Winchester Reloading Supply Shortage?

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Barr

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I was at Wideners the other day in Johnson City and I learned that Winchester Primers and Powders are becoming much harder to get ahold of. I know that the Winchester Arms Company was/is owned by FN and the Winchester Ammunition is owned by Olin. The store clerk had told me he did not know exactly what the deal is but they were having a hard time getting additional inventory. Same thing at the other reloading store I go to, they had hardly any Winchester supplies at all.

Does anyone know what the story is?
 
I don't know what the deal is, but one thing I do know is that the Winchester branded powders should be around for a while. Hodgdon licensed the Winchester name and is now supplying the powders. I just checked their website -- where I ran across this a couple of weeks ago -- and the link that they have up for the Winchester powders takes you to a re-designed web site for Winchester powders. Given that the link used to just take you to an announcment of the licensing agreement, I suspect that perhaps what you might be seeing on the powder side are issues somewhere in the distributor chain as a result of the changes that have to be going on behind the scenes. I'd expect some rough patches through a transition like that.
 
I had heard the same rumor the other day. The reasons I was provided was due to the Winchester re-structure and the war. :rolleyes:

I was told to stock up on Win. primers if I didn't already have enough.

I'm not to stressed about it though...I have over 60k primers and 75 pounds of propellant. I'll be fine for a few months. ;)

Ed
 
Got enough supplies esheato? Just kidding :D . I thought I stocked up enough. 10 pounds of powder and 7000 primers plus what I already had. That alone cost a small fortune (college student on a budget).
 
Probably just supply hiccups.
Hodgdon is probably making all kinds of little changes,just as they did when they acquired IMR. Changing the bottles alone must be playing hob with the supply.
I'll be curious to see what happens to prices. Winchester has always been cheaper in my area,yet a good share of their ball powders are nearly identical to various Hodgdon offers since they all come from the same supplier (Primex): 296/H110, HP38/231, HS6&7 and Winchester 540/571,etc. Some are quite close such as 748 and Ball(C)2 (taken from various WC84X series military powders), 760 and H414.
Maybe Hodgdon will continue to use them as a "economy" brand,and bank on the fact that most people don't know how similar many of their powders are to one another.
 
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