The ammo manufacturers forward buy commodities offering themselves some insulation and allowing them to delay implementing a price increase. As thier inventories were depleted and they had to start passing along the cost they did it in a short period of time rather than a long drawn out series of little jumps. The cost of lead in a box of shells is up about $2.60 in the last year. They have passed it and the rising cost of fuel and the oil based polymer plastics are probably the rest of the increase. I dont think the ammo companies are getting rich on this. If anything it erodes thier margins.
I deal in high volume purchasing of food and this is just like what is happening with the price of chicken. Simple put chicken is assembled out of grain and eggs. The cost of grain is skyrocketing and the chicken guys are hard pressed to pass along all of the increase without driving down demand by pricing themselves out of the market. They need to pass the increase in their raw materials but can't be cavalier about it...
Jeff
