Newbie wondering how long ammo prices stay high

I’ve been able to find some 9mm at decent prices at big box retailers’ websites (gave $9 a box with free shipping for brass cased Herters at bass pro last week) but 40 and 45 seem to be staying up. The prices at sites specializing in ammunition have stayed high though. I looked at sgammo earlier today and their price per round is almost 50 percent more for gold dots per case than they were per box when I bought from them a couple months ago and Winchester Rangers are even worse than that. Lucky gunner also seems to consistently be up about 50 percent over their previous prices.

Im not sure what .40 ammo goes for usually, but picked some up for my brother in law today. 100 round boxes of Browning brass for $28.99... 50 round boxes of Winchester and Blazer were right at $15. Had plenty of it. .45 was like $17/50 for a couple kinds. No 9mm to be found.

I really haven't experienced high prices. I've been going to Academy and buying what they have and will let me, when the have it. Yesterday, I picked up 400 rounds of 9mm at $9/50 and today I picked up 2500 rounds of Federal bulk in the blue box for $23/525. 5.56 has been about 35 cents a round for winchester.

TonyAngel said:

I really haven't experienced high prices. I've been going to Academy and buying what they have and will let me, when the have it. Yesterday, I picked up 400 rounds of 9mm at $9/50 and today I picked up 2500 rounds of Federal bulk in the blue box for $23/525. 5.56 has been about 35 cents a round for winchester.

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My experience, too, when it comes to Academy (Target Sports and everyone else, too, really.)
You've got to check and see see what they've got frequently if you want to score standard, pre-COVID buys or thereabouts. Eleven bucks for a 50-count of that blue-box Fiocchi 9mm 115 grain isn't far from where it was before this thing kicked off, not in my area, at last. Not a great price, but not an awful one, either, and it's decent range ammo.
Found it on Academy's site Thursday night while it was in stock, did the max 5 boxes and picked it up at my local store today. By this evening, of course, they were out.
I've been pretty much doing the same here and there and have done OK. Range ammo like that Fiocchi, Blazer Brass, PMC Bronze, various Federal, Rem, etc ... just gotta check around frequently and see who's got some if you want to score a reasonable price (and keep an eye on shipping, of course, and take store pick when it's available). .
So, yeah, prices have ticked up a bit and availability's been a PITA, but there's stock out there. Per my memory at least, this isn't nearly as bad as the 2012-13 cluster.Not at the moment, anyway.
By pure dumb luck, my 9mm range ammo stock was down to about 1,000 rounds toward the end of February, when this started getting sporty. Said, "Ah, crap" and have chipped away at remedying that w/o getting gouged. Done fine, but it's taken patience.
Re .22LR ... it's out there. Federal must be kicking out that blue-box Champion at a clip, as I"m seeing it everywhere. It's not a bad plinker, and I'll say I've laid in more than a few thousand as a reserve. Seems like the Mexicans have been keeping busy, too, as I"m seeing quite a bit of Aguila out there. CCI (one of my faves) has been a bit thin and no raging deals to speak of on the MinMags, but have scored some at more or less standard prices.

"Plus when you click on the Academy link it shows you that it’s out of stock and that home delivery isn’t available. Out of stock and undeliverable ammo doesn’t do me much good."
With Academy, you gotta visit often and see what they've got. The in-store and home-delivery change A LOT on all the popular calibers. (Side note: Facebook's taking down Mrgunsngear's page has really bit; that dude had good links often.)
Academy's done pretty well, IMO, and they ship quick and at a flat $5 rate. That said, you do gotta look often and put up with the 5 box limit on any given ammo item. Bites but ... dudes, were in a market that's seeing a run, no doubt.

Hartkopf said:

When you can believe what you see on the nightly news, ammo prices will come down.

The reason for the current panic is because most people can not trust the BS news agencies. When they say there will be no food shortage, I really wondered if there would be a food shortage!

The media is sickening, out of control propaganda that caused this panic. I believe you should by ammo now because I don’t believe it will ever go back to 2019 prices.

