PercyShelley
Member
- Joined
- Feb 15, 2007
- Messages
- 1,075
Does anyone here who was shooting during the Vietnam era remember whether ammunition costs went up as a result of the conflict?
Ammunition prices: does anyone remember the Vietnam War?
- Thread starter PercyShelley
- Start date
- Status
TexasRifleman
Moderator Emeritus
Difference is that surplus was still allowed to be imported with very few restrictions back then, and there was no restriction on manufacturers selling military ammo to civilians.
There are lots of restrictions in place now, both by the US on imports and voluntary export restrictions as a result of our blue helmeted friends at the UN.
There are many more forces at work on today's ammo prices than the Iraq war.
There are lots of restrictions in place now, both by the US on imports and voluntary export restrictions as a result of our blue helmeted friends at the UN.
There are many more forces at work on today's ammo prices than the Iraq war.
Redd Flynt
Member
From what I can recall ammo did increase after GCA68 but not much. I went in the Service in 62 and other than normal CPI increase, I don't think the war had much effect on ammo price.
Silvanus
Member
Like the increasing demand and therefore prices for all kinds of metals.
Detachment Charlie
Member
I got all I could carry -- for free!!! AND, they threw in free helicopter rides. DAY-UM, it don't get no funner than that!
M2 Carbine
member
No, but some guns were hard to get.
I knew some dealers that told their distributors, I'll take anything you can get me.
I had a S&W "Dirty Harry" 44 Mag that I paid $100 for and was offered almost a thousand for it, and then a thousand a month was a VERY GOOD salary.
ACP230
Member
I am shooting more now than I was then, but don't remember ammo going up very much.
DMK
Member
Current ammo prices have nothing to do with the war. That's just the rumor everyone is telling everyone.
Current ammo prices have everything to do with the current economy and the prices of metals.
Current ammo prices have everything to do with the current economy and the prices of metals.
right. ammo/components not a problem if you had a reliable distributor. Guns were a different story with everybody geared up toward government contracts. Quality control was indifferent then and a lot of manufacturers weren't much interested in making repairs to civilian guns even when they came right out of the factory screwed up.
Titan6
member
You mean back when the United State still had a manufacturing base and made and sold things that people wanted to buy? like TVs, computers, clothes, bicycles, appliances, and so forth? You mean back when energy costs were less of a percentage of take home pay, people invested and saved instead of living on credit cards and the US Government had a balanced budget? Back when American mines, banks and companies were owned by Americans? Back when this country had the resources and spirit to send people to the moon?
I don't remember those days. I never had a chance to live them. Apparently those times were so miserable that they were consumed completely by a generation that is still doing what it does best: Looking out for numero uno.
I get to remember the days when the Government of the United States of America borrowed the entire amount of the US Economy from foreign countries and sold an entire future generation into lifelong poverty to finance an insane social policy, an endless war and facist police state with laws that mock the Consitution....
But I do have Britney Spears and the Internet.
Umm... so no.
JohnBT
Member
"You mean back when the United State still had a manufacturing base and made and sold things that people wanted to buy?"
Lots of folks we already buying Japanese cars, Sony tvs, Japanese stereos, etc. They were already making better stuff than the U.S.
I don't recall ammo going up as a result of the war, but ammo was still expensive back then. By 1974 I had an M.S. and I got a good job paying $9168/yr.
John
P.S. - This is all I've found so far with a quick search.
By Massad Ayoob
December 2007
"Explaining Today’s Ammo
Prices To Customers"
http://illinoiscarry.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=7519&pid=63392&st=0&
"In 1986, a box of mainstream, big-brand 9mm 115-grain full-metal-jacket training ammunition carried a manufacturer’s suggested retail price of $22.50 per 50 rounds. I bet you’re selling, right now, some generic 9mm ball that is identical in performance for around half as much. A reduction of 50 percent!
Conventional copper-jacketed, hollow-point self-defense ammo in the same caliber and bullet weight, such as the Federal brand with product code 9BP, listed in ’86 for the same $22.50 per 50-round box. I just stocked up on some Federal 115-grain 9BP at Riley’s Sport Shop in Hooksett, N.H. (August ’07). The price was $12.50 for the same size box. That’s a 45-percent reduction, 21 years later!
In 1986, a 50-round box of 185-grain jacketed hollowpoint .45 ACP, such as those from Federal and Remington, carried the MSRP of $26.05. I see Winchester “white box” 230-grain .45 in the same conventional JHP selling for about that in the same quantity in gun shops these days. That’s zero cost increase in 21 years!
