Price increases soon (?): buy more ammo or powder?

Considering the ammo I make is better than anything I can buy from a factory I would say you should buy more powder. I would be in a panic if I had only 3 lbs of rifle powder on hand!! I try to keep a 8lb jug of my favorite powder on hand at all times along with ~5000 primers. I know that sounds like a lot but once you start reloading for the Garand it goes fast. Actually, an 8lb jug will only fill between 1100 and 1200 cases depending upon your charge weight. For the Garand I can get ~1,190 30-06 rounds from an 8lb jug.

The rumored price increases are for metals such as lead or copper. Looking at the history of lead and copper prices over a twenty year period, it is probably not BS but I would not panic-buy at inflated prices today (but I do expect prices to go up in the near future).

There is more world demand for metals as the rest of the world becomes more industrialized.

Ignition Override said:

Already have 1,200 primers, and have been reloading for about a year, only .303 British (Prvi Partizan). Just bought over 1,000 bullets to restock, and will later learn to reload 30-06 for my Garand.

would you buy new ammo or several pounds of gunpowder?

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I would buy more powder over new ammo.

I tend to think that prices might stay the same for some time now. After the Presidential election, when everyone cleaned the shelves of powder and primers, it took some time for production to come back up.

Many who ordered large quantities, only to have them backordered, have been receiving those orders and are overstocked. There are actually some deals on primers now that we haven't seen for several years.

It's really odd. I don'tn have any prediction as to prices in the future. What I see on current prices doesn't make a bit of sense to me though. I live in a very small town with one dealer for reloading components. I travel through several other small towns who also have just one dealer. In all those cases, the availability of powder, primers, bullets is MUCH better than 2 years ago, quite a bit better than 1 year ago. Yet the prices are between 10-20% HIGHER than they were a year ago. The owners tell me it's because their distributors are increasing the wholesale prices that much. They can get all they want, but the price is high. Yet, when I go to the big city of Billings, MT every few months, the prices seem to be pretty flat or even cheaper than one year ago.

I try to have loyalty to the little local stores. They did a great job stocking primers 2 years ago when the big stores were totally out. And they didn't raise their prices then to take advantage of their precious stocks. I still do some business with them all out of loyalty. But it is befuddling that 2 years ago they were selling primers for $32/1000 and now they want $38/1000. Powder was $23/lb 2 years ago and now they want $30/lb for the same stuff. I will continue to buy some stuff from them, but I have to say that I buy a lot more stuff in the big city for 20% less (plus I don't have to pay sales tax in MT).

Regardless though, I would always buy more reloading components rather than factory ammo. Easy choice.

Regardless of the reason, it is always better to buy powder in larger quantities (as long as it is something you'll need and use).

It's cheaper and more consistant--every load came from the same lot #. Plus, if you buy it online you have to pay a hazmat fee regardless of whether you order 1 lb of powder and 100 primers or 8lb and 3,000.

John Wayne said:

if you buy it online you have to pay a hazmat fee regardless of whether you order 1 lb of powder and 100 primers or 8lb and 3,000.

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True, but when your local Dealer is gouging you by charging twice as much for Bench Rest Primers as what you can buy them for from an Online source, the savings on one box of 1,000 primers can wipe out the cost of the Hazmat Fee.

A hazmat fee will cover up to just under 50# so it pays to fill up the order.

If you max the order for weight that pesky hazmat fee amounts to $0.50 per pound. Considering that I save $30 on a box of BR primers, and an average of $6/lb on powder over local prices, I'll keep on ordering my supplies online.

Also don't have to spend any money on gas as it comes to my door within 5-6 days of my placing the order.

Another benefit is that my local government, which already gets enough of my money, doesn't get that extra 10% Sales Tax.

The only reason I buy ammo is to have the brass & be able to laugh at the terrible accuracy when compared to Hondo 60 made made ammo.

For powder, i would avoid Midway, atleast if you are buying Primers at the same time. Midway will hit you with a $25 fee for primers and then another $25 for powder since they are dropped shipped from 2 locations. I would look at PowderValley. They ship togheter, and their prices are better.

Check out these websites for pricing and it should give you an idea of what a "fair" price should be. Depending on what part of the country you're in, you could always make a road trip every couple months or years for supplies. Just a quick check on a pound of Bullseye at each site shows you shouldn't be paying $30 for a pound of powder, unless it Vihtavuori!

Recobs $14.59
Gamaliel $16.95
Grafs $15.99
Powder Valley $14.30

I'm sure there are others but a 15 mile drive to Recob's is less than a gallon of gas round trip in my econobox, a little less on the motorcycle. I'm pretty sure each on of these places lets you pick up to avoid the hazmat.

My history books tell me that the price of almost everything is going to go up. 100 years ago you could get a new car for the same price you would pay for 1000 rounds of 223 today. The only bad part about those times is that your 40 hour work week would only put $8.80 in your pocket.

In any case if you only have 1200 primers you should get more.

The reloading components scenario reminds me of how people react in the stock market (they tend to wait until the price is high to buy). Instead of buying when component prices are low (like now), people will wait until there is a panic to buy (like 2 years ago). I saw people at the gun shows in 2009 buying primers for $70 per thousand. Now is the time to buy.

Don

It's always a good idea to have about a year's worth of components on hand. Only you know what that number is. However many you shoot in a normal year might be 500 rds or 50,000. Primers are what became the most scarce this last time. It wasn't just the price going up, in some cases you couldn't find them anywhere for any price at all for weeks at a time. Powder wasn't so bad. You couldn't always get what you might want, but you could usually get a reasonable substitute. The powder prices didn't really go up much. Bullets were fairly easy to get. For certain calibers, the brass was really hard to come by for awhile. 45 Colt was extremely difficult to find brass for. Actually, it STILL is if you want Starline.

So judging from past history, make sure you have enough primers to last awhile.