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The media didn't kill 60,000 Americans in two months in the spring; that was the 'Rona. It ain't just the flu, and it ain't a hoax or a media invention.
Panic buying ain't new, nor a creation of 20th or 21st century media, and it's no friend to the shooting world.
Heck, there was no virus in 2012-13 and the years it took us to get back from that ... just fear of what Obama or Pelosi or Schumer might do. We did that one to ourselves.

Mark1964 said:

The media didn't kill 60,000 Americans in two months in the spring; that was the 'Rona. It ain't just the flu, and it ain't a hoax or a media invention.
Panic buying ain't new, nor a creation of 20th or 21st century media, and it's no friend to the shooting world.
Heck, there was no virus in 2012-13 and the years it took us to get back from that ... just fear of what Obama or Pelosi or Schumer might do. We did that one to ourselves.

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And the media doesn’t kill people by medical mistakes and car crashes but there is no hysteria surrounding those events. I see what you’re saying, panic buying is not smart and I agree. The problem is we still don’t know what to believe. What is science, what is science with an agenda, and what is real science spun into propaganda BS to keep the country shut down as long as possible.

I’ll continue to buy ammo as to dollar cost average. I don’t believe it’s smart to stop buying in hopes prices go down (unless your sitting on a ton and shoot less).

9mm Gold Dot, 124 gr +p. $.49/round for 500 rounds shipped ($245.99 total). In stock as I type.

https://www.velocityammosales.com/products/9mm-speer-gold-dot-le-124-gr-p-jhp-500-rd-can

Looks like those 'tinfoil hat wearing hoarders' were right all along. They don't have to deal with yet another panic buying fiasco.

Not sure about ammo availability these days, but gun shows (that will not be happening again for some time) are a favorite ammo source of mine. There are greedy dealers with marked up ammo... but, in general, bulk prices can be competitive...no shipping cost, and no waiting.

9mm S&B FMJ Brass cased 115 gr, $.22 / round before shipping for a case of 1k rounds. In stock as I type.

https://www.midwayusa.com/product/100048229

That definitely falls into the slightly elevated category I mentioned earlier. I've been laying in ammo for a while so I'm not looking to buy here, but if one still had some stocking up to do this might be as good as it gets pre-election.

Or this:

https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1000483086

Not an outstanding price like the Federal I picked up on rebate last year, but its available!

Sellier & Bellot is very nice stuff for the price. I've run their .22s, 9s, shotgun shells ... zero problems. Their QC seems admirable.

Herter's brass-cased 9mm, $.18/round before theft and shipping: https://www.cabelas.com/product/HERTERS-CENTERFIRE-HANDGUN-AMMO/3298605.uts

PMC Bronze Handgun Ammunition 9mm Luger 115 gr FMJ 1150 fps 1000/ct, $.21/round: https://www.natchezss.com/pmc-bronze-handgun-ammunition-9mm-luger-115-gr-fmj-1150-fps-1000-ct.html

Both in stock as I type.

Better hurry on this one. Rebate is only valid through 5/12 (tomorrow).

https://www.sportsmansoutdoorsupers...e=051120&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=051120

Fiocchi 9mm Luger 115 gr FMJ - Box of 50 $9.99

$.20 CPR before shipping and theft. In stock as of this post. Limit 5 boxes, local pickup available in Houston.

https://www.primaryarms.com/fiocchi-9mm-luger-115-gr-fmj-box-of-50

Anyone know how Primary Arms has been doing lately re getting orders shipped?

mope540 said:

Looks like those 'tinfoil hat wearing hoarders' were right all along. They don't have to deal with yet another panic buying fiasco..

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I've got 5 rolls of tin foil in the drawer, none on my head.
But, since my nephew is a liberal, the biggest problem I have with my ammo supply is managing to shoot it all up before I die.
Its nice to own your own shooting ranges too. Some of you are like me, but the rest of you should have seen this coming decades ago.
Time to suck it up and stock up at higher prices because huge inflation is on the horizon. If you think ammo prices are high now,.give it a few years.

