RidgeFACTOR

I called around the other night to check on some prices of 280 Remington 150 gr. shells for my Browning A-Bolt II 280. You would not believe (maybe you might) what some of these people and places are selling these shells for. I was quoted by GMtn. $49.99 bx., another place was $33.00 bx, another place was $26.95 bx............I finally found a place that had them for $18.95 a box.........I bought 3 boxes and if I would have had more money on me at the time I would have bought more. I haven't had to buy any "NEW" shells for about 3 years now and when I looked on the box what I paid last time I did buy shell's, they were $14.95 bx. What some of these clowns are trying to make off of you is BS!
I don't buy that crap about "it's the government", and the shortage of brass and all that other crap, it's just pure greed.

mauser06

that cant be a price difference on THE SAME identical box of shells...

id say some were different....there is a such thing as high end/premium ammo...

and then there are corelokts and power points that are usually the cheapest...

just paying for better loading and better bullets...


alot of it is supply and demand...demand was so hard on the supply of EVERYTHING that it put pressure on the supply...therefore, the price rose on everything...and alot of things like primers are still hard to come by....heck, pistol ammo is JUST now pretty regular to find around here...

timbercruiser

On the Remington shells it is hard to beat Wal Mart. I havn't priced any this year tho. A couple of years ago I bought some Hornady .243 shells at the local gun store and they charged right at $44 a box, I went down to the Bass Pro a few days later and got the same cartridges for about $22 a box.

DeerandbearhoG

As stated, Im sure the gander mt quote was for premium ammo loaded w/ partions or somthing. going rate for less common, cartridges like the 280 is about 25-30$ for standard loads. ammo did start going up about 3 years ago, first 223 and 308 started going up and becoming hard to find ,due to the wars. and then a guy w/ a very anti gun voting record, got elected and triggered a huge buy up about a year ago, causing prices on guns, ammo and reloading components to skyrocket. like others have stated its supply and demand, plain and simple. This is why handloading has gone from a obscure hobby to common nessesity almost, in the past couple years.

Remnard

I have seen quite a disparity in prices also. I paid $27.95 for a box of remington psp in 165 grain 30-06. Then found the same rounds at gander mountain for 13.99. plus my brother works there so he got the employee discount. I need to stock up!

bigbulls

You guys have to understand how retail works.

Mom and pop shops do not have the purchasing power that places like Gander and Walmart have. Walmart literally buys ammunition by the box car load (meaning train box cars full of ammo) and might negotiate to pay $8 for a box of Brand "X" ammo and the exact same box of ammo will cost the mom and pop shop $15 from a distributor. So it is already costing twice as much from the mom and pop shop.

Then consider the fact that the mom and pop shop must make a higher profit margin than Walmart because they are not moving nearly as much product. While Walmart may mark up their incredibly cheap price by 30% the mom and pop shop must make a margin of 40-50% so they can pay the bills.

So, while Walmart can retail brand "X" ammo for $11.99 and profit $4 on every single box of the hundreds of thousands of boxes they sell the mom and pop shop must sell the same box of ammo for $25.00 in order to keep the lights on.


Now, having said all of this there are some places that will try to squeeze every single penny and screw the customers.

vabyrd

Gander Mountain around here is selling 130gr ball 9mm for $29.99 a box. Walmart, $9.64. Remington 270 Core-Lokts - Gander 26.99, Wal-mart 17.99. Complain all you want about WalMart, but the ones around here have not raised prices on anything. They have limited it to 6 boxes per customer, which is more than fair. Gander Mountain is the gouge miester, and they're not a mom and pop store.

You can't blame Walmart for buying it by the truck load, or the manufacturer for selling it. If Mom and Pop had any sense at all, they'd go to WalMart and buy it for $11.99 instead of a distributor for $15.00.

That's why Mom and Pop need to retire.

thatguybme

Gander Mtn seems to be very high priced when I started comparing.. For the 450 Bushmaster I just bought 8 boxes for $26/box (+5 s/h) - GM wants $40/box. Even Cabelas is only at $29/box. BUT GM has the shells in stock ready vs having to have them shipped..

There is only one variety of 450B ammo right now, so it isnt a different bullet, mfg or anything..

Brian

vabyrd

Gander Mountain is like the only gas station left open when there is a hurricane. People don't usually forget, either. I won't buy another round from them or gun for that matter. Not that I would ever buy one from them to begin with.