Does anyone know if ammunition sales are up, year over year?

[rzemanfl]

It seems to me that might be a gauge of the national mood that no one is tracking. I see that prescription sales are down because of the economy, nice to know some people are off their meds.

:sarcasm:

[Tangerine LaBamba]

1. Some of us

use meds as ammunition.

Does that screw up your survey?

Sorry.

[rzemanfl]

7. Your aim best be pretty good. Of course you could get some

serious velocity from being, say 12 stories up or so.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

8. High

It's got all kind of meanings around here.

Hi. :hi:

[holybarcode]

2. Pretty much tracks spending on prescriptions.

And gasoline.

[ThomWV]

3. I would have to suspect they are down from a decade ago but probably stable

I notice that guns are not as easily available around here as they used to be. Of course you used to be able to buy all the guns you wanted at flea markets. There was actually a guy who was selling pistols off a blanket on the ground at an intersection a few years ago. I bought a Colt off of him, a nice .45. There used to be a lot more gun shops too, but they are going away as well. Wal Mart used to sell rifles and pistols. The new ones here don't anymore but I do think they still carry shot gun shells.

Anyway I suspect that although there are more and more guns every day I don't think most of them are being shot and I would have to guess that ammo sales are flat and certainly not what they were even just a few years ago.

[davepc]

4. Between the price of copper and the demand of the military cutting into supply, prices have gone up

However:

As the U.S. economy continues to take a beating, what's ahead for firearm and hunting retailers? There are mixed signals.

Data from the FBI's National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) shows a 9.1 percent increase in background checks during the first five months of 2008, as compared to the same period in 2007.

That contrasts with last fall, when many dealers saw a downturn in their hunting season profits. A combination of bad weather, high ammunition and fuel costs, and the economy in general contributed to a slump in year-end sales.

What is the forecast for this fall? Dealers throughout the nation offer dramatically contrasting predictions: from "a decline" to "a lot of reason to be optimistic."

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3197/is_8_53/ai_n28047658

[Lex1775]

5. If they are down in the last couple of years...

It's because the DoD has sucked up a lot of manufacturers surplus and driven up the cost. The rising increase of copper hasn't helped either. It's probably not down a whole lot though, the range is still packed from opening to closing every weekend in my neck of the woods.

[galileoreloaded]

6. Succesive to UN Small arms proliferation treaty, surplus .mil ammo was all bought up...

all of it. Very hard to find common caliber sometimes. I think the stocks have already been taken, and are being hoarded, and the commercial manufacture gets shot as practice.