What's going on with US ammunition prices?

[Cootmeurer]

Cootmeuer,
Compared to the US price - there’s trans-atlantic transportation costs of course. As far ‘tariffs’ are concerned (well that’s US area of expertise), for ammunition coming into the U.K. the excise duty is 0 to 2%.
There’s also 20% VAT (analogous to a US ‘sales tax’).

The taxation situation hasn’t changed recently either so that doesn’t explain noticeable increases in price.

Leaving aside the retailers margin, most of the additional price difference is due to the distribution & marketing overhead. Some costs wrapped in there will have risen to be fair - but that overhead also includes the distributors margin (make of that last part what you will).

To give just one example - the distribution chain for Berger bullets into the U.K. changed not so long ago. The result was a sizeable price hike due almost entirely to this revised supply chain.

Related to all of this - the loss of Hannam’s as an independent importer/distributor is a great pity. The result will be a hike in the price of the lines they imported (thanks to their new owner).

Generally - some major companies/distributors have treated smaller (gun shop) retailers very badly in recent years by requiring, in order to maintain an account, minimum purchase/stocking levels beyond what a small retailer could manage, (Beretta take a bow here).

There is also economy of scale to consider.

When I looked at the prices we pay for Tikka, compared to the Uk, it’s almost half. But, one big retailer (Cabelas) actually purchases more Tikka rifles than all of the UK. Same probably applies to ammo.

 

[Julian S]

Wapiti is superb British made ammo but not cheap,but I buy it as its worth it.

 

[Heym SR20]

Once upon a time UK used to be part of a large market called the EU. Importers could bring large volumes of goods from places like America and the Far East getting economies of scale on things like shipping and customs etc.

They then could ship those products all around Europe.

And there was plenty of competition as a UK retailer who didn’t like prices he was getting from one wholesaler could switch his business to another. This competition kept prices keen.

The UK market for rifle ammunition is really very small. For a US manufacturer its inconsequential. And now that we are no longer part of the EU all our product either has to be shipped directly in small lots or shipped as part of a larger consignment to Europe and then reexported to the UK. So no economies of scale.

And UK distributors now really only have the UK market and can no longer sell into the EU. So all their overheads have to swallowed up by a very small number of sales and these costs are inevitably passed on to the end customer.

This is the absolutely predictable end result of us withdrawing from a large trading market. Many warned that this would happen. But it happened and no people are feeling the inevitable end result.

It’s not a result of Labour, it was the previous administration that set all this in motion. Labour could easily rectify the situation by getting us back into a closer relationship with the EU - aka Norway etc. But instead Labour seem terrified at upsetting Trump and his side kick Farage.

There are some small UK manufacturers of ammo. Most of the component parts are still imported, and then they are produced in small batches with a labour intensive process. Very difficult to get any economies of scale as lack of larger market opportunities and lack of willingness for British banks to work with any sort of arms/ammunition manufacturing.

 

[Liveonce]

The u.k. market is oh so different to the USA just by size alone. they will manufacture a lot of what they consume which will keep the costs lower for the customers, then what they import will be on a very much larger scale than the U.K.

We in the U.K. manufacture for shooting bugger all in reality. Even for example cartridge manufacture they really with the exception of a few plastic wads or lead shot for gamebore are cartridge assemblers buying especially powder and primers from outside the u.k. Hazardous goods delivery is very expensive.

Even the few starts up who are playing at making section 1 ammunition in the U.K. are having to use cases, powder, primers made in the rest of the world. And likely bullets unless for the few making copper bullets on a lathe.

NATO membership peace dividend has allowed the U.K. to rely on other countries to produce what we need as recreational shooters, with even by comparison to the likes of the USA little military ammunition production in the U.K.

Hence why we spend so little GDP on defence, given we rely on the combined strength of NATO for our security.

 

[Liveonce]

Wapiti is superb British made ammo but not cheap,but I buy it as its worth it.

As are my home loads, would you like to buy them

 

[deeangeo]

According to Nosler, there are heavy tariffs in USA on imported copper. Raw material copper tariff they say is 15%. However, they say not all manufacturers are using imported copper

 

[bbell]

Are people using Hornady black on deer? Anything Sika/fallow size?

AFAIK they use the Amax which I though was a target projectile and pretty explosive on game.

Yes. I have only been able to take a few deer and a bear with Hornady black ammo, but really like it. Quite a few, you are using it on elk sized animals as well.

 

[Donkey Basher]

Are people using Hornady black on deer? Anything Sika/fallow size?

AFAIK they use the Amax which I though was a target projectile and pretty explosive on game.

At least two people I know personally are using them on deer, one started doing so on the suggestion of the guide he stalks with - he managed to buy a good amount when NRA were selling them at £21/box.

I can assure you they are not 'pretty explosive' on game but on larger animals where a shoulder shot is taken the chances are the bullet may not exit. However, you can be assured in that event that it will have had a catastrophic energy dump into the shoulder & the chances of whatever it hit walking away are pretty much zero!

 

[Apthorpe]

All sporting ammunition markets are small. This has virtually nothing to do with anything that can be blamed on Brexit, Trump, etc. In particular, getting out of the EU is a plus in this regard.

Sporting ammunition is a spillover of having a healthy military munitions industry and is a high margin way of ticking over some of the surplus machinery. Nobody in the world, neither the EU, US nor anywhere else has a sporting ammunition market which is independent of military-industrial producers. The problem in the UK (and EU) is that successive governments have progressively closed down (mainly through burden of regulation - most of which came from the EU) the industry which produced the components and raw materials. All of these used to be produced here in abundance and now, virtually none are. We now have perhaps as much as 1% of the productive capability we used to have. The US is little better. Western countries have turned their swords into welfare recipients.

This is why our ammunition is expensive, and also why the entire Western world can't produce as much ammunition as a decrepit kleptocracy.

 

[Apthorpe]

Wapiti is superb British made ammo but not cheap,but I buy it as its worth it.

Thank you for the useful tip. Sadly they do a very limited range, but I may try their 6.5 bullet. Pleased to see they sell in small quantities suitable for testing!

 

[Yorkie]

Hi.
One reason that perhaps Norma ammunition seems cheaper in USA, is that a lot of it is made there and not Sweden. Georgia has the factory i believe.

A-Max works well on Deer. It is not that long ago that Hornady recommended that bullet for thin skinned game. Their website had ballistic gel testing.

I used the 168 grain one with great success in my 30-06, very accurate too.

 

[geordiemacatac]

Hi.
One reason that perhaps Norma ammunition seems cheaper in USA, is that a lot of it is made there and not Sweden. Georgia has the factory i believe.

A Max works well on Deer. It is not that long ago that Hornady recommended that bullet for thin skinned game. Their website had ballistic gel testing.

I used the 168 grain one with great success in my 30-06, very accurate too.

Yip..Still some on the shelves...

 

[Hook'N'Bullet]

Hi.
One reason that perhaps Norma ammunition seems cheaper in USA, is that a lot of it is made there and not Sweden. Georgia has the factory i believe.

A-Max works well on Deer. It is not that long ago that Hornady recommended that bullet for thin skinned game. Their website had ballistic gel testing.

I used the 168 grain one with great success in my 30-06, very accurate too.

Cool! I might give them a try after my last 3 boxes of Fiocchi EPNs. I just heard the AMAX has a thin jacket compared to the SST for example. Shot the SST last season and had good results but gone too expensive now