Buying shotgun shells will put a bigger hole in your wallet
Prices continue yearlong increase with no relief in sight
By Mike Leggett
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Sunday, July 29, 2007
If you haven't bought shotgun shells in a few months — and most people have not — you're in for a surprise when you buy a few boxes along with your hunting license next month.
Prices have been going up for at least a year, and they will go up again in September. Overall, prices on shotgun and rifle shells, along with components for loading, have increased more than 50 percent since Sept. 1.
Shotgun shells have gotten more expensive this year, thanks to higher costs for materials, fuel prices and wartime contracting, shotshell manufacturers say. Most shooters haven't dealt with the higher prices yet.
MORE MIKE LEGGETT
I stopped by McBride's Guns to get a lesson in shotgun trading last week from "Old Easy."
Old Easy is what Joe McBride calls himself when he's working a customer, which he knows how to do. He knows the market, and he knows his market, in this case my weakness for Model 23 Winchester side-by-side shotguns.
I had a very fine Weatherby Athena in 28 gauge that was a wonderful gun, but it just didn't quite fit me. Joe had an older Model 23 Pigeon Grade in 20 gauge, English stock, bored modified and improved.
"You need this gun," he said. He was right.
But when we got to talking shotgun shells, I was stunned to learn how much prices have increased.
"Since Sept. 1, we've had six price increases, and there's another 15 percent increase coming in September," McBride said. "We absorbed the first one or two, but then we had to raise prices ourselves."
Remington, Federal and Winchester, the major shotshell manufacturers in this country, are all raising prices, citing the rapidly escalating cost of metals, mostly lead, essential to shell production. However, copper, steel and bismuth shotshells also increased during the same period. Fuel price increases have forced up the cost of shipping and delivering the shells, and war-time contracts have created competition for materials and manufacturing time.
Other manufacturers have gotten in on the increases. Spain-based Rio, the largest shotshell manufacturer in the world, has a reputation for producing a high quality, less costly line of shells. The ammo is good and the prices are competitive, but the shells will sell for $5.50 a box this year, McBride said, after going for about $4 a box last hunting season.
Target loads for 12 and 20 gauge that cost $4 a box just one year ago will sell for $5.50 per box, he said. Field loads that sold for $3.48 a box last year are $5 now.
Those are significant increases that might not have shown up yet for a guy who buys a case of shells every August and has some left over to start the next year. The price increases will mount for dove hunting operations or for people who shoot all the time, especially trap and skeet gun club members, even though it's not keeping them out of the market so far.
"It hasn't scared people off," McBride said. "They're still buying. But it worries you that people will (not) be able to afford shells."
I think people find a way to afford what's important to them. I can afford to buy a case of shells now for $50 to $60, or more for Winshester AA trap loads. But back in the day, when I was a kid in Panola County, I couldn't even afford a box. So I bought what I could.
The Western Auto store was where we went for shells in those days, and they were willing to sell shells by the piece. Nobody does that anymore, but it was a nice thing for a kid. I'd hoard my leftovers from year to year and always had a conglomeration of 6s and 71/2s that I'd pull out to start dove season. Buckshot you hardly ever used, so half a dozen shells would last forever.
Occasionally I'll open a box of stuff and find one of those old shells, always Winchester high-brass No.6 shot. It would put a pounding on a squirrel and on your shoulder, too. But they were fire-engine red and much more impressive, as loaded shells or empty hulls, than the green Winchesters or the maroon Federals. And they weren't paper, which the first shells I shot actually were. Get those wet and they'd swell up and ruin.
But squirrels were my game of choice, and I always wanted good shells, as new as possible, for them. I could take $2.50 to the store and buy 10 shells for the opening day of squirrel season. If I had five left from the year before, that would be five in the Model 12 shotgun (no plugs required, and you didn't want one) and five in each front pocket of my jeans.
I could kill 10 squirrels with those shells and usually have a few left over. Then I'd save money or mow a yard or burn brush to get extra cash to buy shells for the next hunt.
Having 15 shells was kind of a fetish for me, and I always tried to keep an equal number of each in my pants pockets. Good for balance and good for luck.
