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sask378

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I’ve never started a thread to rant or complain but here goes.

The current pricing of components showing up in stock has me seriously rethinking what I spend my money on.
 
Just found an old stock/discontinued price. Was trying to buy 8lb keg of IMR4895 for various rifles. Out of stock.
But they had a keg of 4320 which is discontinued for the old stock price of $260. Was a good day.
 
I bought some brass. It was more than I liked to pay, but they had it. Would I be able to find some again, maybe, would I find it at the price it once was normal, not likely.
 
Mostly depends on the cartridge you shoot and how much shooting you do, as to how long it takes to break even, may be 500, may be 2000 rounds, may be 3-4000, and how much work you are willing to put into it, what you want it to accomplish. If you want to risk wasting loot on inaccurate factory ammo, that's your choice, you may luck out on a good lot at the time, may not, you may be able to buy more, may not. You can learn a little or a lot, depends on you and how much drive you have for learning. Components and ammo won't be chaeper for quite a while yet, and I doubt the mfgrs will pass on too much of any savings they don't have to pass on, in the future.
 
Target grade 22lr ammo hasn't really increased more than 10% in the last two years I'd say. I'm talking the $9-11 per box of 50rounds level ammo.
Precision rimfire is attractive.
 
Prices will likely level off soon.

Will they come down again??? Who knows.

I spoke with a fellow this afternoon, out of Arizona. He's a snowbird and has opted to stay over the winter.

He belongs to a local club/shooting range close to his property and has made some good friends with a few of the locals.

Really nice fellow. Likes to shoot and gets along well with just about anybody but has an instinctive aversion to politicians/bureaucrats.

I asked him about prices on components in his area.

His reply was "What components, the shelves are mostly empty, unless you can coax the shop owner into digging into his under lock and key stash."

I thought he was joking. He wasn't

Many American shooters are not only wealthy but they shoot huge quantities of ammunition, especially the three gun guys.

50k-100k of factory ammo per year isn't unusual and cost is ignored.

This means they're not only going through 5-10 barrels per year, maybe more and have multiple rifles of the same design on hand to keep a reliable rifle handy at any given time. Same goes for handguns.

Of course, my friend doesn't even try to keep up with that bunch, which are mostly very friendly people. He associates with them, without any difficulty and the odd one keeps trying to get him into the game.

His comment about that was "How do I eat and live after spending $US75K per year on shooting sports?"

It doesn't take a lot of shooters, going through that much factory ammo to deplete the supply, especially when so many Americans are not only buying record numbers of firearms, but stockpiling ammunition.

The manufacturers have ramped up production, but the prices of basic materials, wages, equipment wear and lack of ability to acquire it all has skyrocketed.

I was told that an 8 pound keg of popular powder is going for $US500, in a heartbeat, without blinking an eye or questioning the price.

Most other popular components have risen at a similar rate.

Some folks are searching the stuff out online, purchasing all of the stock on hand and driving out of state with trucks to pick it up and bring it home to squirrel away.

In such a market, guess who gets first bite on the worm??

I was in Del Selin's shop last week and there seems to be a pretty decent supply of powder/components/factory ammo/firearms etc.

Prices have gone up accordingly, but not by any extreme amount.

Del was on the ball enough to put in large orders, which gets the attention of manufacturers and has been able to bring in a steady supply throughout this recent drought.

There are some powders and bullets that he can't get at this point, but for what most folks are looking for, he's got. Lots of one off stuff as well.

Shooting/collecting is no longer a poor mans sport. Even rimfire shooters are feeling the pinch.

I notice that even the scrap brass buckets at our local range are mostly empty, even on the pistol range. Unusual. About the only cases being left behind are Berdan primed or rimfire.

OP, you can only afford to shoot, as much as your budget allows.

Family, mortgages, bills, food, etc come first.

All of the money dumped into our economy over the past couple of years was a boon to a lot of people and may have saved many from bankruptcy. The thing is, it's created a very unhealthy inflationary environment for the future.

I'm retired, no debt, own my own house, etc. I've never lived an ostentatious lifestyle, other than during my first marriage, for a very short time. I live a very comfortable lifestyle, in a lovely setting, within a half hour of some of the best hunting and fishing areas in BC.

