Apparently, the 38SPL is enjoying fantastic popularity at the moment, judging by the high cost for this often scorned round.

I troll ammoseek off and on looking for components and monitoring ammo prices.

This morning, out of curiosity, I looked for 38 special and was (at first) surprised that the lowly 38 starts at about .85/round and escalates from there. Plus shipping.

The .357Mag starts at about .75/round
9mm is starting about .51/round

Thinking about it, I wonder if there are more 38SPL firearms floating around out there,or 9MM. They've both been around forever. The 38 has the advantage that it can be used in the .357, too, so maybe that adds to it's popularity.

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Just Say No - To Social Media

Or, the big manufacturers cut back on .38 to fill orders for 9mm,

Likely the case.

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VCDL, GOA, NRA

World wide the 9mm is without doubt far beyond .38 Special, etc. in demand, production, etc. Would imagine as the shortage alleviates 9mm will be the focus of production simply b/c of demand, etc. .38 Special will follow. At some point the manufacturers will over produce relative to demand and prices will fall. JMHO. Sincerely. bruce.

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<><

40 years ago the .38 Special was the 9mm of it's day. There is a huge installed base no doubt. I don't have any data to prove it but 9mm probably wasn't #2, I think the .45 was, but the 9mm was most likely in the top 5.

In the "Bedside gun" thread I posted a pic of my .38 that has served in that capacity for 40 years. There's a lot of guns like that out there. It could be these are now owned by people that normally don't shoot but when they hear there's a shortage they'll run out and buy a couple of boxes. Since they aren't really consuming the ammo the price doesn't really matter. A one-time cost of $100 vs what should be $30 isn't that big a deal.

There's currently a run on ammo happening. You can't find much of any ammo for sale and what you can find is at record prices. That's just the world we live in right now and I don't see it getting better any time soon.

That said, .38 Special has been scarce and expensive compared to 9mm for some time. Pre-COVID/election 2020 you buy 9mm plinking ammo for $10 a box, sometimes less. At that time, even the cheapest .38 special ammo was running $18 a box or more. I assume that reflects the relative popularity of semi-autos vs. revolvers.

For me, that meant that it made sense to reload .38 special, while I couldn't be bothered with 9mm. A year ago I bought a Dillon Square Deal press in .38 Special. In the past couple of months I've run through a couple 500 round boxes of LSWCHP bullets I had squirreled away. I was so thankful that I had bought the Square Deal. It's a cartridge making MACHINE.

The problem going forward is going to be finding components.

The range I use has 5 gallon buckets for your brass, I will bring home half of a bucket when I need brass. after sorting 90% or better is 9MM. I need 45 brass and out of a couple hundred cases I will have maybe 15-20 45 cases. 9MM is king when it comes to popularity.

Well, fair enough. I went back and looked. There are 26 listings for 38 and 430 for 9mm.

I'm getting ready to build a few hundred 38s, having just put together a thousand or so 9mm.

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Just Say No - To Social Media

In many respects, I must agree with Bladeswitcher. Once I became more mobile and shed the wheelchair after my accident, I would wander a few gunshops checking out prices. By 2012, 38 Special, along with most all revolver ammunition, was rather difficult to find. Lead wadcutter, round nose, and SWC ammo was almost non-existent (when found, expect to pay at least $30 for a 50 round box). What was more prevalent, was current production 130gr FMJ in 38 Special, running about $20 a box of 50 rounds.

I am very grateful that I reload and have the resources to cast my own handgun bullets.

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Judge control not gun control!

Yeah, I could see people turning up their noses at old fashioned lead bullets when they could have those shiny modern ones.

I've bought very little factory ammo over the last 20 or 30 years so I'm out of touch.

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Just Say No - To Social Media

The manufacturers are just devoting precious resources such as primers and brass to the more popular rounds, and the supply of 38spl and other less popular loads (comparatively) is dwindling. I can routinely get 9mm for 40-60cents per round if I look hard enough, but 38 is easily 60-85 cents per, and if you are trolling gunbroker, people are apparently willing to bid auctions up to excess of 1 dollar per round on 38. nuts.

I used to have 1500 rounds of Aquila 22LR.
Not any more!
Traded 1,000 rounds for 200 Rounds of Remington 38 Special +P 125 JHP.
Some day I’ll actually shoot some of that Aquila.
Maybe.

