When I resumed reloading a few years back when nothing, absolutely nothing was available, I was loading for rifles and shotguns, and I kept a pretty close eye on availability from Midway and Grafs as I am within driving distance to both, so could avoid haz mat and shipping. So as to snag anything I could that would work, I was also forced to get back up to speed on many of the new powders I was not familiar with. One of those was Shooter's World. On the surface, sounded good, and if you went to their website, they only ran their powders thru about 6 of the big online retailers, and Midway and Graf's were 2 of the 6. Potentially, a good deal for me. Their claim to fame was good powders (which apparently they are), and those would be readily available and at reasonable prices. The price part was right, except they were NOT available. In first year.....2021......, I can recall one short burst of supply of a couple SW powders from Midway that lasted maybe 2 weeks. Only in the past 6 to 8 months or so have they shown up in abundance, except price is no longer cheap. Last time I checked SW Precision was pushing $50 a pound.....double that what it was listed at in 2021. So as of today, supply is OK, price is up there and load data for any of them is scarce........SW themselves about the only real source. But it would work. My concern is if you went down that SW road, would supply be steady or in hard times, never? So if you go SW......go long!
By contrast, last time I was in Graf's............about a month ago........they had about 10 jugs of BE-86 on the retail floor with a price on the jug of $205. I was told by retail clerk there had been little demand for the BE-86 and if I wanted an 8 pounder or two, they might knock off a bit more. I'd stop short of saying my jaw dropped, but it was close......and for 2 reasons. First the price......and 2nd, that a sales clerk at Graf's, and the other retail customers would not be aware of value those jugs of BE-86 offered.
As of today, 8 pound jugs of BE-86 still available from Graf's except these from the online warehouse with current price of nearly $290 or so for the 8 pounder, plus haz mat and shipping. Load data for BE-86 for 9mm and many others is out there, and in abundance.
