Cheap Ammo?

You can look at gun-deals.com for ammo deals, which may appear to be a great deal at first. Today, the best deal on quality 9mm (that is, not Monarch or reloads) is CCI Blazer aluminum-case ammo. The Blazer ammo has mixed reviews and reports of extreme failure in some cases, but it is cheap! On the other hand, the Winchester "White Box" 9mm ammo you can get from Wal Mart is widely regarded as top quality.

So let's compare the deals.

The Blazer 9mm from Natchez is $7.50 for a 50-round box. Rounding a couple of pennies, Winchester White Box from Wal Mart is $20 for 100 rounds. So it seems like a pretty good deal, right? Let's look at the numbers, including tax or shipping as appropriate.

# rounds WWB@WalMart Blazer@Natchez
100 $21.60 $27.94
200 $43.20 $43.40
500 $108.00 $89.84
1000 $216.00 $170.17

So if you buy more than 200 rounds at a time, the Blazer at 75% of the price of WWB is a better deal online. But for 200 rounds or less, you might as well pick up the better ammo at Wal Mart.

I realize this is comparing apples to oranges, or in this case, brass to aluminum. The WWB is probably better ammo and worth a little more than the Blazer, but for bulk practice ammo there may be little difference.

If you are buying other things online, of course, then the shipping charges are being paid for by some other item's price, so you might as well throw in some ammo while you are at it.

Ammo bargain hunter, signing out.