When I began shooting on a regular basis, I turned to Walmart to fill my ammunition needs. Supply always seemed to be available and prices were good. I found myself picking up Winchester White Box Value Packs whenever I had a little extra cash. At roughly $25.00 per hundred rounds, I thought that they were a good value.
When I began shooting USPSA and was burning through more and more ammunition, I began looking for more cost effective solutions. This is where Federal Premium Ammunition came into play. I found that I could pick up two 50 round boxes and save a little money (about $1.00 per hundred). Every little bit helped and it tured out that the ammunition performed better than the Winchester. I was a convert and Federal became my brand of choice.
One day, out of the blue, I was browsing the Walmart ammo selection when I first saw Federal 100 round value packs. At about $22 per box, I felt that they were an absolute steal and bought the two boxes sitting on the shelf. The rounds performed just as well as the 50 round boxes and saved me a few dollars in the process.
For months I would seek out those Federal Value Boxes and stock was hit or miss. Sometimes they were in ample supply and others they were completely out of stock (sometimes for weeks). The icing on the cake was having friends and family that work at Walmart. I would have them keep an eye on the ammo case and pick me up a few boxes when available (with a 10% employee discount).
Christmas was good to me and I found myself with about one-thousand rounds of ammunition. Several months of regular USPSA matches have depleted that supply and I now find myself in a predicament. I need ammo, I need it bad. Hoping for a little help out of my bind, I fired off a text message. The response was not what I wanted to hear.
My Question:
Have you seen any of the Federal Bulk Packs by any chance? I’m all out of ammo and have a match this weekend.The Answer:
Walmarts aren’t carrying them on a normal basis now. They got cut from the mods because of them always being under supplied. If you still have an old box with a upc I can order them though.
This leaves me with a couple of options:
- Buy Federal in the readily available 50 count boxes, paying about $2.00 more per hundred.
- Switch back to Winchester White Box and live with the slightly larger group sizes, and pay about $5.00 more per hundred.
- Switch to TulAmmo Steel Cased Ammo and spend about the same as I was for Federal, per hundred.
- Switch to Remington UMC 250 Round Boxes and pay slightly more than I was for Federal Value Boxes.
- Unbox the Progressive Press I bought a few months back and order the remaining items I need to get started with reloading.
Based on what I’ve learned via text message, I think finally getting off my butt and reloading is in order. I hoped to hold off until the winter months so that I could ease into. This would allow me to get the hang of things before taking reloaded ammo to a match.
The bottom line is, if I want to continue to shoot at the frequency that I am now, I’m going to need to find a more cost effective way of putting lead down range.
8 thoughts on “Federal Ammunition: Walmart Value Box a thing of the Past?”
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I think your choice is clear.. start re-loading all those shells I gave ya!!! haha
I would see if you can get reloaded ammo near you. That is what I shoot a lot of and do reloading myself.
The last time I saw reloaded ammo was at a gun show. I was there with Corey, who purchased some. Not far away, we found a table setup selling factory ammo for pretty much the same price.
There is a ‘new’ shop that opened up about 30 minutes from home (East Coast Ammo), one day I’ll have to stop in and see if they deal in reloaded ammo or if they only do bulk ammo (I heard something about bulk ammo deals)
I know you need it this weekend, but do you have anything against ordering online? http://www.luckygunner.com/bulk-ammo#rid=FillYerHands&bid=1f8eaf2e
When price checking in the past, buying from Walmart (buying through friends/family with a discount) was more cost effective. As a result, I haven’t spent much time ammo shopping online.
I have been avoiding getting started in reloading simply because there are so many demands on my time, that one more may just put me over the edge. One of my LGS has been selling Federal Champion for $11.50 per box of 50 for a few years, and I know that it will someday come to an end. I just cannot bring myself to purchase the equipment and supplies and learn how to reload.
Listening to buddies at the range…….they all say you don’t save money by reloading, you simply get to shoot a lot more for the same money.
Once that LGS stops selling 9mm Federal for that price, I may look into it as well. I’ll just have to give up something else that takes up my “free time”.
Hey Walt, came across your blog, here, i also live outside of Reading, and also am a shooter, looking for those value packs, exeter walmart seems to have the most
If u havent already, check out ables ammo, on line and check out the ESTATE ammo, which they sell in every caliber but .45. If you buy 3boxes of 50 at a time, u can beat walmarts 50/boxes.
I bought this stuff and low and behold, its made by federal, which is stamped on the casing
If people would quit hoarding ammo, everyone would have a chance to have some, too much “I have a friend who works there”