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If you have spent any amount of time in your favorite gun shop lately, you've heard people exclaim, "I can't believe your ammo prices!" An-other refrain often heard is "Ammo prices are ridiculous!" In short, if you haven't purchased ammo since last summer, be prepared for sticker-shock. Most ammo prices have climbed about 20%-25% since July of 2007 and we're likely to see continued high prices for at least the rest of this year.
Pressure on Prices
Reasons for the price hikes seem to fall into four categories. First, as you're no doubt aware, fuel prices have skyrocketed. That cost is passed along in the finished product. Second, there is a larger demand worldwide for the raw materials - lead, brass and copper. In the last few years, China embarked on a massive building plan. They bought up not only the aforementioned raw materials, but also steel, concrete glass and other materials. Raw lead increased 32% between 2005 and 2006. By 2008, lead was 2.5 times more expensive than in 2006! No wonder every-one is crying over the price of ammo!
Third, there is still a high demand for specific cartridges by the U.S. military. This means priority is given to the production of military ammunition, which siphons off available materials from the civilian pipeline.
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The fourth reason most often heard is that the ammo companies are taking advantage of the demands to jack up the prices. However, the real problem facing you, the shooter, is how to keep shooting without spending money faster than a drunken congressman.
Reloading
Reloading your own ammo used to be the biggest way to save money. It still is, once you have the empty brass. Reloading saves you the cost of the brass case, one of the larger costs of ammo, next to the actual bullet. However, the cost of materials has sent prices of virgin brass, jacketed and even plain lead bullets skyward. The cost of full-metal-jacket (FMJ) ammo, most commonly used for range practice, has climbed but it still somewhat affordable if you shop around. Reloading larger caliber car-tridges like .45 Colt or .41 Magnum will save you considerable amounts of cash if you shoot frequently.
Ammo pricing
Most ammo companies produce a line of "generic" ammo for use at the range or for practice. This ammo most often uses FMJ bullets or round-nose lead bullets to allow you to make holes in targets. The brand names include Winchester/USA, Federal American Eagle and the Remington-UMC label. The folks at CCI-Speer make their aluminum-cased Blazer line, as well as Blazer Brass and their Lawman brand. These brands should be familiar to most shooters. These brands usually sell ammo in the traditional box of 50 cartridges.
The chart, Generic vs. Premium Ammo shows average prices for both generic and premium ammo as sold by our three vendors. You can see that generic ammo is much cheaper.
Most premium defensive ammo, such as Federal Hydra-Shok, Speer Gold Dot and Remington's Golden Saber are sold in smaller boxes of 20, or in the case of Remington, boxes of 25. You expect to pay a bit more for the better performance of defensive ammo too. The extra money goes into such things as better reliability, the latest JHP designs and the use of nickel-plated cases among others.
In a clever marketing move, ammunition manufacturers found it easier to sell their products in the smaller packages. For example, if you like Speer Gold Dot ammunition, would you pay $62.48 for a box of 50? Or, would you rather pay $24.99 for a box of 20 rounds? The price of the ammunition in the foregoing example is constant - about $1.25 per round. The only difference is in the quantity per box. However, you can sometimes still get that same ammo for just 58 cents per round.
Saving Money
The most effective cost savings would be to shoot less. However, pre-suming that's not on your agenda, reloading would be the next best thing. Recycling the brass into your own reloads saves material and cost. If you don't have time to reload, then shooting less expensive ammo, such as the "generics" like Winchester/USA or Federal American Eagle will save you money. If you shoot one of the dozen or so car-tridges available in the CCI/Speer Blazer aluminum ammo line you can save even more (Aluminum cases can not be reloaded).
If you like to practice with your carry load, do a little bit of research. Some generic ammo lines include +P ammo and/or ammo that uses older, less exotic JHP designs. Look for the same bullet weight at velocities that are close to your carry load. For example, Winchester makes a .38 Special 125-grain JHP in both their premium Silvertip line as well as their generic USA brand with identical velocities. Use the cheaper USA brand to do the bulk of your practicing with perhaps a few premium Sil-vertip rounds to see if there is a difference in actual point of impact. You might have to change brands, such as using an American Eagle (Federal) generic load to duplicate a the performance of a Speer load for example.
I frequently tell people to support their local gun shop by purchasing ammo locally. But, if you are looking for deals on several boxes to a case of ammo, buying from an on-line vendor may be much cheaper. For this article, I surveyed the on-line prices of three suppliers to show the average prices and look for good deals out there. The results are summarized in the chart titled Averaged Prices by Vendor.
One reason for the excellent price comparison at Ammunition To Go is that they offer premium ammo in 50-round boxes instead of 20-round boxes. This is mostly in the Federal Hydra-Shok and the excellent HST lines of defensive ammo, but includes a few types of Speer Gold Dots. As an example of the savings, a 20-round box of 9mm 124 grain Gold Dot JHP runs $19 to $20, while the Ammo To Go price for a 50-round box is $24.95. This amounts to savings of more than 50% over the smaller box!
Shipping Charges
Another consideration is that when you buy ammo online you need to include the shipping charges. When you buy from your local gun shop, they have included their cost of shipping into the price of the ammo. When researching on-line it's best to calculate the cost per box with the shipping included.
Shipping charges vary widely by vendor. In some cases, the shipping charges for a single box of ammo might be more than the cost of the charges for a single box of ammo might be more than the cost of the ammo! It pays to buy larger amounts of ammo if you can because the cost per box drops significantly.
The differences in shipping charges between the three vendors are shown in the chart Shipping Charges by Vendor. The chart shows charges for both a small (1-box) order as well as a 500-round order. The chart shows that a single box of ammo can cost over ten dollars to ship. Yet, shipping ten boxes is only thirty dollars or just three dollars per box.
You might also want to look at the vendor's location too. Shipping the ammo across the country may eat up any cost savings on a good deal. In some cases, by using a vendor closer to you, the lower shipping costs offset the slightly higher price-per-box of the ammo. Doing some re-search is key.
Group Buys
If you can't afford to buy cases of 500 or 1,000 rounds, work out a group-buy to some of your shooting buddies. If everyone is happy with the price for their ammo, shipping it all together to one address will usually result in lower per-box shipping costs. For example, it might cost you $24 to ship a single 500 round case of ammo, but only $60 to ship five cases. That can save you upwards of $30 per order or over a dollar per box.
Links
Ammunition To Go
Cheaper Than Dirt, Inc.
Midway USA
Natchez Shooting Supplies
Sportsman's Guide
CCI-Speer
Federal Cartridge
Remington Ammunition
Winchester Ammunition
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