We're being ripped off for ammo and components

[Dogjaw]

Most of us have been feeling the pain of bullet and brass increases lately. Well, the price increases are a rip off. Plain and simple. I'll explain how we're all being sucked in:
The price of copper & brass have doubled, so the price of bullets and brass have doubled. Sound right? It does on the surface.
Someone mentioned the price for a box of 50 Nosler 300 grain, .458 cal bullets rose in price from $28 to $55.
$28 per 50 - 300 gr bullets comes to 15000 grains, or 2.14 lbs of bullets, or $13 per pound (the cost of copper, lead, mfg, profits, etc).

The price of clean scrap copper is now around $3 per pound, which being double, means copper went up $1.50 per pound.

The new price is $25.70 per pound. We are being charged $11.20 per pound of bullets above the actual cost increase of copper. There should have been a $3.21 increase on that box of bullets, not a $27.00 gouging.

The shooting industry isn't the only one doing this as the price of corn raised the cost of corn tortias 2.7 cents per pound, but the retail price went up 22 cents per pound.

 

[NCHornet]

Complain all you want, but what can you do about it? Nothing, Just like the price of gas, it is what it is. You can always collect wheel weights from your local tire shop and make your own bullets. I did this for a couple years, but don't shoot much lead anymore, but het at least I shot free bullets.

 

[OBIWAN]

When companies raise prices they often use that opportunity to capture other increases like transportation, energy, etc.

Welcome to Economics 101...today we will discuss supply and demand

 

[Number 6]

Specious analysis

The OP's tirade fixates on the cost of copper. That is merely one component in the raw materials; further, it wholly ignores energy costs required to produce and transport the product.

China is consuming raw materials, particularly oil and metals, at the same voracious rate we are. Competition means higher prices for those who can supply that market.

We are paying for a number of price increases. The OP needs to get a grip on world commodity prices.

 

[deadin]

Dogjaw,

Please, please, please go into the ammo component business and charge what you consider a "fair" price. The rest of us will beat a path to your door.

 

[Ian2005]

I noticed this the other day when I was looking at MidwayUSA on their Black Hills .308 168gr Match ammunition. I bought 500 rounds for $376 five months ago, currently it sells for $449. That’s quite an appreciation. :barf:

Maybe when the war's over, we can have our cheap ammo back.

 

[Jseime]

Yeah theyre charging more than they need to but look at what is going on in the world. China, India and other countries are booming and theyre apetite for our steel and oil has gone through the roof. Why do you think the tar sands at Fort MacMurray are booming so much...cash infusions from China.

Unless we are all going to stop shooting we will just have to take the price rises on the fly and live with it. Shoot .22lr instead of .223.

 

[Csspecs]

I don't know about the rest of you but politics have me a tad nervous, so I have been buying a few years worth of ammo in the last few months.

I have been buying much more shooting gear in the last few months then I ever have. So I can see demand pushing prices higher.

 

[FirstFreedom]

Unless there is collusion among the ammo makers, then supply and demand will correct any attempt by any individual makers to gouge out of proportion to component costs. Are you alleging collusion among HornFedRemChester, etc.? If so, what proof? If not, then the allegation is incorrect.

 

[Dogjaw]

Simply do the math fellas. This games been played before. A 4 cent tax hike on gasoline in Michigan netted an 8 cent price hike at the pump back when prices were stable. Bread used to cost 50 cents a loaf, until the price of wheat went up one fall harvest in the 70's. A loaf of bread went to a buck in a matter of weeks. The actual cost for that expensive wheat per loaf? 3 cents. Somebody's going to come in and chop these guys at the knees, and it'll unfortunately be another foreign company.

 

[sasquatch]

Dogjaw

Read OBIWAN's post again.

 

[waynedm]

Haha. This is as bad as the people that complain about the gas prices. Create a demand and they'll supply the price.

 

[Dogjaw]

Yep, and my first contribution to the cause is Nosler. There's obviously not going to be a hill of beans difference to Nosler, but I feel better already.
And I don't burn Citgo gas either, and wouldn't if they gave it away.

 

[Jseime]

Foreign countries can supply a better product at a better price... makes you think dont it.

