While surfing for ammo this morning, I decided to do a quick comparison on the cost of some standard calibers to see how they stack up against what we 'know' the differences are. If you do a little bit of looking around INGO, you'll find that common knowledge often recommends 9mm because it's cheap. .45 acp is often complained about because it's expensive and some calibers are down right slammed because it's too expensive to shoot (10mm, .45GAP).
This is not a scientific survey at all, but as of 21Nov13 LuckyGunner.com lists these prices for FMJ (10mm is JHP) practice ammo:
9mm Box of 50 115g brass cased PMC $20.50 or .41 per round.
9mm Box of 50 124g brass cased UMC $25.00 or .50 per round.
357Sig Box of 50 125g brass cased UMC $31.00 or .62 per round.
40S&W Box of 50 180g brass cased UMC $24.00 or .48 per round.
10mm Box of 50 180g brass cased Privi $25.00 or .50 per round.
45ACP Box of 50 230g brass cased PMC $25.50 or .51 per round
45GAP Box of 50 230g brass cased UMC $27.50 or .55 per round
All of the above had plenty of stock on hand. The thing that surprised me was that if buying commercial new ammo online, I can practice with 10mm JHP for the same cost as with 124g 9mm FMJ. Also, it runs counter to our 'common knowledge' that you can shoot .40 S&W 180g cheaper than you can run the same brand 124g 9mm. For plinking, most will just buy what's cheapest, but for practice, most will try to shoot the same weight bullet that they carry, or at least as close to it as you can get.
As expected, the .357 Sig and .45 GAP are at the high end of the scale, but not by enough to make them too expensive to shoot. I don't know how often the average shooter shoots, but back when I was buying commercially it would be about 3 times a month on average, with each trip using up 1 or 2 boxes. An additional dollar or two per box would not have made a big enough difference to drive my choice of calibers. The difference in cost between calibers today would not impact the number of rounds I bought. I would not save enough by shooting a 9mm to buy two boxes of ammo instead of the one of .40 or .45.
All this goes out the window when it comes to buying locally though. A lot of local shops are more than happy to over charge for some calibers. I think I paid $40 for a box of 50 rounds of target ammo when I bought my first 10mm Glock last year.
The take away for me from this was that the cost of ammo should not always be a deciding factor in what you buy. It costs money to run anything and the cost of running a handgun is not that different from caliber to caliber.
This is not a scientific survey at all, but as of 21Nov13 LuckyGunner.com lists these prices for FMJ (10mm is JHP) practice ammo:
9mm Box of 50 115g brass cased PMC $20.50 or .41 per round.
9mm Box of 50 124g brass cased UMC $25.00 or .50 per round.
357Sig Box of 50 125g brass cased UMC $31.00 or .62 per round.
40S&W Box of 50 180g brass cased UMC $24.00 or .48 per round.
10mm Box of 50 180g brass cased Privi $25.00 or .50 per round.
45ACP Box of 50 230g brass cased PMC $25.50 or .51 per round
45GAP Box of 50 230g brass cased UMC $27.50 or .55 per round
All of the above had plenty of stock on hand. The thing that surprised me was that if buying commercial new ammo online, I can practice with 10mm JHP for the same cost as with 124g 9mm FMJ. Also, it runs counter to our 'common knowledge' that you can shoot .40 S&W 180g cheaper than you can run the same brand 124g 9mm. For plinking, most will just buy what's cheapest, but for practice, most will try to shoot the same weight bullet that they carry, or at least as close to it as you can get.
As expected, the .357 Sig and .45 GAP are at the high end of the scale, but not by enough to make them too expensive to shoot. I don't know how often the average shooter shoots, but back when I was buying commercially it would be about 3 times a month on average, with each trip using up 1 or 2 boxes. An additional dollar or two per box would not have made a big enough difference to drive my choice of calibers. The difference in cost between calibers today would not impact the number of rounds I bought. I would not save enough by shooting a 9mm to buy two boxes of ammo instead of the one of .40 or .45.
All this goes out the window when it comes to buying locally though. A lot of local shops are more than happy to over charge for some calibers. I think I paid $40 for a box of 50 rounds of target ammo when I bought my first 10mm Glock last year.
The take away for me from this was that the cost of ammo should not always be a deciding factor in what you buy. It costs money to run anything and the cost of running a handgun is not that different from caliber to caliber.