Wolfe Ammunition Prices

[klw]

I live in Flagstaff Arizona, about 100 miles from J&G. Last time I paid any attention J&G was selling 9mm Luger Wolfe Ammunition and 7.62x39 Wolfe Ammunition for $80 per thousand. Probably about three years ago. 45 ACP was slightly more expensive as was 223.

Last weekend I noticed in one of our local gunstores that 1000 rounds of Wolfe 7.62x39 was $300. I asked if it was mismarked. The guy was polite but he obviously thought I had a bolt missing. I check J&G's on line catalogue. There is was $200.

BUT going from $80 to $200 is a bit of a jump. Anyone know why prices jumped so high?

[nighthunter]

KLW .... there seems to be a bit of an ammo shortage at the present time. The military is useing an ungodly amount of ammo and the factories can't keep up with the demand. You can sort of thank Bill Clinton for closeing all but one national armory that produced military ammunition. Now the pressure is on the commercial producers and guess what .... military ammo has precedence over sporting ammo ( as it should be ). The ammo is being produced 24/7 but it is not enough. The ammunition manufacturers have announced a large price increase for September 1 2007. I think you are going to hear a lot of grown men cry when it takes place. I think a lot of people are going to get into casting real boolets before all is said and done with.
Nighthunter

[klw]

And even when this passes I don't think that prices will ever come down again.

In the early 90's, I think, there was a scare over primers. I don't think that there was a primer shortage but people thought that there was so prices went straight up. That time prices did eventually drop but the goughing that went on during it was something.

Ever since I've bought all I could afford of just about everything. I've got a life time supply of primers literally. I've got a five year supply of powder and am just about to order another 64 pounds of Unique. I've got two tons of linotype about half of which I've cast up into bullets and I've got another ton on order.

But for some odd reason it didn't occur to me to stock up on the Wolfe ammunition I like. Why I didn't think of that I just don't know.

[Jim]

It's the copper, fellas! It's the base product for manufacturing brass. Actually, the market "pay-back" for copper went down recently from $3.65/# to $2.20/#.

A coupla weeks ago, Wally World had REM-UMC .40S&W for $56.something/250 rds. Today, it's up to $65.something/250 rds.

Y'all better find a good source of WWs 'cause this hobby's gettin' EXPENSIVE!

[nighthunter]

Last week I went to the area gun shop. I bought a box of bullets for my Savage model 12 F/TR and several pounds of powder and a couple other things. When I got to my truck I looked at the reciept and found that I had just paid $32.00 for a box of 100 Sierra .308 175 grain SMK bullets. $32.00 is a lot of money for 100 bullets. I will find a good load for cast in that rifle. It shoots into 3/8 of an inch with jacketed at 200 yards. I am certain I can find a bullet and powder combination that will do 1 inch at 100 yards. That is way to much money for bullets.
Nighthunter

[Typecaster]

Gotta agree with Jim. It is the price of copper, and that trickles down to cases, etc.

If you have a scrap metal dealer nearby, try to become friends. Sometimes they take in bullets--yes, even J-word "bullets"--and you can buy them back...albeit at a higher price than they paid for the scrap. That's OK...I bought about 80 lb of J-stuff (a small ammo can of .308 RN, a large ammo can of 405-gr .457 FP, three kinds of .308 FMJ, several thousand .223 FMJBT, and miscellaneous stuff from 6mm to .375) for the same price I pay to buy lead. The manager also sets aside brass cases for me (separate gloating story)--last week it was a couple of artillery shell cases. I passed on those, but took a 12-pack of Cokes for the guys anyway.

They're (almost) all calibers I load for--even though I haven't shot J-stuff through my No. 1 45-70 in years.

Bottom line: Ask and ye might receive. I figure I can always smelt the J-stuff and strip out the cores.

