Hunting season approaches and the various big box sporting goods stores fill my Sunday paper with their flyers. And I recall just recently on this very website the tales of woe in re: the high cost of lead birdshot and loaded ammo. So I was pleasantly surprised to see that Dicks Sporting Goods (a national chain) has Remington "All Purpose Game and Target Loads" for $3.98 per box, sold individually, no case lot required. Remington "Gun Club Shot Shells" are $4.98 by the case lot, but you gotta send in for a damn rebate of $1.00 per box. What a pain!

Winchester "Game Loads" are $4.98 by the case, a dollar more one box at a time, but no Rebate hassle. Winchester AA's and STS are $6.98 each by the case lot, a dollar more one by one. A century ago a box of shells cost 55 cents and the foreman-level workers at Parker Brothers made 25 cents to 35 cents per hour. I guess J. P. Morgan was right: "If you need to ask the cost you can't afford it." But is there anybody who can't afford $4.00 to $7.00 per box of shells? If so, there's always Ping Pong. EDM

Just what I need for my 1959 vintage Pietro Beretta SxS clunker. Thanks for the heads up, I will check them out.

Shells are a bargain....



In 1923 a first class stamp was $.02 and a gallon of gas was $.16. Today's median household income is easily 30 times what it was in 1923, so a $.60 stamp and $4.80 gas isn't unreasonable.

Maybe one box of 25 target loads should cost $40?

If the ammunition 'sin' tax is enacted by the new powers for change, it will.

Thousand shells now days is about two hundred bucks,thousand clay birds about two hundred bucks.Twenty five thousand birds for pratice going to the grand ten thousand bucks,what a hobby.

The way to save money on ammo is to limit your shooting, in the pigeon ring, for example. A practice round only involves two mandatory shots at 5 flyers released at random from an array of 9 traps; that's 10 shells for those who vote in Florida. The downside is that the practice round will cost at least $35.

A "flyer" race is generally 20 birds; thats only 40 shots, so add a practice round and you only blow off two boxes of ammo. But the more adept live-bird guys use Hevi-shot at about $2.00 per pop, not the $3.98-for-25 stuff I mentioned. And the targets cost at least $7.00 each.

So lemme get out the calculator: $7.00 for the target, two shots mandatory with $2.00 ammo, and something for the ring, bird boys, and trapper...and then there are the preliminary rounds, practice rounds, side bets, and "miss and outs" leading up to the main race... Ping Pong is starting to look real cost effective. EDM

No, shells aren't a big problem if we're working. However, the All Purpose shells available at Dicks are only 20 to the box. That means promo shells are $4.98 or $5.98 a box plus tax. That's $6.34 a box for Remington Gun Clubs here in MD. I couldn't find an ad for the "Winchester Game Loads" that Ed mentions.

Remy Game Loads @ $4.98/box by the case, also at Dick's. Even had some 16's and .410's!

Fin2, how much are the .410s? Are they also $4.98? I don't have a gun that shoots those 126's so I don't need to know about those.

WalMart in Yuma had Federal blue-box game loads in 12 and 20 for $46.70/flat in September. These were 250 shells per flat, but they also had cheater flats (10 boxes of 20) at a lower price for the unsuspecting.

Fixed the "126"; I don't have one in that gauge either! Nah, they wouldn't let me have the .410's for that price. The sale sign was conveniently covering the shelf price of $9.95 on the .410's; $6.98 on the others. I argued, but no avail. Sorry; false alarm.

The last time I went to my local Dicks, all they had was the 12 and 20 gauge shells. That didn't help me much because I was looking for 16s. But, if you shoot any at all, you are better off just buying a reloader and loading yourself. I can still reload 12s and 20s for around $3.00 a box. Maybe less. I recently started shooting my 20 gauge Superposed at skeet and decided to reload. 20 gauge hulls were all over the ground at my club, so I didn't have any trouble getting 2-3 hundred in a week or two. Then, a buddy of mine came in with a 20 gauge reloader that I bought for $35.00. It works well enough to reloader a few boxes a week. I still have two 12 gauge reloaders and I can save a ton of money reloading my own. A flat is going to run around $50.00 and I can reload one for around $30.00. I probably shoot almost a flat a week. Earlier in the summer, I was shooting about 1 1/2 flats per week. You might not shoot that much just hunting alone. But anything other than 12s and 20s are going to cost you a fortune. So, you are probably better off just getting a reloader. Good luck.

Jimmy if you shoot alot of AA's you can just sell your hulls to reloaders and you end up shooting as cheap or cheaper than they do.Course its been awhile for me so things could have changed.I quit reloading when I did the math.

The other day I stopped in at our local Gander Mountain store to pick up just one box of 28-ga. #7 1/2 Remington Express Long Range shells, they were priced at $22.99($24.25 w/tax) for a box of 25! I passed on them and went home a reloaded my own.

Amazingly few months ago local Gander Mountain had 28ga Fiocchi Target & Game loads for $6.99 per box. I think they cost $8.99 now. Some of their lead game loads (even 12 & 20) were $16/box and over! Gander Mountain is very expensive I don't know how they stay in business.

One box at a time

I bought my yearly stock of Remington Heavy Game Loads (marked pheasant load now) at Bass Pro in Toledo for $8.99 a box as opposed to the $12.99 or even $14.99 that everybody else was charging. Decent prices are still out there but you've gotta look pretty hard.

Destry

The reason reloaders buy them is because they save money reloading. Anyone who shoots a lot of clay targets can save money reloading their own shells.

Glenn

31Pump not if you buy in bulk and thats why I quit reloading and started selling me hulls.

Those $3.98 Gun Clubs are 20 per box.