Sunday, September 02, 2007

Ammo prices: Yuck!@!

At the show yesterday my favorite ammo guy was indeed there, and I picked up some stuff. There were two other major ammo sellers there, too('major seller' defined as multiple tables of nothing but), more than I've seen there before. And as we've all noticed, prices are up. Again.

The Czech 7.62x54r light ball is not to be found the last while, dammit, it's good ammo. The Hungarian and Russian light ball is running about $80 for a 440-round can; it used to be $35-40. 9x18 Makarov ammo has doubled(although one deal had the tripled the price for Wolf). The Federal Champion .22lr I buy at Academy has gone from $.79/box to $1.18, and so on. The only stuff I found that hasn't is favorite ammo guy has 6.5x55 Swede Mauser surplus for $9/box in the battle pack(apparently the Swedes turned a bunch of it loose*), and he still had Winchester Ranger 12-guage buckshot for $3/box, but EVERYTHING else is up.

One nice thing he had, Brit-produced .303 ball, in chargers in bandoliers, $19. All dated 1944.

Kim had this a few days ago on the general "It's going up", and a year ago Kevin posted this interesting chart. Energy prices, metals prices, transport and demand all working together. Damn.

Also, if you like M1 Carbine stuff you've noticed the prices for some things: a parts dealer had some new barrels, and while you expect the WWII barrels to be high, he had a couple of Vietnam-era barrels, new, with sights and band: $250.

No comments: