380 Pricing

[Englishman]

Accepting that buying my first handgun in 380 cal just recently was a mistake from an availability point of view, where I have been able to find some 380, I have been paying from $29 for cheap stuff to $33 for Winchester FMJ - all boxes of 50’s. Was there always such a price differential for 380 over say the equivalent 50 round box of 9mm Winchester at $17 currently?
I'm wondering if its just current supply/demand or if I will always pay a premium for 380?

 

[ambidextrous1]

.380 is sold in much smaller volume than 9mm, so "economy of scale" doesn't kick in.

Reloading of .380 is a bit less expensive than reloading of 9mm, however. You could take up reloading, or arrange a continuing supply of ammunition from a trusted reloader.

 

[TxEMTP69]

.380 is definately harder to come by, last time we found it my wife bought 700 rounds at walmart early in the year

9mm WWB at walmart is 10.97/50 rd box and 19.97/100 rd value box
the Winclean ammo is 21.97/50 rd box

I just picked up some this morning was Remington for 10.97/ 50rd box.

 

[jsbcats]

When you can find it, Academy has Monarch brand 380 for about $14 a box and $15 a box for hollow point. I would suspect if you can find it at Walmart it would be about that or cheaper. Everywhere else I've seen it its marked up because of supply.

And another tip, I was talking with the counter guy at Academy and he said that Monarch is their brand. If you see it somewhere else, they bought it at Academy and are marking it up.

 

[hk boy]

I catch my Walmart with handgun ammo in stock more often now
maybe ammo shortage is over??

 

[Englishman]

All the Walmarts and Academy’s that I have dropped into in the Houston area laugh when I mention 380 and claim not to have seen any since…..well you know when!
When I do find some in independent gun stores, the limit is 1 box/customer. Just frustrating !

 

[jsbcats]

All the Walmarts and Academy’s that I have dropped into in the Houston area laugh when I mention 380 and claim not to have seen any since…..well you know when!
When I do find some in independent gun stores, the limit is 1 box/customer. Just frustrating !

I know the Academy in Humble and the one in the Woodlands gets some it seems like every 3 weeks or so, but to get any you have to call up there just about every day to catch it. Sometimes they limit to 2 boxes, sometimes 5. They let me have 10 about 2 months ago since I'm in there a lot.

 

[MuddyWaterMan]

Starting to seeit a lot more often down in the Harlingen ,Brownsville area. Picked up a couple hundred rounds of Magtech while I was home for around 15$ a box.

 

[jsbcats]

It may be a load of but someone was telling me that at some of the ammo makers, the 9mm and 380 share a line and that they have been making more 9mm to catch up than 380. Could be right because I can find 9mm all over the place now.

 

[TriggerTime]

Hang On

Try to hold on another week or so, the situation overall is dramatically better than it was just two weeks ago. I've gotten .223 and .22 match ammo that was unavailable for months. Carter's has pistol ammo again, and Academy has a variety on the shelves in Houston again for the first time since February or so. Still not the quantities and prices of this time last year, but much better. Hopefully, the panic is over and everyone is going to quit buying by the case so that supply will catch up again. Good luck.

 

[TxEMTP69]

Academy in Corpus had alot of variety this afternoon after the ammo rapers came through, still a decent selection. no .380 though