Ballseye's Gun Shots 46 - The Cost of Ammunition - It Baffles Me

Not all that long ago, I bought a case of 7.62x39 at a good price as compared to the prices over the year before the purchase. I was happy, I thought that even though it was still pretty expensive the fact that the price had come down was an indication to me that all ammo prices would be falling soon. I guesses that because oil prices had fallen, then ammo prices would fall too; you may remember that most raises in ammo pricing was said to be due to the increase in the cost of oil (i.e.: as in the cost of gasoline being used to transport it). I am no longer too certain of that, in fact I doubt my earlier assessment was even close to the mark.

The reason I am so doubtful that ammo prices will soon be falling is because ammo prices seem to be stagnant for some types of ammo, going up higher than ever for some other types of ammunition and because other types are just not available. The particular thing that brought this to my attention was that I have been finding it next to impossible to find .35 Remington 200 gr. soft-points at a reasonable price. The SportsmansGuide.com actually has this round from one manufacturer - Remington. They are going for $29.37 a box of 20 rounds, - plus shipping. This is up from the $22 - $24.00 per box that the same company was charging only a few months ago as I recall. It is also well above a 100 percent increase in price for the same type of ammo when I bought it just under 2 years ago for $13.97 per box, see here. That ammo was by Winchester, but was the same grain weight and usually sells within a buck or two either way of the Remington ammo. Folks let me repeat, that was less than 2 years ago! That is an amazing price increase, almost a 114% increase!

Now add that price increase to the fact that a place like SportsmansGuide.com also usually offers about 5 or 6 choices of ammo in that same caliber differing either by brand and or by grain weight (150 and 200 grains are typically available). If you go to the link for the available .35 Remington they have as of this writing, you will see they have only two types including the highly overpriced one, in my opinion, that I mentioned above. I went to some other sites to such as CheaperThanDirt.com, Natchez Shooters Supply. Cheaper Than Dirt offers 5 types of .35 Remington broken down to offerings from 4 manufacturers in 200 gr. and one offering from one of those same manufacturers in 150 gr. Only the 150 gr. (the less popular one as far as I am aware) is available from them. Natchez Shooter Supply also offers 4 brands in 200 gr. and one of those brands in 150 gr. They have the Hornady LeverEvolution at 22.24 per box, all the others are sold out. A few other websites had similar offerings or none at all in stock when it came to .35 Remington.

A quick check of several other websites who offer ammo for sale revealed that other even more popular ammo is also out of stock for the most part. Lots of them advertise 7.62x39 but are out of stock on most of the types they offer. AIM Surplus offers three types of 7.62x39 ammo on their current site (at the time I wrote this). They show two offerings of 500 round half cases and both of them are out of stock. Individual boxes of 20 rounds per box are available in Wolf at $4.59 per box or $4.39 per box if you buy 50 or more (50 boxes would make for a case of 1,000 rounds). That would be $219.50 plus shipping for a thousand rounds; actually a good price by today's pricing. While that is a good price, I have to wonder though, do they actually have 1,000 rounds in stock and how much it would come to with shipping. Usually places like AM offer a few types of Wolf in that same caliber. The one currently offered is in FMJ only.

Ammoman.com also offers Wolf 7.62x39 ammo here. They also offer it at a decent price as far as current pricing goes. They offer it in FMJ at $239.00 and in JHP at $259.00, shipping included for both. They do not offer soft points nor in other grain weights which used to be readily available. As a matter of fact, I did not see the grain weight of the bullets mentioned anywhere for this particular ammo. hey also offer some Egyptian made ammo in this caliber but it uses corrosive primers as I understand it. They have 10 other types of 7.62x39 ammo listed on their site, but it is all out of stock as I write.

Classic Arms offers the Wolf 7.62x39 at $289.00 per case in both the FMJ and Soft-Point. I do not know if it includes shipping. Regardless, it is not a good price in my opinion. They also have some other ammo in this caliber, but it too is listed as corrosive. Corrosive ammo is not for me but if you like it, it looks to be a decent deal at $249.95 for a case of 1,260 rounds of brass cased ammunition. Again though, note the primers are corrosive.

