38 Special sticker shock

A

AlHunt

Member
Joined
Jun 29, 2014
Messages
2,612
Reaction score
3,268
Location
Nabu
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.
 
Register to hide this ad
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.
 
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.
 
PeteC said:
Or, the big manufacturers cut back on .38 to fill orders for 9mm, ;)
Click to expand...

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.
 
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.
 
lrrifleman said:
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.
Click to expand...

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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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... :rolleyes: :D
 
.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.
 
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
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

T
Managing Reloading Inventory
2
Replies
30
Views
2K
NFrameFred
NFrameFred
D
Reloading the S&W 38 Special ?
Replies
10
Views
984
vipermd
vipermd
G
38 special brass- what brand do you like by best? Any to avoid?
2 3 4
Replies
64
Views
2K
Huskerguy
H
Jeroenw114
45ACP pistols. The unknown, the rare and the prototypes.
2 3
Replies
51
Views
11K
Lonestar57
Lonestar57
ddeanjohnson
For Sale WTS: 16 guns -- all offers respectfully considered -- collection liquidation
2
Replies
35
Views
21K
Heinz
Heinz

Latest posts

Back
Top