Wow, lots of powder!

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I walked into my local SWH today to pick up some bullets and to look at buying another spotting scope, and low and behold, they had all kinds of powder! The best part was it was back to almost old days prices, so were the bullets.

Varget was $22.99 lb. and RL22 was $25.99. I haven't seen those kind of prices locally in a long time.

GS
 
Little by little powder and other components are returning to the shelves. I just hope people walk away from this latest and greatest fiasco all the wiser for the experience.

Ron
 
I hear you Ron, we need to calm down a bit. Powder and other components are coming in, I've had no real problem getting what I need with few exceptions, I just have to look a little harder, but it's there.

GS
 
I hope everybody chills out, and doesn't grab up everything for just one friggin minute. Damn. People should be decently stocked now I would think. I know I am, and I came in right in the middle of the darn thing. Im not trying to bellyache, well I guess I am.

I can see getting really, really , really well stocked up, but their comes a time when enough is enough, and you have to leave some for the next man. I'd hate to see what happens if our bread and water ever become scarce. We'll have people filling up their swimming pool with drinking water while their neighbor dies of thirst. And Im not bitching about not being able to get powder, just bitchin because i think it's gone a bit over board. Like TT said above though, such is life.
 
I think that a lot of the hoarding was by the yuppie crowd. As with all passing fancies, reloading will become boring as factory ammo returns and they'll move on to the next big thing like extreme desert surfing or what ever and we'll be stuck with the high prices. The upside might be the bargains on eBay for presses and other goodies. :D
M2C
 
Actually I am seeing the opposite. The next generation of shooters/reloaders are much more informed and educated than we were 20-40 years ago thanks to computers, internet, online forums and social media.

Thanks to Youtube and online gun forums like THR, what used to take us months and years to accomplish, they are able to gather in matter of hours and days. At their finger tips, they can access what works and what won't. And believe me, people tend to post more Youtube videos of what won't. ;)

Since the ammo shortage of 2008 when all the shelves at big box stores and LGS were empty, I have seen more and more shooters get into reloading and the ones I have met and shot with at the range, none of them have gone back to buying factory ammo. In fact, they plan to reload even more.

Just ask yourselves. How many of you reloaders have gone back to buying factory ammo? I bet not many.
 
One store where I live still had a good supply of components but it is at the higher prices. Powder at $30 a pound and standard bullets at $32 per hundred. I told my wife I would never buy anything from them again. Another good store has reduced the prices where powder is selling for about $25 a pound and standard bullets selling for about $28 per hundred but the items don't stay on the shelves very long. It's hit or miss as to whether they have what you want.
 
Local shop here had a few 1lbs cans of H322. It was $35 though. They had 6 or 7 different powders but I don't remember what the other ones were.
 
RussellC said:
You are not looking very hard, I've seen 1 and 8 lbs at several places: Recob's is one of my favs...

http://www.recobstargetshop.com/browse.cfm/2,65.html
Click to expand...
You would think so, but evidently folks around here don't seem to be too interested in reloading, according to local brick-and-mortar suppliers. Apparently it's easier to just buy the cheap ball ammo. I found this hard to believe, but then I've noticed there aren't a whole lot of reloaders at local the range when I go out there. Even fewer target rifles. Admittedly, I've always bought at brick-and-mortar suppliers with cash; mail or internet may be another story.
 
Local Cabelas had 8# Varget for $209 and 8# IMR-4350/3031 for $199.

I was very tempted on the Varget but decided to wait. Had the most 1# bottles of various powered I've seen there in a long while. ie, more then 2 types of 1# powder.
 
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Not bad!

But I think our SWH is a tad bit less at 22.99 Varget, and $25.99 for RL22.

Folks, I think we're going to start seeing things getting back to almost pre panic prices over the next 6 months or so, at least it's starting to appear as such.

All other elements being equal, it's fact that supply and demand is what controls retail prices. So if most of us reloaders could decrease the quantities we purchase by 50%, and then did that for 6 months or more, I would bet that we could drive retail prices down significantly. In reality, the cost of producing powders hasn't changed much if any over the last 6 years, only the rate of demand has increased, and way beyond what anyone has ever seen in the history of reloading. And most of us are absolutely guilty of buying and stock piling considerably more product than what our hobby demands, I'm one of those. So for those of us that have enough on the shelf to last for the next 6 months to a year without fear of running out, if we stopped buying for a while, we could get powders back to $18 - $20 lb..

I've worked in wholesale and retail for the better part of 25 years and have seen how the trends follow supply and demand. In my experience a product that doesn't sell well will quickly come way down in price, especially retail, and wholesale always follows retail trends, not the other way around. We are in control if we want to be, think about it.

GS
 
I am not a high volume reloader. I have loaded as much as needed for the past two years and only bought a small amount of supplies.

I have been lucky. I had on hand most of what I needed. It surprised me.

Now it time to start restocking a little bit.

Mark
 
I got so excited, like Jo Jo the circus boy. Seriously though, I went in there for something else, and then ended up forgetting what I actually needed when I saw all that powder. Never in my life have I ever seen things the way they've been the last few years though. Even during the Clinton assault weapon ban, and the Brady bill, the panic hardly lasted a year, and in some instances it didn't even impact folks. And primer and powder manufacturer's didn't have any problem keeping up with production. But I do feel things are starting to look up quite a bit.

GS
 
I was in the Sportsman's Warehouse store in Medford, OR, yesterday afternoon and they had exactly four pounds of powder, two pounds of 50 BMG and two pounds of Reloder 17. They get their powder shipments in on Friday mornings, and the clerk said what they got in that morning was gone in less than half an hour, and they have purchase limits.

Powder is still hard to come by here on the West Coast. I'm not telling anyone what my stock is, but I'm ok for awhile......

Hope this helps.

Fred
 
Unless your're the big Dufus with a stupid grin who's bragging at the check out stand how he's going to make a killing when he "flips" the cart full of powder he's just grabbed.

If the Clerk tells him there's a limit, he just goes out to his vehicle and sends his wife, her sister(s), and any adult kids he has back in to buy their individual limits.

At least that's what happens here at our local Cabela's.
 
amlevin said:
Unless your're the big Dufus with a stupid grin who's bragging at the check out stand how he's going to make a killing when he "flips" the cart full of powder he's just grabbed.

If the Clerk tells him there's a limit, he just goes out to his vehicle and sends his wife, her sister(s), and any adult kids he has back in to buy their individual limits.

At least that's what happens here at our local Cabela's.
Click to expand...
OK so the powder is available at Cabela's. Newsflash, powder is becoming more and more available everywhere at the retail store level. This is not a great time to be buying powder with the hope of flipping it for profit. Unless of course you happen to be an idiot in which case, have at it.

Ron
 
Went into the Sportsman's Warehouse in Des Moines the other day, saw all kinds of 1# powder cans on the shelves! Picked up a can of CFE223, and discovered to my great disappointment it was empty! :uhoh:

THEN, I saw the sign -- you have to ask at the desk. So I did, and of course, they had virtually no powder in stock! What a letdown! :banghead::banghead::banghead::cuss::cuss::fire:
 
I know this is a stupid question, and you posted this a gzillion years ago but it seems everyone but me know what SWH stands for except me. Please give me a clue anybody?
 
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