I see a lot of wisdom in many of these comments but am dubious about significant, long-term, across the board ammunition price reductions in the near term due to political factors. IMI is my preferred non bonded bullet, quality ammunition OEM in any caliber. In 2003 I bought a case of IMI 556 M193 for a little over $200 and that was a reasonable price then for quality ammunition of this type. Now 13 years later we have been through a lot of ups and downs in this market and I have purchased similar, high quality practice rifle ammunition of IMI, GECO and a bit less quality Fed. Lake City this year for a little over $300/case delivered. I do not shoot the cheap stuff as for my purposes there is no point.
Due to the cost of jacketed bullets over 55 grain weight and especially over 62 grain weight, I find it hard to reload at a significant savings over purchasing quality rounds, especially when one starts talking 69 - 77 grain bullets, with 75 grain as my preferred weight. And for 300 BO that is doubly true. My point is ammunition pricing, outside of political causes, is more a price of components (bullets) and component pricing is driven by various concerns.
Concerning .22LR pricing, these things just stymie my imagination. Just makes little sense to me at all from any level other than severe price gouging at all levels or severe hoarding at the consumer level.
