Oh happy days, it seems that the indications are that prices for ammunition may be falling. "What indications are those?" say you. I answer: "The current retail prices are indications enough for me'. Let's take a look at some of them:
AmmoMan.com has Wolf 7.62x39 in either FMJ or JHP going at 1,000 rounds for $219.00 (including shipping). That is a pretty good price. I have not seen the price that low in awhile, it was certainly not that low when I last purchased it. If I remember right, my last purchase of a thousand rounds in this caliber was on August 1, 2009, almost exactly one year ago, and the price was $249.99 shipped from CenterfireSystems.com. They had the lowest price by quite a bit back then, AmmoMan had it for $279 shipped right around the same time and SportsmansGuide.com had it at about $314 back then. Back to today's price, the $219 shipped available at AmmoMan now is about a 12% price drop in a year as compared to the best price I could find back then. Not the greatest savings but certainly substantial. Had I waited until now to buy that thousand rounds, well I could have used the money I would have saved to buy a decent case of beer, something like Pilsner Urquell but who could have known when the price would come down some.
Other ammo prices also seem to be falling somewhat. Not all that long ago, the SportsmansGuide.com was offering Remington Core-Lokt in .35 Rem. at about $24.97 a box of 20 plus shipping. I just ordered 100 rounds of it (5 boxes), a few days ago, at a price of only $20.78 per box plus shipping. That is almost a 17% savings and I was sure to get in on it.
Ammunition To Go has CCI Blazer .22LR, 40gr. solid points, 5,000 rounds for $189.99. That is not as good as it should be but is not a bad price and i think it has come down a couple of dollars from what I saw a few months ago when I picked up 2,500 rounds for $111 from another dealer and that was the best price I could find for 2,500 rounds then. While there is often a discount when buying 5,ooo rounds as compared to 2,500, you can bet it is not near as much as a $32 difference in price between the two. So, yes I am sure it's price has come down too.
I also recently purchased 100 rounds of 8MM Mauser ammo. If I recall correctly Sellier & Bellot 8x57JS, 196 Gr. SPCE, was priced at $19.68 per box of 20 rounds at Natchez Shooters Supplies. It is now going for $18.49 per box. That is a savings of $5.95, or about 6%, for 100 rounds.
I also just bought a couple of 100 round boxes of CCI Mini Mag, .22LR, round nose ammo, standard velocity, for $6.79 a box at a dealer in PA. The least expensive I have seen this go for at a dealer, including at gun shows, over the past several months has been about $6.99 a box with it usually going for about $7.29 or more per box of 100 rounds. Again a decent savings percentage wise, about 5.5% from the lowest then til the lowest now.
So, it seems to me that ammunition prices are falling somewhat. This could be a result of recent Supreme Court decisions relative to the 2nd Amendment. Those decisions have made it much more difficult for the anti-gun crowd to enact further legislation baning guns and ammo. It has put the brakes on the Obama administration from doing so by way of legislation (though remember they will try by way of treaties made with other nations such as those in the UN). As a result, people who shoot may not be buying up as much ammo to hoard it as they obviously had been just a short while ago. If we vote the bums out of Congress this fall, we stand a chance that our liberties and rights will be strengthened and that prices such as those for ammo will fall even further once the fears of them denying us our rights have subsided in their absence. Of course, there can be other reasons that ammo prices have dropped but whatever the reason it appears to be a good thing and hopefully a downward trend in ammunition prices will lead to much more affordable ammo.
As for me, I would like to take further advantage of the lower prices but just paid my son's college tuition (half of it anyhow) with a credit card and have to get that paid off pronto. I also have a few medical bills still due from my surgery back at the end of may and need to get them paid off too. So it is not likely I will be buying a lot of ammo in the near future although I may not be able to resist if the prices fall even more in the near future and I have been squirreling away a bit of change and dollar bills now and then. Oh for the days of 1,000 rounds of Wolf 7.62x39 JHP ammo at $179 per thousand to come round again.
All the best,
Glenn B
