No one is taking advantage as an auction is composed of those freely bidding. Maybe they have prepaid, non-refundable commitments and might as well spend the money to get the ammo they do not have

For those that won’t pay the higher prices, is it that you don’t enjoy the shooting enough to pay $20-$30 more per hundred? Or is that your own personal guideposts tell you to forgo shooting to avoid contributing to the higher demand?

I think the rifle range is deserted because of no ammo.

My perception is that $20 a flat more across the board is probably in the realm of within reason being passed through the normal distribution chain of manufacturer to distributer to retailer to end user. I know that everyone in that chain has taken on added costs over the past year and eventually that trickles down to the end user / consumer.

My club is in the process of working with the distributer we buy our targets from to bring in some factory ammo along with reloading components on our late spring early summer target shipment. Prices presented appear to be roughly $15/ flat higher than our last order. It is feasible we wont get all or any of what we want or prices could come back higher. At that point, it becomes a judgement call on short term and long term picture.

At $15-20 higher a flat, I am willing to buy some future stock and gave the organizer a list of 12 assorted flats for me and another 8 flats for my son and a couple friends. This is similar to what I typically would do on our target piggyback orders.

My individual actions are geared more on what makes sense to me versus if I think I influence the greater demand picture which individually I really don't. There is a threshold for me when buying anything. If the price exceeds the value then I pass. The value threshold can certainly move up and down too for me on any goods including ammo.

If you are REALLY desperate, I found white box Winchester for $13 a box. Too high for me.

https://www.deguns.net/winchester-12ga- ... trgtl128/p

People are so used to paying $5.50 for Walmart target loads, that the 85% price increase to $10 a box is shocking. Since there is nothing available at most Walmarts, the retail $90-$100+ price for junk target loads at gunshops and ranges is still getting sold out.

Most people have a threshold of pain equal to around $80. Past that amount shooting and demand will drop off.
Even if you are rich enough to not worry about $100 a flat for top gun loads, at some point eg $150 you will think twice, or shoot alone.

I went to Dunham's because I heard that they had Federal Top Guns for $79.95.

They had shelves full of cases.

Then I saw an ad for a local gun shop. They had a truck load of Federal Top Guns and Fiocchi shells. The prices were a little high I thought but what are you going to do.

I shoot a lot of practice so I need a lot of shells,

I was shocked that they were $72 a case. I told the guy I was shocked about how many shells they had. He told me that they were starting to show up again.

I listened to that podcast with the sales rep for Fiocchi and he had some interesting things to say.

One thing he said, is sticking in the back of my mind. Paraphrasing here, so sorry if i get something mixed up. He said target shells aren't a big $$$ maker for shell companies, they're always trying to stay competitive and the prices haven't changed much in years.

TBH hearing this makes me think the prices aren't going back to normal (early last year pricing) anytime soon. Maybe $80+/- a flat is the new "normal" price.

It does seem like we might be stabilizing a bit around 70-80/flat for the shells that used to be 50-55/flat before. My LGS has a couple pallets of top guns at 80/flat, limit 2, but he has them and has had them the last couple times I've been in. He has maybe 30% of the firearm inventory he used to have, but what's left are higher end (>$1000) shotguns and rifles.

Rifle and pistol ammo is still awfully thin.

But looking back a bit, list price for Top Guns and Gun Clubs and similar was frequently $6 or $7 per box, but there were regular sales that brought that down around $5. A lot of what we're seeing is just the elimination of markdowns for a product in demand.

I expect the target shell market to stabilize long before the rifle and pistol shells.

Based on the number of bids on completed auctions people are falling all over themselves to pay such high prices.

Anyone know who will ship ammo to Hawaii? Legally? Lol.

if people pay 80 bucks a flat they will never not charge 80 bucks a flat.
same with 40-50 dollar bricks of 22's, don't buy them and the market gets flooded, prices will drop substantially.

people are selling powder for 150 a lb. and primers at 800 bucks because someone is paying it.

Yeah, but people ARE paying $80/flat. Either you join them and shoot or don’t join them and they shoot without you.

It may never get back to the point of being able to buy promo stuff for $55 a flat but when manufacturing capacity begins to o outpace demand and it will, then competitive price pressures will eventually begin to pull retail price back to a lower level than is the current reality

Target ammunition is a commodity and pricing moves up and down with the constraints of supply and demand. The supply and demand situation right now is just a major mess but it won’t be that way forever. Hang in there.

The ammunition companies are running at full production but still can't keep up with the sudden tremendous demand. The buying public is stocking up and will buy "everything on the shelf" rather than a box or two. Supply just can't keep up with demand during this short term panic buying. The ammo companies are reticent to invest hundreds of millions of dollars on new equipment and new employees to supply a demand that may be temporary, or worse yet, illegal in the near future.

This is one of the reasons I reload.

How’s your luck finding components?

Yeah it’s all about supply and demand. They are demanding more money than I’m willing to supply.

Before that 50-55 a flat for cheap stuff being the norm, I remember a snowbird from Ohio coming down for the winter to Florida to out club with pallets of RIOs that - at THAT time - were $29/flat; the new norm changed then, it is changing now.
The days of really cheap ammo and components are gone for the time being. With bubblehead killing Keystone and oil doubling, EVERYTHING is going to cost more than involves petroleum in any shape or form, and that includes your groceries and ammo.

Did someone say "short term panic buying"?

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.forbes ... ncies/amp/