Don't know what the picture looks like 5 years from now, but I'd say we're in for a bumpy rest of the year and likely beyond.
Let's face it: Pre the 'Rona, you get a box (50-count) of reasonably good factory range 9mm for $10, pretty much any day of the week in your hometown.
Now, a few months into the 'Rona, we're looking at on-shelf scarcity and $12 to $13 bucks delivered to your door, with shipping and tax accounted for. I don't think that's going to lighten real soon.
I'm personally not all that excited about it. I'm topped off and only doing small restocking, keeping a nice reserve, etc. Learned my lesson in the debacle that we inflicted on ourselves in 2012 and beyond for a handful of years.
If you've been in this game long and haven't got some set back, you haven't been paying attention, IMO.

If Trump is reelected ammo prices will drop back down to where they were before the wuhan flu hit.

I haven't noticed much increase in ammo prices. I make my bulk orders at SGAmmo mostly and while Sam has mentioned prices could go up they really haven't yet. The ammo supply locally has been fluctuating a bit; some times they're pretty picked over but they still get regular stock and there's not much that I can't find. Being 50 years old and having gone through various ammo panics I always make sure I have a decent stock on hand. I usually buy a bit to replenish my stock after a range trip but there's no real issues with supply here.

You could get 1000 rounds of 556 with free shipping for $299. Now it’s $420 and you pay the shipping. Quite a difference if you ask me.

Seems to me prices began climbing fast as Wal-Mart permanently closed out pistol and AR/AK ammo. This was predictable. They were the biggest sellers with normally the best prices, by far, the occasional on-line special offers notwithstanding.

Between that and the political climate and the increasing citizen sentiment against guns and the Covid hoarding I see no chance we will ever see the prices of 6 months ago, nor anything close, ever again.

I hope I’m wrong.

gbw said:

Between that and the political climate and the increasing citizen sentiment against guns and the Covid hoarding I see no chance we will ever see the prices of 6 months ago, nor anything close, ever again.

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It'll take awhile for prices to level back down, but I think they will.

Regarding the other stuff you stated, I think there was a big run on guns and ammo during the Covid scare (I guess particularly during the lockdown period). Lots of new buyers. I don't think this translates to "increasing citizen sentiment against guns"; if anything I think it's increased citizen appreciation of guns.

Phaedrus/69 said:

I haven't noticed much increase in ammo prices. I make my bulk orders at SGAmmo mostly and while Sam has mentioned prices could go up they really haven't yet.

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Hmmm. I'd get 9mm from them fairly often, either S&B, Fiocchi or MEN/Geco white box ammo. I'd get a case, and with shipping it would be under $200 (or else I'd go somewhere else, because that was the range).

The Geco white box is $249, the S&B and Fiocchi are $269, and that's BEFORE shipping. So we're seeing at least 30% increase in prices.

psyopspec said:

Herter's brass-cased 9mm, $.18/round before theft and shipping:

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It let me order, which I did because that's a decent price. 1k shipped after tax, $187.
BUT... I'm not holding my breath on this. Cabela's and Bass Pro are owned by the same company, and I've got a Bass Pro order for a decent price, sitting in limbo. We'll see if I get either order.

I still think it's a distribution problem, not manufacturing problem..BIG run on ammo, for resellers, they calculate a certain 'sell thru'..and reorder when their inventory gets to a certain place, over a predictable, based on past sales, time frame...BUT, YUGE demand meant inventories went down, factories and distribution shocked..supply went down, demand VERY high=higher prices..Just like TP and pork chops.

BUT, ammo factories still making stuff(probably at a lower rate due to health concerns for factory workers)..just hard to transport that much stuff quickly to get inventories back up. Ammo is a durable good tho and not many people(as in new gun buyers) shooting so demand is way down..inventories coming back up..as supply increases and demand decreases..=lower prices.