[Scrounger]

How much copper are we talking about here? Let's say there's $0.10 worth of copper in a case; even if the price doubles it doesn't come close to justifying the price increases business people charge. The word is gouge. Pardon the excursion but here is another example. Recently I was shocked to see the price of a Sausage Buscuit jumped from $1.39 to $1.79 at the local McDonalds. The girl said she was told to tell people that the price increases were because of an increase in Minimum Wage. That is about a 30% increase. There is a maximum of 10 people working there at any given time. Total hourly wage increases about $2.50. They run a minimum of a $1000 an hour through the till. The 30% increase means they're taking in an extra $300 an hour to make up for the $2 or $3 paid out in increased wages. The owner is a crook and he will never get another nickel of my money. Not that almost every other merchant isn't doing the same thing. Guess nobody believes in Heaven anymore.

[9.3X62AL]

I call it "Progressive Greed", Art. Same thing happened in 1973 when the "gas shortage" occurred. Meat--sugar--and other basic commodities had "shortages" too, with rising prices following right along.

To avoid arsons to gas stations this time around, the oil companies just arrogantly jack the fuel prices to ridiculous levels now. Other businesses see the oil companies getting away with it--and just like 1973, they pour on the score too. I believe the "ammo shortage" bit in the military about like I believe we'll see flat tax and the Easter Bunny.

[Firebird]

Also as has been pointed out, the price of Copper has fallen - when the price went up the copper mines increased production and that made the price fall back some. Hopefully the ammo price increase will be less, or even be rolled back some after copper prices finish stabilizing.

[tanstafl10]

Scrounger

you may be right, but there are always exceptions.... My wife owns and operates a cottage industry (spinning weaving, dying, herbs spices and the like). New stock is priced to make a reasonable profit, fair enough, but the old stock is never increased. It is placed out front or on top so that customers see it first until it is gone.

As part of Cindy's business, I work a wood shop. My prices reflect a reasonable profit even when the demand is beyond my production rate. We have made up our minds that we will never be rich, but we do have many repeat customers and they urge us to get new items just so they can keep buying from us. The fun is in the relationships built over the years.

I am very proud of my wife's business ethics... part of her character that I love so dearly. She will do to ride the river with.

Yes, there is a heaven, just not sure I'll get there.

PS I did not write this to contradict you. I wrote because your comments are all too often true and we need to know that it does have to be that way. There are choices.

take care all

[klw]

That was a nice little story!

And I think that there is another example of this sort of thing. If you look at prices at Dixie, for example, I don't think that they raise prices on old stock just because replacing those items will cost more.

[mtgrs737]

I read on one of the boards last week, that Gander Mountain marked up their stock of guns 20 to 30 percent, so I stopped by the Wichita GM on Saturday just to see. Wow! I thought they were high enough before the price increase! Now I know that I won't be buying anything there. On another note I have been looking to buy a Springfield Armory Throphy Match 45 and in the last month it has gone up from $999 to $1299 (up 30%) at CDNN, it looks like I will have to re-think that purchase too. Things are getting out of hand!

[Maven]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't Wolf 7.62 x 39mm cases lacquered STEEL rather than brass?

[floodgate]

tanstafl10:

Does your wife have a website? We are into both shooting, reloading and casting; and also spinning (me), and weaving and dyeing (Bev). I do wheel and loom maintenance and repair, and made a set of Navajo looms (stone simple to make; very tricky to use!) for a recent class with Sarah Natani and her family. We don't do it commercially, except for selling/swapping some of our hides and excess Shetland wool; and some of my repair work is paid for. Oddly, the spinning/weaving/dyeing folks are generally very much the same kind of people we have here - maybe a bit more on the liberal side - but courteous, friendly and eager to share ideas and info.

In fact, folks who do things out of the mainstream, for their own pleasure, and to keep older techniques and tools alive, are much the same the world over.

floodgate

[klw]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't Wolf 7.62 x 39mm cases lacquered STEEL rather than brass?

I'm pretty sure that that is correct.