When was ammo cheapest?

When I was a wee lad, late 50’s to mid 60’s, .22 LR was between 40 & 55 cents a 50 count box at Gibson’s Discount Store and remained in that range until the mid 70’s.When I started shooting my Model 59 S&W 9mm in the early 70’s I paid $4 a box of fifty at Gibsons’s and $5 at my LGS who had a much better selection. .38 Special same price range and ,357 a little higher.
I used a 16 gauge shotgun for bird hunting and I’m guessing I paid around .$3 - $6 a box in the mid 70’s and $6-$7 a box in the late 80’s through the CD
I never had a dedicated deer rifle. I always borrowed my uncle’s 30.06 or my brothers 45/70 and ammo came with it.
Until ten years ago I had only shot 5.56/.223 in the military so I can’t comment on prices before 2010.

Alte Schule said:

When I was a wee lad, late 50’s to mid 60’s, .22 LR was between 40 & 55 cents a 50 count box at Gibson’s Discount Store and remained in that range until the mid 70’s.When I started shooting my Model 59 S&W 9mm in the early 70’s I paid $4 a box of fifty at Gibsons’s and $5 at my LGS who had a much better selection. .38 Special same price range and ,357 a little higher.
I used a 16 gauge shotgun for bird hunting and I’m guessing I paid around .$3 - $6 a box in the mid 70’s and $6-$7 a box in the late 80’s through the CD
I never had a dedicated deer rifle. I always borrowed my uncle’s 30.06 or my brothers 45/70 and ammo came with it.
Until ten years ago I had only shot 5.56/.223 in the military so I can’t comment on prices before 2010.

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So using your memory and this inflation calculator I put in 1958 @ $.48, which comes to $4.32 today for a box of .22's. I'd say that's in the same ballpark as pre Covid, it's more expensive than a bulk back of Golden bullets but maybe a tad lower than Mini Mags.

The 9mm comes to $23 for a box, which is certainly higher than the $11-12ish you could often find it at just last year on shelves.

To my recollection I would say the early 90's was about as cheap as ammo ever got.

This is considering the price of a box of ammo relative to the time it took me to earn the money to pay for it. I distinctly recall being astonished how expensive ammo had become by the early 2010's even though I was by then making more than double what I had been making in the early 90's.

Alte Schule said:

When I was a wee lad, late 50’s to mid 60’s, .22 LR was between 40 & 55 cents a 50 count box at Gibson’s Discount Store and remained in that range until the mid 70’s.When I started shooting my Model 59 S&W 9mm in the early 70’s I paid $4 a box of fifty at Gibsons’s and $5 at my LGS who had a much better selection. .38 Special same price range and ,357 a little higher.
I used a 16 gauge shotgun for bird hunting and I’m guessing I paid around .$3 - $6 a box in the mid 70’s and $6-$7 a box in the late 80’s through the CD
I never had a dedicated deer rifle. I always borrowed my uncle’s 30.06 or my brothers 45/70 and ammo came with it.
Until ten years ago I had only shot 5.56/.223 in the military so I can’t comment on prices before 2010.

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About the same, born in 1950 and was given my first 22 at age 8 by a friend of my uncle. My mom worked for Lazarus (big department store chain) here in Ohio during my later years 66 through 69 and she would use her employee discount to get me ammo. Never started rolling my own till around 72 when I came home from Nam. Been rolling my own, sans of course 22 rimfire ever since. When I saw a good sale I would buy loaded ammo or add to my component stash.

Ron

for milsurp defiantly late 80s early 90'. I remember getting cases of 7.6x39 for $80. 9mm wolf was $3 a box of 50. 22lr 500 round packs under $10.

For me,,,the 1980's. The ammo was free, and I got paid to shoot it up.

Dunross said:

To my recollection I would say the early 90's was about as cheap as ammo ever got.

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I agree. And since Clinton, prices have had ups and downs, but the downs were never as cheap as the early 90’s.

Best prices I remember were in the '60s and 70s. Gasoline was 18 cents a gallon. I could fill up my VW and drive it for a week for less than $3.00. Of course I didn't earn a lot of money either. I still have full cases of Federal primers (5000 per case) I paid $35.00 for. The last .22 LR ammo I bought was in 1990 for $8.00/500. I don't buy .22 LR anymore because the quality is so poor today. In my life I have watched the U.S. dollar deflate to what we have today. It is truly heartbreaking to see what the Federal Reserve and greedy politicians have done to this country.

bassjam said:

So using your memory and this inflation calculator I put in 1958 @ $.48, which comes to $4.32 today for a box of .22's. I'd say that's in the same ballpark as pre Covid, it's more expensive than a bulk back of Golden bullets but maybe a tad lower than Mini Mags.