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NRA LIFE MEMBER

I heard an explanation that made sense. Unlike Bob in his basement, ammo manufacturers can’t just switch their production line to produce all 9mm effectively. Of course personal can be shifted to other lines but it is not practical to switch the 40 or 357 line to produce 9mm or 38spl.

My old agency, Calif. Dept. of Corrections, switched from .38 Special to .40 strictly due to the ammo cost. The switch began about 2-3 years back.

Sure glad I reload.

There is a middle ground between the big manufacturers who do not bother to make .38 spl right now, and DIY reloading. Small companies are filling that niche, and hopefully will continue to do so for those of us who find reloading one bridge too far, and/or can't find our favorite caliber on the shelf.

The one I ordered from is charging $25/50 for reloads, and about $30/50 for new, plus ship. 250 round limit per customer per month. Different calibers go in and out of stock, but they always seem to have more .38 spl within a few days. I ordered reloads, and would not have known the difference comparing to some old Federal .38 spl at the range. The brass in my order was all stamped Winchester and looked identical.

The downside is that you won't find any rounds with names like "Gold-Plus-P-Plus-Ultra", "Magic-Purple-Dot", or "Vampire Slayer" at those companies, and the boxes may not be printed on a 3-color press... oh wait, on second thought, maybe that is not so bad...

.38 special has the advantage of being suitable for the hordes of .38 Special revolvers already in the installed base. When a friend wanted to buy his first gun my only suggestion was a .38 Special revolver in good used condition.

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....for my wife at a reasonable price. Nobody wanted to fight over an OLD revolver, but it suits her just fine.

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

I have 2 9mms and 2 38/357s. I have well over 1000 rds of 9mm, but only 150-200rds of 38/357. Its harder to find and way more expensive. Regardless, I ain't shooting any of either anytime soon. I bought a Ruger Mark IV 22/45 to shoot, just to keep the muscle memory, fundamentals current. I have 1000s of rds of .22

According to this 2019 article the .38 is #4 in the U.S.

Top 5 Most Popular Calibers for Handguns :: Guns.com

I think the .40 has probably dropped down the list a notch or two since then.

They still sell a lot of 2" .38 revolvers.

This is the way it was explained to me:

They can switch it over if it was designed to do so and they have the tooling for the other caliber. But they wouldn't unless the line wasn't selling. Clearly that's not the case as pretty much everything is selling.

Why shut down to convert the .38 line to 9mm if you're selling everything you can make in .38? It's lost production time hence lost revenue. Doesn't make sense to do so on any level.

Some calibers are made infrequently/seasonally. These are done on machines that can be converted. So they'll annually do runs of .38 S&W, .41 Magnum, .38 Super, etc. But these machines tend to be slower than dedicated lines. Just a different type of equipment. Now they might convert these machines to run something more popular if they have the tooling to do so.

In 1967 I asked my Daddy for $10.00 advance on my allowance ... I wanted to buy a Lee Loader and reload my own 38/357 ammo... my Dad looked at me like I had lost my mind ... but took out his wallet and gave me a $20.00 " You going to need some extra stuff I'm sure ... Don't Tell Your Momma !"
That wasn't such a dumb thing to do ... might be one of the smarter things I've ever done ... Thanks Dad for believing in me !

A week after starting reloading ... I started casting bullets and can honestly say have never suffered for a lack of ammo .

The 38 Special is still my most reloaded most fired and most enjoyable round ...I have several firearms in many calibers but hands down the 38 Special is my winner !
Gary

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NRA Member

Another problem is people buying boxes of ammo in a caliber they do not need, because what they wanted has a two box limit. Two employees at a separate gun shop and a range told me they saw that happen.

Someone walks in to buy 200 rounds of 9mm and finds out the shop has a two box per caliber limit. So they buy 2 boxes of 9mm, and two more boxes of whatever is available... like 38. The LGS employee told me he saw it happen more than once.

customer: "Give me a couple boxes of 9mm!"
LGS owner: "Here you go sir, anything else?"
customer: "What are those for, the green box on the shelf?"
LGS owner: "Those are for a revolver sir."
customer: "Oh, right... how much?"
LGS owner: "$30 a box"
customer: "Ok, I'll take two"

LOL. After that happened a few times, they put a 100 round limit on handgun ammo, total, and now they only sell .38spl with a gun purchase, unless you are a regular customer.

