According to my local gunshop, he was told by his suppliers, that the price of Manufactured ammo is going to be taking ANOTHER 25% across the board price increase within the next few weeks.. just in time for hunting season of course....

I am sure all of you non handloaders will appreciate that!!!!

This stuff is getting ridiculous!!!!!

Ammo companies are getting jealous of Big Oil!!!!

Hello,
Components for reloaders are all increasing in price as well. Copper costs high, metals in general, transportation costs, plus demand all make for increase cost/price structure. Contrary to what some would have us believe, we as a nation are at WAR and will be for sometime to come, so doubt we will see any drop or improvement in pricing for quite a while. Reloading will only become more popular. The Dillon folks are probably doing quite well these days and deserve every bit of their success.

interesting article in the weekend paper about the ammunition boom. Lake City had quadrupled their output to one-point-four-BILLION rounds of 223 and 308 there over the last 18 months.
Metal prices used in mfg brass and bullets have gone thru the roof. One of the two tire shops I get WW from for casting has doubled the price they charge for WW. They said some outfit came thru and offered them twice what they were getting, and promised to have the truck come by every friday and buy every WW they had. Even had a scale in the truck and special buckets to use. The owners and our family have gone to the same church since about 1985. I asked where the love was, and he said "I am going to let you match their price and keep getting them from me...". Two weeks earlier I had paid him his asking price of 20-cents a pound and he was happy to put the $$ in his pocket.

The article ended with a suggestion that this was a classic case of "...making hay while the sun shines..." since the war in Iraq would spool down over the next year and that there would be a substantial market correction...which would lead to a recession of sorts (with the ripple effect) and have a serious effect on the elections. Great!

Rich
DRSS

Metal prices always go nuts with the demand from a war zone. Add to that the Chinese demand for their exploding economy (the equivalent of 4 Manhattens every year), and the stuff we use goes up and up. I recently sold a couple of junk cars for 250 each. They weren't even complete.

quote:

Originally posted by dsiteman: so doubt we will see any drop or improvement in pricing for quite a while.

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I doubt we will ever see any drop or improvement in pricing.

Hello Craigster,
Always remember that nothing is forever, never say never, and only thing constant is change.
You are correct that the most likely thing not to change is the ever increasing price of ammo and components. Some 8-10 years ago, while actively shooting, really gathered a lot of LC brass for both 223 and LC Match 308 and bought WC846 surplus powder not by the jug, but by the drum! Four of us would split the cost of the powder and we were paying the "princely sum..." of 6.00 per pound. Not the best, but does pretty good job and still have more than I probably should have. CMP dumped a bunch of LC173 bullets, new LC Match 308 brass few years ago and buddy and I bought all they had so I am set for the forseeable future.

Considering all the "improvements" made to the US millitary during the last Clinton presidency I don't think anyone would blame them for stocking up while the opportunity exists...

Take it over to the political forum and I'll cut you up on this issue.

Back almost eight years ago I bought 12 and 20 Ga ammo for dove hunting from Wallyworld at $29.95 a case! Today they are $41.15 a case.....this is a $37% increase over eight years or 4.6% a year.

Many years prior to that (say thirty or so) the same equivalent ammo was still about $30 a case.

I believe copper intensive rounds have increased faster due to the increased usage of copper and this includes the hoarding of 1/4 million tons of "state branded" quarters sitting in millions of homes for collections of every state hoping to be valuable some day.....gifts for grand kids etc! It's also the result of global use of copper increasing....largely in China but many other countries as well.

IMO reloading is going to be an increasing hobby as it's main value is the recycling of the brass (largely copper) casing!

quote:

Originally posted by wymple:
Metal prices always go nuts with the demand from a war zone. Add to that the Chinese demand for their exploding economy (the equivalent of 4 Manhattens every year), and the stuff we use goes up and up. I recently sold a couple of junk cars for 250 each. They weren't even complete.

Earlier this year junk cars peaked at $0.095/lb

I believe the price now is more like $0.075/lb And a typical midsize car weighs right around 3000lbs, so yeah, $250 is about right...

Oddly the steel isn't going to china like the copper and stainless steel are, (weirdly stainless steel is worth more than aluminum at the moment) the steel is going to egypt of all places.

I've heard that the egyptians have an enormous need for steel Re-bar for their own hydro-electric project.

BTW, China buying every ounce of copper they can get their hands on is what has driven the price into the stratusphere, most of it is going into generator windings at the hydro-power plants associated with the three gorges dam project.

The stainless steel is mostly going into mass produced consumer goods.

"war demands" for copper to make bullets and brass are by comparison nearly insignificant.

the ultimate form of recycling has been the simple re-use of an item like rifle brass or returnable bottles, I say ultimate because only a minimal ammount of energy is required to return it to use.

AD

quote:

I recently sold a couple of junk cars for 250 each. They weren't even complete.

Back in March I took advantage of the high scrap price and sold two Ford pickup bodies. They were completely stripped down mechanically, all that was left was the sheet metal and frames and I got over $400 out of the two. I beleive the price I got was $165 a ton for them. The salvage yards around here are crushing like crazy because it hardly pays to strip the cars and have a huge inventory of parts laying around waiting to sell.
I started stocking up last year because I knew things weren't going to get any cheaper. Currently I have about 20,000 bullets for my pistol loads, about 500 rifle bullets, 1,500 rounds of 7.62x39 for my SKS and AK, and about 30,000 rounds of .22 rimfire.