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Why is .380 more expensive than 9mm?
Same diameter, just less grains.

To take a guess, its because 9mm is used by the US military...therefore, the ammunition companies are already tooled up to produce large batches...since they churn out volume, it keeps the price down...good old supply and demand at work...less supply of .380 and a reasonably solid civilian demand for it...if our military would go back to using .45 ACP, the price on that would probably come down and 9mm would go up...when these wars finally come to an end, they will use less 5.56mm and 9mm, and order smaller batches...and the prices for both will probably go up...anyone else have a theory?

Small production runs is my guess. There's overhead with setting things up to manufacture a product. If you can spread that cost over a larger quantity, that's less overhead per unit.

Or it could be a subtle hint to carry more gun.

Three things:

1. Demand
2. 9mm Kurz (.380) empty cases are much harder to find in the dirt.
3. Everybody knows that a. 380 won't hurt if you happen to get shot with one.

Anything else?

That's why I'm hoping the military would go back to .45 instead of .40.

Heartland Patriot wrote:To take a guess, its because 9mm is used by the US military...therefore, the ammunition companies are already tooled up to produce large batches...since they churn out volume, it keeps the price down...good old supply and demand at work...less supply of .380 and a reasonably solid civilian demand for it...if our military would go back to using .45 ACP, the price on that would probably come down and 9mm would go up...when these wars finally come to an end, they will use less 5.56mm and 9mm, and order smaller batches...and the prices for both will probably go up...anyone else have a theory?

IMO. you pretty much sum it up.

Heartland Patriot wrote:To take a guess, its because 9mm is used by the US military...therefore, the ammunition companies are already tooled up to produce large batches...since they churn out volume, it keeps the price down...good old supply and demand at work...less supply of .380 and a reasonably solid civilian demand for it...if our military would go back to using .45 ACP, the price on that would probably come down and 9mm would go up...when these wars finally come to an end, they will use less 5.56mm and 9mm, and order smaller batches...and the prices for both will probably go up...anyone else have a theory?

Wars end => demand goes down => price goes down?

Not an econ-ee-mist though so I don't know.

It is more than just the US Military. 9mm is a NATO cartridge produced for many countries,

"Economies of scale" is the appropriate business and economic description.

Jumping Frog wrote:It is more than just the US Military. 9mm is a NATO cartridge produced for many countries,

"Economies of scale" is the appropriate business and economic description.

Makes sense. Thank you everyone.

I think the vast majority of retailers boost the price of .380 over other ammo, since they'll sell it anyway and make more money.

I've found this retailer in OK to be particularly reasonable. http://www.sgammo.com/catalog/pistol-am ... n/380-auto" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; You can find some practice ammo close to 9mm.

Thomas wrote:Why is .380 more expensive than 9mm?
Same diameter, just less grains.

There it is .... proof .... proof of the old saying ... "less is more"

Supply and Demand one drives the other. Big supply little demand = low price. Little supply high demand = high price. Big supply big demand = normal price Low supply low demand = normal price. Get the picture?

When I got my .380, Collector's Firearms would only sell me two boxes of ammunition. I could not find any .380 at any stores anywhere. Got down to where I had maybe five bullets from those initial two boxes. Finally found one box. It was tough for the first year finding ammunition so I could shoot at the range.

So I don't mind paying more for .380 cause at least I can get it now.

If I recall correctly, there was a .380 supply problem 3 or 4 years ago. One of the things that I attributed it to—and this may not be true....it's just my theory—is that during the run up to and immediately after Obama's election the prices of most ammo (and the guns that shoot them) went way up, and the availability went way down in reaction to the political landscape. The .380 caliber being already a smaller segment of the market than 9mm, .40, and .45, was already not in very big supply. However, there were lots of gun owners who already owned .380 pistols but didn't keep much ammo on hand for them, and those gun owners went out and bought "enough" (whatever that means) ammo for their .380s, as well as for their other pistols; and the availability quickly plummeted to zero even faster than did the other calibers which had been on the shelves in greater supply.

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

From what I understand they only do one production run of 380 since they use the same machines to produce 9mm,once that ammo is gone no more til the next run.I guess I'm one of the "Lucky" ones,I reload and cast my own bullets.so my 380,9mm,40,45 acp range ammo all cost me about $5.00 100 rounds.