From what I'm seeing out there at places like Cabela's and Sportsman's Warehouse. Along with Internet ammo stores. I think it would be wise to wait before loading up on large volumes of ammunition. Buy what your shooting schedule presently requires, but no more. The reason is prices have been steadily dropping since November 8th. And there is no reason they won't continue to drop for months to come.
The 2 biggest factors for this are #1, the election went our way. So the political danger has been finally lifted after 8 years of panic. Secondly, is the fact people have already been, "stocking up" by purchasing more ammunition than they could possibly need or use in the next several years. These people were all scared of what might have happened politically. So they were fear driven into large, costly ammo purchases they otherwise never would have made. I know several "4 box a year shooters" that fall into this category. Who all have, during the last 5 years, purchased more ammo, (especially .22), then they will shoot in a lifetime. All driven by panic that never materialized.
Yet another factor is that it just wasn't shooters who were stocking up. Many of the larger distributors, both storefront and Internet, have taken large deliveries of ammunition and Hi-Cap magazines fearing the same political damage their customers did. Now they're all overstocked with ammunition and magazines that they have a large amount of working capital tied up in. All of which they'll have to discount heavily if they want rid of it in a respectable amount of time. This will result in even cheaper prices and greater bargains down the road, as they cut each others throats price wise. As an example I'm watching AR-15 Gen-2 P-Mags descend in price through the $8.00 level. Boxer primed, reloadable brass 9 MM ammo is now under $10.00 a box, and headed lower. Keep in mind the election was less than 100 days ago. By contrast, had the election gone the other way, you would be seeing yet another panic, along with much higher prices and limited availability. As the whole vicious cycle would have repeated itself.
Most "regular shooters" have been taken out of the market, at least for the time being, because they already have too much on hand. They obviously overpaid for most of it, by purchasing whatever they could find, wherever they could find it at most any price. So they're mostly out of the market as a result. Now that this "shortage" is finally over, and prices are steadily dropping, the demand is going to drop through the floor. This will result in even cheaper prices as sellers try to reenergize the market. I now have far more than enough to last through the Summer months. So I'm going to watch as the prices continue to fall for the next 6 months at least. Then resume replenishing what I've shot up. Doing it now will just result in parting with more money.
