.223/5.56 ammo prices - to go up or down?

A

Addicted2Shooting

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I've been looking to buy another case or so of .223/5.56

PMC X-TAC 62gr(m855) to be exact.

Does anyone have any insight as what to expect in terms of price variance over the next 6 months or so for .223/5.56?

Are we looking for the price to rise slightly/significantly, or are we anticipating a price decrease?

If you have any input on this, please state your reasoning...its a 50/50 guess...I'm looking for something to back my decision to buy now or hold off.

Thanks in advance :)
 
Commodity prices are rising and the Fed inflation pump is ready to crank again. So prices are likely to go up on most things over the next twelve months or more.

Ammo prices are pretty darn cheap right now considering past inflation. With a major drawn down in the military we might get a dip in prices with supply overwhelming demand. But this is just a short-term possibility whereas the greater inflation is a long-term certainty.

Right now PMC is selling their X-TAc for about $6.50/box which is about a dollar more than Silver ear steel cased 62 gr and under a dollar less than Federal XM193. Pretty good pricing right now. M855 is a competitive market with many manufacturers so prices are low compared to more unique loads.

My money is, every month now, on this being a good time to purchase supplies or equipment versus several months or a couple of years later.
 
$5 a case price drop isnt worth worrying about. Learn to roll your own and you'll pay for a press pretty quick in savings. I shoot a lot of steel and varmints so no FMJ's for this cat, and I'll never see SP ammo for $5.89 a box that shoots out of my rifles.
 
We are entering another election cycle. That has done wacky things to ammo prices and availability before. If you can find a deal, buy enough now to get you through it.
 
Everything is going to go up in the near future, from fuel to food. Ammunition is no exception, and may go up even more if brass goes up.
 
I picked up a box of .22 Mag at WalMart. Up $4 from one year before. From 13 and change to 17 and change.

Ammo ain't going up. The dollar is going down. Same difference...
 
I picked up a box of .22 Mag at WalMart. Up $4 from one year before. From 13 and change to 17 and change.

Ammo ain't going up. The dollar is going down. Same difference...
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A box of .22WMR still trades for four chickens, eh Art? :D
 
Is there really such thing a .223/5.56 surplus ammo. Everything i see for this is just lake city ammo which is in bulk. Im talking about surplus ammo like Yugo ammo or anything.
 
ammo prices usually rise and fall with elections... if there is any expectancy that a liberal will get elected ammo prices surge due to high demand out of fear that new restrictions and bans may be implimented. if a liberal is elected people spend the next 4 years stockpiling ammo and guns and once a conservative is elected people usually calm down and slow their roll and as supply increases and demand slows ammo prices go down. 5.56 has been steadily increasing ever since clinton signed a bill that made it illegal to sell milsurp ammo to civilians so an end to the war in Afghanistan wont bring the instant drop in prices that many people expect. true ATK, the company that runs the lake city ammo plant and owner of federal, american eagle, and cci/speer will probably have a short time where they have an abundance of brass, primers and bullets but the overall market will not be flooded with contract overflow and companies such as PMC that dont have military contracts will have the same ammo output as before so yes either a conservative president being elected and an end to the war on terror would help but it will be a very slow drop. and of course inflation is going to kick in, making it an even more gradual decline. the days of $150 for 1000 rounds of green tip are over but I can see 223/556 getting down to maybe $250 for 1000 rounds of xm193 or ss109.
 
Like Art:D I'm an old timer I've seen prices change so much in my life that I now remember when I was middle class now I'm retired poor,If I had not purchased reloading equipment components/ammo/firearms years ago could not afford today just a simple fact of life. My suggestion is to buy when possible certainly any thing you enjoy will be going up.:(
 
I'm seeing lots of ammo sales from several different retailers. My older son has decided it's time to build up some ammo stock and I've been actively looking so maybe I'm seeing better pricing because I'm looking harder.
I'm not sure how much I have but conservatively estimating, I have 10K of fired 223 brass to process this winter. Need more of the other components when the funding is available.
 
Get as much ammo as you can before the elections...because if the Dems take back the Senate in the next election,
you WILL see some seriously nasty anti-gun laws.

Obama, if re-elected, will shaft all gun owners. That's just a fact.
 
Is there really such thing a .223/5.56 surplus ammo. Everything i see for this is just lake city ammo which is in bulk. Im talking about surplus ammo like Yugo ammo or anything.
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I don't think so, not anymore, at least not like all the genuine surplus 7.62mm out there right now. 5.56mm is such a popular round, I think all the surplus that may have been available at one time has been bought and shot up, hence the availability of LC/Federal, PMC and the like.


To the OP, I say buy it now if you can afford it. Nothing is getting cheaper and we are going into an election cycle... I've actually drawn down my 5.56mm stash quite a bit (in fact, I just used the last of my Maylay surplus today...) and I need to stock up on some factory ammo and components for reloading.
 
Is there really such thing a .223/5.56 surplus ammo. Everything i see for this is just lake city ammo which is in bulk. Im talking about surplus ammo like Yugo ammo or anything.
Click to expand...
as far as M193 and and M855, almost all of the surplus has been dried up for a while. it was around for a little bit but after the ammo ban of 1999 people horded it and stockpiled it all away. you can still find some ss109 from south africa and other out of the way countries every once in a while but it's so hard to get ahold of that it goes for about the same price as new so you may as well just get lake city...at least that way you'll know how old that stuff really is...a lot of it is in sealed battlepacks so it's good but you never know if you'll open it up and find out that it had a hole and you just bought a bunch of tarnished ammo. I bought a pack of the SA surplus a while back and it's still sealed so I'm leaving it be for a SHTF situation.
 
Ammo prices in general have seemed to level off a bit, and actually come down slightly lately.

At a gunshow today, found Silver bear steel cased 5.56mm, either 55gr FMJ or 62gr HP for $240/1000.
Gander Mountain has a sale, (which ends today). American Eagle 55gr FMJ for $300/1000 after $50 rebate.
These prices are some of the cheapest I've seen in a while.

Sure not the $150/1000 from many years ago, but still better than it has been.
 
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