The Gun & Ammo Shortage Is Now In Decline

It's been a little over a year since ammunition disappeared from store shelves, and while it's not the first ammunition shortage of the current century, it could end up being one of the shortest. Throughout most of the pandemic, it seemed that every time I walked into Academy, just about every popular caliber of ammo was out of stock.

Even when stores limited the purchasing power of the individual to only two or three boxes, hoards of neckbeards would line up in the morning to make sure they bought it all up to pass along to others at a tremendous markup. By November 2020, the asking rate was about one dollar per round of most munitions. 5.56 and 9mm were around that dollar mark, .45 and .308 was even higher. I even remember at least a few people listing $20 boxes of .22lr at $120, and even worse, people were buying it. We were all flush with that stimulus money, so who cared what it cost right? Now it seems there's a little stability to store shelves where ammo is at least available, even if has doubled in price per the manufacturer.

It was also in November that guns started flying off store shelves in record numbers thanks to a wild presidential election. People started fearing the possibility of a tyrannical government, and they bought up everything they could. Prices soared, and even a good deal was twice the original price just about everywhere, and citizens still purchased whatever they could. The frenzy even spread as far as to create a gouge on firearms that wouldn't be affected by a perceived gun ban. Revolvers, limited capacity pistols, and regular non-scary looking hunting rifles. Everything was marked up. The last six months have honestly been the worst time in recent memory to buy a gun.

While the bubble of high dollar everything in the world of shooting sports still hasn't burst, it will eventually like it did last time. Overnight, thousand dollar AR's were sold on store shelves for $400, ammunition returned to a dirt cheap status, accessories clearanced on the web from bulk buyers that still managed to carve a small profit out of it. It's still not a buyers market out there, but things are getting slowly better. Time will tell, but eventually all things return to normal. The question that remains is, do you have the patience to wait it out?