It’s no secret that the ammunition market has been volatile (to say the least) since the Covid pandemic took hold, but some calibers seem to be easing off while others rise. Redditor, Chainwaxologist, owns a web-based hunting and fishing retail store, FoundryOutdoors.com, so to keep his ammo cost and supply competitive, he set out to track the ammo cost trends of the most popular calibers. Chainwaxologist used his findings to create a handy graph to show these trends in a friendly one-stop format to help us visualize the data. Chainwaxologist’s observations can be read below.

Ammo Articles @ TFB:

• Import Ban – Russian Ammo And Guns Go the Way of the Dodo
• Russian Ammo Ban – Numbers and the Coming Years
• Concealed Carry Corner: Taking A Look At Carry Ammo

I’m back again with more ammo pricing data. I own an online hunting retail business (FoundryOutdoors.com) so I write down the ammo pricing numbers every few days on Ammoseek since ammo makes up a big part of our business. Needless to say, it’s been a painful year for our ammo sales with limited inventory available.

Since the previous update in June 2021, we saw a big drop across the board in Cost Per Round prices from June through August, only to see a return to higher levels in the beginning of September, presumably due to increased demand from hunting season.

Several calibers saw 25%+ CPR price increases in August alone, specifically 308 Win and 7.62x39mm. Other calibers such as 380 Auto, 9mm, and 22LR saw more muted increases, likely due to the fact that manufacturers have prioritized the production of those calibers during the pandemic, leading to increased supply; the fact that these calibers are not typically used for hunting has likely helped keep demand levels steady as well.

Between the beginning of September and now, we saw price decreases of 5-20% across the board, which means in most cases the CPR is still higher than the lowest prices we saw in July/August by 5-10%.

I have also spoken with several of the largest national ammo distributors who, unfortunately, agree on an outlook of limited ammo inventory and elevated prices well into 2022. The data presented here aligns with that outlook, but perhaps with a glimmer of hope since prices are currently trending downward once again.

I’d like to thank Chainwaxologist for his diligence in documenting our plight and for giving us permission to share his photo and his observations! One reader asked about his inclusion of steel cased ammo, to which Chainwaxologist replied that he was strictly taking the top (cheapest) listing per caliber on AmmoSeek.com, which would include steel casings in factoring the ammo cost trends, but still gives us a general, overall picture of the whole situation.

You can view the original Reddit thread HERE, or view his raw data HERE. Click on the photo above for a larger version, or go to the Reddit link and click on the thread’s image to enlarge it. You can also check out Chainwaxologist’s site at FoundryOutdoors.com to see the products he offers.

I was surprised to see 7.62×39 actually trending downward since the recent ban on Russian produced ammunition. Is there anything in the ammo cost trends graph that surprised you?