O my gosh

[kbstenberg]

I almost fell over today. I usually try to stay out of stores but today i needed things for deer season in a week. I figured i mite just as well pick up a box of shells for the grandsons new rifle. Its only a 300 Sav. 25 to 34$$$ a BOX. I haven't bought a box of shells or paid attention to prices in 20 Years. ARE THEY SERIOUS!!!! What do the non-reloaders do, buy there ammo by the round.

[WARD O]

It is frightening isn't it? Sometimes shopping around may help as I know I've seen some of the popular calibers for much more reasonable prices but they just may have you on the 300 Savage.

Ward

[sqlbullet]

Who are these 'non-reloaders' you speak of?

[peter nap]

Who are these 'non-reloaders' you speak of?

Little People!:brokenima

[Shiloh]

You mean there are folks who don't reload??

I reload and shoot my virtually free cast boolits, many with cheap surplus powder.

Shiloh

[Beekeeper]

Shiloh,
When did you last check surplus powder prices?
There ain't no such thing as cheap surplus powder.


Jim

[stubshaft]

:violin:Stopped by the local gun emporium last week. He was selling 500 S&W midrange loads for $75.00 for 20. I cast and load my own, and usually pop over 100 caps a weekend. I cannot believe the prices of loaded ammo. I know that over the last 2 months LR primers went from $22.50 to $42.00 per K.

[TDC]

Frightening ain't it... but other calibers are fending even worse!!

I happened to notice 416 Rigby's at the Local Sportsman's Warehouse are going for $219 per box of 20. That's $11 per round!!!!

Gee... do ya think it would be time to take up casting and reloading? Low volume production ammo prices are becoming insane. :castmine::Fire:

[BruceB]

My wife and daughter gave me a Ruger #1 in .416 Rigby back around the early '90s.... WITH a set of RCBS dies. To this day, after firing well over 2000 rounds, that rifle has never seen a factory-loaded cartridge.

I have loaded some jacketed or monolithic bullets, but the vast majority was composed of cast bullets. Even so, with Norma brass costing $60-80 per twenty, it wouldn't be hard to have more money tied up in brass than in the rifle itself. Not even a single case has failed to date, so my 100-plus rounds will last me a good long while.

I'll confess to a certain degree of smugness when looking at current ammo prices, even if I load the cartridge in question with store-bought bullets. When CAST bullets enter the picture.....I can shoot factory-level rounds in the Rigby for about fifteen cents per round!

[jdgabbard]

Yeah, I saw a box of .380acp a while back. It was a 50rd box, and the price for it was $89.95 + tax. Do the math, thats almost $2 per round.

Thats why :castmine:

[Bret4207]

My oldest boy called me one day trying to find a box of 284 Winchester ammo for his friend. I directed then to a sop I knew of and they snagged to only PARTIAL box of ammo there. My boy noted that, "Dad never has problems like this. He makes all his own ammo."

Maybe it's starting to sink in to him...

[mroliver77]

I wish I had a dollar for everytime I read "Sit tight untill this blows over and then we will be swamped with cheap ammo and components the hoarders have to sell cheap."
Well I rarely buy any factory rounds excluding .22rf. I/we have srrn this comming for a long while. I had some extra scratch and stocked up on components. Actually I have been putting aside since I started reloading. (my nature) I feel for those forced to buy factory stuff and try to help those that I can by reloading a few for them now and then.
Jay

[JSnover]

they snagged to only PARTIAL box of ammo there.

A partial box? From a retailer?

[anachronism]

People buy ammo?

[jlchucker]

Kind of reminds me of when I was a kid growing up. We were never very rich, as kids, and when hunting season came around we'd trudge down to Mr. Perkins' old general store and he'd sell us rifle ammo or shotshells by the round. He kept some partial boxes of ammo around just for that type of sale. It sounds like what goes around comes around and we're getting back to that--at least for non-handloading adults. Most of the guys who post here on this site I expect have a good stash of cases, primers, powder, and bullet alloy, either purchased or of their own making, so we're in good shape until things get straightened around again. Do you guys think this is political, or due to a loss of industrial capacity? Or both?

