Ammo cost comparison by caliber

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  • Demoneyes86

    Ultimate Member
    Mar 4, 2011
    2,651
    Baltimore
    Thanks for your time. This table atleast gives us a general idea about the price differences. Sorry everyone cant be pleased by this.
     
    Here's my old table with the additional new data:
    ...Nov 2011.......Nov 2012
    22LR - 4 ..............6
    9mm - 18 .............22
    22WMR - 20 .........20
    7.62x39 - 23 ......... 23
    17 HMR - 24 ........ 24
    5.56 - 25 .............. 39
    40 - 28 ............... 30
    380 ACP - 30 ........ 31
    38 SPL - 30 .......... 33
    45ACP - 33 ............ 37
    20 Ga. - 35 ........... 30
    7.62x51 (.308) - 42....75
    30 Carbine - 43 ........47
    5.7 FN - 44 ............ 45
    357 SIG - 50 .......... 50
    10mm - 53 ............ 54
    357 MAG - 54 ......... 46
    44 MAG - 60 .......... 60
    41 MAG - 63 ........ 61
    12 Ga. - 70 ...........70
    410 Ga. - 73 ......... 63
    30-06 - 75 ............ 70
    30-30 - 79 ............ 80
    10 Ga. - 90 ............. (none found)
    300 AAC Blackout - 110 ... 91
    458 SOCOM - 250 .......245
    50 BMG - 275 .........335
    338 Lapua - 415 ..... 567

    Great table.
    Thanks for putting this together, especially with the price trends.
    Really hard to find 10 ga. nowadays.
    Back when I was feeding my Mag 10, Sportsman's Guide still had some.
    Pretty good selection starting at about $26 a box (25) for Steel Shot.
    If anyone still has a 10ga I would put some ammo away.
    It's very hard to find (usually only mail order),
    and seems to be going the way of some of the older lever gun calibers did, as the years go by.
    Used to be that every mom and pop had a couple boxes, before the 3 1/2" twelve gauge came about.
     

    MDMOUNTAINEER

    Glock, AR, Savage Junkie
    Mar 4, 2009
    5,739
    West Virginia
    Agreed. I find myself shooting it almost exclusively lately. I think my little guys are going to be ready next year (at least one of them), so I'm stocking up :thumbsup:

    .22lr is by far my favorite round. It's sorta hard to say that because I really LOVE .30 caliber bolt guns and 5.56 AR's, as well as my .45, 9 and 10mm Glocks. Each have their purpose. The "lowly" .22 is more often my "go-to" round for plinking and small game.

    It used to be that you could shoot all day and not worry a bit about cost with a .22. Though the cost logic still holds true, the availability has gone waaaay down and I find myself talking myself out of blowing a 550 box in a day.

    Why is .338 lapua so expensive???

    It's still very pricy when you handload too (with quality components). A hundred rounds will eat over a pound of powder, the bullets themselves are expensive, and quality brass is ridiculous. Buying quality loaded ammo makes handloads more attractive, but either proposition consumes a healthy amount of cash.

    Minuteman, OK, now I'm the second one to "Thank You" for your time and generosity for helping your fellow MDShooters in their quest for more and cheaper ammo. Don't care if it is absolutely accurate or not, but it does give a general glimpse of all prices for all calibers and for that "THANKS: ! :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

    Lesson learned: No way you can satisfy ALL the people ALL the time ! :innocent0

    :thumbsup:
     

    Minuteman

    Member
    BANNED!!!
    2013 figures. Again, this is not scientific; I simply looked at the price from several different ammo meta search websites like- ammoseek, ammoengine, bulkammo, ammunitiontogo and dropped blanks, and exotics. This price for 2013, is what I'm going to consider 'typical' online price (without tax and shipping):

