Why Bullet And Ammunition Prices Are So High

[Carlos]

In a story entitled "US Mint moves to ban penny melting" ABCNews.com reports that copper demand is so high that in other countries, its cost effective to buy a penny AND the energy to melt it, just to get the scrap copper. Our ammunition uses copper in the brass case and primer as well as possibly in the bullet jacket. Here is a quote:

"Rapid industrial growth in countries like China and India has dramatically driven up the price of scrap metal.

In fact, copper prices are up more than 180 percent since mid-2003, selling for just more than $3 a pound. "

Here is the ABCNEWS.COM LINK

Lead is up too. It is used in car/motorcycle batteries and the auto-industry in China is booming. Explains why I had to pay $45 for 230 grn Zeros - and that was for only 500 at a gunshow!

Lead is also used in our primers (Federals are up to $90+ for a box of 5K).

So, you guys like Precision bullets ?

[BSeevers]

Yep and China produces a lot of steel and metal. Man these prices are killing me.

[MichiganShootist]

There's a two page article in this month's American Rifleman from the NRA on the topic.

It seems that both China and India have dialed up their imports which is a big factor too.

A neighbor that's a plumber says copper tubing has almost doubled in price over the past 12 months. Katrina also made an impact.

Lead is apparently the only cartridge component that hasn't surged in cost on the commodity markets.

Based on what I'm paying for components I'm quickly approaching 20 cents a round with powder included

$88.50 per thousand for Zero 230 FMJs

$60.00 per thousand for once fired clean brass

$22.00 per thousand for large Winchester primers

Regarding Precision bullets... I tried them a few years back and had problems... related to crimping..and peeling off the bullet coating....... but I now believe that was more due to my inexperience in reloading at that point. In volumes of 100K their 230 bullet can be purchased now for $58 per thousand including shipping... so one of our gun clubs is working on a consolidated order to reach that volume point.

One of the top shooters in the Mid-west, Bob Vogel, told me at a match this summer.... that he is now shooting nothing but the Precision product and has had ZERO problems.

Edited December 14, 2006 by MichiganShootist

[Matt Cheely]

One of the top shooters in the Mid-west, Bob Vogel, told me at a match this summer.... that he is now shooting nothing but the Precision product and has had ZERO problems.

He's also sponsored by them

I only shoot precision bullets as well. Love them.

[ima45dv8]

I only shoot precision bullets as well. Love them.

Same here. Vey high quality at a good price from a nice guy.

What's not to love?

[shred]

FWIW, pennies since 1982 don't have a lot of copper in them anymore.. 97% zinc (now zinc is more than $0.01, but that's got nothing to do with bullets.)

Pre-82 cents have about $0.02 (hey Verizon!) worth of copper in them.

[Barrettone]

One of the reasons I am glad Michigan is instituting a Points Series. I won't have to travel as much as I'll be in-state more, no hotels involved, and local matches use a hell of a lot less ammo!!! Yep...gonna be a tighter budget this year for a lot of people...

[Waltermitty]

FWIW, pennies since 1982 don't have a lot of copper in them anymore.. 97% zinc (now zinc is more than $0.01, but that's got nothing to do with bullets.)

Pre-82 cents have about $0.02 (hey Verizon!) worth of copper in them.

Brass in an alloy of copper and zinc.

[Schutzenmeister]

Lead is apparently the only cartridge component that hasn't surged in cost on the commodity markets.

I have a small bullet casting business on the side, and I hate to bust your bubble. Lead prices have been climbing rather steadily for the past 2-3 years. Same with antimony. (Tin has been relatively calm.) Trust me ... There's a LOT more lead in your jacketed bullet than there is copper or zinc! I'm planning a 15% price increase for 2007 and probably another 15% for 2008 just to cover my increased costs in alloy.

[kevin c]

All this is why I've stocked up on enough components for match and practice ammo for a year or more, but have also stocked over 20K of 22LR for practice on the cheap.

Even with shipping, a round of plinking .22 is only a third of the price of just the bullet alone for a round of .40.

My Ruger 22/45 is getting workout. Now, if only I could get a reliable conversion for my Para's (an Advantage Arms conversion for one of my Glocks is a possibility)...

Still, .22 drills can only do so much - gotta bite the bullet and shoot ammo with real recoil as well, so no getting around the fact that even practice ammo is costing me close to ten cents round.

Edited December 15, 2006 by kevin c

[Rob Boudrie]

I am getting nervous because everyone seems to be out of Federal primers. Winchester work just as nicely (except for a few wheelgunners who need the softies), but when 50% of the primer supply dries up, it starts to bring back memories of the great famine. Time to stockpile.

[Scooter]

But the electronics industry is going away from using lead. Currently RoHS initiative has prohibited and lead products in consumer electronics for sale in the European Union. By January, there will be 2 US states with their version of RoHS. China will impose their own.

[shred]

But the electronics industry is going away from using lead. Currently RoHS initiative has prohibited and lead products in consumer electronics for sale in the European Union. By January, there will be 2 US states with their version of RoHS. China will impose their own.

A lot of RoHS kicked in last year and the year before, so I don't think there'll be much extra supply. With the extra regulations, it's going to cost more to handle as well.

Probably the largest lead decrease over the past few years is PC monitors and TV sets-- the old tubes had pounds of lead in each one.. Flat panels don't.

Maybe that's why lead hasn't gone up quite as much as the other metals.

[EricW]

Well...in our industry much of the RoHS initiative is over, but we still manufacture a considerable amount of non-RoHS products. Anything that is not destined for Europe need not be RoHS and many electronic products are still non-RoHS. Eventually everything will probably go RoHS for the simple fact that economies of scale will drive RoHS products to be cheaper than non-RoHS.

I would still expect to see at least *some* slackening in lead demand due to this phenomena over the next couple years.

I also think people underestimate the effect of ammo demand in Iraq and Afghanistan in how it's affecting the metals market.

[Scooter]

I was still working in the electronics industry when RoHS thing started in July. We pretty much got all non-RoHS parts into the EU at the end of June. All new products were to be designed to be RoHS compliant since RoHS and non-RoHS parts are not the same and required different soldering.

[Irishlad]

I'm paying double for a bag of shot compared to two years ago. Bullets up 30-40% in the same time period...off the top of my head.

As I understand it 70-75% of the lead that is mined goes to batteries, car batteries in particular. Also, they didn't mine enough lead for the demand.

Don't they remove the lead in old batteries? I would have guessed car batteries to have a high percentage of recycling.