[GabbyM]

Maybe why a lot of rifles in the deer woods aren't even sighted in well.

The price of 22 rimfire shocks me. When I was a kid two hours pay at minimum wage could by a 500 count brick of 22's. That would be around $16 today but what are 22's? twice that maybe?

[Matt_G]

My boy noted that, "Dad never has problems like this. He makes all his own ammo."

Maybe it's starting to sink in to him...

One can only hope so Bret.
Maybe he'll start asking you about reloading. Then when he can't find condom bullets he'll be saying "Dad never has problems like this. He makes all his own boolits." :mrgreen:

[sqlbullet]

I am not sure what I am going to do with my 22's. I get more lead than I can cast, and I trade for components. It works out that I can reload 10mm cheaper than I can buy 22lr.

I guess the 22's will just become safe queens that remind me of my youth.

[Rocky Raab]

Don't dust off your tinfoil conspiracy caps just yet. It is neither that nor a lack of capacity.

It is two things: demand and raw materials cost.

Since the election, every shooter and existing reloader in the country decided to "stock up" with enough components that their great grandkids will never run out. That emptied the shelves and caused even more panic. Adding to that quantum leap in demand were the tens of thousands of guys who suddenly decided to start reloading. Demand for ammo followed right along, and wasn't helped by huge government orders.

The factories are and have been working at maximum output - but simply cannot keep up. (The .380 issue is due to the fact that the same machines are also used for 9mm Para, and they have so much demand for that they can't stop and change over to .380 at all.)

Then there are component prices. Companies buy copper, lead and other supplies on LONG-term contracts. When metals prices went through the roof a few years ago, the contracts they signed then for delivery now were at those astronomical prices. So even though metals prices have dropped, the factories are contractually bound to the inflated ones - until these contracts run out.

Those are the facts, folks.

[SPRINGFIELDM141972]

I started reloaded when I was still living at home with my parents. I grew up in a very poor home with lots of brothers and sisters. I remember I would get a box of .22 shells for Christmas and my father would ration them out to me, because he was not about to let me waste all that money being foolish. I remember the boxes cost less than a dollar a box. My father reloaded some center fire but mostly for shotgun. He didn't do alot of either, because he didn't have the spare money to spend. When I started to get better paying jobs as a kid, (mostly bucking hay bales in the summer) I was able to spend some money on components. If we had a rainy day, during hay season I would hitch a ride to town and buy my powder and primers from the local Ace Hardware. Then on Sunday night, after chores were done, my father and I would set down and reload shells for the up coming fall. These reloading sessions were one of the few times that my father had time just for me and I treasure those memories.

Do I reload because because it is alot less expensive? Yes, but its something more as well. When I set down at the reloading bench and grab the handle of that old Spartan press, or am standing in front of the casting pot with that Lyman 452488 with the taped up handles, it puts everything in perspective. Reloading and casting is a part of my life that made me who I am.

Regards,
Everett

[Rocky Raab]

Very well said, my friend.

[Bullshop]

Everett
You got that right brother! It is one of the things that has shapped my life too.
BIC/BS

[looseprojectile]

make a few comments here. I am old. I have on lots of occasions bought a few rounds out of a box at a retailer. I can remember using ration stamps. I don't want this to seem political but it probably is. The DOLLAR ain't what it once was.
People didn't used to buy a lot of anything they didn't need imediately.
The oil companies have set a standard of pricing that other companies have noticed and adopted. NO accounting and no reason. [Apologies to Rocky].
I doubt the ammo manufacturers are reaping all the increased profits. Middle men?
A few months ago I sold a quantity of 7.62 X 51 surp ammo to a friend that had just bought a CETME. I sold that ammo to him for twenty eight cents a round and thought I was ripping him off. Was the cheapest he could find at that time. He was happy to pay that. I paid less than a nickle a round a couple of years ago. Who knew it would go to over sixty cents a round?
Could it be that the astronomic prices are a sin tax put in place by those in power that can afford anything they want to punish us poor folk for wanting guns? Ammo? Gas? food? Tobacco? Alcohol?
If you were getting a BUNCH of million dollars a year BONUS do you think a hundred dollars for a box of ammunition would be a lot to spend?
PERSPECTIVE.

