Inflation strikes the shooting sports

[Pete Lester]

From Powder Valley

"CCI, Federal, Remington, Speer have announced an impending price increase of 7+% on all items and 15% on primers."

[Dean Romig]

This in the middle of a shortage is an outrage!!

Can you say “Profiteering”?





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[Pete Lester]

This in the middle of a shortage is an outrage!!

Can you say “Profiteering”?





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I could but I prefer the term Demand-Pull inflation.

[Dean Romig]

Right - Supply & demand, where the demand is much greater than the supply "so we'll just tack on a little extra... because we can."





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[Pete Lester]

Whether it is demand/supply economics or the cost of raw materials has gone up it all leads to this.

[Steve Huffman]

They see the future of who were not suppose to talk about here just wait !

[Bill Murphy]

7% is a drop in the bucket. Go on the net and try to buy anything for less than 700% of the normal price.

[Pete Lester]

7% is a drop in the bucket. Go on the net and try to buy anything for less than 700% of the normal price.

Big difference between retail hikes and scalping. Seven percent by itself can be easily absorbed by most people. Question is how fast and how much will the next increase be and the one after that etc. Have you bought any lumber lately or tires, inflation is not limited to ammo and components but it is relevant to our shared interest.

[Mills Morrison]

Inflation is going to come everywhere I am afraid.

[J. Scott Hanes]

What was left out of the OP's post is that Winchester has already imposed one price increase effective April 1 and has announced another 15-25% effective May 1.

Gentlemen, I spent most of my Remington career in the ammunition side of the business. Believe me, the manufacturers do not like price increases of this magnitude...at any time. It is a shock to the whole industry. However, these companies ALL wish to stay in business and have deemed it necessary to raise selling prices because their COSTS have and are projected to increase. Copper [major to brass shells] has already increased 70% just in the past few months and projections are for it to significantly continue. Steel prices are up [think tooling]. Plastics are increasing as well [plastic shotshell bodies]. And the list goes on.

The real issue is what governments all over world have gone on a berserk printing spree and the economic impacts are now being realized. It is going to be a rough ride for a while.

[Ken Hill]

They are raising "vapor" because there still is nothing on the shelves.

Ken

[Dean Romig]

Do we all remember the gasoline and heating oil shortage of '73 - '74 (where the tankers were sitting just offshore) when the shortage was 'invented' simply to boost the prices (profits for the oil companies) before the "shortage ended?.... I do!





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[Pete Lester]

Do we all remember the gasoline and heating oil shortage of '73 - '74 (where the tankers were sitting just offshore) when the shortage was 'invented' simply to boost the prices (profits for the oil companies) before the "shortage ended?.... I do!





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That was when oil was used as an economic weapon for the US support of Israel following the Yom Kippur War. OPEC was unified. OPEC reduced production, increased the price off crude and cut shipments to the U.S.
Are you suggesting the ammo manufacturers are doing the same thing and there are boatloads of ammo and components being deliberately withheld from the market? I think there is something different going on.

[William Davis]

For some time Roto Metals has been my shot source when local shop is out of stock. Year ago was buying 2 bags with shipping included just under 100 dollars. Few months ago 110 dollars. Order delivered yesterday 130 dollars, all round figures .

Post office priority mail went up a couple of bucks, Roto has to charge state sales tax now. About 6 dollars. In a year scrap lead has gone from around 1700 dollars a ton to 2100 now back down to 2000 let’s call it 15 % increase

Taken as a whole shot by itself Roto’s not gouging. Disturbing trend and one we will see more of everything is going up. Shot the least of it. Gas & target fees, primers and powder if you could find them. The sport is getting getting more expensive no way around it.

William

[Dean Romig]

No Pete. I probably chose the wrong crisis to exemplify my point. The point is - never let a good crisis go to waste. The shortages, compounded by the Covid situation the world is in, any shortage in fact, is the perfect time to bump prices. And another reason why prices are inflated is because PEOPLE WILL PAY THOSE PRICES.





