[axeman_g]

Hey all, is it just me or did .38 Spec just about double in price recently. I swear I used to get boxes of 50 for about $5.

I havent purchased it in awhile because I was able to get good quality inexpensive .357 for my revolvers. Well, I was thinking of trying some .38 in a S&W 19 and darn if the WWB .38 wasnt $10 a box at BassPro. That was more then the $9 WWB 9mm.

Maybe I am mistakin, but it sure does seem to be to have gone up in price. CASS maybe?

[1 old 0311]

Hi Axe,

ALL ammo took a jump a few months back. Don't know why but it is everywhere.

Kevin

[Car Knocker]

Price of metals and fuel went up - increases passed on to the consumer.

[Ala Dan]

I priced a whole bunch of Rem-UMC .38 Specials (50 count boxes, 130 grain MC) for $8.49@, and put 'em on the shelves~!:D

[MDG1976]

I work for an HVAC manufacturer. The cost of steel, cooper, aluminum, and BRASS has sky rocketed in the last couple of years. Thank China and India.

[MCgunner]

Well, I loaded a box of cast wadcutters the other day. That cost me about $2.50. :D

[OSS]

A box of 100 rounds of 130 grain FMJ WWB at Wal*Mart cost me $17 in Virginia... not terrible, I guess... still too expensive for a poor college student like me to be shooting as much as I do, though... :scrutiny:

[MCgunner]

A box of 100 rounds of 130 grain FMJ WWB at Wal*Mart cost me $17 in Virginia... not terrible, I guess... still too expensive for a poor college student like me to be shooting as much as I do, though... :scrutiny:

When I was a broke college student, I made do with a .38/.357 Lee hand tool. It was slow, but more fun that studying...;) I wasn't into bullet casting, yet. You can REALLY save money with casting. But, we had a good sporting goods place in Bryan/College Station that had bulk cast bullets pretty cheap. I remember buying a box of 500 pre-lubed wadcutter a couple of times for pretty cheap and they were accurate.

[possum]

hey axeman_g,
The problem might be that you are getting your ammo from Bass pro! they are not known for having very good deals, well I can say that the one in concord Mills mall dosen't (n.c) I went by there three times last week when i was home and there was two boxes of pistol ammo in the whole store, 45acp and 9mm, neither of which was what i was looking for! And they were outrageous on the price! you might come across a good 5.56 deal there, very rarely but that is about it! Just my toughts! have you tried reloading for it. that is very inexpensive and you can even use lead to save even more!

[M2 Carbine]

A box of 100 rounds of 130 grain FMJ WWB at Wal*Mart cost me $17 in Virginia... not terrible, I guess... still too expensive for a poor college student like me to be shooting as much as I do, though... :scrutiny:

Buy a Lyman 310 (or Lee) reloading hand tool and dies, http://hunting.about.com/library/weekly/aa010321d.htm.
Make a powder dipper out of a 22LR case.
Buy cheap cast bullets for about $16/500. 1,000 primers for $14 and a can of Bullseye powder for $20 (which will load about 2,000 38 rounds).

Through the 1960's I reloaded and shot many many thousands of rounds of very inexpensive 38 Special this way.

[axeman_g]

it is the answer... I did just buy a used Lee Load All to start reloading my own 12g shells. I have been tossing around the idea in my head, for cost reasons and because I am moving to NJ and I really dont want my ammo purchases tracked, have to show a FOID card for every ammo purchase.

[MCgunner]

I quit loading shotgun shells. You don't save anything, really, when you can buy a box of dove loads for under 4 bucks at Walmart. The steel shot law came along for waterfowl and that was it, quit reloading 'em.

You can save a TON of money loading most hangun calibers, though. Also, rifle ammo can be tailored for the gun for accuracy and, in some cases, velocity. You can save quite a bit on rifle ammo, but if you cast your own bullets and can get a good source of cheap lead like wheel weights, you can clean up on ammo costs for handguns. Even if you just buy shot in 25 lbs bags for lead, you save over buying factory ammo, though I'd have to work the numbers to see if you'd save over buying cast bullets in bulk. Getting a source of lead is the important part. A good thing about casting bullets, once you find a mold that casts a bullet that you like, is accurate, you don't have to worry about the if the store stops carrying that bullet or sells out or if the bullet maker goes out of business (some casters are small). You can make as many as you need when ever you have lead.

[whm1974]

Hey all, is it just me or did .38 Spec just about double in price recently. I swear I used to get boxes of 50 for about $5.

Were did you find .38 SPL for $5/50?

I am moving to NJ and I really dont want my ammo purchases tracked, have to show a FOID card for every ammo purchase.

I don't know how they do things in NJ but here here IL they don't write anything down, just have show the card.

-Bill