Projectile costs much higher now?

rajbcpa said:

I have not bought any cast or plated projectiles in six months or so, but I began shopping again today.

The prices seem much higher now. Is this a function of the supply shortage or is there some other reason?

One popular vendor I used in the past is completely out, so I am assuming the shortage, which is headed on a one year anniversary, is not easing.

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Shortage started in December...6 months, not a year.

From what I've seen Berry's prices may have gone up by about 1 cent per bullet

Plated has gone up, both from the mfrs and from resellers. Cast does not seem to be up very much. I just checked MBC and they are roughly around the same price I paid in summer of 2012 for 38 spcl. Maybe around $1-2 per 500.

December was the tipping point, but the months leading up to the election were most certainly the start.

yes the makers of 'premium' jhp 9mm 124 gr slugs are really gougeing IMO

the fed has been printing 85 billion per month, of course everything is going up for that reason alone.

Constrictor said:

everything is going up for that reason alone.

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except salaries

^^^^^^^ you bet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

One source concluded that the shortage really started four or five years ago, early in First Obama. That the manufacturers had really not completely caught up in time for Second Obama and Sandy Hook panics.

I think that some months of shortage and scalpers have gotten people used to paying higher prices and that, in combination with general inflation, will lead to higher post Panic prices, even if lower than the peak.

I've noticed small increases but nothing major. Mostly a drop in availability.

Personally though I've never much cared for plated. If I want to shoot cheap I'll buy cast. If I want better bullets the price of plated is just a hair under jacketed. Never found them a good value.

One of the reasons for increased pricing is the increase to the manufacturers in the price of the raw material world wide. In addition to this there is also (in my opinion) a distinct element of greed along with the much revered/maligned (depending on who's Ox is getting gored) element known as Free Market (Capitalism)! When the panic subsides, demand will drop and so will prices BUT never to the pre-panic level.

Just found 45acp FMJs at Natchez Shooting Supplies for ~$23.49/100. There is a 5 unit limit, so that's what I ordered. With $20 shipping it's ~$138; hated to pay that much, but really happy to find them. The last 45s I ordered were about 5 years ago, so I really don't feel too badly for "hoarding", and since I will shoot these up within 6 mos to a year (new Rem 1911-R1 ) I think it's time to get out the moulds & start casting...

TJ Conevera and Powder Valley have been offering reasonably priced plated pistol bullets - http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?p=8992247#post8992247

Rocky Mountain Reloading and some other vendors have also been offering reasonably priced pistol and rifle bullets - http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?p=8986436#post8986436

+1 on MBC cast bullets. Powder Valley and Graf & Sons also sells MBC bullets at reasonable prices.

what are the differences between plated and, cast? God, all this crap is confusing. full metal jacket, jhp, cast , plated, copper , lead, and i just saw "complete" metal jacket i think...? Can anyone give me a brief summary/ description of this terminology, types of projectiles/cartridges? Hope u all dont light me up for not researching myself-i have somewhat...

Sorry for the temporary hijack but i didnt think it merits its own thread since everyone here probably knows alreaady

Potatohead said:

God, all this crap is confusing.

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Potatohead, I will give it a try. Here goes.

In the begining, God created lead and there were lead/cast bullets naked without any covering and shooters were not ashamed of their naked bullets.

Then copper gas checks were used on the base of lead/cast bullets to reduce leading issues on higher velocity bullets/loads. Then the gas checks evolved and grew in length and became jacketed hollow points (JHP).

When the shooters saw that full-length gas check bullets were good, they made Full Metal Jacket (FMJ) bullets with exposed lead base but some people who were concerned with lead made a disk to cover up the lead base to make Complete Metal Jacket (CMJ) bullets.

Then people started applying copper plating to lead/cast bullets to look like more expensive copper jacketed/full-length gas checked bullets but shooters found the cheaper plated bullets did not have the same level of accuracy and could not be pushed too hard due to thin copper plating. They also suffered from bullets being out of round so they increased the thickness of plating (TP) and double struck the bullets (DS) to improve consistency.

Then one day ATK/Speer trademarked the term TMJ to describe their thicker copper plated bullets as Total Metal Jacket and everyone else had to use other more confusing terms to describe their copper plated bullets.

To improve accuracy of plated bullets, when Berry's Manufacturing added hollow bases to their plated bullets (HB) to help with bullet base expansion and better stabilize the bullets with longer bearing surfaces, all the shooters in the land saw that they were good.

So now you know what a Berry's HBRN-TP DS bullet is.

Now, there are traditionalists who want to return to the practice of shooting lead/cast bullets and refer to their hand cast bullets with an endearing term of "boolits" and often hang out at castboolits forum - http://castboolits.gunloads.com/forumdisplay.php?8-Cast-Boolits

This is my story and I am sticking to it.

thx man!!

one more off topic-so all bullets have lead..am i right? and gosh i know that must be a dumb question to you guys..ok, back on thread topic. thx

There are lead-free bullets made from solid copper, brass, other metals and materials and even compressed clay that are frangible.

Then you also have Moly / polymer coated lead bullets.

Yes, it sure can be confusing.

The lead in all lead bullets is a lot harder too....I am not sure if plated bullets use hard lead, or soft lead like jacketed bullets.

Don't forget Berry's restrikes their plated bullets after plating too in order to make sure they are uniform

From what it looks we have new businesses started, old businesses expanded to meet demand. I'm sure we will see discounted sales soon.

my bad rajbpca. thx for the info though guys. sorry for the temporary hijack