There are other examples of high priced ammo that I have seen lately. For instance I visited Big 5 Sporting Goods here in Phoenix. They had .32 ACP FMJ in 50 round boxes going for just over $32.00 per box! Maybe it was the wrong price, the clerk said it was not, but that is an insanely high price as I see it. I checked Internet pricing for the same ammo, it was offered by SportsmansGuide.com at $33.97 per box of 50 rounds. Granted that SportsmansGuide.com also had several other types and brands of .32 Auto available and some of the prices, at less than half of the above, were much more reasonable for what amounts to basically the same ammo. I don't get it though because no regular .32 Auto is, in my estimation, worth anywhere near $34.00 per box, including Remington green boxed ammo which is the one going for nearly that amount. Even Magtech 65 gr. FMJ in .32 auto was high priced at $12.87 per box, although I will admit this is much closer to what the price for such ammo should be to be considered decently priced in my mind. Just about 2 years ago I was getting it for about $8.00 to $9.00 per box.

Sticking with .32 Auto, I took a look to CheaperThanDirt.com. They offer ten types of .32 auto but only show one available as I write. The one they offer is a specialty ammo so maybe I should not even bother mentioning that it costs $13.39 for only 8 rounds! By the way, I went back and checked availability on SportsmansGuide.com because I forgot to do so. Of the 24 types of .32 Auto (also called .32 ACP) on the page for SportsmansGuide.com, they only had 4 types listed as in stock!

Other ammo is also very high priced as compared to a couple of years ago. back then I could pick up a brick of .22LR ammunition form less than $10 and there were a variety of brands available at that price. Yesterday, at the Cross Roads of the West Gun Show in Phoenix, AZ, I saw a brick of CCI Blazer in .22LR selling for $22.00 and a brick of American Eagle going for $19.99. Those prices are ridiculous, well at least in my estimation. I don't know the cause of the price increases. Fist they said it was due to the cost of gasoline, then they said it was due to the cost of everything going up because the cost of gasoline went up. Gas prices have fallen quite a bit but not most ammo prices. Then they said it was due to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the shortages of materials to make ammo because of military contracts. Yet 7.62x39 is again available, if not as much as before it is out there, and it would be one of the most used by foreign military groups. Then they laid blame on the anticipated buying frenzy that most of us predicted would take place if Barack Obama was elected president. The buying rage took place for sure. maybe it is a combination of all three things, maybe other things added in too. The thing is that the industry has had more than enough time to rebound from all of the above and probably should be able to keep it coming but for some reason it is not doing so. I wonder if the ammo shortages and high pricing is also due in part to our the fact that our productive capabilities are dwindling as we become closer and closer to becoming a 3rd world nation. maybe and maybe not, but whatever the reasons, it is of grave concern to me because it seems to be indicative of something not being right with the way things are going. Oh, one other thing - I don't think it is due to the recession - and yes we are still in a recession even if the current administration denies it. Just look to last months housing sales if you doubt we are in a recession. Despite a slow to poor economy and being in a recession, the fact is that when ammunition is available, sales of it remain brisk even at inflated prices. So it is not like they are not selling enough of it, heck maybe they are selling to much but somehow - what with our technology and capabilities I tend to doubt it - or just do not want to believe that our manufacturers cannot, for whatever reason, keep up with demand..

Please note, I am no trying to indicate in any way anything degrading about any of the above companies, be they ammunition retailers or manufacturers. I have used just about all of them for purchases before and will probably continue to do so. All I am saying is that prices are high compared to just 2 years ago, way higher, and even when some pricing seems good now the truth is that ammo is not as readily available as it was a year or two ago. I guess I am also saying that some if it still seems to be going up in price too such as the .35 Remington. I have to wonder when the increases in price are going to stop, when ammo prices will fall if ever) and when the availability of ammo will increase to what it was just a short time ago.

All the best,
Glenn B