Wow, not one single pistol powder available at Natchez.

[Certaindeaf]

You are right there aren't here but over the past year the speculation has run rampant that government purchases were the major reason for the shortages and in fact even hoarding has been blamed. Up until the fire in Australia there was no shortage of powder. All through the period of the US involvement in both Iraq and Afghanistan there was no shortage when government consumption was at it's peak. Once the fire took place powders disappeared pretty quick and I suspect hoarding at that point would play a role as folks bought whatever they could find but the fire was the root cause that is for certain.

No political agenda here. We have been dealing with the shortages for about a year. Primers are in short supply but we do have importers who bring in Tula primers under the "Dominion" brand that have certainly filled the void the lack of some brands of US made primers have made. The shortages of powder became evident in January of 2014 and we are now seeing some early signs of relief.

haneyfan - I would say lots including me. We are supposed to be restricted to 11 lbs I believe. I suspect most of the guys at our gun club who reload have more than the "legal" amount as a working supply most of the time. Pretty hard not to if you reload for more than a few cartridges or shoot a lot.

Take care

Bob

I hear you, I'm right here with you alls and know of whatalls. I didn't mean to flare off at you. Hearing of that Aussie firm getting back on-line is very good news (I had forgot about that catastrophe), that's for sure. It's funny how things can just stack up to jack us up sometimes.

[jameslovesjammie]

It would seem from Mr. Hodgdon's explanation, the fire in Australia is the primary reason for the last 12 month powder shortage.

I agree Bob.

Here's an interview from the past summer with Chris Hodgdon about powder supply and shortage. They did the same interview in 2013.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jphEvE3IXkw

[Handloader109]

Here's my free two cents. I'm a relative newby to reloading only a couple of yrs. When I first started trying to scrounge supplies, no powder was to be found for over 3 months local. Then just a pound or two here and there. Over the past 4 months or so, I have been in multiple locations of Cabelas and Bass Pro along with a couple of LGS and usually there are several pounds of rifle powder and multiple occasions of multiple pistol powder on the shelves. Not always, but more times as not. It is getting better, horders are either filled up or out of money. The rest of us may get a chance to gather some soon.

[robertbank]

I believe Chris Hodgdon mentions this spring being the point where supplies would begin to return to normal. Looks like he might have been right. I hope so.

Take Care

Bob

[RogerDat]

After Sandy Hook when Congress started talking about "doing something" a whole lot of folks went shopping with the reasonable assumption that Congress could screw up free love and nickel beer for the next decade when they set out to "do something". Those shoppers were buying lots of firearms, with lots of ammo, and lots of reloading supplies/equipment. I recall at one point Lee presses had a 6 month backorder.

The pent up demand and increased tendency to purchase larger amounts when finally located due to the difficulty locating supplies explains why when gunbot showed tightgroup I arrived at the store site and it showed 150 1# available and sold out before I could complete my order with address and CC number. In a later attempt I watched available drop from 300 to a little over a 100 by the time I finished my order. But now I have some tightgroup on the shelf. Not what I was originally looking for but certainly suitable.

I do have an order in at Lohmans for some Unique and 2400 think that backorder dates from July of last year, as I have found items or alternatives from other sources I call them and drop items from the order. If I find anything else and drop it from the order it won't be worth the hazmat fee. I debated hitting cabelas for that unique but with no ship to store could not see ordering enough of that powder on it's own to justify the hazmat.

[newton]

Yea, I remember trying to find 9mm loading dies back then. What a crazy time for hand loaders in ALL aspects that was. I pieced together the dies, but only was able to get a shellholder from a kind person on this site. Crazy that I could not find one single 9mm shell holder to buy(except paying the ridiculous prices they were commanding), and now you can buy one anywhere for cheap.

I bit on the Cabelas thing. I might kick myself if I walk into the store and see some on the shelf though. All in all, I spent an extra $35 for the hazmat and shipping, over what I would have spent in the store. I got 4 lbs, so that's about $8 more per lb I spent on the powder. I'm fine with that. It really is not that much more. Not that I would do that on big powder purchases or all the time though.

Its kind of like driving around a parking lot for a long time, looking for parking spot up close, just to save yourself a few steps. Or driving around town from one store to the next saving a $1 here and there. You end up spending more trying to save sometimes.

One thing I refuse to do is pay scalping prices at local shops, gun shows, and online. Its one thing to pay more money because of fee's, but its a whole other thing to pay it to the scalpers. All it does is keep the process going. When guys will stop paying those prices to them, then the scalpers will stop hoarding everything to resell.

[texassako]

I went ahead and bought some from Cabelas online since I haven't had any Bullseye in a while and have a bunch of swaged .38 HBWCs to use up with my preferred load w/ Bullseye. I had stopped in the local Cabelas Tuesday and they only had rifle powder. I asked the guy working that section and he was glad they were not getting it in if it was in the warehouse. Why rearrange and aisle and label a shelf just to have it empty by lunch? I just shook my head and wandered off to the Bargain Cave.

[RogerDat]

.......

I bit on the Cabelas thing. I might kick myself if I walk into the store and see some on the shelf though. All in all, I spent an extra $35 for the hazmat and shipping, over what I would have spent in the store. I got 4 lbs, so that's about $8 more per lb I spent on the powder. I'm fine with that. It really is not that much more. Not that I would do that on big powder purchases or all the time though.

Its kind of like driving around a parking lot for a long time, looking for parking spot up close, just to save yourself a few steps. Or driving around town from one store to the next saving a $1 here and there. You end up spending more trying to save sometimes.

One thing I refuse to do is pay scalping prices at local shops, gun shows, and online. Its one thing to pay more money because of fee's, but its a whole other thing to pay it to the scalpers. All it does is keep the process going. When guys will stop paying those prices to them, then the scalpers will stop hoarding everything to resell.

The hazmat fees are not new so I don't really get too annoyed by them. Not such a big deal back when you could order all the stuff you needed in one order and pay the fee once. Now with many powders in short supply it comes down to how bad do I need it and a willingness to purchase enough of what they have available to spread the fee out. 4 lbs. is sort of the point where I figure the fee starts to not be that bad, some primers in the order helps spread it out more. Really wanted the Unique when I found it was available but with the Tightgroup just purchased could not justify purchase of 4# of just Unique. Could not pass on the Tightgroup since I was down to last 1# of Unique for pistol powder. It is winter, what better time to reload?

Oh heck yes, I just pick a row in front of the door and head out to the end, if I get lucky and come across an open spot fine otherwise I'll park out where the cars end. Not worth the hassle to do victory laps of a parking lot when I came to purchase something inside the store not drive around in front of it.

[newton]

I went ahead and bought some from Cabelas online since I haven't had any Bullseye in a while and have a bunch of swaged .38 HBWCs to use up with my preferred load w/ Bullseye. I had stopped in the local Cabelas Tuesday and they only had rifle powder. I asked the guy working that section and he was glad they were not getting it in if it was in the warehouse. Why rearrange and aisle and label a shelf just to have it empty by lunch? I just shook my head and wandered off to the Bargain Cave.

I stopped by the local Cabelas just to see if some of the powder trickled its way into the store today. None to be seen(of Alliant at least). Glad I went ahead and got it now.

[stewfish]

Natchez has 8 lb. jugs of RedDot as of noon PST 1/22/15.

[mcr]

Last night I bought 8lb of Red Dot and 8lb of Promo from natchez. But that's the first I've seen either available in awhile. I also check http://gunbot.net/reloading/Powder/ a lot.

-mcr