but I think I agree with others who have pointed out that the market will bear higher prices,
due to the panic and continuing fears of bans and restrictions (which are not unfounded, just not realized as of yet).
Even reloading supplies are being affected. So really, the short answer is supply will be back,
but most of the prices we enjoyed just last summer are gone for good.

2014 Mid-Terms will be the big forecaster.

I doubt the price will ever come down to what it was before the shortage.
There will be a new "normal" price.

I just hope most people that have been constantly crying because they can't find ammo get smart and stock pile a couple years worth of ammo before the next shortage.
It's just not that big a deal to buy a extra box or two once a month, or so, and stick it in the back of the closet.


Although we all know that won't happen.

M2 Carbine said:

I doubt the price will ever come down to what it was before the shortage.
There will be a new "normal" price.

I just hope most people that have been constantly crying because they can't find ammo get smart and stock pile a couple years worth of ammo before the next shortage.
It's just not that big a deal to buy a extra box or two once a month, or so, and stick it in the back of the closet.


Although we all know that won't happen.

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+1 Just like gas

On some ammo there isn't a shortage now. I could buy all the 30-30 and 30-06 I wanted at the local Walmart. If I had a gun that would fire it. Some of the calibers that are in lesser demand--just think of the obscure ones, .327 Ruger for example--will likely be back on the shelves pretty quickly. No one is much demanding them so a couple of batch runs ought to take care of restocking the shelves. Calibers that are more in demand--.223, .308, .45ACP, 9mm, .40S&W--probably a year or more to meet the demand. If I remember correctly, most retailers are measuring their backorder status as sometime in the back half of this year. Have to supply all the people who have bought ammo already before thinking about shipping it out for new customers.

This assumes that we don't have a major war in Asia break out with us supplying one or more allies with ammunition, or that the President doesn't decide that pistol ammunition from overseas doesn't represent a "sporting purpose" (what state allows hunting with centerfire pistol ammo? I can hear the argument already) and cut off supplies (not all of it Russian either...lots of stuff from Czech Republic, Spain, Serbia comes here, I understand) or that we don't have some other disruptive event (such as factories that produce ammunition having to relocate their production facilities out of legislatively unfriendly states, thus disrupting their production schedules), and if we don't have a sudden renewed increase in demand for some other reason I haven't thought of.

So some ammo...back quickly.
Popular ammo...back half of this year/beginning of next year, maybe longer.

This is my guess.
If we have another horrible high profile massacre like Sandy Hook then prices aren't coming down for several months afterwards. Another mass shooting will feed the media's appetite for anti gun stories and give more ammunition to the anti gunners. Fear is stoked and panic buying continues.

If another massacre doesn't happen and the AWB dies then I expect prices to return to normal over the summer.
I base this on a couple of things. Many Americans will have to pay income taxes and this will leave little cash for more ammo. Gas prices always increase over the summer and this too will cut into ammo money. Added vacation spending over the spring and summer also drains the dollars that are currently headed towards the ammo counter. Let's not forget that most people tend to time their moves over the summer when school is out. This is always expensive and leaves little left for ammunition purchases.
We are seeing everyone spending (or adding to the credit card) their disposable income on guns and ammo. It has to peak sooner or later and I suspect that we'll see things get better by July.

Of course if we have another Sandy Hook or VA Tech then all bets are off.

Can we have a pie chart for that?

Right now, if the price is even close to right I'm buying 1000 rounds or all they have.

Depends on where you live, maybe. If the NY SAFE Act is not repealed, I would guess ammo prices in NY will never come down due to the costs of doing a background check on every sale.

never, ammo will never be cheaper than it is today because the dollar will continue to lose value.

Valid question.

If past is any indicator they will come down from crazy but still be higher than they were in November of 2012.

I am thinking like 20% higher when the dust settles and that will be in 6 to 12 months provided some other insane person doesn't start the cycle all over again.

The new normal is always changing. Prices will go up with inflation and every other commodity. But prices will still be determined my market value.

No one thought that Colt 6920s would be as low as they were before the most recent panic, AFTER the previous panic.