American Eagle .223 Ammo

[Drumbum]

I was at Wally World the other day and noticed the American Eagle ammo has gone up! I was paying $6.99 for a box of twenty and now they are $11.99 a box. It's not gonna break the bank or anything, but shooting the .223 is becoming $$$. Am I the only one that has noticed the prices going up? I live in GA.

 

[427mach1]

Are you sure you're looking at the same ammo? There are different grades of Federal. I bought a couple of 100 bulk pack Federals for $35.00 last weekend. They were out of the $6.99 (still had the space marked on the shelf, however), which is probably Federal/Lake City Armory ball ammo.

 

[JaPes]

About a year ago, I noticed prices of factory ammo go up 20% across the board. Just in the past month, I noticed another 20% increase in factory ammo retail prices. According to Tom Gresham (guntalk podcast), he's warning that another 20% increase is imminent this fall.

There is more demand/competition world wide for the metallic components that go into ammo: brass, lead, copper. Economically developing countries are investing in national infrastructure. Finite supply of refined metals, increasing demand.

I've seen 9mm Federal Champion 115gr FMJ practice ammo go from $8.99/50rd. to $10.24/50rd., now to $12.95-$13.95/50. Federal 158gr .357 Magnum soft point is almost $30/50rd.

The last time .223 steel case was on sale for $5.45/20 at Cabela's, I stocked up. I also stocked up on American Eagle varmint tipped when it was on sale months ago.

The ever increasing price of ammo gave me the impetus to learn to reload.

...and a Harbor Freight ultrasonic cleaning machine, digital calipers, grain weight scale, reloading manual, primers, powder, projectiles.

There is a bit of an up-front start up cost. Once you have the basic equipment, all you're doing is adding to it slowly over time. It's like building up a tool box.

Once I've gone through my .223 ammo stash, I'll start reloading .223. In preparation, I'm saving all my spent brass cases. The brass case is one of the most expensive components in a finished round of ammo.

I'm hand loading 9mm 90gr Frangible for ~$4.14 per 50 rounds.

I'm hand loading .357 Magnum for ~$5.83 per 50 rounds.

.45 ACP hard-cast LRN for ~$6.27 per 50.

I find I enjoy hand loading as much as I do shooting. Since my range time is limited to $20/1hr, I don't get to shoot any more rounds than I would regularly shoot. I'm saving money, not shooting more.

 

[oneyeopn]

My Dad bought some 55gr FMJ in a RedBox with no name on it, looks like Ram or American Eagle, not packaged for resale for $20 a box of 50, I had bought some Ram from the same person and had way better results out of freedom ammo, As far as Freedom the reloads are OK but the New loads are a lot better.

 

[Drumbum]

Yep, I guess it's time to order a die set for the .223 and stock up on components.

 

[Argonnakid]

Yep, I guess it's time to order a die set for the .223 and stock up on components.

better to have and not need than need and not have, by the way, have seen a $8 jump on cci primers in 3 months around here

 

[MichiganScott]

I just bought a case of Federal XM193F. The cheapest I could find was $0.40/ea. I bought another case in January for a dime less per round.

The XM193F is almost impossible to find. All my usual sources have been out for months with expected restock times of sometime next spring. It must be an election year.

Like JaPes, I enjoy handloading as much as shooting and have been doing so for 40 years. For some calibers I can't justify the spending the time for the savings accrued.

 

[oneyeopn]

it is hard to justify the time but for me being a retired (retarded) disabled vet I can justify the time spent. But like today where my grandfather passed away yesterday and I have a ton of cousins and nephews and such coming to town I am loading the cheap stuff, armscor over 4895 cause we are just going to burn ammo up, we do everytime we all get together

 

[MP22]

The prices of factory loads for all calibers have been creeping up four years. For that reason I started loading my own .22-250 ammo some time ago. I am now stocking up on supplies for my 9mm. Got about 1000 9mm brass saved up so far.