The 9mm comes to $23 for a box, which is certainly higher than the $11-12ish you could often find it at just last year on shelves.

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Didn’t have the wide selection of manufacturers as we do now. In small town central Texas Remington and Winchester were about it. I just bought whatever they slapped down on the counter and paid whatever the sticker said. As long as it worked I was happy.
It wasn’t until ‘73 when our first LGS opened that I saw Browning and a couple of other center fire manufacturers whose names escapes me now. I remember it was at this time that I first saw 9mm JHP and thought that was pretty cool.

I remember within the last 20 years buying bricks of Federal Lightning .22 for $12.
My dad talks about going to a local sporting goods store when he was a kid in the mid 60's to buy shotgun ammo. He could buy 5 for a quarter. The whole box was $1.25 but he never had that much.

1865. Oh ....wait; did you mean in a living human being's lifetime??

Alte Schule said:

When I was a wee lad, late 50’s to mid 60’s, .22 LR was between 40 & 55 cents a 50 count box at Gibson’s Discount Store and remained in that range until the mid 70’s.When I started shooting my Model 59 S&W 9mm in the early 70’s I paid $4 a box of fifty at Gibsons’s and $5 at my LGS who had a much better selection. .38 Special same price range and ,357 a little higher.
I used a 16 gauge shotgun for bird hunting and I’m guessing I paid around .$3 - $6 a box in the mid 70’s and $6-$7 a box in the late 80’s through the CD
I never had a dedicated deer rifle. I always borrowed my uncle’s 30.06 or my brothers 45/70 and ammo came with it.
Until ten years ago I had only shot 5.56/.223 in the military so I can’t comment on prices before 2010.

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Oh yes, the good old days. I bought a used marlin bolt 22 for $27 when I was 15 in 1966 and a 6.5mm Carcano for $20. 22 shorts were 27 cents a box at Western Auto. The owner of our neighborhood grocery store would sell me 410 shells for 10 cents each. I couldn't afford a box until I got a job when I was 13. I got to go to old Mexico and bird hunt when I was 18. Sears 12 ga field loads were $1.85 a box. I took 22 boxes and never brought back a shell. In fact we had to go to Cuidad Victoria and buy more. They were almost $4 a box down there. We went back 2 years later and had to limit our shooting to 2 boxes a day. I miss that.

I'm going to say it's been consistent since I started shooting around 1960, inflation considered of course. There have been some serious spikes in the last 20 years, like now, but across the board it's about the same as it was in 1960. I bought 5000 rds of .22 LR for 0.08/rd a few years ago and that equates to about the same price in 1960 (0.01/rd) with inflation considered.

There were no golden years for ammo. Firearms is a different story. That would have been about 1946 thru 1970.

Early 90's, still have some around from then, still buying or reloading the same amount per month as back then...except for different reasons now...

Well, the lowest recent inflation amount would be about 2017.

About 2010 or so, consumer purchasing power hit a serious slump, which gave surpluses due to a lack of consumer demand.

I, too remember the decent prices of the early-mid 90s. But, from inflation, 1995 dollars are currently worth about $1.75
So, those $4 boxes of WWB 5.56 Midway sold would (should) be $7 per each.

There are several curved values in play here.
I remember walking three dimes, three nickles, and four pennies down to the Gibson's in Plainview, Texas to buy, with tax, a box of .22lr RNL--a green box, so, likely Remmies. Sounds cheap. But, FMW was $2.10/hr--so, that 49¢ was 23% of an hour's wages.

So, prices have to be perceived not merely by their list cost, but also in comparison with cost of living as well as consumer price inflation.

bassjam said:

The 9mm comes to $23 for a box, which is certainly higher than the $11-12ish you could often find it at just last year on shelves

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In the early 1970s, 9mm was not nearly as popular as it became on the mid 90s.

