For many years I've seen the question asked "how much ammo should I have?" and my answer has always been, how much do you think you'll need if you can't get any more??
Well, thanks to a combination of panic buying mentality and ordinary greed, we're there now.
It wasn't all that long ago I was wondering where the next roll of toilet paper was going to come from.....other things have been in short, or even out of supply for a while now.
Supply and demand suddenly, rapidly went drastically out of balance. The recreational firearms community has seen several "panic bubbles" over the last couple decades. And we've got yet another one today, PLUS the effect of the virus pandemic (panicdemic??) frightening people across the political spectrum, and "mostly peaceful" protests scaring people even further.
So, guns, ammunition, and everything involved with keeping them running is at a premium right now, and since people will pay more to get what they need, or think they need, the price goes up.
OR, more realistically, the value of your money goes down.....
one of the "teaching" stories that went around back when survivalists felt the end of society due to (pick something...) was just around the corner...
wealthy guy buys gold (Krugerrands) to survive the coming crash...crash hits paper money is just paper...
He's hungry and the farmer has a bunch of chickens...
asks Farmer to sell him a chicken....
Farmer asks "whatcha got fer trade?"
"I got Krugerrands, gold!"
"hmmm well you give me a half dozen I'll give you a chicken...."
"That's crazy! These are gold, an ounce each!!!"
"well, just consider it an
expensive chicken!"
Another guy shows up, wants to trade for a chicken...
"whatcha got to trade?"
"I got half a box of shells for that old .30-30 of yours..." (or some .22LR)
"How many chickens do you want fer 'em??"
I hope you see the point.