I often see people in the gun threads talking about the high cost of shooting these days, and always wondered just how much money they were talking about per round.
A typical gun cartridge is (I think) simply a brass cartridge casing, some primer/gunpowder, and a lead projectile. Why so expensive?
The price of brass has skyrocketed for numerous reasons. First among them is the increased usage of metals elsewhere (Cite), but also because we are using a lot of it to supply the army. As a result, ammunition prices have increased considerably over the past few years.
For example, when I started shooting, this box of ammunition cost $60, and has in fact increased $5 since I last bought from Bass about 6 weeks ago. I’ve seen prices much higher elsewhere.
One of the big trends at public ranges is what I term “brass vultures”. There are people that will come and collect all the brass they can find at the range, with no regard to safety and no hearing protection to speak of, without even asking permission. What I do to dissuade them is I pick up my own brass after every string, which is tedious, but if everybody did so they would go away.
God, do I wish they would go away. One person, while I was aiming downrange, actually went in front of the rest to pick up brass. Its value as a scrap metal is apparently worth risking their lives.
Lead isn’t cheap either, but my understanding is that the brass cost is what’s really driving prices.
Why don’t the range owners ban them?
Because they’re public ranges, governed by the PA Game Commission. They’re open to everybody, all you can do is tell them to stop. If they don’t, the wisest course of action is to pack up and leave. It’s a very unsuitable situation.
Is there a rule or something that you cannot be barred from public property? Or is it that the range is not staffed?
It’s not staffed. I have yet to see a warden come around while I’m shooting. The shooters are self-governing, and generally someone will default to range-safety monitor, making sure that everything is clear before anybody goes downrange and that nobody does anything stupid.
The least expensive ammo you can buy now is .22lr. You can get around 550 rounds from Wal-Mart for about $10 to $12. A lot of people I know are shooting .22 to get their practice in and then firing a few rounds with their preferred gun. The most expensive round I’m buying now is .45ACP. That is running me about $15 for a box of fifty. I used to go through three or four boxes in a range trip now I shoot the hell out of my .22 and then about fifty rounds of .45.
I’ve recently acquired an AR-15 and an AK-47. I haven’t shot them yet but I am not looking forward to what ammo is going to cost me for those two.
While the price of metals is rising, that doesn’t justify the outrageous price of todays manufactured ammunition. A cartridge for a 30-06 that will cost in the neighborhood of $2.00 each for a box of 20 to the obscene cost of $19.00 each for the [416 Rigby]416 Rigby](http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/product/standard-item.jsp?_DARGS=/cabelas/en/common/catalog/item-link.jsp_A&_DAV=froogle&id=0031554213256a&navCount=2&podId=0031554&parentId=&masterpathid=&navAction=push&catalogCode=XH&rid=&parentType=&indexId=cat20839&hasJS=true)
It is more about profits and sales. The little bit of extra metals and powders between the 2 cartridges is peanuts. Its about supply and demand.
One must reload or be Loaded in the pocket book to shoot some of the big rare guns.
If one has his brass saved and reloads, most cartridges would cost under a $1.00 and some under $0.50 to reload. And if they are loaded under max levels a case (brass) could last 20+ reloading. and then some cases can fail after 3-4 re loadings.
And before you get big ideas, Reloading for others is very dangerous, as is reloading itself if one isn’t well trained and equipped.
Can civilians buy caseless ammunition?
In their defense, Gbro, they have to tool up for their production run, the same as you do when you reload. They have to take a machine offline, tool it up, run some rounds, and check and test them before they can sell them to the public. Ammunition manufacturers have liability issues, so they have to be as careful as you are.
Naturally, the rarer calibers suffer in that regard. They’re not going to make a metric ton of the stuff for the 3 users in the United States that shoot that caliber (exaggerated, but not by much). I’ve had manufacturing jobs, and it takes just as much time to spin up for 200 products as it does for 200,000. That’s why it costs so much.
Probably not. Not because it’s regulated AFAIK, but simply there are no comercially available weapons designed to shoot caseless ammunition.
There is some plastic-case ammo though.
ETA - I googled just to be sure, and there is commercial gun (and ammo) after all. VEC-91 - and of course it’s available to civilians. Whodthunkit?
I am not sure anyone can buy caseless ammunition. The only firearm I know of (and admittedly, I haven’t really kept up with this stuff) that used caseless ammo was the H&K G11. I don’t think that it ever made it into production and I would expect that the ammo is no longer produced.
As noted, the brass isn’t what makes less commonly used calibers so expensive, it’s the fact that they have to spread the manufacturing cost across fewer units.
FWIW,
Rob
I wish someone would write that on the Moon for all to see, but nobody would believe we were talking to them in specific.
“Why are you charging $75 for this backbox? We only charge $5 for a standard one and this one is shorter.”
“And it would cost twice that if it were narrower, but I’m able to use standard endcaps. In low production numbers material costs are insignificant compared with setup time.”
Answering the title question:
.22 ammunition is the cheapest. You can generally buy a box of 500 rounds for $10 on sale. That’s $0.02 per round. If all you want to do is plink at some cans or targets, maybe shoot an occasional gopher or pest, you don’t need more than a .22.
The most expensive are the custom calibers. It seems like they come out with new ones almost monthly, so I won’t bother to list any of them, even though I have a stack of gun magazines about 10 feet behind me. They can go for several dollars a round, which is excessively frightening to me. The high cost of those is generally due to small batches, high margins and the infrequency of purchase. If you’re a dealer, you don’t necessarily want some wild-ass caliber of ammunition sitting on your store shelves for a year or more hoping that someone will eventually buy it.
.700 Nitro Express 5 rounds 382.99
For comparison, I can buy target-range grade ammo for my .40 semi Beretta at around $28.00 per hundred. Two years ago it was $18.00 per hundred.
This is the reason Og made gun shows. A little careful shopping and you can secure a year’s supply of ammo for substantially less than retail. Less than Wal-Mart, even. I’m still shooting .30-06 ammo I bought 10 years ago. Of course, I bought 1000 rounds, but still…
OH MY FUCKING GAWD!!! YOU MONSTER!!!
No one on this planet has the need to own 1,000 rounds of high power, armor piercing rifle ammunition! You should be raided by the ATF and imprisoned for life!!! Won’t someone think of the children!!!
Oh wait. I guess my being below 1,000 rounds of various pistol rounds is only due to my temporary poverty. Nevermind. Nothing to see here. Move along.
Properly stored ammo never really goes bad so that is a good point. I am 35 and have shot ammo from most of the 20th century wars and it all tends to work fine. You can leave ammo to your grand kids in your will if you want to.
The most expensive ammo is simply based on supply and demand. People invent all kinds of new cartridges and the guns to fire them all the time. Someone, somewhere has a beautiful custom made rifle that you cannot find cartridges for in any store and there is some man in, say, Indiana, has the last known batch made. Those cartridges are worth a lot to the man with the beautiful rifle but they aren’t any different from those for other rifles you can buy at Wal-Mart.
Funny story: Every few years or so, they will bust some guy for mopery and/or dopery. In the course of searching his house, they will find 10,000 rounds of ammunition!
All this means to me is that there was a sale at Turner’s. 