My $64 question: Have ammunition imports also halted? Sellier & Bellot, Aguila, PPU, MagTech, name some others... Since most of this discussion seems to be centered around 9mm FMJ, one would think these foreign mfgrs would attempt to ship as much of this world standard ammunition as possible. It's not like there's any shortage overseas with countless billions of 9mm ball in the world's armories (I know, not for export) and restricted civilian usage almost everywhere. What am I missing?

Kaaskop49
Shield #5103

... in 1980, it was still expedient to drop by any gun shop and pick up a couple boxes of 25 or a box of 50 .38 JHPs +P and go pop 'em off on the range without a second thought.

Here I am dreaming about how good the 'old times' were.

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

38spl has got NOTHING on 9mm.
I saw this for sale the other day.

Attached Images

IMG_7817.jpg (112.5 KB, 182 views)

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Stay protected my friends.

Doesn't mean a thing unless it sold at that price. I could scrounge a pic of a box of .38 with a $500.00 price tag on it if I wanted too. Which I dont.

Supposedly the former Remington ammo plant will come on line again this month to manufacture ammo. Not that I'm a fan of Remington ammo, but if other people buy Remington ammo maybe they won't be buying the stuff that I want. And maybe prices will head south a tad. 'No idea what label the ammo will be sold as - anybody know?

WOW! Well a number of years ago it was suggested to me that 38's were going and way out of useful. I continued to save and collect such brass, including a whole case in the boxes that was gifted to me. Everything deprimed, cleaned and put back. was also told along the line that loading 9mm was a waste of time because it was so cheap---- well, whose laughing now-- I have enough put back to last me the rest of my life, and shooting all I have time for. I pretty much keep 20 boxes loaded at all times, cleaning up and makeing ready to load as I use them up. Staying prepared is what its all about in my book as my D.I. told me back in 1962-- doesnt matter what it is. we never thought about reloading back then but it sure fit 60 years later. Saw some white box Winchesters for sale for $57.00 a box just a few days ago, in passing of course.

I had a table at a very small show this weekend. The number of folks new to guns surpassed the fall shows I attended.


One guy accused me of trying to sell him Hornady bullets for reloading his .223 that wouldn't work 'because these are labeled .224. I don't own a .224.' He also didn't own a press yet either, I found out.


Another guy who I told earlier in the day that he shouldn't use a set of 6mm dies on his .243 Win came back by my table on the way out and said 'you were wrong about those dies' and pulled out a box of RCBS 6mm dies and waved it at me.


I had Speer 38+P GDHP short barrel ammo in 50 round boxes for sale for $40. A lady stopped and asked me why my ammo was so expensive. Which type ma'am? "That 38 right there. I just paid $30 for the same ammo over at that table." She pulled out a 20 round box of the same stuff and shook it at me. But the box was so worn the end label came loose and she spilled most of the rounds onto an elk hide on my table. Come to find out it wasn't full, missing 4 rounds. She asked me if she could buy 4 rounds from me. Sure. 40 bucks. I thought she was going to shoot me the finger as she walked away. The show sponsor came over to me later and said she had run me in as being a smart ***. He laughed when I told him why.


Had tons of guys ask me if they could load 30-06 or 300 Blackout or 6.5 something with "that powder." I told them they needed to do some research beforehand.


Three guys called their wives right in front of me to ask it was OK to buy a gun. One guy even told me afterward he really didn't have to do that but was just being respectful. I nodded.


It was a great day. Otherwise, I would have been hand digging postholes.

Nope, but do you think wholesalers are letting Privi 158 gr "non+P FBI load" go for $12.99/box 50. Their costs are the same but we do live in a "CAPITALIST" society, at least for the next month or so. Joe

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Wisdom chases me; I'm faster

At this weekend's gun show, Browning 124 grain FMJ 9mm was $189 for 150 rounds.

On one of the search sites today, .38 spl was ranked 15th, with 1.5% of searches (ammoseek). Only the two lowest priced brands were under a dollar, Norma and Freedom, at 85 cents/round. 17 search results for .38 spl compared to 350 for 9mm.

At the same time, you can still buy factory reloads for 50 cents online, from established local sources.

.38 spl may well rank 4~5 on the list of guns, but that does not translate into ammo sales. At my range, a typical person with a 9mm autoloader will empty a 15 round clip in the time it takes me to shoot 6 rounds (!). Last two times I was the only person out of 6~8 occupied lanes shooting a revolver.

