Sooner or later, it will start costing money for these buccaneer component dealers to sit on their primer stocks like Scrooge McDuck. End users need to hold firm against this predatory pricing until sanity returns to the market.
/\ Agreed 100% /\
Component makers insist that primers are in full production, yet they remain scarce. Somebody is lying somewhere in the production & distribution stream.
/\ Primers are in full production, but current full production is still below the level of demand.
The problem is not simple, nor can it be attributed to a single issue.
There has been an incredible increase in the total number of gun owners in the U.S.A., and that brings with it a huge increase in demand for ammo.
There is a protracted war in Ukraine that is consuming ammunition supplied by other countries. As those reserve stocks from supporting nations are drawn down, they must be replaced with new ammunition.
The protracted ammunition shortage resulted in a serious revision of what "adequate" stocks are; and that applies to individuals AND government agencies. Everyone, across the public and private sectors are laying in larger ammo reserves than before. Eventually the stockpiles will reach saturation and that demand will ease.
Continued unrest and talk of increased gun control only fuels the hording mentality.
The biggest fear of increasing production capacity it that the buying bubble will burst and you will be stuck with a very expensive and idle manufacturing facility.
We are seeing some expansion of component production but that’s a LONG pipeline and demand remains high. The market will eventually stabilize, but with millions of new gun owners, talk of increased gun control, a full scale war going on, and other factors; it may be a slow return to stability.
It would help if people stopped paying obscene asking prices.