Life is good ------------------------------------ But getting worser:redneck:

[looseprojectile]

Happy Halloween too dagnab it.

[klcarroll]

Do I reload because because it is alot less expensive? Yes, but its something more as well. When I set down at the reloading bench and grab the handle of that old Spartan press, or am standing in front of the casting pot with that Lyman 452488 with the taped up handles, it puts everything in perspective. Reloading and casting is a part of my life that made me who I am.

Regards,
Everett



Well said Everett!! ......Well said!


Kent

[kbstenberg]

Springfield i think your thought on it just makes us what we are. Is a common thread to all of us that are serious casters an handloaders. We may argue about this or that, but we are basically all the same.
YOU ALL MY BROTHERS
Kevin
Sorry i didn't mean to get all mushy

[geargnasher]

Oops, didn't realize it was Halloween night already!!! Haven't had any trick-or-treaters tonight, maybe those patterning tests I did with my .45 Colt shot loads out the back door right after dark had something to do with that...[smilie=1:

Gear

[wallenba]

It seems to be having an impact on the local shooting ranges around here. I hope they stay profitable enough to keep the doors open. Lately it's not uncommon for me to be shooting alone at midday, gets a little busier later but not like it was a year ago.

[Buckshot]

..............Yes factory ammo prices are a bit surprising, especially to us weirdos who normally only deal in primers and powder :-) Everything else we either make (boolit's) or sometimes scrounge up (cases) or probably already have enough of on hand. Maybe someone gifts us some dies from their uncle Waldo's estate so then we HAVE to get a firearm to put them to use, so we become aware of components, HA!

However, 22RF is not something reloaded, so it's bought new. The price of 22RF has been absolutely flat, or barely advancing with inflation since the early '80's, until the past couple years. I'm not talking special 22RF like full on match stuff or special things like Stingers, but your basic well made good shooting "Make an afternoon of it with the kids" type stuff.

Back sometime in the first half of the '80s I'd gotten a raise. I decided to use that for gun stuff, and bad person that I am, I didn't mention it to the war department. Each Friday I would either S&J gunshop a couple blocks from work, or I'd watch the newspaper inserts to see who might have 22 ammo on sale. At that time TG&Y sold 22 ammo and I'd bought some there.

To get to the point, I STILL have some of those bricks. I'd write the date like: 6-85 on the end flap. I have a couple bricks of Remington Vipers with that date and the price was $11.98/brick. I don't have anymore but IIRC Federal Lightenings went on sale for something like $9.99/brick. Up to the past couple years you could STILL buy a brick of 22RF for about that. I remember thinking that the ammo makers must have been making a killing then, or they've sure figured out how to make'em a lot cheaper.

In 2004 I bought 2 cases of Winchester Dynapoints at Walmart for $9.63/brick. I understand lost leaders, but other 22RF ammo was fairly comparable. Federal 550 pac's were $11.87/brick (and nowhere near as good, at least in my 22's). Gunshops and sporting goods stores might have been a bit higher, but they didn't have a huge 'Mart' to back up their sales. My most recent experience was seeing the Dynapoints at $27/brick, but it seems wally world hasn't been able to even order them for the past few years.

They've been so cheap for so long we've become used to it, and now they're playing catchup.

................Buckshot

[WHITETAIL]

I guess we are all on the same page.
I am ok for now with powder and primers.
Since my budy and I have been shooting the
Holy black, for a while.:cbpour: