Ammo Price Alert

I went to K-Mart today to buy four 9mm WC Value packs and the price had gone up to $18.49 a box!! Two weeks ago I paid $15.99. WC white-box was over $10 a box!!

I then stopped at Academy Sporting Goods and saw the same type of price increases. They had Monarch (brass) for $8.49 so I picked up 5 more boxes.

If your local stores haven't gone up yet, get out there and buy all you can afford....quick!

I don't want to sound ungrateful but your alert is about 12 months too late. Ammo has been increasing steadily every month for at least a year now.

Even reloading is becoming costly because most of the components have doubled over the past 12 months.

If your local stores haven't gone up yet, get out there and buy all you can afford....quick!

No,
I've bought my last factory ammo for some years to come, except 22LR.
I've been buying out the local Wal Marts of Remington 22LR 550 packs. It just increased another $1.50.

9mm?
115gr FMJ bullet= .06
4.5gr powder= .01
Primer= .014
Used brass= .00

Time to load= 8 minutes

Cost= $4.20/50

Note, I edited the cost of the bullet from 3 cents to 6 cents. I just checked and had the cost mixed up with another order.

9mm?
115gr FMJ bullet= .03
4.5gr powder= .01
Primer= .014
Used brass= .00

Time to load= 8 minutes

Cost= $2.70/50



man... i've gotta learn how to reload!

oops

You guys have it good, 9mm is going for $10 / 50 for the garbage here. Seattle is expensive.

At K-mart??? I thought they were out of that business. I'll have to stop in one.

The price quoted by the OP is about the same as Wal-Mart's.

I thought K-mart stopped selling ammo a few years ago

man... i've gotta learn how to reload!

Above I made a mistake on the shipped cost of the bullet. I got orders mixed up.
It's 6 cents instead of 3 cents. Which puts the cost of the reloaded 9mm FMJ at $4.20/50, instead of the $2.70/50 I originally posted.


Ammo has always been too high for me to shoot as much as I like. I started reloading in 1962.

As a rule of thumb reloads cost half as much as factory loads. You don't consider the cost of the brass because it is reusable many times.

If you look for sales on components and buy in bulk your ammo cost can be very low.

For instance, Midway has 9mm FMJ bullets on sale for $24.99/500. Several thousand, with shipping, comes to about 6 cents a bullet.

Casting your own lead bullets costs about a cent each. So my cost, of very accurate lead bullet reloads, is under $2.00/50 for 38, 9mm, 45, etc.

Casting is very time consuming and a little messy though. But since store bought lead bullets have gone from $14/500 to over $30/500 I'm going back to casting when I run out of bullets in several years.

I don,t have room for a reload set up or the storage of equipment. I have been sending my brass to Mastercast Bullet Co. they are nice people to deal with. Their Reloaded Ammo is clean and accurate. My 357s seam to be 1/4 to 1/2 the price of factory Ammo and that includes the shipping. Give them a call and check them out on the Web. www.mastercast.net

Centerfire ammo has always been expensive to me. Even $8-10/50 is a too much as far as I'm concerned for 38spl and now a box can run as much as 3x that price. I compare everything to the cost of 22LR. It is getting expensive too.

Bullets ALONE for 45 ACP run around $10 per 50 now. Even reloading isn't the deal it once was!

The lowest store prices here in San Diego are $11/bx (50) for 9mm going up to $13.99. .40 is $14.50 and up/bx and .45 is over $20/bx (50) at Turner's. :what: I ain't lyin'!

I stocked up at the local gun show where .45 went for $14/bx by the cs (1000) and 9mm was still $9/bx by the cs. (1000). Reloading is not an option at this time so I've cut my ammo per range session in half.

Ammo costs have given me a completely new perspective on gun prices. 100 rds of .45 per week (at Gun Show prices) X 52 = $1456 plus tax = $1587. 200 rounds per week = $3164. Add in the .40 and 9mm that I bring along and, well, crap. Won't see me worrying about the $200 price difference between a CZ and a SIG no' more . . . (I own both BTW).

And you just figured this out? The only ammo I am shooting was purchased over two years ago. The only thing I buy now is components, and they have gone up considerably.

Buy Snap Caps. Learn about dry firing. Conserve the ammo. Quality over quantity. Reminds me of the seventies.

Goal for this year....learn to reload. I have been saving my brass.

Any recommendations on a turret reloader?? I was thinking Lee since it's fairly inexpensive, but also looked at RCBS, Lyman, Redding, I shoot mostly 9mm, 380, 454 Casull(not often), 308...I also shoot 7.62x39mm and 7.62x54R but I have plenty of unreloadable Russian steel cased ammos for those, but perhaps I should reload them the way ammos are starting to cost these days...Well heck, maybe I'll start reloading my shotshells as well....

I'm impressed. I thought all the ammo price jump threads centered around Wal*Mart?

:D

this is why I mostly shoot 22s.

is there a good writeup or website or something about reloading to learn how to do it, and all of the components and tools needed?



I don,t have room for a reload set up or the storage of equipment. I have been sending my brass to Mastercast Bullet Co. they are nice people to deal with. Their Reloaded Ammo is clean and accurate. My 357s seam to be 1/4 to 1/2 the price of factory Ammo and that includes the shipping. Give them a call and check them out on the Web. www.mastercast.net


From what I can figure...I don't think I would be saving money using that website. I shoot 9mm.
The cheapest they have for 50 w/ exchange is $6. That's $12 per 100. plus $10 shipping, is $22. that doesn't include the cost of shipping my brass to them.

From walmart, WWB is $20 after tax per box of 100. American Eagle may be even less. PMC bronze is about $9 per box of 50 (pre-tax).

am i missing something?

Just bought a bunch of primers. They were $30.00 a thousand before tax. Noticed that Blaser 9MM is $9.99 a box at Academy Sports now. I guess I will stsrt reloading them too.

$29 for WWB 100 count of .45 acp this week at Walmart:barf:. Next purchase = reloading equipment, possibly including stuff to cast my own bullets. I also foresee much more time on the .22 conversion kit in my future.

Yeah, conversion kits look better and better, don't they? So does the Buckmark I just bought.

Bullet prices are high, so cast bullets look better and better. Small casters generally have the best prices.

And buying from a commercial caster is safer than casting 'em yourself...cleaner and less complicated, too.

Yep, as I stated in an earlier post- ammo has [or is] fix'in too go up 20%
across the board~! :eek: :(

Sorry that didn,t help you chupacabrah, the first time I ordered I bought 2000 rounds the last time it was 3000 rounds. Maybe thats why it seemed cheaper. With the shipping both ways between PA. and Ohio it was about 8 or 9 something a bag of 50 125g. JHP 357.

You guys need to get in on our AMMO group buy!! The prices are gauranteed and the ammo is some of the best out there. (think black hills)

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=343331

+1 on www.mastercast.net. I almost feel like a shill for them, I blow their horn so much. I've been stung by reloading services before (read: National Bullet Company), so when I find a company as reliable, inexpensive and prompt as Mastercast, I do my best to help them stay in business.

And send them your spent brass for reloading for even more savings. Do it USPS Priority Mail. I send a thousand cases that way for a bit over eight dollars. Any other way I know of costs over twenty.

Cordially, Jack

Sorry that didn,t help you chupacabrah, the first time I ordered I bought 2000 rounds the last time it was 3000 rounds. Maybe thats why it seemed cheaper. With the shipping both ways between PA. and Ohio it was about 8 or 9 something a bag of 50 125g. JHP 357.



actually, after i posted i realized i didnt take into effect economies of scale.... i'll definitely hit them up once i build up some brass! (>1000)

This is why I got into reloading two years ago. Right now, Rem UMC .40 ammo is on sale for $15/box.:eek::barf: I've got several thousand rounds loaded up, at a cost of $6/box.:D

I'm also shooting my 22 a lot more, since that only runs about 3 cents/round.

You can get started reloading for under $200 in equipment with a Lee Anniversary kit (about $100 and extras to about $70 or 80). Another $100 will get you 1,000 primers, a pound of powder and a 1,000 bullets.

Your first 1,000 rounds will cost you $15 a box (of 50).

My 45acp rounds cost me $4.10 a box and the are far more accurate out of my gun than any factory loads. I use a progressive press and turn out between 400 and 500 rounds an hour.