Price of ammo to shoot up - again

[WhiteFeather]

Look at the little chart on left hand side of article
also read my previous post about this subject on July 2, 2007, I hope you all have been stocking up.

http://www.pafoa.org/forum/ammunitio...on-page-2.html

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcont...o.37f6a54.html

Price of ammo to shoot up

06:18 AM CDT on Thursday, August 9, 2007
By JAMES HOHMANN / The Dallas Morning News
jhohmann@dallasnews.com

The baby needs milk. The car needs gas. The gun needs bullets.


Rising dairy and oil prices grab the attention of shoppers and motorists. But the increasing price of ammunition – a consumer product the government considers when calculating the rate of inflation – has largely gone unnoticed.

The price increases began after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, then were compounded by a double whammy: the war in Iraq, which pushed up overall demand, and growing industrial powers such as China, which bid up the cost of needed raw materials.

The impact is widespread:

•Ammunition dealers complain of declining sales as they are forced to pass along rising costs to consumers.

•Hunters and gun enthusiasts, who initially stockpiled ammunition when prices spiked, are now making more of their own or shooting less.

•And police departments in the Dallas area are experiencing long delays in shipments and having to adjust training schedules accordingly.

"It's no good to have the gun without the ammunition," said Ken Mitchell, an ammunition dealer in Justin.

Manufacturers dramatically ramped up production after the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, producing about 1.5 billion rounds last year – more than 3 ½ times the number manufactured in 2001, said Gale Smith, a spokeswoman for the Army's Joint Munitions Command Center in Rock Island, Ill.

But they struggle to keep up with the demand as troop deployments continue in the Middle East. Military spending on small-caliber ammunition increased from $242 million in 2001 to $688 million in 2006.

The ammunition business is also feeling the pinch because of the rising price of global commodities such as copper, brass, nickel, steel and lead.

For instance, China's torrent of construction has added to its manufacturing capacity. And the country is hungry for resources to feed its growth. The components needed to manufacture ammunition are also used for laying power lines and adding buildings to wider skylines.

"We were paying $1 a pound for copper two years ago. Now we're paying $3 per pound," said Brian Grace, a spokesman for Minnesota-based Alliant Techsystems, the military's biggest producer of small-caliber ammunition. "Not all the costs are being passed on. We've tried to soften the blow with supply chain management and improved efficiency."

Despite those efforts, dealers, hunters and law enforcement officers are feeling squeezed.


Stockpiling

Mr. Mitchell estimates that the volume of his ammo sales, which make up about half of his business, has dropped by more than half in the past two years.

Certain rounds, such as .223-caliber, used in the Army's M-16 and law enforcement's AR-15, have become increasingly difficult to find in the civilian market. Supplies of the .308 cartridge, the standard round for NATO and a favorite of hunters for its deadly effectiveness, have also tightened.

Some calibers cost only 10 percent more than a year ago; other varieties have more than doubled in price.

When prices started to rise, savvy gun owners stockpiled all they could get, sending prices even higher. Now dealers say that as soon as new supplies come in, customers snap them up.

"It doesn't matter if it's 50 cents or $3, whatever's cheapest gets bought up quick," said Robby Rucker, a manager at Southwest Ammunition Supply in Mesquite.

He said his wholesalers raise their prices from 3 percent to 10 percent each quarter. He expects more price increases in September.

That's a problem for Karl Pifer of Granbury, who specializes in manufacturing designer ammunition that costs more but performs better.

"The market is moving toward lower-quality and lower-cost ammunition that gets mass produced," said Mr. Pifer, owner of KC Precision Ballistics. "I try to stick with the prices I've got, but when they go up, it's hard. It hits me before it hits the customers."

When Mr. Pifer received a catalog in the mail last month for materials, he rushed online to place orders on the good deals. But he was too late. An e-mail in his inbox alerted him that prices had gone up since the catalog was distributed. It was, he said, the fourth increase in eight months.

Prices of factory-produced ammunition – and increased surcharges for shipping and handling – have gotten so high that more hunters are making their own in a process called hand loading.

"Guys on a budget are going back to hand loading with the price of ammo doing what it is," said Dallas resident Noel Hutcheson, 71, a retired stockbroker who hunts quail and ducks.

Sales of ammunition components such as empty cartridges and primers have grown at Mr. Rucker's family-run store each time retail prices for ready-to-use ammunition have gone up.

But do-it-yourself ammunition production isn't cheap either. Someone making his own shotgun shells is going to spend roughly a third more than last year on supplies, said Don Snyder, executive director of the National Skeet Shooting Association and the National Sporting Clays Association.

"There are some people who are shooting less," said Mr. Snyder of San Antonio, whose two groups have about 3,000 members in Texas. "It's just an additional cost to compete and enjoy our sport. There are a lot of people that jump in and pay the tariff and do it."


Must-have item

No matter what the cost, the police need to pay. Law enforcement demand for ammunition grew after 9/11 as departments increased their officers' live fire training.

Several police officials said they are paying more for ammunition and experiencing delays for shipments.

But everyone from Fort Worth to Carrollton insists that public safety has not been compromised. Of eight departments surveyed, none has resorted to giving deputies fewer bullets or pulling guns out of service.

The Dallas Police Department, which spends roughly $500,000 annually on ammunition for about 3,000 officers, used to have orders filled in six weeks. Now it takes six to nine months, said Sgt. Paul Stanford, range master for the department.

