We are nearing the end of the year 2021 and the pandemic is still very much happening. While this is not the first time that we have seen a shortage of goods and services, the current situation has its way of affecting literally everything. In March of last year, when the pandemic was declared, so many people were sent home and had to decide how they would craft their day around their new work-from-home schedule.

This led to many people participating in their favorite hobbies on a more regular schedule. Firearms were no different. The mix of producing less ammunition, consumers demanding more, and other things such as protests led to a severe shortage of ammunition. However, there are some good ones to stock up on.       

To Stock Up Or Not

Many people feel the need to stock up on ammunition during this time. We are seeing the same thing that happened with toilet paper at the beginning of the pandemic occurring now with ammo.

The fact of the matter is, although everything has shot up in price due to supply and demand, some ammunition is more in demand than others. In addition, this shortage is proving to be different that the most recent one and shortages before. We are seeing different types of ammo selling out.

Ultimately, it seems that the ones that are the most powerful and easier to shoot will be the most expensive and the most in demand of them all. Additionally, even though many have said that the ammunition shortage has reached its peak, that does not mean that you will start to see everything come back super-fast.

These heavily demanded ammunitions will take the longest time of any to bounce back. Their prices will still remain relatively high for quite some time.

Ammo Supply Can’t Keep Up With Demand

Ammunition manufacturers are producing inordinate amounts of ammo, but it has still proven difficult for their supply to keep up with consumer demand. The pandemic halting the production of ammunition coupled with second-hand sellers and consumer stockpiling really makes it hard for the producers to keep up.

As food and supplies flew off the shelves early in 2020, people started to get very defensive. They flocked to buy guns and ammunition, which led to an unprecedented amount of demand. Once there was hardly any ammunition left on the shelves, this became the new stressor for many.

With this demand not being predicted, sellers could not proactively limit the number of boxes people were going to buy, that came later when things were too far gone.

This article aims to examine what caliber of ammunition you should have bought before the ammo shortage of 2021 and where things are standing as of right now in terms of cost and production.

.22 Long Rifle Ammunition, A Good Bet

Upon arriving at your local supplier, you may see that many of your favorites are sold out for months at a time, and your only hope will be pre-ordering them online or happening to get lucky by arriving soon after a new shipment has come in.

However, this is not the case for the .22 long rifle ammo. Some are a bit confused by this, simply because this is one of the types of ammunition that was very, very hard to come by in the last shortage. This could be because everyone stocked up on it from the last time, in fear of this possibly happening again. Although it can be a bit bulky and is not known for being one of the most powerful types of ammunition, it will still serve its purpose, especially if you are solely shooting for enjoyment purposes.

As time has gone on, it has become a bit scarcer than it was in the beginning of the shortage, but it is still doing better than other types of ammunition.

5.56, Not the Best Idea Right Now

If you love shooting with 5.56 ammunition, I am sure that you were already very aware of this. I also bet that, if you really love shooting, this pandemic and shortage has definitely hit you hard.

This ammunition is one of the most highly demanded in the country, and we are still seeing the prices sitting very high. At one point, a box was forty dollars more than the price that it originally sat at. If you are someone who is very loyal to this ammo, I am sure that you may have had to take a break from shooting for a while during this time.

Even as demand goes back down and returns to semi-normal levels, producers are still going to have a hard time keeping up.

9mm, Also Not the Best Idea

These rounds were one of the most affected by the pandemic, and this was seen across the nation. Originally, the price of this ammunition was a little over ten dollars a box. However, during the height of the pandemic, it stayed at over forty dollars per box. During the top of its pricing curve, we even saw it rise to about sixty dollars per box.

This is much more expensive than others, existing in the priciest category. For reference, the first type of ammunition we mentioned did not see its price skyrocket that much farther than twenty dollars.

While the demand for this caliber has settled a little bit, it is still definitely one of the most difficult to get, and that is if you want to dish out a pretty penny. However, luckily this type of ammunition is not projected to be one of the calibers that suffers the worst from the inequitable supply and demand issue.

This is good since people have already begun to flock to the stores to stock up on this, since it has been out for such a long time. In the past couple of months, we have seen the prices drop a bit from what they were during the peak of their pricing.

Conclusion

We hope to see this for others. I would suggest either buying now or watching the prices to see if they drop a bit further before the winter season. These are definitely still expensive, but not the worst kind to buy.