I was at the gun store the other day to buy some defensive pistol ammo. My favorite brand is Winchester Silvertips, not because they are the best available but because they are reliable feeders and the cost isn't sky high.
Silvertips were always sold in 50 round boxes, but this trip I found that the ammo is now packaged as 20 rounds. The price has also gone up per cartridge, since each box of 20 is about 1/2 the cost of what a box of 50 went for just three years ago. Less than 1/2 the ammo for 1/2 the price. I'll let you do the math.
This wasn't particularly surprising. Ammunition prices have been climbing steeply over the past few years. Offering smaller boxes means that people will still be able to afford the product, although they will also be shooting less rounds.
There are a variety of reasons why the cost is climbing, but the most significant factor is the Global War on Terror. This article from Strategypage.com explains that the unexpected demand has prompted the US military to look for ammo wherever it could. Foreign manufacturers, always a source for low cost bulk ammo on the civilian market, has been tapped to make up the shortfall when government facilities couldn't cope. Even civilian manufacturers were looked to as a source of supply. That is why the price of gun food has been climbing, since scarcity leads to higher prices.
One of the good things that no one seems to notice is that civilians like us may have to make the hard choice of spending more or shooting less, it looks like the terrorists don't have that luxury. This article, also from Strategypage.com, claims that the supply of ammunition is drying up for the "insurgents" in Iraq. Terrorist arms caches are being turned in by citizens looking to get away from jihadi fanatics, they are having trouble replacing the loss because the border is less porous to smuggling since the internal police forces are coming online, and hidden supply dumps left over from the Saddam regime have mostly been found and destroyed.
I bet a lot of you with surplus Warsaw Pact arms wishes that they had shipped a few hundred million rounds from those Saddam-era supply dumps over here to the American midwest instead of blowing them up in the Iraqi desert. I know I do!
Comments (3)
Silvertips are also good if you run into any werewolves, right?
Posted by Steven Den Beste | December 22, 2007 1:35 PM
Posted on December 22, 2007 13:35
W-W Silvertip ammo should not be presumed to be reliable in all calibers. It is gun-specific, you must test in yours. While much-touted in some of the gun rags for use in the .32 ACP I have found that Silvertip is a sure "Jam-O-Matic" receipe in most .32 auto pistols I have tested, including Colt Model M, Beretta M1935, Beretta M70, Beretta M21, Mauser HSc and Vz27. Expansion is only a sometimes thing. In my water jug tests perhaps 50% of .32 ACP Silvertip rounds expand at all. On those that do, penetration is poor. In the .32 ACP I prefer Geco, RWS, Sellier & Bellot or Fiocchi 73-gr. hardball.
Posted by ke4sky | March 3, 2008 12:38 PM
Posted on March 3, 2008 12:38
James what you encountered wasn't the norm for all caliburs they still sell silvertips in 50 round boxes they just sell .45 in 20 round boxes now like pretty much every major manufacturer of defensive .45 ammo these days. Their Winchester USA really cheap Hollow point is still sold per 50 round box. I made this discovery while comparing ammo prices for defensive loads between my 9mm and .45.
Posted by Chris | May 13, 2008 12:01 PM
Posted on May 13, 2008 12:01