When was ammo cheapest?

When we road-hunted rabbits on snowy winter days from my dad's "53 Chevy in the late 50s, we bought .22 shorts for about 45 cents. With gas about 20 cents we could kill a bunch of road bunnies with a box of shorts and a dollar's worth of gas. Them was the good ol' days. Have no idea what that would be in today's inflated dollars. But, I made 25 cents mowing a lawn. Not too good in the good ol' days

Back in the early ‘80’s, the White Elephant Stores in Spokane, Washington was THE place to buy guns, ammo and fishing supplies. Bought my first center fire rifle there, a Winchester Model 70 Westerner in .243 Win. With a Weaver 4x scope mounted for $199. My 6” Colt Diamondback .22 LR followed a couple years later for $279.99. Back then CCI Blazer .22 was $7.99 a brick of 500, while CCI MiniMags were $9.99 for a brick of 500. CCI Speer Lawman .38 +P JHP ammo was $9.99 a box of 50, while the same JHP’s in .357 Magnum were $11.99 a box. That was long before EVERYBODY switched to 9mm, so I have no idea what they charged for those. They did offer Winchester USA 5.56 55 gr FMJ ammo for $2.99 per box of 20. Guess I should have stocked up back then. Come to think of it, that was 1989, because the brass had WCC 89 on the head stamp. Not knowing any better, I shot hundreds of rounds of it through a Savage 110 Light Varmint in .223 Remington without incident.
Yes, those were the “good old days”!

When I was a wee lad version (LoL)

I traded 32ACP cartridges for $.05 candy bars. So that would be $2.50 / box of 50 I guess.
Point in time for some of us older farts, that was just before they raised all candy bars from a nickle to a nickle & a dime, larger candy bars went up to a dime and people were FURIOUS.

Furious was of course interpreted from the eyes of a wee lad, who only wanted more candy for his bullets, not less...

Probably in 1959 when I had a Sears truck make a home devilery of my sporterized M/N rifle with 100 rounds for less than $10, with Momma's permission of course. A hundred rounds of mil ammo from Sear's cost $3 and a bottle of Coke was a nickel.. Just remember that these are the good old days..

I don't know about all-time, but I bought my first pistol at a gunshow in the 90's, and picked up some ammo then. I was a total newbie, didn't know brands (outside of Winchester and Remington).

Got a couple boxes of Sellier and Bellot for, I want to say, $4.99 apiece. Obviously didn't know the brand, just remember thinking "ok, but I'm stopping at Walmart to get some WWB on the way home anyway".
Looking back, that might have been the cheapest per cost of living; otherwise it was a couple years ago when you could get a case of something brass online for about $160.

When was ammunition cheapest? When I started loading my own. Well, sometime after the equipment was paid for.

Always when I didnt have money. Now that I have a little its gone.

Hooda Thunkit said:

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.

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That's a good callout. To look at this most accurately you'd need to just look at cartridges who's popularity has stayed about the same then. .22lr of course. 12 and 20 ga. Probably .38sp/.357mag. Maybe .45/70. I don't know about centerfire cartridges, aside from .270, .243, and 30-06, those seem to change popularity with a sneeze.

HB said:

In general, do you guys think people are more likely to hoard ammo now than 30 years ago?

It seems like most people in my parents’ generation typically had 1-3 guns and enough ammo for hunting. Unless they were a bullseye or trap shooter.

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I remember when I was around 10, so 28 years ago, some guy near us had 2 tractor trailers parked on his lot full of ammo go up in flames. So I know people hoarded ammo then too. But I would say the average shooter is more likely to have more ammo on hand today than 30, 50, 70 years ago. Just the same as the average gun owner has more firearms now than then. Probably a combination of it being more easy to buy cheap ammo in bulk through the internet, learning from the shortages due to political climate fears, and people just have more disposable income today.

During the 70s I traded my S&W Model 39 for a 15-2 Revolver + some cash because 9mm was so much more expensive than .38. I seem to remember $9 vs $5. I still have the .38 and still miss the 39.

