Shooting guns: the cost of ammo

by Erik  

One of the most over-looked things when buying a gun is the cost of shooting it. The cost of ammunition has slowly increased over time and there are no signs of it getting any cheaper. So we are stuck paying high prices and just have to deal with it right? Not necessarily. I like to shoot, and shoot a lot! The following sections will focus on ways to shoot your guns a little cheaper.
Like everything else in the world, the Internet has forced competition in both guns and ammo. Even with the added fee of shipping such heavy cases of ammo, you will often find better deals online than going to a retail gun store or even Walmart.

Walmart still has some of the best prices for ammo locally, but their stock goes quickly and you don't know what they have until you get there. For a few months straight, it was nearly impossible to find .45 ACP at my local Walmart. I still use Walmart as my single source for .22 ammo as they sell a few different 500+ round boxes for around $18.

For other caliber such as .223/5.56, 9mm, and .45 ACP I turn to Internet retailers who are some of the best at getting rock bottom prices delivered directly to your doorstep. Some suppliers require a copy of your ID as proof of age. It is also illegal to buy ammunition online in many counties of California. As I said before, if you like guns and live in California, MOVE! The sites listed below are where I commonly purchase ammo. Note that it won't be worth buying online unless you are going to buy at least 500 rounds at a time:

Aimsurplus.com has great prices on all wolf ammo. I haven't been able to find anything online that is cheaper for that specific ammo. They also have sell various types of military surplus ammo. I'm talking cold war surplus ammo, not XM193. You will also find good deals of a few other items and they carry a lot of gear from Spike's Tactical exclusively. Aim even offers slight discounts for buying 1,000+ rounds.

SGammo.com is a family owned and operated ammo supplier. They have the lowest pricing i have found for .45 ACP from Tula. They also carry some hard to find ammo like subsonic, some military surplus, and other useful stuff.

Cheaperthandirt.com is not really cheaper than dirt. They have fairly low prices on some things, but they do have a great selection of almost anything you need. Their stock sells out quickly if they are running a deal and sometimes it takes weeks for them to re-stock it.

Gun-deals.com is a user-contributed site that organizes many things including ammo by price. You can sort through all different calibers and find the absolute lowest pricing from any distributor listed. Although, I have found numerous broken links, unavailable products, or misquoted products in their results.

Your only alternative to buying online is reloading. You won't find much information on reloading here because I don't do it and don't know much about it. With the amount of time involved, supplies, and tools I have a hard time justifying reloads over steel-cased ammo.

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