The hot rifle caliber today, particularly among your defense-oriented customers, is, of course, the .223 Remington/5.56mm NATO. The 55-grain full-metal-jacket round from mainstream makers carried the MSRP of $11.95 per 20-round box, as listed in the ’86 Gun Digest. That works out to 59 cents per cartridge, or $597 per thousand rounds. Today, I hear people screaming in outrage that .223 ball ammunition has gone up to $300 per thousand."
Lots of folks we already buying Japanese cars, Sony tvs, Japanese stereos, etc. They were already making better stuff than the U.S.
I don't recall ammo going up as a result of the war, but ammo was still expensive back then. By 1974 I had an M.S. and I got a good job paying $9168/yr.
John
P.S. - This is all I've found so far with a quick search.
By Massad Ayoob
December 2007
"Explaining Today’s Ammo
Prices To Customers"
http://illinoiscarry.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=7519&pid=63392&st=0&
"In 1986, a box of mainstream, big-brand 9mm 115-grain full-metal-jacket training ammunition carried a manufacturer’s suggested retail price of $22.50 per 50 rounds. I bet you’re selling, right now, some generic 9mm ball that is identical in performance for around half as much. A reduction of 50 percent!
Conventional copper-jacketed, hollow-point self-defense ammo in the same caliber and bullet weight, such as the Federal brand with product code 9BP, listed in ’86 for the same $22.50 per 50-round box. I just stocked up on some Federal 115-grain 9BP at Riley’s Sport Shop in Hooksett, N.H. (August ’07). The price was $12.50 for the same size box. That’s a 45-percent reduction, 21 years later!
In 1986, a 50-round box of 185-grain jacketed hollowpoint .45 ACP, such as those from Federal and Remington, carried the MSRP of $26.05. I see Winchester “white box” 230-grain .45 in the same conventional JHP selling for about that in the same quantity in gun shops these days. That’s zero cost increase in 21 years!
The hot rifle caliber today, particularly among your defense-oriented customers, is, of course, the .223 Remington/5.56mm NATO. The 55-grain full-metal-jacket round from mainstream makers carried the MSRP of $11.95 per 20-round box, as listed in the ’86 Gun Digest. That works out to 59 cents per cartridge, or $597 per thousand rounds. Today, I hear people screaming in outrage that .223 ball ammunition has gone up to $300 per thousand."
mpmarty
Member
Det Charlie
Ya beat me to it. I got all I could pack and then some. Free and the chopper rides were nothing to the neat little boats we ran around on once in a while. On the other hand I haven't had to inventory my personal livestock in years.
Ya beat me to it. I got all I could pack and then some. Free and the chopper rides were nothing to the neat little boats we ran around on once in a while. On the other hand I haven't had to inventory my personal livestock in years.
Last year I gave my son a box of (20 rounds) 6mm Remington 100 grain I came across in a box in the store room. It was marked "White Front $4.50". This was bought about 1968 in California. A box of (50) .22 LR I recall as being about 60 cents. That is all I had back in 1968, a Ruger Super Single Six and a Ruger M77.
Does anyone remember what they paid for similar in, say, 1972 ?
Does anyone remember what they paid for similar in, say, 1972 ?
Average Joe
Member
Its the greedy US corporations and their never ending drive for more profits.
bikerdoc
Moderator In Memoriam
det charlie and mpmarty those were the good old days, dont forget we got to eat ham and mothers out of a can -cold!
JohnBT
Member
"about 1968 in California. A box of (50) .22 LR I recall as being about 60 cents."
And I was making $1.15/hr. working at McDonalds. A box was about the same in '72 as I remember it. A box today costs the same, about half of minimum wage. Unless of course you buy the promo stuff that's 500 rounds for $10 - then 50 rounds is only $1. Ammo is cheap compared to when I was growing up and getting out into the world, just not as cheap as it's been for the past 10 years.
That $4.50 box of 6mm would have cost me 3 hours of work a McDonalds. Plus a nickel and tax.
John
And I was making $1.15/hr. working at McDonalds. A box was about the same in '72 as I remember it. A box today costs the same, about half of minimum wage. Unless of course you buy the promo stuff that's 500 rounds for $10 - then 50 rounds is only $1. Ammo is cheap compared to when I was growing up and getting out into the world, just not as cheap as it's been for the past 10 years.
That $4.50 box of 6mm would have cost me 3 hours of work a McDonalds. Plus a nickel and tax.
John
- Status
Similar threads
