Is .380 normally this expensive?

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Mitlov

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Looking around online right now, a 50-round box of 9mm Luger is going for about $16, a 50-round box of .45 is going for about $21, and a 50-round box of .380 is going for $40. Is it normal for .380 to be two-to-three times as expensive as 9mm Luger, or is this just at temporary anomaly in ammunition pricing?

I'm debating between .380 and 9mm Luger for my next gun, and while I'm personally okay with the stopping power of .380 (that's a discussion for another day anyway), if it generally costs three times what 9mm Luger does, that's a deal-breaker for me.
 
I find .380 to *usually* be a little more than 9mm, but not that much. Obviously results vary by locality and type of ammo being purchased. On the other hand, I also don't often look for .380...
 
That is very high. I went to a gun show yesterday and bought FMJ reloads for $15.99 a box of 50. I shot a box through my Wife's SIG P238 , here at my farm range and it was very good. With many people carrying 380 for their CCW you would think the prices would be on par with 9mm.
 
$40 for a box of .380 is gouging....lots of ammunition has been in short supply and people have gotten used to "paying a little more" during the recent shortage. I think .380 is expensive because it is a caliber that is rising in popularity and has been extremely popular with concealed carry folks.

If I didn't reload I couldn't afford to shoot enough to maintain my skill level.

I juts picked up a coupe boxes of Winchester .380 for $21 a box yesterday locally but generally if I'm buying factory ammunition (and I have not for a few months now) I buy it online. I love this ammo search engine - find what I want and compare prices.

http://findmeammo.com/

Good luck!

VooDoo
 
380 has been higher than 9mm for as long as I can remember and harder to find. I have 2 .380s but shoot them very little although I have accumulated some components to reload but don't have the die set yet.
If I was looking for something just to shoot for fun, it'd be a 9mm. If you want something for good concealment, then a .380 is a good choice. My wife's instructor refers to them as "get off me guns" and for that purpose they will get the job done.
 
For some of the "premium-SD" stuff, yeah, it could be that much. Stuff like Hornady Critical Defense or whatever.

WWB stuff or Remington-UMC goes for, around here, about $23 for fifty, and $40 for a hundred.
 
It may be that the box of .380 ammunition you looked at was loaded with hollow-point bullets rather then the usual full jacketed kind. If not, the price was way too high but these are not normal times.

If you are thinking of doing a lot of shooting with either 9mm or .380, consider reloading your own ammunition.
 
Yep 380 is more expensive than 9mm, shouldn't be by a whole lot thou...
 
When I got my first .380 in 2003 I paid $8.99 a box for UMC, back then it would be a buck more than 9mm since then the world has gone crazy and I've paid as much as $26.00 a box for WWB but no way in hell would I pay $40.00 unless it's premium ammo.
 
That price sounds way too high for .380, especially when I can find it at Walmart for nearly half that price. A number of years back .380 was in very short supply and it was all too common to see it selling for $50 for a 50 round box at the gun shows. But that was some time ago and .380 ammo is back on the shelves at fairly decent prices.
 
Thanks everyone! I don't mind paying, say, a 20% premium over 9mm Luger (I already do that with my 45); I just wanted to make sure that if I bought a .380 I didn't end up routinely paying a 200% premium for ammo over 9mm Luger.
 
I recentl bought an Israeli police surplus Beretta 84F in 380, so I have been buying some 380 ammo.
My LGS charges $19.99 for any one of three choices in factory FMJ...and wants $20 for 20 Speer Gold Dot JHP's.
My Walmart had the WWB FMJ 100rd "value pack" for $38.
 
Most 380 I have bought has always been more expensive than 9mm.
However as much as I would like not to believe I think the day of $10.50 9mm that I bought in quantity in 11/2012 is over.
I also bought some S&B 380 at the same time for $12.99 a box.
So there you have it even before the infamous Sandy Hook scenario came into play .380 was always more expensive than 9mm.
Right after Sandy Hook I bought a case (1000 rounds) of 380 for $290.

Also,but so was .38 Special which was always more expensive than .380 whenever I was buying it.
 
380 was double the price of 9mm, even before last year. That's too bad. It's a fun round.

Someone told me that there's a company called Ammo labs that does reloads. Maybe it's worth trying.
 
Are you comparing apples to apples - that is a high-priced uber-load of 380 to the same in 9 or are you comparing a box WWB 9mm to the uber-load of 38?. 380 costs more because of sheer manufacturing volume differences.
 
Are you comparing apples to apples - that is a high-priced uber-load of 380 to the same in 9 or are you comparing a box WWB 9mm to the uber-load of 38?. 380 costs more because of sheer manufacturing volume differences.
Click to expand...

I looked back, and you're right. The vendor was all out of inexpensive FMJ .380, so the cheapest stuff per round was all either "match-grade" or "defensive." The same vendor has some cheap Blazer FMJ in 9mm Luger. So when I compared "best price per round" for 9mm and "best price per round for .380," it wasn't an apples-to-apples comparison because they were out of stock of all but the high-end .380.
 
Just to make your choice more difficult.

A friend and I have the same model and caliber. He chooses JHP and I use FMJ. He wants expansion whereas I want penetration. Simply put all handguns are poor stoppers and there are simply too many differences in the human body to make blanket statements.

I feel very comfortable with carrying FMJ in addition to the mentioned greater penetration it is very controlable for follow up shots (you are shooting until the threat ends right)?

And since cost of ammo is a big factor for you 380 FMJ are made by a lot of manufacturers and is affordable.
 
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Last / best price I paid for "quality" 380 ball was $14.97 / box of 50 TulAmmo BrassMAXX @ Walmart - this was a couple of weeks ago.

I understand BrassMAXX is made by Fiocchi - all in boxes I've bought has been made in Italy - the 100-rd. cans of 9mm ($22.97) are made in Bosnia / Herzegovina.

For some reason BrassMAXX 45 and 40 S&W prices don't seem that good.
Their 380 and 223 ($16.97 / 50) seem to be below "normal" these days?

I guess Walmart is having so much trouble getting ammo from domestic suppliers that they have started importing a fair amount of BrassMAXX?

The times I've run across it on their shelves, they seem to get much larger loads at a time than domestic ammo. I actually had one employee sell me more than the 3-box limit of 223 since he had so much and it wasn't flying off the shelf - he told me he was told to "use his discretion" AFA the 3-box ammo limit.
 
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