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As I've written before, it's the war and Bill Clinton. Willie closed all the government ammo plants but one, then slashed the budget so much that the military couldn't replace its stockpiles. When they ran out, they had to order from commercial makers, and the order was so huge (billions of rounds) that every supplier and every factory was working 24/365 - and that left no capacity for us.
I asked every reloading company at SHOT about it, and the unanimous answer was that the deep pinch is now past, there are plenty of raw materials and that the civilian supply line is filling again.
The bad news is cost. The world metal market has gone nuts, driving prices up four-fold at times. Copper and lead are hard hit - due largely to nuclear reactors and electric power lines being built like crazy.
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