Powder question?

Powder is coming in and going out of stock almost daily. Sometimes it stays in stock for hours at a time, too. This is much better than is was a few months ago when it wasn't coming in stock at all or it vanishes within 5 minutes.

My LGS is getting powder every week now of quite a variety. Usually a few pounds of each type. Each week the types and quantity changes. All good signs that things are turning around.

Tell us what you are looking for then maybe if we see it we can PM you to let you know.

Powder is about, better than primers but still a short supply.

If you lived anywhere near me, I could probably hook you up.

It is comming back slowly. Primers are even worse. The ammo manufacturers are using almost all the primers, propellant, brass, and bullets to make loaded ammo first.
No backorder is because they cant get it from the factories for last years prices and need to sell it for a profit when it does arrive. It will surely go if priced reasonably. The last shooting and the ATF nominee are stirring up things again so this may be a long time getting back to sane times. Just sayi'n.

Governments are the main consumers of ammunition, and typically have large contracts locked in. Sport shooting gets what's left from that. Reloading gets what's left from that. Production capacity can only slowly be expanded. A little bump in demand puts a big squeeze on the market.

Captain*kirk said:

I consider $80.00/lb a king's ransom...add in the shipping and hazmat you just mentioned and you're at $160.00/lb. That's outrageous and I won't play their (scalpers') game...

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With Hazmat & shipping included, it actually comes out to $36.25/lb.

Captain*kirk said:

I consider $80.00/lb a king's ransom...add in the shipping and hazmat you just mentioned and you're at $160.00/lb. That's outrageous and I won't play their (scalpers') game...

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Better check your math again bud. Furthermore you are looking for two of the most popular powders, of course they will be hard to find. Midsouth had 8lb jugs of unique 2 days ago for $165, they just sold fast. I also missed out.

Captain*kirk said:

Typo...yes, I meant to say $120.00/lb but my fat fingers lied. That's still outrageous. I have 1.5# of Unique left and I guess I'll have to be judicious about it until more becomes available, then do like you guys and buy in bulk. The RE22 I am totally out of and at 60gr per cartridge it goes quickly. I would be all over Unique at $165 per 8 lb....

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I’m with you bud no more 1 pounders for me. Just opened my last pound of unique and ran out of rl22 a few months back and have been looking for more but won’t pay inflated prices so we’re in the exact same boat. Good luck!

There appears to be 2 price levels on GB. One is ask prices.......meaning it's available at any price if you are desperate. The other is where the seller starts low and lets actual bidders compete. You may see from 2 to 20 bids for those. Checked yesterday and that price appears to be around $60 a pound, plus shipping. I notice many sellers are offering lots of 2 to 3 pounds to combine shipping, so that price is also for smaller lots than say an 8 pound jug.

Hodgdon still has the bit on their site saying they sold more powder in 2020 than ever before, and are on track to increase that for 2021. Powder appears to be showing up in stores large and small, but shelves are quickly swept clean. Shows up at large online retailers, but is sold out in minutes. Was told by one shop there are bots searching the Internet for supply, and reporting hits to buyers with apps on their phones. He told me when they get in an ammo shipment, buyers show up in droves within minutes. Getting supply but quickly selling out, even with small lot limits.

But as for these shops, I would be curious to know what their normal sales of powder and primers WERE when supply was available. How many per month or year, prior to now. And then what it is now. Unless the sales numbers are the same or greater, it would seem the Hodgdon story does not hold water.

Get an econ book and study "supply and demand"
Price is set by the price that just clears the market. People pay what the resource is worth to them. The market consists of millions or billions of people making buying decisions.
During Obummer, I could have bought Bullseye for $50/lb. It wasn't worth even ⅓ of that to me, but many people seemed to think it was well worth the cost.

That same econ book will also say that when demand kicks in such that price spikes up, that will trigger a surge in supply to bring it back down. "Excess profits breeds ruinous competition".

