Reloading is about to get more expensive???

[East_TN_Patriot]

Just looked at Widener's and saw this notice:

NOTICE:

Large price increases for all ammunition and components are coming in April and May 2011. Record high costs of primary metals such as lead and copper are cited as part of the reason.

Man, I sure hope this isn't true...

[Guest nicemac]

Just looked at Widener's and saw this notice:

NOTICE:

Large price increases for all ammunition and components are coming in April and May 2011. Record high costs of primary metals such as lead and copper are cited as part of the reason.

Man, I sure hope this isn't true...

I had some 55g .224 bullets in my shopping cart at Midway yesterday. They were $52 for 1000. I left, came back a few minutes later and got a popup warning that the price had increased to $58.

[creeky]

Sounds like I need to hurry and get my order in.

[Guest friesepferd]

yep, iv heard from multiple places that ammo is going up.

quick, everyone run to the store and buy all they have so that your neighbor doesnt get any!

[LngRngShtr]

here we go again,....

every year or two the market "corrects" taking into account the effect of increase in raw materials and even gas to ship the product,..powder plant blowing up, UPS/FedEx rates and regulations.. which by law of business gets passed on to the consumer..

I used to buy my lead bullets locally at a match for $55.00 a thousand (1992) years go by and price of lead goes up, I moved I have to get them shipped and it costs me $78-80.00 a thousand still cheaper than factory ammo,.. powder seems stable and in most places primers have come down a bit...

in the end it is still a cheap hobby,.. take a look at car racing or offroading or if your brave sailboat racing( I used to make the sails they use,.. even the scraps were expensive)

I hear tell of a fellow in Memphis that casts bullets and shows up at the local matches,... no shipping so I might have to head down that way on a "supply run" a few thousand bullets and the gas money would be less than shipping charges..

for .223 bullets ask a 3 gun shooter,..they burn hellacious amounts of ammo

keep in mind,..supply and demand,..we keep buying because of fear not need they keep upping prices...

most consumerism is driven by fear,.. look at some of the stuff they sell these days and you wonder who would buy the stuff,..then look at their consumer base and see "the fear...."

fear they won't fit in with their peers ( keeping up with the Joneses)

fear they will develop some mysterious ailment ( Activia Yogurt ,..psst look up any yougurt with active cultures,..make your own for pennies ) c'mon Bifidus Regularis ??

fear that they will look their age and folks think them old, ( hair and skin products to hide something or other) seen also as fitting in with peers...

fear that something bad will happen if they don't have, or have enough of a product...

fear,.. just ask yourself why your going to do the next thing your going to do when buying something...

A wise man once said we are all running,.. either to something ( Love) or away from something ( fear ) and it drives about 98% of our decisions....

why are you running ?

Edited April 6, 2011 by LngRngShtr

[Jonnin]

The price of gas (shipping) is rapidly outdoing the price of copper, but both are high enough to make ammo prices go up somewhat. Its nothing to panic over, but expect to pay more each year, just as you pay more for gas, food, and everything else every year. Ammo is nothing special that can ignore the inflation and other factors, as every other item we buy goes up, ammo will be right there doing the same things that other goods are doing. No need to panic, but as the stuff keeps, if you have extra money, buy some up to save money long term isnt a bad plan.

[I_Like_Pie]

There is still a lot of unnatural and irrational markup in prices of ammo and components.

Look at the difference in the price of loaded 38 special vs 357 magnum

....or .30/30 Winchester vs .30/06

There is a 75% price difference in the price despite a practically nill amount of difference in the materials between the two.

There are similar discrepancies in component prices. I am sorry, but primers are stupid cheap to make and saying that material prices are driving the cost of 1000 primers from $25 to $35....they are lying to you.

It is still largely supply and demand.

[Jonnin]

There is still a lot of unnatural and irrational markup in prices of ammo and components.

Look at the difference in the price of loaded 38 special vs 357 magnum

....or .30/30 Winchester vs .30/06

There is a 75% price difference in the price despite a practically nill amount of difference in the materials between the two.

There are similar discrepancies in component prices. I am sorry, but primers are stupid cheap to make and saying that material prices are driving the cost of 1000 primers from $25 to $35....they are lying to you.

It is still largely supply and demand.

Supply and demand is perfectly natural, IMO. I was referring to same caliber inflation (9mm was $10 a box, now its $13, for example) though.

Primer prices is certainly not driven by the materials. Possibly insurance or hazard or other things (including greed, but not the materials. Copper and gas/shipping are the materials that are going up in cost, and maybe lead to a smaller extent.

If you think about it we can make a box of 380 ammo for under $5 a box and that is paying profits and taxes and fees and so forth, at retail prices. So a manufacurer can make it for $3 or less per box, probably. It sells for $18 a box, thats huge. Supply and demand, coupled by the willingness of people to pay, is behind that sort of markup --- as you said. They are, essentially, out to get rich and people are willing to pay the price, so prices remain high. They justify any increases in price off the tiny increases in raw materials value, but in the end, its driven by profits of course.

Edited April 6, 2011 by Jonnin

[Guest nicemac]

I have no problem with people charging what the market will bear.

