What Makes Up the Price of a Box of Handgun Ammo?

[McPatrickClan]

I know there are graphs that show what makes up the cost of a gallon of gas (i.e. refining costs, federal taxes, state taxes, local taxes, etc.). I am curious to know if anyone has a similar graph or graphic for handgun ammo?

[DefensiveCarry.com]

[Captain Crunch]

I don't know of any graphs, but a major cost component of factory ammunition is the 11% Federal excise tax levied by the Pittman-Robertson Act. This is paid by the manufacturer, but of course, it is ultimately passed on to the consumer.

[Chevyguy85]

I don't know of any graphs, but a major cost component of factory ammunition is the 11% Federal excise tax levied by the Pittman-Robertson Act. This is paid by the manufacturer, but of course, it is ultimately passed on to the consumer.

learn something new every day...thank you :)

[Hopyard]

Captain Crunch posted: " but a major cost component of factory ammunition is the 11% Federal excise tax levied by the Pittman-Robertson Act. "

This is sort of interesting. I don't want to comment on whether 11% is or isn't a reasonable excise tax on ammo; or if any excise tax is appropriate. I did see something on one of the news channels today that during the 1960s excise taxes made up something like ( going by imperfect recall so this is a guestimate from memory) 17% of collected taxes but is now down to about 3%. I wish I could find the original new story, but can't. What has happened over 50 ish years is that payroll taxes in particular have gone up, and corporate taxes collected have gone way down, and somehow in the various law changes the excise tax has become a relatively minor player in total revenue.

Now, obviously when you pay 11% tax that is a big deal. And around here if you add the sales tax to the excise tax, the total tax on that box of ammo is something like 19+%. Now, is that 11% excise tax on the pre-ammo-inflation manufacturer's costs or is it on the retail sales value? I've a hunch that the excise tax represents at most about 11% of 30% of the retail cost, but I am just guessing. That is, 15 buck box of ammo, 5 bucks are the manufacturer's actual sale price to wholesaler; tax = 11% of 5 bucks. I might be understating it, but I'm just trying to give an example. Anyone know the real markup and what the excise tax is actually determined by?

[nedrgr21]

Materials (lead, brass, copper, powder, primer) + % fixed costs of factory + variable costs (power, wages, etc) + transportation + storage (not now though :rotflmao:) + markup for supplier and all middlemen + panic fee bulk ammo purchasers have placed on everyone.

[mcp1810]

And we cant forget the plastic or styrofoam tray that holds the cartridges in the box!

[tangoseal]

Dont mention the enviro nuts (yes they are absolutely cookey) are gonna probably try to ban guns since the smoke causes carbon emissions or something so that will jack the price of ammo as well.

[anthonydr2]

A primary role of any long term successful government is to provide a stable and clear set of rules for business. This allows businesses to make decisions that value the long term returns from their capital investments. The growing arbitrary nature of our government, and generally negative perceptions of their intentions on the gun/related business is causing many to not make costly business investments in gun related capital until/unless there is credible assurances that the rules/laws will not arbitrarily be changed in ways that reduce the value of their investments.

This is likely a 30-50% hit on ammo prices given the dramatic decreases in the commodity costs that comprise the underlying components of ammunition.