I have 5 30 round boxes of Lapua 7.62X39. One of the boxes has a sticker price of $7.75. All same lot number.
I am not sure when this was made because I got it in a trade, If one can find it now they want about $55 per box.
https://www.midwayusa.com/product/100185891

All you guys that are bemoaning cheap ammo of the 60’s-70’s, just remember that we were bailing hay for $1 an hour. I’m not talking about sitting in an air conditioned tractor. I’m talking working in a 110 degree hay loft, gagging from the heat and the dust, handling 80# square bales.

All day. For s $10 bill

This topic has interested me for a very long time...and I've studied it best I could. There's lots of "I remember" stories, but I typically don't take those into consideration. I like to take actual Ads from magazines/etc to get data. I have a Shotgun News from the early 1990's, I have it somewhere in storage, I need to dig it out. Long story short, the good old days wasn't really all that good, give or take. $10 2020 was $6.75 in 2000, $5.19 in 1990, $3.31 in 1980, $1.54 in 1970...so on and so forth. Take this, for example:

This was from 1973. $229 then is $1398 now. The 720rd case for $81.50 is now $497.86.

Someone else posed a Colt ad from 1961, advertising a Colt Trooper for $71.05 ($620) and a Python 6" for $125 ($1091) in blue.

Another ad from 1987 had Norinco AKs for $299.95 ($674.25), and bulk Norinco 7.62x39 for $123.95/1200rds ($279.51).

Another from 1982 has a SPAS 12 for $599 ($1597) and a HK 91 or 93 at $799 ($2042).

I'd say that depending on what you want, there were some better import options back then...but the prices seem to be about the same as they are today, give or take...if not sometimes more expensive.

redneck2 said:

All you guys that are bemoaning cheap ammo of the 60’s-70’s, just remember that we were bailing hay for $1 an hour. I’m not talking about sitting in an air conditioned tractor. I’m talking working in a 110 degree hay loft, gagging from the heat and the dust, handling 80# square bales.

All day. For s $10 bill

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The trick was the prove your stacking ability so you'd get put out in the field on the wagon! After my first couple years I only ended up in the barn if someone messed up and I got sent there for a load or two to fix it. Of course by the late 90's when I was doing this we were making big bucks: $7-8/hour. Which adjusted for inflation is about $1/hour 1970's money.

While most farms couldn't find enough help, one farmer down the street wisened up and started paying $10/hour. When the hay was ready to bale, you can guess which farm I prioritized going to! I made enough through high school to buy my first truck and pay for my first semester of college. I bought a lot of 12ga game loads and .22lr with that money too.

GAF said:

I have 5 30 round boxes of Lapua 7.62X39. One of the boxes has a sticker price of $7.75. All same lot number.
I am not sure when this was made because I got it in a trade, If one can find it now they want about $55 per box.
https://www.midwayusa.com/product/100185891

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I have some of that Lapua at the same price. Bought it about '92-'93 as I recall. Thought I'd like to have some more about a year or so ago until I saw what it's going for now!

Some gun owners keep a LOT more ammo on hand now than most anyone ever did in the past, but that's because we've been around the block a few times over the last thirty years. For various reasons ammunition can suddenly become "not available" and whether it will ever become available again is perpetually subject to the whims of political fortune. As we're possibly about to experience yet again over the next couple of years or so.

The late 80's through about the mid-90's is as cheap as I have ever seen ammunition when viewed through the lens of what it cost versus how long it took to earn the money to pay for it. Even when I was trying to make a living on a security guard's wages I could still afford to shoot. Not extravagantly or as much as I wanted, but a few boxes of 223, 7.62x39, 22lr, etc per pay period didn't hurt much. There was a LOT of imported milsurp or quasi-milsurp ammo coming in then and the American manufacturers were competing against that with their economy lines. Boy had that ever changed by the mid-2000s!

Dunno about inflation, but I found a couple boxes of Winchester Wildcat .22 LR with a Target sticker on them for $1.17 a box. And that's TARGET, like the mass merchandiser all things retail outlet, not Target Sports. Back when a sporting goods department was more than bikes, squash rackets water toys and skateboards.