The ammunition used in patrol rifles, identical to what the military needs, costs 35 percent more than two years ago, Sgt. Stanford said, rising from $84 a case to $114 a case.

And a case of 9 mm rounds, the standard for Dallas Police Department service weapons, costs 10 percent more than two years ago – going from $98.75 in 2005 to $108.15.

The impact on smaller departments, which often don't have a special relationship with wholesalers, can be even greater.

In Hurst, which has 72 officers, Assistant Chief Richard Winstanley needs to plan a year or more ahead for what his staff might need. He has to be especially proactive to keep .223 rounds in stock.

"We have to be patient," Chief Winstanley said. "Some training has to be put off until we receive the items."

While the police and other gun owners hope prices come down, they are adjusting to the reality of costlier ammunition.

"We're still buying bullets because we don't have any choice," Dallas' Sgt. Stanford said. "It's like gas. You have to absorb the cost."

[RocketFoot]

I've been stocking up on ammo...mostly .22 LR however! I hope the prices come down soon...but just like gas, I'm sure they won't!

[WhiteFeather]

KEEP BUYING AMMO WHILE YOU STILL CAN AFFORD TO.

Pittsbugh paper - really cool photo of muzzle blast on web site

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/trib.../s_522822.html

Ammo prices taking a hit in the area
By C.M. Mortimer
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Saturday, August 18, 2007


Trap shooter Chester Klingensmith, of Murrysville, lives within a 25-minute drive of six clubs where he can use his shotgun to blast clay disks.
But Klingensmith, 72, has cut in half the 400 shells a week he used to fire.
Why? The increasing price of ammunition, which dealers and manufacturers say has gone up 10 percent to 15 percent in the past year.
"If they go up any more, I'll go back to hunting groundhog," said Klingensmith, a retired bus driver

Troops training for and fighting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are firing more than 1 billion bullets a year, pushing demand for ammo from police departments, hunters and target shooters. At the same time, demand from China is increasing prices for copper, lead and brass, the major components of bullets, experts say.
The Lake City Army Ammunition Plant in Independence, Mo., supplies the military with more than 80 percent of its small-arms ammunition. Production at the factory has more than tripled since 2002, rising from about 425 million rounds that year to 1.4 billion rounds in 2006, according to the Joint Munitions Command at the Rock Island Arsenal in Illinois.
Alliant Techsystems Inc., which runs the Lake City plant for the Army, produced more than 5 billion rounds for hunting and police use last year, making the Minnesota-based company the nation's largest ammunition manufacturer. Spokesman Bryce Hallowell questioned whether the Iraq war had a direct effect on the ammunition available to police.
But he said there was no doubt that surging demand was affecting supply.
"We had looked at this and didn't know if it was an anomaly or a long-term trend," Hallowell said. "We started running plants 24/7. "Now we think it is long-term, so we're going to build more production capability."
Klingensmith, who reloads his own bullets, said he recently purchased 80 bags of lead at $26.95 per bag. He said the price per bag is going up to roughly $34 a bag soon.
"Ammunition prices are sky high, they're practically doubled," said Dr. William Tylavsky, a Murrysville dentist who shoots with his sons. "There was a time we would go out twice a month, but now we go out less."
Ammunition prices increased by 15 percent last year and are expected to rise another 15 percent this fall, said Brian Thompson, director of retail sales for Woodlands World in Uniontown.
"Yes, prices have gone up quite a bit in the last 18 to 24 months," said Al Russo, spokesman for Remington Arms Co. Inc. in Madison, N.C.
Russo said three or four years ago, lead sold for 30 to 40 cents per pound.
"In the last three weeks, it's been in the $1.40 to $1.50 per pound range," he said.
Remington has had five price hikes in the last 18 months, Russo said. The [B]company is planning more increases in October and January.[/B]
He blamed increases in the rising costs of copper and lead.
Copper, which makes up 70 percent of cartridge brass, has gone from 79 cents a pound three years ago to more than $3.80 a pound, according to Shooting Industry Magazine. Other metals have doubled to tripled in price. Ron Isler, 39, of Uniontown, laments the costs associated with his shooting hobby, but has no foreseeable plans to retreat.
"It's crazy, some of this stuff is completely out of the water. I shoot a whole bunch," said Isler, who recently won a groundhog shooting contest, plugging about 48 animals over 15 hours.
Isler said he used to spend about $55 to reload ammunition. He said it now costs $80 to $85.
Bruce Taucher, owner of Federal Firearms Co., in South Fayette, said customers have noticed the price hikes. He said the cost of premium ammo has gone from $22 per box to $40.
"It's a hobby, but it's slowed down. The average hunter will get sticker shock when he comes in to buy ammunition," Taucher said.
The higher ammunition prices haven't stopped Robert Tilliman, 24, of West Mifflin, from honing his skills shooting a Glock 9 mm at Anthony Arms, where he took aim at a target 30 yards away. Tilliman said he also gets practice shooting while serving as a soldier with the Pennsylvania National Guard unit based in Bloomfield.
C.M. Mortimer can be reached at cmortimer@tribweb.com or (724) 836-5252.
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[WhiteFeather]

Got a email from a ammo distributor on upcoming price increases.

Sept. 1 federal 25% increase rem & win 14 to 16%
Jan. 2008 rem. & win. to take another 11 to 16 % hike 7.62 x 54r lastest to become hard to find

I know the government says inflation in USA is less than 5% a year, when I go to other grocery store I am in sticker shock at price increases. IF the government lies about the economy what else do they lie about?