First primers...now powder

S

stagpanther

New member
Primers have basically vanished from the domestic market, and it looks like the same thing is about to happen to powders. Wow..never seen things this bad.
 
They have been this bad in the recent past. I've been surprised that powders have still been available as long as they were.
 
Yesterday I believe it was Powder Valley had a good load of powder. You just have to pretty much sit on the different sites. Actually I think it was just as bad or worse following Sandy Hook when everything was out of stock including dies. When any distributors do have components for reloading they go from in stock to out of stock in an hour or less. The perfect storm. I won't guess how long this will last.

Ron
 
Just 2009, all over again.

But this time cause primarily by making everyone want a gun, and then giving everyone "free" money to buy one.
 
Sheels in Springfield IL has powder

Was in Sheels in Springfield IL a couple days ago. They had a lot of powder. Bought two pounds of HP38.

They had no primers and the prices on the empty shelves noted that what primers the did have went for $70 for a "brick" of only 500. I'd say that's price gouging.

Life is good.
Prof Young
 
Yesterday I believe it was Powder Valley had a good load of powder.
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They're my go-to. They had a few shotgun and pistol powders, otherwise pretty dry.

I've been through lots of zombie-scares, but this one is by far the worst IMO.
 
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Stopped by Grice Gun Shop on Saturday to pick up a lay-a-way.
They are a large gunshop in western PA.
They usually have anything you'd want when you walked in.

Bullet shelves (about 25' long going floor to ya gotta reach over your head) were bare.
Only some Bergers, and a few boxes of Sierra left.
Powder almost completely gone.
Primers non existent.
Loaded ammo hit & miss. Forget the popular cartridges.
And the rifle racks are getting pretty bare.
They still had some o/u shotguns.

Local distributor/wholesaler for reloading supplies still had shelves full of powder & bullets.
Primers are still hit & miss.
Bullet wise they are out or low on the Nosler Ballistic Tips, AccuBonds.
Pretty much everything else they have.
Still getting pallets of supplies in, going out about as fast.

This is also the first time i can remember Northland Shooting Supply being sold out of Savage actions.
They have a few left hand model 10 actions.
Sold out of right port, right bolt target actions.
 
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Prof Young said:
what primers the{y} did have went for $70 for a "brick" of only 500.
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If you look closely, you'll discover that while "bricks" of 22 LR ammunition are 500-count, with primers they are 1000-count. Still, that's double normal price for domestic brands of magnum primers.
 
Some people are confused, bored, and illogical.

I came across a few guys discussing decapping berdan 7.62x39 cases and gluing in boxer primers, yesterday.

After just a couple statements to remind them that punching the anvil out of those cases leaves huge, jagged, inconsistent flash holes that may cause issues, and they're likely to kill decapping pins in the process, I also gave them a link to some in-stock brass that was normal price.

The ringleader responded, "There's only 250 pieces available. That's not even worth my time. I already have 13,000 boxer cases. If I'm out of work and have time to reload, I'm going to reload until I have a job again."

I asked if he planned to convert a few thousand berdan cases, since 250 "wasn't worth his time."
"No. That's just stupid. Why would you spend so much time on something like that?"
:rolleyes::rolleyes:
 
Am glad i kept those berdan primers gotten several shortages ago. 7000 large rifle primers and an adequate supply of surplus berdan primed 308 rounds could keep me going, if ever ran out of the normal supplies. They kept me shooting 2 shortages ago, when most were not at our range. yup, time consuming.

Using more commonly available/cheaper powders also helped.
 
Constrictor said:
Exactly the same as happens every 4-6 years, And will continue to happen.
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+1

It does run in cycles, usually every 4ish years, in line with elections. Depending on who gets sworn in things either ease up, or, stay scarce for a while. Although I will say it does seem more pronounced after the Bush Jr, but maybe that is just me....
 
Early last year I knew I had lots of powder and primers , plenty for my needs and then some . A buddy needed some SP primers so I gave him a brick he then needed another brick a few months later so I gave him another . Shortly after that I decided to count my inventory and sure enough I was giving away the primers I had the least stocked up . Turns out I only have 4k left which means no more 9mm shooting or very little until I can buy more . Now I'm a 45acp shooter all of a sudden :( .

I bought many pounds of powder this last year though . I needed some H-335 and got 16lbs of that back in June-ish along with several pounds of AR comp & 8208xbr . Picked up a few pounds of pistol powder too . So yeah I agree powder was much easier to come by 6 months ago then I was expecting at the time and I haven't look lately , glad I bought when I did . :)
 
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