10 Top Careers and Gun Owners Spending More on Ammo

Here are a couple interesting money-related pieces today for you.

The first lists ten careers that make employers look for you. The summary: Healthcare, information technology, education, professional services.

The second says that gun owners are being pinched by the increasing price of ammo:

Ammo prices for many popular guns have more than tripled in the last three years, driven in large part by surging demand for metals in rapidly industrializing China.

As the Asian giant becomes wealthier, millions of tons of copper, lead and zinc, which are also used to make bullets and brass shell-casings, are being snapped up.

Shooters, gun dealers and sheriffs say the impact has been further aggravated by competition for limited ammo stocks with the U.S. military, currently fighting wars on two fronts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Dealers complain that the cost of rifle ammunition has doubled and even tripled in the past two years, with similar increases for some hand gun ammunition.

Lynn Kartchner, a gun shop owner in nearby Douglas, Arizona, says he now pays $250 for a case of 1,000 rounds of assault rifle ammunition, up from $80 two years ago, while a box of popular 9 mm shells has jumped to $17 from $10.

I don't own a gun or shoot, but one of our guys in the office does. He makes his own ammo and saves a ton.

Comments

[Colin]

I'd imagine you need quite a bit of expertise to make your own ammo. Otherwise, that could end pretty badly...

[zOrv]

Actually reloading is not that difficult, just very time consuming. Brass has to be cleaned, prepped and inspected,and then each shell is loaded individually using a reloading die. So you can save a lot of money over commercially prepared ammo and you can load to your own specifications, but you better have a lot of free time!

[Chris]

Woe be you who has a gun that fires anything US forces are using in Iraq. My friend has one, and he has been reduced to taking the 22 out when he wants to practice!

[Steve]

With this kind of escalation, stock prices for ammo manufacturers has got to be performing well. I'm not familiar with the ammo market. Anyone know who the big players are -- or their suppliers?