Powder? Why is there none?

martinakl said:
Locally, powder is hard to nearly impossible find. Anything really: brass, powder, primers, bullets, reloading equipment. I suspect store employees & friends of the store employees get first dibs.

I've been able to get H1000, H4350, Varget, & Retumbo online in 2020. Only because I happened to be on this site when someone posts where XXXXX powder is available online. Nothing else matters when I see that post. I just get to the website as fast as I can and order it. Just buying what I need for a couple of new guns (not hoarding or reselling/scalping). Partner up with someone and let them know your wish list items and look out for each other. I haven't been able to buy any primers this year but I've been able to trade powder for them locally. I've been able to help a couple people out along the way and that feels good.

I've tried to sign up for email notices on all the major websites but I never seem to get them.
Click to expand...
That's part of the problem" someone posts where xxxx powder is available" Then everybody in the whole country jumps on it. I only 8# of xxxx powder but i'm going to buy 32# of xxxx powder.
 
Covid shut a lot of the manufacturing plants down. A lot of our (USA) powder is manufactured in Europe & Australia. Then Covid shut down the international shipping of products. Then you figure in that its like this every presidential election year, civil unrest, covid hoarding, 8 million new shooters, etc, etc.
 
I have had about the normal amount of problems buying powder online. If I want a particular powder, it's likely sold out, but I will find it and successfully submit an order within a week. I don't actually feel like it's much more difficult than usual to get powder. Even Varget and H4350.

The issue for me is primers. Primers are no where. I've been able to score some orders but it took a lot more work and vigilance than powder did, or any component since I started reloading. I think it's due to the following:

  1. stupid folks willing to pay stupid prices to scalpers
  2. scalpers buying up anything they see because see number 1
  3. new gun owners needing/wanting ammo for their new guns
  4. said new gun owners are experiencing this ammo situation for the first time, so they think this is how it is and they are buying anything they see
  5. every new round made needs a primer - not every new round needs a charge of a particular type of powder, so powder demand is spread across a lot of powders and powder types. thus powders are scarce due to points 1 and 2, but point 3 is less relevant. There are only a handful of primer types and they need to go into factory ammo
 
A huge factor in powder is the delivery aspect. Last time UPS & fedex and the like were only allowed to take 400 pounds per truck to deliver . I have heard that number has went up but I'm sure Biden will make it one pound per truck very soon !
 
Bob Wright said:
I believe it is hoarding. First by opportunists that are making money "Flipping" ammo and reload components that these individuals have no gun to fire any of their stash in. Some others, that do reload, have a lot of components and still building their stash.
Then with growing firearm sales, people are getting what they can, in whatever they can get their hands on.
I've seen only one instance here where the powder price was jacked up almost double. I called him out, and that ad disappeared. If I was selling/trading something for this site, I would not be throwing premiums on it.
Demand has outstripped supply. There is no letting up IMO.
Click to expand...

I just saw on Cheaper Than Dirt ( www.cheaperthandirt.com/9mm-luger-parabellum/ammunition/handgun-ammo/?brand=9mm/Luger/Parabellum ) a box (50 rounds) of 9mm Luger selling for $129, that's price gouging at its finest. I've personally seen one company that was not selling its brass to any of the larger distributing companies, all the large distributors had "Out of stock, no back orders", but if you went to that brass company's site it was available, but.....only in lots of 500. Then there's some of the conspiracy theories out there. With all the false news and BS out there on the media, I don't even know what is true and what is not. I've read where the multi-billionaires have bought out the chemical/powder companies, copper and brass mines so there is not raw materials to be had to make ammo. Sort of like when Obama put the lead companies out of business by turning the EPA on the factories and making it impossible for the factories to manufacture lead due to the restrictions placed on the plants. And.....perhaps supply and demand, I'm saying well maybe but **** no powder, no rifle primers or even rifle brass???????? I paid what I thought was extortionist prices before things got really bad as they are now. I am comfortable enough for hunting and for some per-season practice, however what I have will not last forever. I'd say for a lifetime, but I'm 74 and I'm not going to push that one🤣🤣!!! I have an idea that the shortages are a combination of hoarding, supply and demand and companies who are gouging the shooting public. One thing I do know when/if this shortage BS ever ends I will not forget the companies who did do the gouging.
 
Segare,
Started off buying/selling reload components....and kinda went down a rabbit hole....
thats all...just hunters/shooters talking....
so we went off course a little.
 
martinakl said:
Locally, powder is hard to nearly impossible find. Anything really: brass, powder, primers, bullets, reloading equipment. I suspect store employees & friends of the store employees get first dibs.

I've been able to get H1000, H4350, Varget, & Retumbo online in 2020. Only because I happened to be on this site when someone posts where XXXXX powder is available online. Nothing else matters when I see that post. I just get to the website as fast as I can and order it. Just buying what I need for a couple of new guns (not hoarding or reselling/scalping). Partner up with someone and let them know your wish list items and look out for each other. I haven't been able to buy any primers this year but I've been able to trade powder for them locally. I've been able to help a couple people out along the way and that feels good.

I've tried to sign up for email notices on all the major websites but I never seem to get them.
Click to expand...
I have been notified when items come in. It takes some time, but they have carried through. All items are hard to get your hands on presently. I know that, if it's being talked about here it's gone, by the time I see it. I go directly to the web site, To Late, To Late. OR To Bad, To Bad. I will keep watching.
 

Similar threads

jimisbell
Is there a universal powder.
3 4 5
Replies
57
Views
6K
CVCOBRA1
CVCOBRA1
R
powder why
Replies
9
Views
2K
riverhunt
R
T
How much variation is there between powder lots?
Replies
3
Views
5K
BountyHunter
B
S
Hornady Tech Support 2nd to None!
Replies
1
Views
826
Rem81
R
M
Maybe this is why nobody can find popular powders
Replies
1
Views
2K
XSIVSPD
XSIVSPD

Recent Posts

Top