The great ammo drought of 2020

I'm not calling it a buying 'panic' due to well, it's 2020. You want all the reasons why ammunition shelves are now empty?

For fun I went to a larger gun store today, empty of 9,40,45,32, etc
no 223/556
yes there was some 44 magnum and such, but that was it.

sgammo, my preferred ammo dealer is OUT of 9mm
https://www.sgammo.com/catalog/pistol-a ... luger-ammo

You want some basic 9mm ammo? You are gonna have to pay up. 49 cents a round!
https://ammoseek.com/ammo/9mm-luger

I doubt this will change until after the election, and then it may get even worse.

Kinda ties into this thread, which was started when it all began to get crazy price-wise. I think it was about a week after George Floyd died...the marches started, then the riots were born, and everyone kinda went nuts.

I am always tracking ammo prices, and they were still nice and low right up until about early March; that was when the reality sunk in that COVID was here, but nobody knew anything about it except it was supposedly the next Black Plague. Still, the prices never really got more than 10-20% above "normal" (i.e. 9mm went from $200/case to $220-230/case, 5.56 went from $300/case to $340/case, etc.). Then, things settled down again in early May. I saw the downward trend and tried to catch the falling knife...managed to snap up about 6K rds of 9mm and 5.56 at damn-near pre-COVID prices. Now, all the crazy of 2020 is really starting to get to people, and apparently $0.50/rd for 9mm and $0.75/rd for 5.56 doesn't sound so bad. I guess when you need it, you need it!

But yeah, prices aren't coming down until well after the election, and they may not be done going up beforehand, either. But if Team D-bag wins, well, hold onto your hats, because today's prices might seem cheap by comparison.

Below is a cut and paste of a FAQ response from someone at Targetsportsusa. I found the part about printing money interesting and something I hadn't thought about.
.... the demand is greater then it was after Obama re-election and Sandy Hook and it took a Republican President and 5 years for all the ammo to get back to "normal" levels. It will take a very long time, keep in mind that uncertainty is the new normal and since there wa soo much money printed in the last few months, dollar itself lost some value making the prices go up as well... we can go on and on.....Huge Elephant that is looming over is the virus and if the shutdown happens again :-( .... that will be a devastating factor.

And a little more from a FAQ response but more obvious...
"Response:There are no components out there, shortage of brass, shortage of primers, shortage of bullets....all across the board."

Prices don't typically go up immediately when money is 'printed', and it's usually the things bought by those who get the money first that go up first.

Like long-term assets - real estate and the stock market. Or, the cost of government contracting. That's why DC is rich.

All my friends hit me up for ammo before i knew there was a shortage. Now im down a few thousand rounds. Oh well, i havent been shooting in a few months

Some friends you have!

It was the other way around for me...I saw the freight train coming, so I was buying extra cases for friends & family before they even asked for it, because I knew they would! Damn procrastinators.

It is insanity for sure. Amazing when people want ammo for actual protection. Friend asked me for some ammo at a resonable price. I said I'll sell you my old reloads for $.90 each. He told me to fuck off. Just like I told him when he voted for Hillary.