Example: If you (nobody in particular) were gifted a new iPad and didn't need/want it, wouldn't you sell it for somewhere near the new price (say $450)? You certainly wouldn't sell it for $50 just because you had no investment in it…

Whatever the market will bear is why gas prices continue to rise. There is no incentive to reduce prices until sales slow down or stop.

[ttocswob]

In other news, the sky is blue...water is wet...and I bought 4k primers after reading ATK's notice about a month ago...and another 2k this weekend.

Should be set for a little while...not to mention broke!

[creeky]

I have empty boxes of .357 sig speer lawman on my reloading shelf.

The sticker price? $11.97, (bought back in 2000)

The cheapest I can buy a box now off the shelf is $24 bucks at wal-mart.

All prices rise... my only problem is over the past three years my pay has not been rising at the same rate.

One reason I am reloading stuff again.

[dlm37015]

i havent noticed a large price increase in reloading supplies as much as higher prices for freight but if you put a price increase of 5-8% along with a freight rate 20%higher something has to happen. i havent had a powder hike in several years until this month it is because of energy cost .last year it cost about 75.00 for me to drive to knoxville and back for a gunshow now its about 135.00.promer prices have been climbing for some time now 5cents here 25 cents there i was at tulsa last week and it was a buying frenzy on ammo and reloading .no one seems to know where its going but in my case i havent raised my prices as of yet i hope it will change for the better

[dlm37015]

There are similar discrepancies in component prices. I am sorry, but primers are stupid cheap to make and saying that material prices are driving the cost of 1000 primers from $25 to $35....they are lying to you.

no primers are not easy to make not cheap either i have been to the cci factory i would not do it it is not material cost as much as energy cost the shipping on primers is a large part of their cost and i dont mean the haz-mat racket ups and fedx use the freight class was changed from 1.4 to 1.1 that is the biggest reason imo

[I_Like_Pie]

no primers are not easy to make not cheap either

Despite the fancy machinery that allows for mass production and hazardous materials....I beg to differ. The cost is from overhead as you have stated. They are not losing money.

[dlm37015]

they still make primers mostly by hand some of it is automated but not all i never said there losing money most of the primers made in this country are made by atk a multnational company .they seem to be moving more of there production offshore depends on who you buy them from i guess i still sell them for what i did before obama

[dlm37015]

want to know whats realy scary powder production only 2 powder plants in usa st marks in fl and atk in va most of atk production goes to lake city.imr is in ca. all other powder comes from overseas i have been stocking up for years .osha has made the production very hard in this country if you reload stock up while you can if it turns out that it will get easy to get then what the heck you can still use it if not it will be priceless

[I_Like_Pie]

Yes...this is true. Things are not going to get cheaper, but they aren't going to get any easier to find either.

[dlm37015]

come to a knoxville gun show soon i still sell cci primers small pisto; for 99.00 and have 2 or 3 more reloading kits to give away as i feel like if we do not pass shooting and reloading along we will lose it soon if you know some one that needs a reloading kit have them come see me its free i dont have many left and will have to make some more extra money but everyone that shoots should at least have the stuff basic stuff to reload with some of us have more than we need so lets pass it on i have been doing it for several years now

[I_Like_Pie]

come to a knoxville gun show soon i still sell cci primers small pisto; for 99.00 and have 2 or 3 more reloading kits to give away as i feel like if we do not pass shooting and reloading along we will lose it soon if you know some one that needs a reloading kit have them come

If there is someone in Knoxville on the bench about reloading. They need to take you up on this.

I echo this....

If there is someone in Chattanooga wanting to learn the strings of reloading. I don't have any kits to give away, but I do have a very well equipped reloading room and 20+ years experience reloading. Am also considering setting up a couple of training classes at CRC in the next year or so. PM me and some rainy day I can show anyone in the area how simple and rewarding it is to load your own ammo.

[Tooreal]

Today I was in a gun-shop in Mt Juliet, Tn. and overheard the owner talking to another man that owns a gun shop in Nashville. The Nashville owner was telling the other guy there was going to be a really big jump on the price of copper because so much has been shipped overseas. Along with the military needing a lot of it to fight the (Not Wars) that we have been in for so many YEARS now!!! He said you could expect to see a pretty good jump around Mid April or the 1st of May... I wish now that I would have picked up a lot more riffle brass before I left that store...

[Guest Ken45]

A couple of months ago I bought the first primers and powder that I've bought in a dozen years. Maybe I ought to buy some more

If bullet prices really go up, I may go back to casting my own. I have about 500# of wheel weights in the barn.

[dlm37015]

in knoxville i just spoke with stan widner stuff is going up he is set up at the show

[SpacemanSpiff]

Fortunately, I'm covered with primers for a while. Bought 5000 not too long ago.

Guess I'll need to get an order in for some 9mm really soon.

[Magiccarpetrides]

this should come as no surprise as fuel costs and metals have been steadily going up....everything else....ammo-groceries will too.

[Grunt67]

this should come as no surprise as fuel costs and metals have been steadily going up....everything else....ammo-groceries will too.

You're right, gas prices are expected to hit $4 / gal by Memorial Day, which will be

no surprise. Not far from there now. It's going to trickle down to everything else.

Wouldn't suggest you grab every component you can lay hands on ( we've been

there before), but if you need something, or in the near future, might want to pick

up a few.

May get another can of HS-6 & some Hornady 40 S&W bullets. That's about it.

Good shape on primers.