Message from suppliers is that there are no powder, primers, or brass for AT LEAST 6 months. Get it if you need it / can.
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Message from suppliers is that there are no powder, primers, or brass for AT LEAST 6 months. Get it if you need it / can.
Reading can provide limited education because only shooting provides YOUR answers as you tie everything together for THAT gun. The better the gun, the less you have to know / do & the more flexibility you have to achieve success.
Did they offer an explanation for these conditions?
I don't paint bullets. I like Black Rifle Coffee. Sacred cows are always fair game. California is to the United States what Syria is to Russia and North Korea is to China/South Korea/Japan--a Hermit Kingdom detached from the real world and led by delusional maniacs, an economic and social basket case sustained by "foreign" aid so as to not lose military bases.
Originally Posted by 9.3X62AL
Yes. Ammunition sales are running at unprecedented levels. Margins are higher on loaded ammo, so companies are diverting the inventory.
Check out Powder Valley's Inventory of primers. NONE. Most powder is now zero balance too.
Buddy placed an order for 300,000 primers and got two flats. That's 200. Told to sell wisely. Oh and the price was $6.20ea his cost.
Last edited by Bass Ackward; 03-21-2009 at 04:33 PM.
Reading can provide limited education because only shooting provides YOUR answers as you tie everything together for THAT gun. The better the gun, the less you have to know / do & the more flexibility you have to achieve success.
From what I'm hearing on other forums is that the manufacturers are at 100 % capacity plus. It's a situation of buyer fear and greed. Everyone is simply buying more then they can produce.
Joe
Joe???
Well, I have been in my own little world doing a lot of testing. About 23,000 since the first of the year. Just happened in his store to pick up some new brass and was SHOCKED.
So I can imagine there is somebody else out there in my shoes somewhere.
Bottom line is to get what you need or wait. Only place here with powder or primers is Gander Mountain for obvious reasons. But they buy so seldom that they are now cheaper than anyone else, so that is where I got my brass. Thank God, I laid in powder and primers in October. Thought I was robbed at $19.60 / k. Smilin now.
Oh and the 6 month figure was a minimum. Since this has never happened in modern times before, no idea what we are facing.
Last edited by Bass Ackward; 03-21-2009 at 04:47 PM.
Reading can provide limited education because only shooting provides YOUR answers as you tie everything together for THAT gun. The better the gun, the less you have to know / do & the more flexibility you have to achieve success.
Yes, I know some gun owners who normally only buy a couple of boxes of factory each year that have purchased at least 2 boxes a week since last November. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the components are being diverted. The thing that seems to be in really short supply is primers. I'm glad I bought a large quantity before the hysteria set in. Also have enough powder and brass for at least the next 10 years.
"A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have." -Gerald Ford
"A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine." -Thomas Jefferson
Where did you get this information? Directly from manufacturers?
The solid soft lead bullet is undoubtably the best and most satisfactory expanding bullet that has ever been designed. It invariably mushrooms perfectly, and never breaks up. With the metal base that is essential for velocities of 2000 f.s. and upwards to protect the naked base, these metal-based soft lead bullets are splendid.
John Taylor - "African Rifles and Cartridges"
Forget everything you know about loading jacketed bullets. This is a whole new ball game!
Primers and brass I can understand. But aren't most of the "retail" powders we use just that? I always thought that ammo manufacturers had their own powders made up, which is why you can't just duplicate a factory load. You have to experiment with your own powders to try to match it. Of course, if the manufacturers are just making commercial powders for the ammo makers, and not making our "retail" powders, then I can understand.
"If God hadn't wanted us to eat animals, he wouldn't have made them out of meat."
What a bunch of craziness. I thought everybody bought their brass from Starline anyhow.
I talked to my dealer today, who talked to his distributor last week.
The distributor was told by Federal that all primer production is being diverted to making Federal ammunition for at least 6 months and probably longer.
I would guess that the other ammo makers are facing similar circumstances.
It seems likely that the domestic powder makers are producing bulk powders for the ammo makers and either have or will soon temporarily halt production of canister grade powders for handloaders.
We could be in for a year or more of no available powders, primers, and brass.
I also would predict that the component shortages will drive many more people to shift their shooting to .22 rimfires and cause further shortages of all grades of rimfire ammo. There seems to be a decent supply of the more expensive grades of target and hunting ammo right now. The bargain ammo seems to be getting scarce though.
Jack
I bought the last 2 boxes of primers for small and large pistol at Gander last Wed. I asked what they had, he told me and I said I'd take it. Didn't ask the price. Talk about sticker shock at the checkout! 39.99 a thousand! But I was just happy to get some. No small rifle at Gander, and no primers anywhere else around here. I guess I have enough for now, but still, in these times I would like to have more than the 6K primers and 20lbs powder I have.