Prices continue yearlong increase with no relief in sight
By Mike Leggett
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Sunday, July 29, 2007
If you haven't bought shotgun shells in a few months — and most people have not — you're in for a surprise when you buy a few boxes along with your hunting license next month.
Prices have been going up for at least a year, and they will go up again in September. Overall, prices on shotgun and rifle shells, along with components for loading, have increased more than 50 percent since Sept. 1.
Shotgun shells have gotten more expensive this year, thanks to higher costs for materials, fuel prices and wartime contracting, shotshell manufacturers say. Most shooters haven't dealt with the higher prices yet.
MORE MIKE LEGGETT
I stopped by McBride's Guns to get a lesson in shotgun trading last week from "Old Easy."
Old Easy is what Joe McBride calls himself when he's working a customer, which he knows how to do. He knows the market, and he knows his market, in this case my weakness for Model 23 Winchester side-by-side shotguns.
I had a very fine Weatherby Athena in 28 gauge that was a wonderful gun, but it just didn't quite fit me. Joe had an older Model 23 Pigeon Grade in 20 gauge, English stock, bored modified and improved.
"You need this gun," he said. He was right.
But when we got to talking shotgun shells, I was stunned to learn how much prices have increased.
"Since Sept. 1, we've had six price increases, and there's another 15 percent increase coming in September," McBride said. "We absorbed the first one or two, but then we had to raise prices ourselves."
Remington, Federal and Winchester, the major shotshell manufacturers in this country, are all raising prices, citing the rapidly escalating cost of metals, mostly lead, essential to shell production. However, copper, steel and bismuth shotshells also increased during the same period. Fuel price increases have forced up the cost of shipping and delivering the shells, and war-time contracts have created competition for materials and manufacturing time.
Other manufacturers have gotten in on the increases. Spain-based Rio, the largest shotshell manufacturer in the world, has a reputation for producing a high quality, less costly line of shells. The ammo is good and the prices are competitive, but the shells will sell for $5.50 a box this year, McBride said, after going for about $4 a box last hunting season.
Target loads for 12 and 20 gauge that cost $4 a box just one year ago will sell for $5.50 per box, he said. Field loads that sold for $3.48 a box last year are $5 now.
Those are significant increases that might not have shown up yet for a guy who buys a case of shells every August and has some left over to start the next year. The price increases will mount for dove hunting operations or for people who shoot all the time, especially trap and skeet gun club members, even though it's not keeping them out of the market so far.
"It hasn't scared people off," McBride said. "They're still buying. But it worries you that people will (not) be able to afford shells."
I think people find a way to afford what's important to them. I can afford to buy a case of shells now for $50 to $60, or more for Winshester AA trap loads. But back in the day, when I was a kid in Panola County, I couldn't even afford a box. So I bought what I could.
The Western Auto store was where we went for shells in those days, and they were willing to sell shells by the piece. Nobody does that anymore, but it was a nice thing for a kid. I'd hoard my leftovers from year to year and always had a conglomeration of 6s and 71/2s that I'd pull out to start dove season. Buckshot you hardly ever used, so half a dozen shells would last forever.
Occasionally I'll open a box of stuff and find one of those old shells, always Winchester high-brass No.6 shot. It would put a pounding on a squirrel and on your shoulder, too. But they were fire-engine red and much more impressive, as loaded shells or empty hulls, than the green Winchesters or the maroon Federals. And they weren't paper, which the first shells I shot actually were. Get those wet and they'd swell up and ruin.
But squirrels were my game of choice, and I always wanted good shells, as new as possible, for them. I could take $2.50 to the store and buy 10 shells for the opening day of squirrel season. If I had five left from the year before, that would be five in the Model 12 shotgun (no plugs required, and you didn't want one) and five in each front pocket of my jeans.
I could kill 10 squirrels with those shells and usually have a few left over. Then I'd save money or mow a yard or burn brush to get extra cash to buy shells for the next hunt.
Having 15 shells was kind of a fetish for me, and I always tried to keep an equal number of each in my pants pockets. Good for balance and good for luck.