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[Pete Lester]

No Pete. I probably chose the wrong crisis to exemplify my point. The point is - never let a good crisis go to waste. The shortages, compounded by the Covid situation the world is in, any shortage in fact, is the perfect time to bump prices. And another reason why prices are inflated is because PEOPLE WILL PAY THOSE PRICES.





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Supply and demand is certainly part of the problem. I also believe an abundance of available money is another factor, combine the historic low interest rates with a massive amount of money flooding the economy and a government monetizing it's debt has combined to create the perfect storm for inflation. It seemed to be limited to real estate initially, then it moved to lumber but now lots of commodities are increasing in price. I am looking at putting new tires on my truck, Hankook just announced a 5% increase on light truck tires this past week. Everyday I seem to be seeing these announcements of prices increases. Question is, will it be temporary or a return to the 1970's, time will tell. Regardless empty shelves for ammunition and reloading components dragging on for months is very troubling if you are a shooter.

[Terry Hobson]

Yes, if I remember from Economics class the classic cause if inflation is "to much money chasing to few goods".

[Dean Romig]

And, if we think it’s bad now - just wait until the $15/hr. minimum wage is adopted in a good number of states... we can’t for one minute think businesses and corporations are just going to absorb those costs... the buying public will be paying every cent of a minimum wage increase.





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[Richard Flanders]

I've come to the conclusion that most of our commodity prices are not fluctuating "organically". This is not a case of supply and demand for the most part. Someone is manipulating them somehow. Copper prices have been going up since at least 1960 when it was .29/#. There was a huge leap up around in ~2002 when the Chinese decided to build huge cities that no one moved into; once that failed attempt was over, copper plummeted then started climbing back up. For the past 10yrs it has a trendline of dropping slowly. I make my living exploring for metals and the prices often just cannot be figured out using a supply/demand system. What's going on with precious metals these days makes no sense at all on a supply/demand system, especially if you include the stock markets in your observations. Everyone in the mining industry is shaking their heads in disbelief and stumbling to explain any of it logically, and none of their explanations make any sense at all, which throws a serious monkey wrench into any exploration and development plans a mining company is trying to put together. It all stinks of manipulation. There are charts like this one below for all the metals and for crude oil for anyone interested.

https://www.macrotrends.net/1476/copper-prices-historical-chart-data

[Mike Koneski]

Everything is going up. Have you looked at building supplies lately? They have gone up more than 7%. With the current state of affairs I don't see this ending any time soon. We are being played.

[Richard Flanders]

Yes we are. Lumber up here has gone up 100% in a year I'm told.

[Mike Koneski]

My family has been in the construction business since 1971. My brother worked up a price for a new home around February of 2020. They decided to wait a year. Price is over 33% higher now due to material cost increases.

[Pete Lester]

I ordered two bags of Eagle brand shot size 6 for crow hunting just before Christmas. it was $113.98 shipped. Today it would be $143.98 shipped, that's a 26%+ increase. Hello again 1979.

[Randy G Roberts]

Everything is going up. Have you looked at building supplies lately? They have gone up more than 7%. With the current state of affairs I don't see this ending any time soon. We are being played.

Unfortunately I have, been working on a barn project which turned out to be bad timing from a pricing standpoint. Just purchased some 7/16" OSB at a price just North of $32 per sheet :eek: And I hear it's going up even more !

[J. Scott Hanes]

When the Federal Government has the Federal Reserve print TRILLIONS of new dollars, all the dollars become worth LESS. Prices are not going UP; Dollar value is going DOWN.

[Dean Romig]

When the Federal Government has the Federal Reserve print TRILLIONS of new dollars, all the dollars become worth LESS. Prices are not going UP; Dollar value is going DOWN.



BINGO !!





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[Mills Morrison]

Absolutely! And most of this new "stimulus" is not going to the people.

[John Dallas]

The bad news - Just paid $38 for a brick of Win 209 primers (+$17.50 HazMat fee) from Ballistic Products.

The good news for those who load Cheddite hulls - As of Saturday they had Cheddite primers. No idea what the price is (was)

[Pete Lester]

For some time Roto Metals has been my shot source when local shop is out of stock. Year ago was buying 2 bags with shipping included just under 100 dollars. Few months ago 110 dollars. Order delivered yesterday 130 dollars, all round figures .

