doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Alliant powder prices

I previously lived in NJ where my club charged $5/rd of trap, skeet or 5 stand. They could keep costs down because they bought targets by the trailer load. When most of the members are blue color type guys they find a way to keep it affordable. Then I moved to south Florida. There are some fantastic shotgun ranges in the general area but still better than an hours ride north or south where I live. Prices to shoot are much higher here. The blue color retiree here is pretty much priced out. If it's difficult for me how will this activity attract young people? I think clay shooting is going to become an exclusive activity for the wealthy like in Europe. There are many reasons for this, inflation, dollar losing reserve currency status, urban sprawl, politics, etc. One of my old friends said it's a good time to be old. Maby he was right!

Our nearest clay shoot has charged £18 for 50 birds at Sporting Clays for a long while.

I went to a different club last Sunday and it was slightly more expensive at £25 for 60 birds.

If I only had to pay for the clays I succeed in breaking in mid-air I would save quite a bit of money!

How much is L18 and L25 in dollars? Sorry to ask. Is that about 18 and 25 dollars? Thanks.

At the local level here in CT, the skeet club I normally shoot at raised their prices from $4 to $5 for members and from $6 to $7 for non-members and they buy clays pretty much by the truckload (10 pallets of birds I think).
The club that does 5 stand once a month charges $8 for non-members and another club that does 50 bird sporting clay charged $20 for a round and $30 for a round, non-member.

I am still seeing new/younger shooters at the skeet club. A rise in transportation, raw material and salary costs has been passed on to the shooter. Covid and politics hasn't helped either, especially for reloading components for shotgun, rifle & pistol. I'll pick Winchester as a random example. If they can barely make enough components for their own use, there isn't going to be much excess to sell to the reloading community.

And both domestic and foreign politics has not helped. How much of the components normally used to make ammo (by both foreign and domestic makers) is being used to supply Ukraine?

£25 equals $30.47 US.

So about 50c per clay.

Not to dispute what you say Chantry, you pointed out some good issues. I don't know how much of the story is accurate, but I read on the trapshooter's forum that Winchester is coming out now with greater supplies of the 209 primers. Some of the members on that board said that they were paying around $70.00 for 1000 primers. So, we might want to keep an eye out for that. Just thought I'd give everyone a heads up. But when I started shooting trap 25 years ago, I believe it cost $3.50 a round for trap and skeet for members at our club. Now it costs $5.00 a round, so I don't think that's too bad. And you are right about reloading costs- they sure have gone up. It used to cost me about $2.50 to load a box of 12 gauge shells. I don't even want to figure what it costs now. It's an expensive sport/hobby.

I've read that Fiocchi is building a primer plant in I believe Arkansas. It should go online sometime soon. That will greatly help out the primer situation! Maybe we have some members here that live in the area that could give us an update.

I'm not just a shotgun shooter and talking to other handgun and rifle shooters, primer prices are as high or higher than shotgun primers. Powder seems to about the same, bullets and brass seems to be higher than pre-Covid as well. Using 9mm as a benchmark, 50 rounds of factory FMJ is about $2 more per 50 than pre-Covid.

I expect when things settle down, if they ever do, most American made components aren't going to get much cheaper than now. American primers will probably end up between $60-$70 per thousand for rifle, pistol & shotgun.

I'm expecting shortages late spring to early summer of next year due to the election. Maybe not so much for the shotgun sports, but definitely the more common rifle & pistol calibers and related reloading components

If you Google it, Fiocchi is building a 41 million dollar plant and hiring 120 workers to help out with the primer deficiency in the United States. So maybe that will help.

Not only is powder expensive--try to find lead shot for reloading that is under $60.00 a bag!