http://video.foxnews.com/v/2245894685001/whats-really-behind-ammo-shortages-across-country/ Spoke to my friend again this weekend -manager of a big box sporting goods store- and heard the same story again. Every weekday morning they get a pallet of ammo and don't even bother to put it on the shelves. They just pull the pallet onto the floor in the gun department and let people go ape$h!+ once the doors have opened. 2-2.5 hours and all the .22rf, .40, 9mm and .223 are gone. The oddball leftovers may get to the shelves by noon. Guys grabbing as much as they can carry; 200-300$ worth of ammo under their arms.
More people are buying firearms, so more people are buying ammo. As I'd mentioned in another thread, I contacted Federal Ammuntion directly to see what was happening with some of the .22 match ammo I would use for competition this summer. They may only do one run of a certain type per year. Those lots will go out to distributors and then go to retailers. The tooling is switched to produce another type and so-on.
I also contacted the US distributor for Eley .22 rimfire products. They've increased their order volume, but have such a small % of share that they couldn't even begin to meet slosh-over demand for the .22 rimfire market. I expect that people who can't find anything else are willing to pay 15$ a box just to have something that goes bang. -I imagine folks somewhere this summer will be rapping away at beer cans with a single six and Eley 10X.
edit:
-I should add that one can find the higher end stuff, but for my purposes I can't pay $150+ per 500 count.