"To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical. " - Thomas Jefferson
"Mankind will in time discover that unbridled majorities are as tyrannical and cruel as unlimited despots." - John Adams
Wow, I don't think I can ever remember a situation like this in my lifetime. Even in the bad old days of the '90's, components got pricey but were still available. IIRC, that situation took about 12-18 months to play out, and was never this bleak. Looks like to me that it's going to be pretty hard for a lot of folks to get started reloading, much less casting, if there aren't any components available.
lathesmith
............Probably a similar situation during WW2. Of course I wasn't there but over my time reloading and casting I've read plenty of accounts about how it was next to impossible to get ANY reloading components. People who had a genuine need had to jump through some hoops to get it. Of course it's easy to realize that any of the ammo makers weren't going to produce a run of 30-30 or 22 Hornet brass, and people understood why.
In this case it's not a national emergancy except in (apparently a BUNCH, too) people's minds. I'll bet the powder makers and the ammunition and components manufacturers are a bit astounded with the situation although they saw a similar situation in the '90's with the threatened ammo and components tax foolishness. At that time I was just okay. Not flush but okay enough to figure I would last through it.
Since then and because of that uncomfortable feeling I vowed I wouldn't suffer through such a thing again. One thing that really helped was the fact that I was in (I think) a rather unique situation. I shot every Tuesday with 4-5 other avid shooters, reloaders and boolit casters. What was helpfull about it was that it was easy to work up a powder order and split the costs. Plus there were 3 of us using surplus powders. The largest order for surplus we ever placed was for 136 lbs.
I went to about every Great Western gunshow at the LA county fairgrounds, and it was a monster. One of the main reasons I went was to buy primers (especially for the reason stated above). Mi-Wall was always there and usually always the cheapest. I always bought at least 2 sleeves, figuring "Use one, store one" till the next gunshow. Sometimes I'd buy more. That and hitting Graf back when they were clearing out PMC/Wolf at $56/sleeve has me in pretty good shape.
Sometimes doing that (and powder) would have had me in bad oder with SWMBO, but luckily enough I skated through. The thing is, if you're buying when there is normal demand you can buy on sale or at least at normal prices. If you buy enough for your anticipated needs and then just a bit more you'll always have some extra.
There is probably also a bit of minor hysteria (maybe too strong a word?) involved. A buddy of mine and I went to lunch Friday. He's a shooter, reloader, and a sometimes caster. He doesn't have the boolit casting burn thoughSo anyway he says a few weeks ago he went to buy some 357 ammo and no one had any. We discussed what was going on, but then I said, "You're a reloader why were you wanting to buy form factory 357?".
His answer was illuminating. He said that he could have but he just thought that he needed to go buy some ammo because he'd heard about the shortages and stuff. So I eventually got down to the fact that he didn't NEED any 357 ammo, but he'd heard about shortages and decided he needed to go buy some. So there IS some of that at work in this situation. Scarcity increases desireability, plus people just hate to be left out.
One regret I have is not buying more 22RF when Dyna-Points were $9.63/brick and Federal 550 bricks were $11.25/brick. I really have enough for the foreseeable future, but they won't ever be that cheap again!
...............Buckshot
Father Grand Caster watches over you my brother. Go now and pour yourself a hot one. May the Sacred Silver Stream be with you always
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Sounds like it's time to get yourself a nice pellet rifle.
Oh shoot. I probably just started the ball rolling on the next big shortage.
AIR!
It's going to be a noisy revolution.
Regards,
Stew
Sig file change:
"Obi Wan Baloney"
VOTE 2012! Throw them out! Every last one of them! (Feel free to add this to your sig. Spread the word!)
"...Get a rope." Pace Picante Sauce commercial, ca. 1984
"I (did, on several occasions) swear to support and defend the Constitution of the United States, against ALL enemies, foreign AND domestic, and to bear true faith and allegiance to the same." And when I left, they never asked me to recant.
i managed to get 2k small rifle primers, but no large rifle primers. i have 1000 federal large magnum pistol primers i am willing to trade for a few hundred large rifle.
I emailed Hodgdon Powder asking why there is a shortage of various powders of their manufacture. I recieved a reply that all reloading supplies are in short supply at this time. The cause for the shortage is hoarding. Manufacturers are shipping at full capacity. The hoarding started as soon as the president was elected in November.
Why would hunters, shooters and reloaders not trust Mr Obama?
Nighthunter
I just bought some .38 special brass from Starline. The lady who helped me said they were selling a lot of brass, but luckily they had some.
exile
"There is not a single instance in history in which civil liberty was lost, and religious liberty preserved entire. If therefore we yield up our temporal property, we at the same time deliver the conscience into bondage." --John Witherspoon, The Dominion of Providence Over the Passions of Men. 1776
"The words of the Lord are pure words, like silver refined in a furnace on the ground, purified seven times." Psalm 12:6 (E.S.V.)
I think it depends on your locale. My local shops have plenty of everything as reloaders are few and far between up here.
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