Just when I was getting to like it - ran out of HS6 - but, found some..

[anothernewb]

did some horse trading awhile back, and one of the things I ended up with was a part can of HS6. It sat for awhile till I started loading 9mm.

Been using 147gr berry's plated with HS6 powder. been finding it to be a great combo with really good accuracy out of both my STI and my hi-power.

Sadly, I loaded the last of it the other day.

Of course - it's pretty much outta stock everywhere - like everything else these days.

However... Yesterday I stopped in to visit my niece, and saw a local gun/sporting goods shop, and thought. Why not? Unbelievably - they had powders on the shelves, lots of powders actually. 231, autocomp, 4064, H110, 748, wsf, wst. AND HS6. I was amazed - no limit signs on powder either. I practically cried it was so beautiful. Quickly I snagged 2 1# cans and headed to the counter.


It rang up to $65 after tax. I just about fell over. They were charging $29.99/lb. So I talked to the guy a bit to get the gist of the situation. Not much conversation there - after a few noncommittal grunts in response, I pretty much told him that I understand marking things up a bit in times of shortage, but this price is a bit extreme, was there some shipping issue that . He was pretty much "that's the price it's always been, you want it or not" Not much customer service there. It's sad really. it's a smaller town so I understand the economics of the situation. But I also have have a pretty decent set of eyes. The cans I grabbed had no stickers on them, but I went and looked at some of the other cans - which did. they'd been re-stickered up from 21.99.

Needless to say I probably won't be patronizing that store again. I like the powder - but I don't know if I like it that much. I'll just load some 115's and dig into my stash of 231 or experiment with some unique for the time being.

I was also really disappointed, I'm usually all for dropping money at the local stores whenever I can. Usually it works out to my advantage in ways that offset a small price increase. This was just too large a gap for me to overcome, and I didn't see much chance of developing a rapport anyway. Just really really surprised. Guess I'm just too used to Minnesota nice - and this one just wasn't.

 

[wlkjr]

$25 to $35 is what I have been seeing. One guy said he marked his up to $30 because people were buying it up and selling it on Gunbroker for twice the price. In this market it's choose your poison. A flea market I went was selling .22 for $16 a 100. I can load 9mm cheaper than that, so no thanks.

 

[mtrmn]

As scarce as powder is nowdays, people are willing to give more in order at least have powder, and by the time the stores pay for higher priced powder plus the ridiculous hazmat fees they are having to charge more.
Before the Sandy Hook fiasco I could buy powder from Powder Valley for about 120 bucks for an 8 pounder, plus 27.50 for hazmat, plus whatever shipping is. Now, IF you can catch it in stock, that same 8 pounder is more like 150 bucks plus all the fees.
The store owner will have to pay much higher prices to restock than what he gave for it before, and he passes that cost to the consumer to stay in business. The .gov has made it harder and harder for a small business to remain profitable, and without profit they go under.

 

[Potatohead]

Ive never bought any that high I dont believe but I feel powder is worth 30$ per. Of course I wasn't reloading when it was 9.99$ per Lb, maybe I'd feel different if so. Someone would be a fool not to try and get market value for their product..

Im not saying 30$ is market value necessarily.

I think quite a few people would be glad just to get a hold of some 231 or autoComp. I could be wrong.

I noticed my LGS had covered up some sticker prices on ammo a few months back. It's a (somewhat) free country though.

 

[FROGO207]

There are a couple stores that are about an hours drive from here that have a large selection of propellant and primers. Have had them all along as well. BUT the prices were twice what everybody else was charging when this mess all started. So recently the 1# cans of $44 -$46 propellant are actually starting to sell now according to them. Last local cans I purchased were in the $21 range about 2 years ago. I will not restock from their shops as a principle at this point. They will be sitting on their $6 per hundred primers for a while I am afraid.

 

[gamestalker]

About the best I've seen during this reloading component nightmare has been $23.99 with retail as high as $28.99. Surprisingly primers have not really changed much in retail around here @ $3.39 per 100 ct.. It's obvious that the retail dealers are taking advantage of the circumstances, but that's business. However, I'll bet that when things return to the shelves we'll start seeing a more competitive market come back, with retail dropping down some. Sadly though, I don't think we'll ever see prices where they were before this happened.

GS