HB said:

My gut tells me manufacturing and raw material refining had to drop costs in comparison to say 1950 pricing. I think the .223/9mm pricing of 2017-2019 had to be the lowest by far.

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In terms of inflation adjusted prices I have to agree with you here ( I'd add in shotgun promo load in both 12 and 20 guage as well). We just had some of the best prices in our lifetimes. Just a short year ago ammo was very inexpensive, as were a number of hunting rifles, shotguns, and ARs of various flavors. You could literally buy a new AR for under $400 and all the ammo you like at $190/1000 steel or $250/1000 brass. I know a couple few people who did just that

Late seventies and early eighties, we bought our five pack of deer slugs for 2.25 a box. A box of 25 no. 6 Winchester 12 gauge shells was usually on sale at Kmart for around 3.75 a box. The end caps would be loaded with 30/30, 30-06, etc. for about 7 dollars a box of twenty. As I recall min. wage in 1980 was around 3.75, so I am thinking... social disturbances excluded, prices are pretty close to escalating with the economy. I have been pretty much inflation proofed though having reloaded since the late seventies...and still have some of the components bought then! Hell, I think I still have a hundred of Dads army surpluse Winchester primers!

I remember when Wal-Mart had 50 round boxes of Winchester white box 9mm 115 grain FMJ for $7.88 just a few years back, the 100-round boxes were something like $14.88... (sigh) I think when the aluminum-cased Blazers came out, they were a couple bucks cheaper per box than that. The .45 ACP was at likewise comparable prices, so Wal-Mart was my destination of choice back then for range ammo, even though I was still reloading some.

Captcurt said:

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.

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That’s interesting as my Uncle had a large piece of property outside Valentine that we hunted on and occasionally still do although he’s long deceased and my cousin has the place now.
It was 9 hours from our place and my brother and I always spent four weeks or so there during the summer and a few days during Christmas break. For a few years during the summer my uncle would drive us over to the big maze and sunflower fields outside Ojinaga Mexico where we would hunt dove and quail. We would stay until sunset or when we ran out of shells. I had a bolt action 16ga my brother a single shot 20ga and my uncle and cousin each had a double barrel 12ga.
Those were great times. We would walk through a field and you could see the quail scurrying along about 15 feet in front of us. We would all then run ahead about five feet which would flush those birds.
We would then settle under this big tree by the river and shoot dove.
Going across the border in the mid sixties was no big deal then. My uncle always stopped and talked to the two or three border and customs officers there. They were always polite to us young boys who were wearing their straw cowboy hats, sunburned faces and big smiles. Many a time I would just crash in the back of the pickup with a blanket and would sleep until we were almost home.
My uncles ranch hand, Miguel, and family would take care of the birds and his wife and daughters would fix a feast the next day of quail, dove, fresh tortillas, corn fritters, sweet tea or beer for the older folks.
Years ago I passed on my 16ga to my brothers second son who still has it. His oldest son has the 20ga.

Early '50's we had a couple of farmer/ranchers that would pay a penny apiece for ground squirrel tails.
If you were a half decent shot you could actually make money with your .22

redneck2 said:

All you guys that are bemoaning cheap ammo of the 60’s-70’s, just remember that we were bailing hay for $1 an hour. I’m not talking about sitting in an air conditioned tractor. I’m talking working in a 110 degree hay loft, gagging from the heat and the dust, handling 80# square bales.

All day. For s $10 bill

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That is exactly why I only worked in the hay field one time. I spent my time behind a cash register in a concession stand at the local Drive-in Theater. If I wasn't working I was in school or shooting or fishing.

Captcurt said:

That is exactly why I only worked in the hay field one time

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Once in a while we would get “Town kids” that wanted in on the money. Sometimes they would last a full day, sometimes they would be gone before noon

I don’t remember any that came back a second time

When I graduated from Purdue with Mechanical Engineering degree in 1973, I started at $1,000 per month