Australian Gun Culture: .22 Ammo Prices

I visited Tamworth Firearms, in Tamworth Australia to check on the prices of .22 ammunition. There was a plentiful supply, and the prices for the Federal bulk pack of 525 was not too bad. At $42 for 525 rounds, it seems high, but the exchange rate is about 75 U.S. cents for an Australian dollar. Thus, $42 Australian translates to $31.50 American, including taxes.  That is 6 American cents per round.

Tamworth Firearms in Australia is laid out much like an American gun shop, except there are no pistols to be seen, and airguns are treated the same as firearms.

The .22 magnum cartridges were much higher priced.

At $23 Australian a box, that is 46 cents Australian per round, or 34.5 cents in American money.  At the Eycamp farm, officially known as Medway, I was shown a carton of .22 magnum ammunition with a price of $75 per 500 rounds. That is only 15 cents a round. Perhaps it was an old box, before the ammunition bubble, or when the exchange rate was more favorable to Australia.

The sales tax in Australia is figured into the prices that are displayed. In Arizona, the sales tax is added at the cash register, so that customers know how much tax is being added to the price. To be fair, the 7% sales tax in Arizona should be added to the Ammunition prices to compare them to the Australian prices. 

I visited the Cal Farms Store in Arizona shortly before I left for Australia. The Federal 525 value pack was on the shelf at $24.95. With the sales tax, the Federal .22 Long Rifle ammunition comes to $26.70 per 525 bulk pack, or 5.08 cents per round compared to 6 cents per round in Australia.  The .22 magnum CCI ammunition was listed at 29.98 cents per round in Arizona.  With the sales tax, that comes to 32.1 cents per round.  That is only a couple of pennies per round less than the magnum in Australia at Tamworth.

It appears that ammunition prices in Australia are close to those in the American market. Australia does not seem to have suffered from the bubble as much as shooters in the United States. It might be because the Australian shooters are just a small part of the overall market.

In general, prices are much higher in Australia than in the United States. Gasoline is above $5 U.S. dollars per gallon.  Food prices are higher. I paid $10 for a McDonalds 1/4 pounder meal with fries and a drink. No refills on the drink.
But for ammunition, at the current exchange rate, .22 prices are comparable.


©2017 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

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