Post office priority mail went up a couple of bucks, Roto has to charge state sales tax now. About 6 dollars. In a year scrap lead has gone from around 1700 dollars a ton to 2100 now back down to 2000 let’s call it 15 % increase

Taken as a whole shot by itself Roto’s not gouging. Disturbing trend and one we will see more of everything is going up. Shot the least of it. Gas & target fees, primers and powder if you could find them. The sport is getting getting more expensive no way around it.

William

Rotometals has increased their price again, $179.98 for two 25lb bags of lead shot shipped.

https://www.rotometals.com/eagle-magnum-shot-lead-2-25-bags-50-lbs-size-4-9-freight-included/

[Andrew Sacco]

Dang it. I called a LGS this morning, he won't sell shot anymore because of the cost and he has to buy so much of it. Does anyone or has anyone ever gone in on a bulk buy and split it up? Is there even any savings there?

[Jim McKee]

Local GS sells #7.5; #8 & #9 bags of magnum shot (25lbs) $ 55.00/bag.
No larger shot offered.

[Mike Koneski]

The bad news - Just paid $38 for a brick of Win 209 primers (+$17.50 HazMat fee) from Ballistic Products.

The good news for those who load Cheddite hulls - As of Saturday they had Cheddite primers. No idea what the price is (was)

Key word was "HAD". They sold out their Cheddite primers in a few hours. You were limited to 20,000 primers.

[Mike Koneski]

Dang it. I called a LGS this morning, he won't sell shot anymore because of the cost and he has to buy so much of it. Does anyone or has anyone ever gone in on a bulk buy and split it up? Is there even any savings there?

Andy, if you have him order a pallet of shot you could move it all. We just had 30 bags brought in for our guys and they sold within one afternoon. Price was $43/bag for Eagle Brand Magnum Shot. That price is another thing we can thank Barry (Obama) for. He shut down the last of the lead plants in the USA. Everything is imported. Doesn't help that China and India are major lead users. Batteries are a biggie.

[Pete Lester]

West Coast Shot has recently increased the price of a bag magnum shot to $75 a bag. $178 for two bags shipped directly from them to your door. They were priced at $45 a bag about two weeks ago. This puts the cost of shot at over $5.50 a box for one ounce loads. If you want some additional sticker shock go to the Remington and Federal pages and see their current suggested prices on shot shells.

[Austin J Hawthorne Jr.]

HOLY C--P

[Andrew Sacco]

Mike I’ll ask and see if I can order a whole pallet. A lot of guys use #9 he couldn’t get that. 7.5 and 8 were OK.

[Jim McKee]

Pete,
Thanks for the heads up
I bought 4 bags of 7.5 magnum shot to have a small supply ( $55.00/bag)
Thanks!
Jim

[charlie cleveland]

I just gave 85 dollars for a bag of no 7 shot 25 lb. at a gun shop... I should have passed but I was low on shot...have not been finding any of the 100 round boxes of federal and Remington at wally world in the last few weeks...at 22 dollars a box of 100 that a fair price if you can find them...charlie

[Pete Lester]

...have not been finding any of the 100 round boxes of federal and Remington at wally world in the last few weeks...at 22 dollars a box of 100 that a fair price if you can find them...charlie

I don't go looking for those Federal 4 packs at Wally cause the shelves are usually bare but I will buy them if I see them there when I go shopping for something else. The larger Walmart has put a one per customer limit on them. I have to wonder if lead shot is going up significantly how much longer the $22 and change price will last. In the last month I have managed to find three Federal four packs, four pounds of IMR Red powder, a sleeve of 100 Win primers, and two boxes of AA 20 gauge low recoil all at normal prices. I have seen some Remington Gun Club in 12 ga for $12.99 a box, limit one box and passed. The same place had a few sleeves of 100 Federal 209A's, limit one, for the bargain price of $19.99, I passed on that too.

I suspect a year from now what we will call a fair price will be a bit different from what we called a fair price a year ago.

[Gary Laudermilch]

Got 8 bags of Eagle magnum 8's today at a local shop for $41.95 a bag. Still not much powder and no primers.