For whatever reason, that part doesn't seem to be happening. Even with as many as 8 different product brands (Accurate and Ramshot from Western, Hodgdon IMR, Winchester, Alliant, VV and Explosia group (Shooter's World), none of them seem to have figured out a way to take advantage of the condition by finding the supply to meet the demand. Its a curious thing.

These manufacturers presumably know the market and it's fluctuations better than joe reloader. They have contracts to fulfill first and what reloaders use is but a drop in the bucket to them. Couple that with the ability to produce just so much due to processing time without large expenses of another line that will probably be forced to shut down once supply catches up with demand. Like those plants making .22 ammo. Other than running 24/7 at top speed they realize this is temporary. What are we going to do? Stop buying stuff to punish them for not building new factories?

Frogo economics are to buy when things are cheap/on sale as a hedge against cost increases with as much cash as I can spare. These dips are so far only temporary and I planned to be able to ride out a 5 year disruption. Maybe longer with future purchases as the average cost never drops below the previous normal costs. Plan for the worst hope for the best!

ETA: The manufacturers are making things just as fast as they can and therefore selling more than ever. Just not selling it all to reloaders. We think that we are a large population but in reality I personally know over 300 firearms owners and 100 or so of them shoot regularly. Only 6 of us reload any amount of ammo. Think about that!

I don't think we fully understand the demand for components. Not just that but everything in the supply chain is swamped too!

It will come back. At least it always has.

I just bought two pounds of Green Dot at $27 a pound, it’s been sitting on the shelf at my local small town hardware store for months. They still have several pounds of AA#2.

You can't build a new powder plant very easily in US or Canada. A new foreign plant still has to face all of Obama's import regulations. If you want to bitch, complain about the French, German, Czech, Russia, China, Italy, and other countries not shipping their powders or bullets to the US.
Nobody can afford to build new plants without a permanent increase in demand.
Then, we have the potato in the white house pushing every gun control measure ever thought up, creating a very uncertain market.

Hey looking for some CFE .223 and pistol if anyone has an idea of where to find it thanks

Yep, there is a powder shortage, yes scalpers are cheating. This in not a typical "Economics 101, supply and demand situation", but rather mega-panic buying, hoarding situation ("I gotta get mine now!). And this is probably the 831st "No components available?" thread in the forums I frequent and nothing new from a year ago; same complaining, same conspiracy theories, same blaming...

Anyone who has been a gun affectionado and has gone though 2 or 3 Presidential elections should know to stock up on ammo and loading supplies before an election year. I'm sorry, but brothers, this is on you.

FROGO207 said:

These manufacturers presumably know the market and it's fluctuations better than joe reloader. They have contracts to fulfill first and what reloaders use is but a drop in the bucket to them. Couple that with the ability to produce just so much due to processing time without large expenses of another line that will probably be forced to shut down once supply catches up with demand. Like those plants making .22 ammo. Other than running 24/7 at top speed they realize this is temporary. What are we going to do? Stop buying stuff to punish them for not building new factories?

Frogo economics are to buy when things are cheap/on sale as a hedge against cost increases with as much cash as I can spare. These dips are so far only temporary and I planned to be able to ride out a 5 year disruption. Maybe longer with future purchases as the average cost never drops below the previous normal costs. Plan for the worst hope for the best!

ETA: The manufacturers are making things just as fast as they can and therefore selling more than ever. Just not selling it all to reloaders. We think that we are a large population but in reality I personally know over 300 firearms owners and 100 or so of them shoot regularly. Only 6 of us reload any amount of ammo. Think about that!

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Man just copy and paste this as a reply to every where's the ........ thread.
Then the mods can lock it as asked and answered

Captain*kirk said:

Mainly RE22 and Unique...

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This is the time where you need to learn to be a bit flexible... Although I am a diehard Unique devote', there are substitutes... Universal, AA#5, WW540, and even useful faster powders like W231/HP38, RedDot, TiteGroup (which I don't like, but it has it's place...) Zip, etc.

RL22... which is a pretty slow powder, can be substituted by H4831, IMR7828, H1000 or Retumbo, depending on your application.