Win 231/HP-38 must be made of Unobtanium?

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RandyP

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I know the panic buying is in full swing, but dang........ I've tried most every website I can think of and they are all Out of Stock.

Thank you Gun Salesman of the decade - Barack Obama.
 
I also went through this during the last "shortage".

When I couldn't get W231, I bought HP-38. Also, Ramshot Zip is very similar to W231/HP-38.

When powder availability became really bad, I recommended Green Dot and most of my 9mm/45ACP loads simply required about .2 gr more powder charge to compare with W231/HP-38 target loads.

I would also suggest WST, Red Dot/Promo, American Select and Solo 1000 for target loads.
 
No hp38/win231 here either. I might try AA#5 again. I still have half a pound of hp38 for now though (500 rounds worth).
 
I picked up two jars of HP38 last week at the local Bass Pro shop for reloading some 38 special. That was about the only powder they had more than one jug of.

I guess it's just spotty all over the place now. Cabela's and the local Gun Store has an odd cross sections of powders too. But they had plenty of 4064 for my 30-06.

The only consistent element was nothing for small rifles, e.g. .223, no powder, no primers and oddly enough, no reloading trays.
 
The local Scheels had plenty of primers and powder on the shelves, but a group of losers was arguing in front of the stuff and I didn't feel llike walking back down the row and around to see what the store had. The store was out of just about all ammo however. Even the box of .38 Super that had been sitting there for over a year was gone! They used to have a whole wall of ammo and it was GONE! A bit of a shock to me, but then I never bought much from them unless it was on sale.

HP-38 and Win 231 are the SAME powder. Call Hodgdon and ask.
 
I just shake my head in disbelief!

Do people honestly believe that the government is going to ban all guns and ammo loading supplies, so everyone is stocking up on it while they can?

I can somewhat see the possibility of a ban on "assault" type rifles and high capacity magazines in the future, but what does that have to do with the shortage of everything else on the shelves?

What am I missing here ...
 
Well, 2 years ago I bought a 4lb jug of w231 and last year I bought another 4 lb jug. They got put away for times like this although I do have 3X 1lb cans of HP-38 I'm going to work through first. By the time this is over I'll probably still have the 2X 4lb jugs on the shelf and that suits me just fine. I will probably never need to buy W231/HP-38 again.
 
The reloading equipment itself seems to also be in somewhat short supply. I suspect that many people anticipate some limitations on ammo sales in the future; I think that's unlikely, but I have run into many brand-new reloaders in the past month.

I think that trend is accelerated by the absurd prices of centerfire plinker ammo at the moment. Lots of people were willing to pay $5 or $6 for a box of 55gr .223. Many fewer can afford to feed those precious "assault rifles" when PNC stuff is fetching more than a dollar per round.

If I try to see the bright side, perhaps this push will bring a bunch of new people into reloading, expanding the market for components and data and equipment. If the market has a long-term, secular increase in the number of reloaders, perhaps CCI will expand its production capacity to be able to keep small pistol and rifle primers in stock (which has been spotty this whole year where I am).
 
Believe it or not, I just picked up a pound of HP38 here in NY of all places. Of course rifle powder seems to be made of fairy dust here.

If anybody in the Capital District area is willing to trade a few hundred SPP for a bit of HP38 let me know. Maybe we both can shoot for a little while.
 
W231 was in stock here a couple of weeks ago, I picked up a lb of it. What I couldn't believe was the shelves full of Small Pistol Primers yesterday and no limit on purchase. After checking daily for a few weeks, I gave up and they got a boatload in...
 
I must have gotten the last 4 LB jug of HP-38 from Powder Valley, it arrived the week after Christmas.:D Dang this is some rough time to be starting to reload as some posting on here are attempting to do.:what:
 
Just today at my local LGS, I picked up a jug of HP-38. They had 4 on the shelf. No small pistol primers but I have tried to keep a couple of thousand on hand.
 
I'm trying to start to reload for 9x19 and 9x18 Mak and was lucky we had a gun show on New Years weekend where getting powder and primers was easy if I waned to settle on what they had. A keg of w231 and 1lb of titegroup. I have everything I need to start reloading except for my press which is still on back order since the first week of the month.
My supplies aren't too bad off, I still have about 500 Mak, 500 9mm, 800 or so of 7.62x39 as well as 7.62x54r left before I'll be short. The press should be here in a week or so. or so they told me last week. :confused:
 
There is someone near austin tx selling 40 pounds of its on texasguntrader.com. I doubt u want that much and dont know ic he will split it or ship. I found 1lb at cabelas last nite but it was a miracle
 
PhotoBiker,

Man, if I could find a place that had SPP's like that ! I picked up 2K about 2 weeks ago, felt very, very lucky to get those. Then a place I found had gotten in some 231 powder, I got 2 lbs. of that, felt extremely lucky on that find. Crazy stuff going on !
 
How close to Northern Indiana are you? I know where there are some jugs of 231 at a LGS. Now if I could only get some small pistol primers!!!!
 
If you can find Alliant's Bullseye it will work well for 380acp, 9x19, and 45acp.
I just picked some up locally a few days ago, W-231 and HP-38 are nowhere to be found, if you can find Ramshot zip I would get it. I have been wanting to try Accurate's #2 but it is $5 more a lb here so I went with Bullseye again.
 
Like bds says, Green Dot (intended as a shotshell powder) is a fine substitute for W231/HP-38. I suspect it's also more readily available. In fact, I now prefer Green Dot over the other for 9mm and .38 Special. I've also shot it successfully in .380 ACP and .40 S&W. When I get time, I plan to try it in .32 H&R Magnum and .44 Special.
 
bangbig,

I'm West of Denver, not very practical to make the drive up there, thanks anyway. I wish I could find the 231 in jugs here..... oh well.
 
I think the best thing to do is just stay calm about all this. I think this will pass. I dont even see an assault weapons ban coming because there is no way it can get the votes anyway. The thing now is they're just scaring the heck out of everyone. The powder will come back. Just look around, powder valley has a lot of Alliant powders in, even Unique which I think you would have a hard time not being able to get a good work up with it. They got a lot of Alliant powder in right now. I would bite, but I probably got enough pistol powder between 12 pounds of Unique, and 22 pounds of 231 to last me the rest of my life.
 
Smokeless powders aren't necessarily made to order from a limitless supply of raw chemicals. In fact, the St. Marks factory makes a lot of Hodgdon's powders from old tree stumps. These stumps have to be a certain type and age and contain the right concentration of resin to produce a given powder. So there ya go. It's possible that one day they won't be able to make enough HP38 for the demand.
 
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