Ammo Cost

[gold40]

With lead shot @ $40/bag, I can now buy 12 or 20 gauge promo ammo for less than the cost of my reloads.

Reloads cost about $4.70/box for components. Some stores still have promo loads for $40 to $44 per case. I just bought 10 cases, and then cleaned out my MEC 8625 reloader.

If you shoot many clay birds with a 12 or 20, its probably a good time to stock up on promo loads. My local gunshop owner tells me his next big order will cost him $52 per case.

It is still cheaper to reload the other small gauges.

[fabsroman]

$40 a bag for lead, that is insane. I wish my mutual funds grew like that. When I started shooting 15 years ago, lead was $15 a bag, if that. It might have just gone up to $15 a bag back then.

Good thing I have a couple of bags of the stuff laying around still.

Maybe it will hurt less now to buy Hevi Shot and the other non-toxic shot if lead costs nearly as much.

[skeet]

On buying any lead shot for a while. The price of lead has dropped on the futures market. Shot prices follow lead futures by 6-8 weeks. Of course some of the lead companies will keep the price of shot up just to gouge buyers...at least for a while. The bad thing about some of the promo loads is that they aren't as good as your reloads. Some of them like the dove and quail loads are actually pretty terrible. I did buy some(alot) of the Estate shells in 12 20 28 and 410 target loads. 12 ga 1 oz were 33 as was the 20 ga loads..the 28 and 410 were 50 bucks . Last week I bought 6 cases of Estate 410's from a shooter in Md for 40 bucks a case. Also got a full(20 box) case of Remington 28 ga target loads(old style) for 5 bucks a box. Think I am a litttle crazy as I really don't need any more shells. Must have 30,000 once fired empties to load anyway.

BTW Fabs. If you only knew how many bags of shot I sold in the past for under 5 bucks a bag! Last shot I bought was just 'fore the price went crazy...late July and it was still 21 bucks(wholesale) for ton lots or more.

[tjwatty]

fabs,
I was thumbing through the Cabelas waterfowl catalog and noticed the price of tungsten shot and Hevi-shot (Hevi to a lesser extent) had had a little jump in cost. I think tungsten was about $6 bucks a shot. I think I'll be using last years steel.....
The story on lead is unbelievable, apparantly the chinese are buying it up for the production of batteries. I think they need it to make paint for toys. LOL
I used to buy shot for under $10 a bag, chilled magnum at that. Now locally it's $38.95, Gander Mtn. store is $49.95.. I had a reporter call, he was doing an article on the cost to sport shooters and the effects of the high prices. He wanted to know if it was effecting me and how. Year before last I shot 3 times a week and over 5,000 shells a year. This year once or twice a week and I'm under 2,000 primers used. I need a raise in the pension to keep at my hobbies..

[jmarriott]

Yeap most heavy-shot waterfowl loads are over 3 bucks each.

Copper is at 2.41 a pound at the scrap yard also.

[Catfish]

Well from reading this post I found out who the kids are and who the old timers are. Fabs, the last shot I bought was $ 12 a bag. That hasn`t been 15 years yet, maybe 6 or 7. AND Skeet you and I are problem the only 2 on the board that can rember when shot was less than $5 a bag. I used to sell some reloads for $1 a box and make money at that. I gave less than $200 for a new 101 Win. also. In fact I`m so old I can rember Win. takeing the Model 12 off the market, bought me a new one right after that. You guy got me thinking back acouple years.

[skeet]

I bought Alcan shot in plastic bags at a gun club in 1966 for 3.75 a bag and they were making money at that price. Winchester 209 primers were 5.50 at a local sporting goods store. We went clear to Lancaster Pa and bought over a thousand dollars worth of stuff cause we got primers for 4.75 a thousand. We bought 30,000 and had to buy more three months later. We used 'em all up. 2 of us loaded over 100,000 shells every year for at least 10 yrs....and I was just a kid working on farms etc... Hope ya got that Catfish. I was just a kid..hehehe BTW I bought my first M-12 Win in 1959 for 35 bucks an as new field gun. I made the money catching crabs and snapping turtles out of my own boat. I was NOT very old