38 Spl was very, very popular. I think economies of manufacturing scale comes into play on this analysis.

Adjusted for inflation I am thinking late 2019 or pre Covid 2020. If some other time period is less expensive I bet it isn't by much.

adjusted for inflation, I'm thinking 2004-2006. Cheap Russian import was driving down US maker prices. Prices I remember, 45ACP, US/brass $12/50, 9mm US/brass $8/50, .223 rem US/brass $12/20. I bought a lot of 38/357 commercial reloads then, and paid $7/12 for a box of 50. Pay was about $8/hour for retail/restaurant and $16-22 for non-union trades. Here in my area, pay has gone up to $12/hour for retail, and non-union trades is still $16-22, but ammo has doubled.
As for the import stuff, 7.62x39 was available at $2.09/20 retail, everyday, at most shops. .308 surplus was available at .25/round, but the 8mauser stuff had already ran out. This was from years of the US dollar being strong enough to get cheaper material, but weak enough to mass produce in the US. Cheap fuel was a major factor.
Then the big Iraqi government contract happened, and cheap imports doubled, then doubled again. Then the cheap imports were banned. All during the Bush/Obama recession, were the US dollar dropped to the point raw materials became a much bigger factor.
From the people I have talked to that worked gun counters since the 70's, they agree, for new manufacture that was the lowers they saw. Surplus on the other hand, was long before that.

jak67429 said:

for milsurp defiantly late 80s early 90'. I remember getting cases of 7.6x39 for $80. 9mm wolf was $3 a box of 50. 22lr 500 round packs under $10.

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In the late 90s, I was buying 500 rd. bricks of Winchester Wildcat for just under $10 ($9.95-$9.99) at, IIRC, a Kmart store.

Alte Schule said:

When I was a wee lad, late 50’s to mid 60’s, .22 LR was between 40 & 55 cents a 50 count box at Gibson’s Discount Store and remained in that range until the mid 70’s.When I started shooting my Model 59 S&W 9mm in the early 70’s I paid $4 a box of fifty at Gibsons’s and $5 at my LGS who had a much better selection. .38 Special same price range and ,357 a little higher.
I used a 16 gauge shotgun for bird hunting and I’m guessing I paid around .$3 - $6 a box in the mid 70’s and $6-$7 a box in the late 80’s through the CD
I never had a dedicated deer rifle. I always borrowed my uncle’s 30.06 or my brothers 45/70 and ammo came with it.
Until ten years ago I had only shot 5.56/.223 in the military so I can’t comment on prices before 2010.

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I used to shop at a Gibson’s in Kerrville, Tx. with my Grandfather many, many moons ago. I loved going in there and drooling over all the blued steel and walnut in the rack and the ammo on the shelf.

I can recall .22 ammo at 50 for about a buck on occasion. I think Silvertip .30-30 was about $8 and .257 Roberts was around $10 for 20.

Stay safe.

Starting buying ammo in the early 80's. I could get a brick of 22 for $6.99. Buy 100 rd CCI for $1.49 Use to buy 9mm UMC Yellow box for $4.99 per 50.
Best prices ever. Money then is different then now. Climate of uncertainty and fear has priced ammo into the stratosphere. I am glad I took up reloading in the 90's. I am good until the rapture.

I quit reloading 9mm in early 2000 because academy was selling CCI blazer for $2.99/50 and Winchester white box was $3.99/50. Walmart had Winchester dynapoint .22 LR for under $8/550 round box around the same time.

If you go back a lot further in time everything was cheaper. I still remember the time I shot my first (and last) squirrel with a centerfire rifle.

This was the ammunition.



Can barely make it out but that’s $3.32 for a 20 round box.

Alte Schule said:

When I was a wee lad,

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A.S. Almost said it. When I was a wee lad, my ammo was paid for by my father, my grandfather, my uncle... that’s when it was cheapest. Now I’m on the other end of it. I buy ammo and I get like 3 shots out of a box because the girls get the bulk of it. Factory ammo for me is like $7 per shot at this rate. Reloads, $2 a shot or so.

Realistically I would guess that it’s pretty specific to caliber. 45 probably was cheapest when military and police had the mass exodus to the wondernine. .40sw was pretty cheap for a while when the police in large part abandoned it. .380 however has never really been a mainstream duty caliber and it’s always been expensive, same goes for lots of rounds like 38 super, 45 gap, etc. So following the law of supply and demand if the supply is greater than demand then price point falls. I can’t imagine any time when supply outran demand with exception of major players dumping a round all at once (Military moves from .556 to something else), or a large contingent of smaller players dumping the same round all at once (a bunch of police forces dump 9mm again in favor of something else).

I can’t remember the term from economics that describes a metric that looks at a group of common goods and their prices then compares that over the years as a means of measuring inflation. I will have to look it up, but you could use that metric compared to prices of some of the common ammo varieties and go from there.