Shortage ending?

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gonoles_1980

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Could the shortage be ending. My local shop had a brand new huge shipment in today. I bought a pound of Accurate #five. He has tight group kegs said I need my own container and there is a 2 pound limit on the tight group. I have an old w231 canister that will hold 1lb. Is there anything I can store gunpowder in?
 
Tupperware.

Until Hodgdon starts getting shipments of Clays, International and Universal, there will continue to be a shortage of shotgun powders. The industry had an opportunity to win some customers while the big H was down, but just couldn't fill the void.
 
Acquaintance of mine said yesterday Bass Pro had a big shipment but the prices he said they were charging for it was quite high. I don't turn down the opportunity for what I use because we shoot an awful lot. There is a break even point at off the shelf levels and I won't approach that. I try to keep 9mm at about .15 each and that is with my brass.
 
Call me paranoid but I would only store powder in (used) powder containers. I have a few old 1lb containers that haven't made it to the trash. That way I won't worry about static ignition or how the container behaves in a fire.

That said, if a shop tried to pull the "two pound limit" card when the smallest unit they had was 8lb jars, I would treat it exactly as though a store had a "Max two 50rd boxes, or one 100rd box, of .22lr" policy and wanted to break up a 550 bulk pack. In other words I would laugh and ask to speak with a manager/owner and if they insisted I'd walk away.
 
If this shortage ever ends, I'll buy enough to last the rest of my life.
 
He had an 8lb canister of some powder I hadn't heard of, he would sell that. Is a Keg just 8lbs? The guy is pretty honest. The way he made it sound was that it was in barrel's. If it was just 8lbs, I think he'd sell the 8lbs.
 
If this shortage ever ends, I'll buy enough to last the rest of my life.
Exactly. I had enough Titegroup to last me 2 years when this all started. As I found TG at LGS for a decent price, I would pick up a couple pounds. So far this year I have purchased 1 8lb keg, and 6 1lb'rs. As of tonight I am down to 11lbs give or take .5lb. I normally use about 12lbs per year. When TG starts showing up at LGS, and my gun club, I will buy a 8lb keg once per month till I have enough to last 5 years. I am currently on the 2k primers/week program now.

I have seen too many friends not show up for matches this year due to no powder to load with. I have helped a few close friends out with powder so they can get back out to the range. Some have even quit loading, and now buy factory ammo till this blows over.
 
He had an 8lb canister of some powder I hadn't heard of, he would sell that. Is a Keg just 8lbs? The guy is pretty honest. The way he made it sound was that it was in barrel's. If it was just 8lbs, I think he'd sell the 8lbs.
Current production commercial powders come in 1lb, 4lb, 5lb and 8lb jugs. I know of no distributor who sells barrels of smokeless powder. Back in the 50's Hodgdon sold surplus powder by the barrel and the local stores sold powder in paper bags but that was a very long time ago.
 
Call me paranoid but I would only store powder in (used) powder containers. I have a few old 1lb containers that haven't made it to the trash. That way I won't worry about static ignition or how the container behaves in a fire.

I totally agree. Store powder in powder jugs. Static, the eroding affect of double base powders, Moisture and mistaken identity can all lead to unpleasant events.
Ask some shooter friends for an empty jug or two. CAREFULLY and CLEARLY RELABEL them for your powder.
Just my opinion, but staying safe is the best option.
 
yes and no... over the summer i have noticed some powder coming back but again that is in limited supply. finding powder is one thing, finding the powder you have loads for is another. no pistol powder what so ever... i have switched two major powders already..
 
The only place I can find pistol powders here is in a small out of the way sporting goods store. They get it in spurts but get a decent amount when they do. I always buy a few pounds when they have Autocomp or TiteGroup in.

All the larger gun shops and cabelas have nothing but super slow burning rifle powders. Cabelas even puts up a sign now listing what is in stock so people stop asking employees to open the plywood powder cabinet only to find pyrodex and H50BMG inside.
 
I thought I had enough W231 to last a lifetime but I'm now down to only 12 pounds... I know that sounds like a lot but I use W231 for mostly every handgun cartridge I load.

I could use a few pounds of HS-6 and a bunch of AA5744 but other than that I think I'll be OK for a while...
 
So...Remington announced they were moving jobs from New York to Alabama and sighted as a "SOFTENING OF THE MARKET" as one of the reasons...aside from NY being a toxic state for guns.

Maybe the market is slowing down. That would mean that prices are now likely at a high for guns and gun related supplies.

If things are starting to loosen up that could be good and bad. Lower prices are good but lower interest is bad as it may give anti-gun groups more input.
 
Rumor has it Rio will be getting into the canister powder business later this year or early next. Currently there are some Maxam CSB powders available in bulk. 55 pound drums. Some LGS's are offering this by the pound, bring your own container. Others are repackaging into 8 pound kegs. Data is pretty slim. It is not tightgroup.

http://americanreloading.com/en/smo...-maxam-csb-5-pistol-shotgun-powder-8-lbs.html
 
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Although things have been lean, I have been buying components when I see them, and as a result I have a pretty good inventory at present. Some call it hoarding, but in my defense, that really isn't a fair analogy, I just want to have what I need, when I need it. So I suggest you buy as much as you can get your hands on. If you don't someone else will. I've used baggies before when the LGS was breaking up large quantities, I just label the baggies with the powder and lot number before I fill them, and then I put the powder in the properly labeled container when I get home. I save my empty powder canisters because of this, so they always have the an original label on them.

GS
 
I know it's best to use a correctly relabeled empty powder jug but if you can't get one what to do? Not all plastics are suitable for storing smokeless powders, that's why using a empty powder bottle is safe. On the very few occasions I had to store powder without a powder bottle I used a cardboard container. That worked very well for me. I actually used an empty rice box.
 
I've noticed a lot more of everything on the shelves lately. Powder has gone from "nothing" on the shelves to there being not exactly what you want but something usable on the shelves. I've RANDOMLY (ie, just being in the store and checking) found .22LR on the shelves of local stores 4 times in the last 6 weeks (and upped my stash by about 1200 rounds there). Centerfire ammo isn't even an issue anymore. If I wanted I could buy all the 9mm, .40S&W, or .45 that I wanted.

Overall things are definitely clearing up. Granted, it won't take much to send the market back into panic mode, but I think most people are getting their supplies up to where they're happy (either that or they're just out of money).
 
I actually saw 223 priced better than Ive seen it in a while for gander. I believe it was 39.99 for the 100 rd value paks.
 
ive seen a lot of good powders coming in. this month alone my LGS got in bullseye, unique, titegroup, win296, hp38 and win231. all at different times and all in stock for atleast a day with a 2lb limit. the latest shipment of 231 they kept in stock for about 4 days

I managed to get a couple pounds of hp38 and a pound of win296. that should hopefully hold me over until I see 8#ers of bullseye on the shelf.
 
If you can drink instant coffee, the Nescafe Taster's Choice containers make pretty good powder storage containers. Reasonably air tight and top latch would pop open with only a small pressure build up in case of a fire. I use them to store powder and also treated media for my brass tumblers.
 
The guy at the gun powder store said no to gunpowder in the Tupperware container. So I gave him the one empty container. He came out with 2 containers, mine and one he said he had in the back. So I have 2lbs titegroup.
 
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