This has nothing to do with Alaska and Arkansas.
From: Tactical Wire
Voices From the Field: More Bang for the Buckby Paul Markel
The boom in black rifle (AR) sales naturally led to a boom in the sale of .223 Remington or 5.56x45mm ammunition. This was no big surprise to anyone as that is the most popular chambering for that rifle. What you had was thousands of new AR owners now added to the .223 gene pool. The days of paying three dollars for a box of Winchester white box .223 are gone and not likely to return.
XS Sights Marketing VP Dave Biggers sights in S&W M&P15 in 5.45mm.
There is little doubt that feeding these self-loading, centerfire rifles has become a pricey endeavor. They are enjoyable to shoot, hence we do a lot of it. Your budget might allow for 100 rounds shooting sessions or 500 round extended weekends. Regardless, it’s always good to get more bang for your buck.
It was with this in mind that I first acquired a S&W M&P15 carbine chambered in 5.45×39 Russian. The price of the Russian equivalent to our 5.56mm runs about half. Simply put, you can buy 1000 rounds of 5.45×39 for what you’d pay for 500 in .223 Remington. That’s training or practice ammo mind you, match grade and controlled expansion .223 Rem runs much high at about a buck a shot.