I have enough stuff on hand to last the duration of my life and I hunt/fish/shoot more than most. I'm not feeling the pinch at all.

I've been where you're at though, so I know how it feels.

For the newbies and financially strapped folks out there, that would like to get into the shooting sports, now is not a good time to start.

Over the last ten years, I've heard more people going on about how they're going to get such and such a firearm, when their father/grandfather passes. Most don't even realize they need a license to aquire that firearm and ammo, if there is any.

The drought will end. Whether prices will drop or not is anyone's guess.

IMHO, we're going to see a lot more innovation over the next decade as to the traditional components used to make ammunition/firearms become to expensive to maintain profit margins and still stay within normal budgets.

Not only to bring the cost of the goods down but because of lack of availability of the materials used in them.

The new advances in electric vehicles alone is going to drive up the costs of everything that contains, graphite/copper/tin/zinc/antimony , etc.

So I don't expect to see the cost of anything included in our sport coming down soon.

My advice is, if it's available and you can afford it, buy it. Buy as much as you can afford, without imposing on family.

If you have to go without a carton of smokes/ couple of cases of beer/ bottle/ blow/ weed for a couple of months, whatever you spend on ammo/components will just be money in the bank, instead of pizzing away or polluting the air.
 
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...The current pricing of components showing up in stock has me seriously rethinking what I spend my money on.

You're right, pretty much everything costs more. You occasionally find old stock at old prices, all you can do is snap it up when you see it.

But I'd wager that everything for every other hobby also costs more - Inflation is occurring across the board, faster than what we have become used to.

Absolutely, you should rethink what you spend your money on. But the question is still going to be "What would you rather spend your money on?"
 
You're right, pretty much everything costs more. You occasionally find old stock at old prices, all you can do is snap it up when you see it.

But I'd wager that everything for every other hobby also costs more - Inflation is occurring across the board, faster than what we have become used to.

Absolutely, you should rethink what you spend your money on. But the question is still going to be "What would you rather spend your money on?"

Good question. I have no idea.

Shoot less and be happy. :)
 
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The Liberals want us to shoot less. The more people that leave the shooting sports, the better the Liberals feel about their security.
I don't remember prices ever going down to any significant degree in the past, so I'm moving ahead with the assumption that today's prices could be as low as they're going to be for the next 5+ years.
 
Any commodities world wide is F****d up. Just getting containers over from Europe and Australia , where a lot of powders come from, is a problem. So we have that as well as the much higher demand.
 
Keep building up CASH... prices have jumped a ton mostly on the backs of a massive runup in commodities

Copper and Tin are at decades highs... oil is running up nearing decades highs.

cross ocean freight hasn't been this expensive ever (AFAIK)

I have to believe, this will pass... and when it does, stock up.

It might be a year or two though... there are of course really fancy air rifles for a change of pace.

Me, I am 3D printing some RC planes. Seems like the time to rekindle an old love.

Jerry
 
All my primers I have now I paid right around 40 bucks 1000, I was out of sp magnum primers, online prices in can dollars is between 80 and 170.00, I bought a 1000 from SFRC with their 16% off sale, think it came to $92.00 with tax, got a call from next days saying canpar no longer shipping primers, has to go purolator now, $21.00 hazard charge, so even with the 16% off, I can't get for less then 110.00.
 
The cost of everything is going up. It is not just reloading supply.

this is how the budget balance itself.

You have 10 billion in tax revenue. You spend 100 billion. You jack up the cost of goods by ten times and your 10 billion in tax revenue becomes 100 billion. Budget Balanced!
 
...Shoot less and be happy. :)

That's certainly one option - I've pretty much given up high round count training and started doing more "gun related" activities. Gotten back into hunting, some amateur gunsmithing, that sort of thing.

Oh, and more time on CGN. Curious about what others might be doing - Could be a good topic for a different thread.
 
Yes with the prices And availability I have been shooting less. I have however been going thru current inventory and prepping lots of brass, organizing, etc. still shooting just a little less and trying to make it count when I pull the trigger a little more. Also been shooting 22’s etc. I have a lot of powder and bullets and brass but when prices and availability are what they are I am more reluctant to abuse my stash.
 
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