What is going on wrong that a Toyota truck lasts longer, is more stylish and now has more power and towing capacity than a Ford... How come browning guns are made in Japan... Why are Yamahas better sleds than Arctic Cat and why is a Honda quad better than a Polaris.

North America needs to step back take a good look and get our hands out of our pockets and get to work or we will be the "developing countries". If everyone had seen this coming 20 years ago and done something about it American products could compete with the Japanese and the Europeans.

The way it looks now my next truck could be a Toyota and the sled and the quad I buy may very well be Yamahas.

 

[Webleymkv]

What is going on wrong that a Toyota truck lasts longer, is more stylish and now has more power and towing capacity than a Ford

to muddy the waters a bit, Toyota trucks are made in Indiana. Last I heard, the American auto makers are doing a lot of production work in Mexico. Hmmm, maybe I'm better supporting the American worker by buying a Toyota. Really, the foreign competition is a very American concept. We have a free market economy and a free market economy is kept healthy by competition. If the US auto makers hadn't been asleep at the wheel (pardon the pun) back in the 60's and 70's the Japanese wouldn't have gotten such a foothold. But, so many years without competition had made them complacent and the Japanese were able to produce a superior product. As far as Guns and ammuniton, I own S&W, Ruger, CZ, Walther, FN, H&R, Marlin,and Sears & Roebuck branded firearms as well as brandless military surplus arms from Romania, Italy, Switzerland, and Yugoslavia. I shoot Winchester, Remington, Federal, Cor-Bon, Sellier&Belloit, Fiocchi, and whatever 76.2x39 ammo is the cheapest. I buy the superior product regardless of where it's made. BTW, I drive a 1987 BMW 325iS.

 

[Cheese]

http://www.proliberty.com/observer/20060204.htm

"The official estimated number of insurgents in Iraq has been 20,000. According to reports of the Government Accounting Office (GAO), by September the U.S. military had used up 1.8 billion rounds of small caliber ammunition in Iraq.

That means "U.S. troops have fired 90,000 rounds at each insurgent,’ states Roberts matter-of-factly. ‘Very few have been hit. If 2,000 insurgents have been killed, each death required 900,000 rounds of ammunition." "

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That sort of thing tends to drive up prices. I guess you just can't compete with the troops Dogjaw.

 

[skeeter1]

Shoot .22lr instead of .223.

Yes, I couldn't agree more. I have several .22s, and bought another one this past summer. I've got several pieces of larger iron, but for the time being, I'm hoarding the ammo for them. The rising ammo prices have renewed my interest in .22s, and they're great fun for punching holes in paper, tin cans, or small critters. I'll still keep the .38Spl+P next to the bed for HD. For the most part, however, I'm enjoying back into shooting .22s.

 

[kjm]

I don't have a problem with increased prices. About 8 years ago (maybe less) I joined this forum, earning about 8.00 an hour. Since that time, my salary has nearly doubled twice. My standard of living has gone up, and the products I use have become better. This might start a flame war, but I bought a CZ .22 and I must say it is the best .22 out there for a reasonable price.

I finally bought a Ford after driving 15 years of Toyota's. My pistol is made in Switzerland, my rifles are mostly US military surplus from the CMP and life keeps chugging along. This economy is scorching and though the jobs out there have changed and in 20 years, what I do now will be outdated, there will be new jobs.

I think folks make a mistake in believing that just because the manufacturing sector sucks now must mean that the economy and country are going to hell. We have surpassed all known civilizations in standard of living and it keeps going up. I'll pay the extra for ammo, and thank God I am an American!

 

[Cheese]

Careful not to delve too far into world economics or you might not stay that happy. Ignorance is bliss.

 

[CALNRA]

http://www.proliberty.com/observer/20060204.htm

"The official estimated number of insurgents in Iraq has been 20,000. According to reports of the Government Accounting Office (GAO), by September the U.S. military had used up 1.8 billion rounds of small caliber ammunition in Iraq.

That means "U.S. troops have fired 90,000 rounds at each insurgent,’ states Roberts matter-of-factly. ‘Very few have been hit. If 2,000 insurgents have been killed, each death required 900,000 rounds of ammunition." "

, I don't believe that we killed less insurgents than American casualties, no way no how.