You do the math,

9mm loaded ammo is non existent in my neck of the woods as are a lot of calibers like 223. I'm lucky I reload but there are NO small pistol or small rifle primers to be had.

I would expect the new owners ( Vista Outdoors a spinoff of ATK) will continue to use the Remington name for brand recognition reasons. They already own Federal, CCI, Speer and a number of other ammunition related companies and run them under the recognized business names people are used to.

While Remington has had occasional production issues over the years (lots of bad press about their 22 line for instance for several years) they are a well known name and many people do buy their ammo regularly. It will certainly help to get their ammo production up and running again. Demand is extremely high and any increase in supply will help with this current situation.

When .38spl gets to $400/box I’ll sell half my stash and buy a new truck. Joe

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Wisdom chases me; I'm faster

The last box of 38 Special I actually saw in a store was down at Sportsman's Warehouse.
They only had one 100 Round box of kind of Premium Ammo, couldn’t find the price.
Had a clerk scan it. OMG!
Took it back, put it back on the shelf.
It was about $1 a round.

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NRA LIFE MEMBER

It's insane currently.
Even though I've loaded for years, I'd pretty much quit loading for 9mm for just practice and drills fodder.
It was so cheap - and I even bought and used some of the steel cased stuff so I'd not even have to think about picking up the cases at my own range. (soft, semi-wet ground, it just goes into the ground if left)

Now, looks like I may want to set up my ~35 y.o. Dillon 450B and make some more 9mm, and start on some of the components I stocked up on in the "Prepare For Y2K" time-frame.

Am hearing from LGS owners that many CC classes are being affected because signed-up students cannot source ammo needed for the classes.
What WAS cheap white-box promo ammo is bringing 3x-4x what it did cost, if it can even be found.

Will be interesting to see how long this craziness lasts......

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Ret'd LEO
SWCA #2275

Joe, I gotta kid you on this one since you're cool and have helped me in the past (finding those J-frame grips), try finding multiple folks who have that $400 for a box. Not in my neck of the woods (LV).

And as to selling part of a stash, my advice is "Don't sell nobody nothin'". I won't, not wanting to call attention to myself that I have ANY ammo. Overly cautious? You're darn right! I did read that recent comment someone overheard about needing just 1 round to obtain somebody's stash...

Interesting point by another poster unable to find 12 gauge #4 buckshot: During the crunch of '12-'13, the shows were FULL of 12 gauge 'business' ammo: buck and slugs. Now even that has dried up. Nobody nothin'. Be safe, Joe.

Kaaskop49
Shield #5103

I have a bud working the counter at a local gunshop. Told me over the weekend (they went to 6 12hour days a week) an "older" lady bought an Airweight .38. Needed ammo for it. He says: "The self defense ammo is very expensive right now, about $2/rd." She bought 100 rds because "That's all she could afford." $400/box is only $4X that. Around here folks are either 16 people living in a single wide at the end of a dirt road or so flush they trade in a Mercedes when the first tank of gas gets below 1/4. I'm keeping my head down and my eyes and ears open. Joe

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Wisdom chases me; I'm faster

My local gunshop looked barren. I went to buy some 8mm mauser they had and someone snapped that up too.

Lucked out today. Stopped by Sportsman's Warehouse today for some trout leader material. As usual cruised through the gun section. They had about 2 cases worth of Blazer 9mm (brass case 115 FMJ) on the shelf. $15.99 - limit 2-50 round boxes per customer. The rest of the shelves were pretty much bare.

Higher than pre-shortage price but still reasonable enough that I bought my 2. Wonder if this will be the new "normal" price?

I'll take 5K rds at that price, going forward from here. Just like gas doubled in the '73 gas "crisis", again in 1980, ammo doubled after the "2008 panic" from $4/box 50 to $25-$30 and settling around $8, $16 is the next "logical double" and that would seem reasonable from where we are. Was a nice relief when gas went from $4.25/ gal in the previous regime to the current $2.10. Don't see that happening with ammo again, near term. Joe

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Wisdom chases me; I'm faster

I was shocked today. Rem. 158gr RNL, $50 for a box of 50! Did not get any.

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No baby we aint

If a person really needed ammo it's my opinion that being available at a high price is better than not available at a low price or not available at any price. Larry

My wife works behind the pistol counter. Some men don't even realize how ridiculous they look when they call their wives to ask permission to buy a gun...while standing in front of a women selling them the gun..
Just for fun, she usually tells them to have their wives call her so she can straighten them out.