L.P. Brezny

The Great American Sporting Ammunition Crisis

by L.P. Brezny

On the day I sat down to write this story CNN had just announced that China was making a bid for a takeover of a major American oil company. While everyone was running around in a fuss about the whole thing, I was somewhat amused by the fact that foreign interests, like China poking their noses into American business, are far from anything new. I have been watching this element of the new so called world trade structure (China) walk away with the world metals market, and as such, gain a solid foot hold on the basic price of steel, tungsten, lead, and many other basic materials required to manufacture the rifle cartridges and shotshells you use in the field.

Even as I bring these words to print I’m sure there are those that will have cause to call me a panic stricken member of the shooting sports press. Be advised, folks, nothing could be further from the truth. Panic is not a part of my vocabulary, but truthful reporting is, and here in lies the reason I’m bringing this subject to the forefront as I’m getting a bit wary of the phone calls and e-mails claiming that ballistic types of gun writers, like myself, have no sense of reality when it comes to the price of a box of shotshells on the sporting goods store shelf.

I will freely admit that for the past 27 years I have evaluated both guns and ammunition as applied to sport hunting, target shooting, and even some military and police applications. In that period of time I have not pressed a great deal of my attention to product pricing because that subject was not relevant in terms of working through the basic evaluation associated with stating the facts as to the operational worth of a new shotshell.

With the recent turn of events regarding the basic price of raw metals that have taken a 17% wholesale jump at the time of this review, and likely to go even higher by year’s end, then adding rumblings within the industry of even higher ammo cost to come, I figured it was about time to take some time and give the reader the straight facts, versus an overview covering another new high priced shotshell.

At this point, I want to share a short lesson in basic economics. This lesson will deal with the cost of a single pound of tungsten, steel, or lead. I realize that these materials are not the sole elements that go into all types of ammunition, but they will serve to make my point. Now, to buy a single pound of tungsten on the open market currently you can expect to pay $20.00. Picking up a box of shotshells made of tungsten and weighing that 10 to 25 round package will quickly illustrate that most of that purchased ammunition has been eaten up in the basic cost of the raw tungsten metal used to manufacture the product.

Lesson learned here? That $20.00 a pound is a fixed, or even higher figure my friends, and you need to know that living with the big number is a new fact of life. The advanced types of shotshell ammunition are not about to become less expensive any time soon, if ever.

After the manufacturer has been skinned alive at the price of $20.00 for raw material, that company is now faced with trying to turn that raw product into a ball of usable shot material that meets all the federal government requirements, shoots well on game, and can be marketed in terms of transport, advertising, and finally retail sales. Up until several years ago, I had no idea of how it all worked in terms of manufacturing and marketing. Today, I build special low sound emission shotgun barrel systems (Metro Gun TM), and after taking on manufacturing, marketing, and retail sales, I’m an overnight expert as to the pitfalls of selling shooting products, being guns or ammo.

Even when turning to simple lead shot loads or bullet cores the basic cost of lead today is at an all time high. You can figure that each pound of finished product will cost the manufacturer a cool .50 cents a pound for the unrefined raw lead. Steel based ammo as in non-toxic shot will run .80 cents a pound up front. All this is assuming the world market remains steady, but who thinks that will occur any time soon?

If this does not give you enough to think about just try to wrap your brain around the idea that the major reason lead mines are doing well is because of the use of lead in storage batteries. We know that scientific work is underway to eliminate lead in storage batteries, and when that day rolls around you will be hard pressed to find any lead being processed for ammunition production. Batteries or shot, the primary user here is obvious, and shot will lose out causing a low volume market commodity that will retain a very high price per pound. This is not the rambling of a out of touch ballistics writer, but rather one who has been taking note of the current market situation and talking with the right kind of sources that are paid to understand such events. Believe me, my friends, the times they are a changing, and darn fast at that.

There are steps that can be taken to at least stay even with all this fluctuation in pricing, and the basic cost of doing business in the shooting sports field. First of all, handloading your ammunition will cut about 30 % to 50% off the price of your better grade shotshells. Outlets like Ballistic Products out of Corcoran Minnesota can set you up to load almost any and all types of shotshells that are in commercial production today. After the cost of the basic reloading equipment it is all down hill, and you will find that you can shoot more for much less. However, you will have to invest some of your time to gain those kinds of savings.

A second choice is to down grade your choice in field loads, and hunt smart and tighter to the goose decoys. Hold off for the best shots at workable ranges, and back off the long range pokes at targets too far away.

Currently, every ammunition manufacturer offers good solid lead and non-toxic loads that are priced right and hit hard at normal gunning ranges (40 yards or less). The fact is, basic shotshell and even rifle ammunition has not increased proportionately with the times as other commodities have. In general, standard grade ammunition for sporting purposes is a bargain, and being almost given away by the manufacturers so as to allow them to stay in business now a days. If you could actually see the amount of profit gain by the manufacturer as per a single box of shotshells, you would have little or nothing to say thereafter in terms of criticism. When I see these figures on paper I am darn grateful that they are still turning out the stuff, but wonder how long they can maintain production under those kinds of financial pressures?

Also, in the area of modifying your needs you can move away from the so called long range big loads and turn to the shorter 2 3/4” fodder and even smaller gauge offerings. If your shooting a 10 gauge 3.5” magnum you can expect to pay for the privilege, and that also goes the same for the big 3.5” 12 bores and even some higher end 3” magnums. Get more realistic and understand that more shot, more powder will not always equate to putting more birds in the duck boat. Accuracy counts for a whole lot here, and a nice tight 1 1/4 oz or even 1 1/8 oz 2 3/4 “ 12 bore steel or lead shot field load can get it done if you do your part much of the time.

When you are done complaining about ammo costs keep another thing in mind. As I have shot ammunition manufactured from the old communist block countries to the Americas (Mexico) I can state for a fact that our manufacturers are loading a quality product right down to the very low priced promotional loads. You have seen nothing until you chambered some of the so-called field ammo billed by some obscure foreign manufacturers. Duds, no extraction due to almost no case rim, and in the dump down range ballistics are just some of the problems I have encountered with non-American manufactured ammo. At one point I hunted Mexico with ammo that was so bad that I carried a screwdriver to extract my spent hulls from the old reliable Remington 870 over the course of several days.

Sporting ammunition will continue to increase in price, as to that fact you can be sure. Like the massive urban sprawl that eats up our land, or those ongoing locked up land deals by high roller individuals and corporations that force out the average hunter, the high cost of some ammunition as a problem element is also here to stay. By thinking on your feet, buying wisely, and shooting straight, you can suppress some of those increasing ammo costs when waterfowl hunting.