Let's calculate the real component price, then, and see what percent it is now, and what it was last year. Just pulled a .22 from a Remington bulk pack I bought last fall for $10. The bullet weighs 39.8 gr, even though it says 36 gr on the box. The powder charge is 1.8 gr. The case weighs 10.2 gr with the priming compound in it.
It never ceases to amaze me how wimpy rimfire priming is. You can just
barely hear the "pop" over the "click" of the firing pin. A toy cork gun makes considerably more noise. Anyway, after popping the thing twice (only half the priming compound blew the first time) and cleaning out the case, it weighs 10.0 gr.
I don't know how much the brass wash on the bullet weighs. Let's be generous and say that the bullet weighed 36 gr before it was brass/copper washed. To be generous again, let's assume it's pure copper, since that's worth more. Cartridge brass is 30% zinc, 70% copper.
So in each Remington 550 round brick, you've got:
19800 gr lead
5940 gr copper
1650 gr zinc
990 gr smokeless powder
110 gr priming compound
At present, lead is $0.80 per pound, copper is $3.95, and zinc is $0.86. I don't know what powder costs in bulk, but the cheapest powder on Cabelas.com is $15 per pound if bought 8 pounds at a time. I'd guess they're paying way less than $10 per pound, then, so let's go with $10. And let's assume priming compound costs the same, because I have no clue.
lead - $2.263
copper - $3.352
zinc - $0.203
explosives - $1.571
So that's $7.39 per brick in materials. Assuming Federal is the same (I've pulled them too, and they pretty much are), materials 61.6% of the cost of Federal, and 46.2% of the cost of Remington.
But, now let's see what materials cost precisely 1 year ago. Hm, Kitco is messing up. Can't get historical charts. I'll have to finish later.
Got them to work. Last June, copper was $3.50 a pound. Lead was around $1.18 per pound (yes, lead is actually now
cheaper than it was last year!), Zinc was $1.62 or so. Zinc's come way down. Powder and primers were a bit less, so call them $8 a pound in bulk. This is why I wanted to do the thing compared to last year. Lead and zinc and several other metals are
down in price, and copper hasn't risen that much.
lead - $3.338
copper - $2.970
zinc - $0.382
explosives - $1.257
That's $7.95 per 550 in materials. At $9 and $10 a brick, materials were 88.3% of Federal and 79.5% of Remington.
It's a combination of shipping charges and panic buying, most likely. Plus numerous companies have lied and said lead prices are skyrocketing and never going to come down, thus justifying their price hikes. Well, here's the 1 year lead chart:
Yes, prices went way up early last year and it took manufacturers awhile to go through their old stocks of lead that was bought at the cheaper price. But now they're going back down. Pretty soon, they'll go up again. Then they'll go down. That's how markets work.
You might even consider setting up to cast your most commonly used bullets...rifle as well as pistol.