    ...Nov 2011.......Nov 2012.........Nov 2013
    22LR - 4 ..............6..............15
    9mm - 18 .............22............36
    22WMR - 20 .........20.............40
    7.62x39 - 23 ......... 23............30
    17 HMR - 24 ........ 24.............30
    5.56 - 25 .............. 39............45
    40 - 28 ............... 30..............50
    380 ACP - 30 ........ 31............40
    38 SPL - 30 .......... 33.............45
    45ACP - 33 ............ 37...........50
    20 Ga. - 35 ........... 30............28
    7.62x51 (.308) - 42....75...........66
    30 Carbine - 43 ........47...........55
    5.7 FN - 44 ............ 45............56
    357 SIG - 50 .......... 50...........58
    10mm - 53 ............ 54............60
    357 MAG - 54 ......... 46...........50
    44 MAG - 60 .......... 60............70
    41 MAG - 63 ........ 61..............120
    12 Ga. - 70 ...........70.............28
    410 Ga. - 73 ......... 63............40
    30-06 - 75 ............ 70............100
    30-30 - 79 ............ 80............130
    10 Ga. - 90 .... (none found).....100
    300 AAC Blackout - 110 ... 91....150
    458 SOCOM - 250 .......245.......(none found)
    50 BMG - 275 .........335..........360
    338 Lapua - 415 ..... 567..........475

    I generally found the most options/selection and prices through ammoseek; followed by ammoengine. This time instead of grabbing the median price, I looked for the most common or typical price for the type of rounds most people use (in my experience). Generally ammo is higher than last year, and more scarce, but I believe it is just starting to come down in price and availability is improving. I would venture to guess that in the next 6-12 months prices will be generally at or even below last years prices. Best bang for your buck - 12 gauge shotgun shells. The previous listed price of 70 cents per shell was the median price, but did not reflect what I'm sure most people paid then and now, around a quarter per shell. I'm most surprised by how much .22LR and 22WMR have gone up.

    I hope some of you find this useful, it will at least give you some idea as to the price of one caliber compared to another. My pick of calibers for all purposes: 22LR, 9mm, 12gauge, 5.56, .308.
     

    mranaya

    Task Force Sunny, 2009
    Jun 19, 2011
    996
    Hanover MD
    Good gawd, that is some painful reality you just threw at us, Minuteman. It's interesting, though, that 338 Lapua is now lower than a year ago. This chart has me considering going through my stash and refusing to buy anything else until absolutely necessary. That will require me to pick and save a home-defense stash for a particular weapon and use everything else at the range. Austerity measures in home defense--a sad, sad day. Thanks for the great outline of recent ammo history.
     

    glock9mm

    Ultimate Member
    Jun 5, 2011
    1,365
    Ceciltucky!
    Minuteman, thanks for the info but i must say that info is depressing! Hopefully prices will get more reasonable (especially .22) and availabilty be get better in the near future.
     

    ihriec

    Active Member
    Aug 10, 2013
    493
    2013 price per round reinforces my decision to reload 38, 357 and 45. If price on 9mm remains high I'll probably start reloading that too. What to do about 22lr?
     

    adit

    ReMember
    MDS Supporter
    Feb 20, 2013
    19,495
    DE
    2013 price per round reinforces my decision to reload 38, 357 and 45. If price on 9mm remains high I'll probably start reloading that too. What to do about 22lr?

    Buy it whenever you come across it at .05 or less. I have acquired ~20k rounds (only a few hundred as much as .08 per, and just because it was there and I had never tried it before) this year.

    If and when the SHTF I will sell some of it, else shoot it.

    http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Govern...mmo-Up-More-Than-400-From-This-Time-Last-Year
     

    ryu

    ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
    Jan 8, 2014
    72
    Howard County
    https://public.tableau.com/profile/matt.chambers#!/vizhome/Gun-DealsSalesData/SalesAnalysis

    Sorry to resurrect, but I found these graphs that use the same gun-deals.com sales data. It has sales volume per month and weighted average price per year by caliber. Note that the average price graphs have grouped all types of rounds together (FMJ, HP, polymer tip).

    ........Average 2015 price through ~May
    22LR - 12
    9mm - 30
    7.62x39 - 30
    5.56 - 43
    40 S&W - 38
    380 ACP - 39
    45 ACP - 41
    7.62x51 (.308) - 77
     

    ironpony

    Member
    MDS Supporter
    Jun 8, 2013
    7,187
    Davidsonville
    I'm curious how a spent brass chart followed the ammo curve. Reloading grew at the same time purchases did, I believe, so that's a lot of ammo!
    Does anyone have an idea as to the pricing of brass over the last year or so?
     

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