powder scarcity -- pistol only?

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Precision
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powder scarcity -- pistol only?

Post by Precision »

My local reloading den seems to have some semblance of rifle powders in stock and that seems to be a consistent situation. Not all rifle powders at all times, but usually a powder that will work for your application.
rifle Reloader 10x, AR comp, 17,19,22, 25,33 and 50
but not a single Reloader pistol powder
rifle Hodgdon had R-4895, h-335, h-380, h-414 and one or two others.
The only "pistol" powders were titewad and clays which are really shotgun powders that I see could possibly be used in some pistol applications

They even had several Vihtavuori powders in stock. I don't use them so I don't remember which ones, but the girl who works there said they were all rifle powders too.

Is this standard across the country, is this a regional thing?
Why rifle powder availability but not pistol powder availability?
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blackeagle603
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Re: powder scarcity -- pistol only?

Post by blackeagle603 »

yeah well... shotgun powder pretty much equals pistol powder. What you loading for?
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morsetaper
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Re: powder scarcity -- pistol only?

Post by morsetaper »

I can't find the first grain of pistol powder-locally or online. Rifle yes, as you stated, maybe not the one you want, but there is something that will work. In the past month or so I've scarfed up:

8# LT-32
8# IMR 4350
2# H335
2# CFE 223
all online. And locally:

1# IMR 3031
1# IMR 4895
At buttrape prices. No pistol at any price. Premium hollowpoint pistol bullets seem to be just as scarce.
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evan price
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Re: powder scarcity -- pistol only?

Post by evan price »

My local shop has plenty of Hodgdon Superformance and Leverevolution powder, Win AA, and slow magnum rifle powders or very fast shotgun powders unsuitable for handgun. Even an 8# of Lil'gun. Thats it. Glad I stocked up. Primets were getting back to $27/k again, now back to $40/k again. Bullets are spotty.
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Precision
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Re: powder scarcity -- pistol only?

Post by Precision »

blackeagle603 wrote:yeah well... shotgun powder pretty much equals pistol powder. What you loading for?
I wanna load up some 230 gr FMJ .45 to roughly 850 fps.

I have less than 1# of unique it has been like hens teeth.
then there is the 2# of titegroup I have, but that is really low volume for the case and I use that for my 9mm and .40 and don't want to run out as I haven't found any of that in a LONG time.
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Netpackrat
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Re: powder scarcity -- pistol only?

Post by Netpackrat »

Last week I went to both Sportsman's and the new Cabela's that just opened here. The Cabela's had zero powder except for pyrodex type stuff. The Sporty's had the same few cans of 50BMG powder that nobody wants that they have had for months. Neither place had any large pistol or large rifle primers in evidence, though plenty of small primers of different varieties. And of course, no 10mm ammo of any kind.

Honestly, I think these shortages could all be solved in a matter of weeks, if the retailers would simply charge what the market will bear. That would eliminate the ammo vultures hitting all the stores daily in order to resell stuff to people that don't have the time for that, and people buying stuff they don't need to hoard. But nobody wants to be accused of "gouging" whatever the fuck that means.

When the current shortage first hit, one of the local shops raised the price of their primers to significantly more than the normal price. And through the worst of it, you could almost always go in there and buy a carton of primers if you really needed them for something you were loading. It kept the hoarders and re-sellers from buying them all up. One of the problems with the current situation, is it forces everybody to become a hoarder, because when something you use is on the shelf, even if you don't need it now, you buy it anyway because it probably won't be there when you DO need it.
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Vonz90
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Re: powder scarcity -- pistol only?

Post by Vonz90 »

Netpackrat wrote: When the current shortage first hit, one of the local shops raised the price of their primers to significantly more than the normal price. And through the worst of it, you could almost always go in there and buy a carton of primers if you really needed them for something you were loading. It kept the hoarders and re-sellers from buying them all up. One of the problems with the current situation, is it forces everybody to become a hoarder, because when something you use is on the shelf, even if you don't need it now, you buy it anyway because it probably won't be there when you DO need it.
This has been the biggest problem through this deal. If companies had jacked up their prices as much as they should have, their would have been:
1. Product on hand almost all of the time.
2. Enough extra profit to justify the capital investment to increase volume.

Shortages are a market signal that the price is too low. Keeping prices artificially low does no one any favors.
Precision
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Re: powder scarcity -- pistol only?

Post by Precision »

Vonz90 wrote:
Netpackrat wrote: When the current shortage first hit, one of the local shops raised the price of their primers to significantly more than the normal price. And through the worst of it, you could almost always go in there and buy a carton of primers if you really needed them for something you were loading. It kept the hoarders and re-sellers from buying them all up. One of the problems with the current situation, is it forces everybody to become a hoarder, because when something you use is on the shelf, even if you don't need it now, you buy it anyway because it probably won't be there when you DO need it.
This has been the biggest problem through this deal. If companies had jacked up their prices as much as they should have, their would have been:
1. Product on hand almost all of the time.
2. Enough extra profit to justify the capital investment to increase volume.

Shortages are a market signal that the price is too low. Keeping prices artificially low does no one any favors.
pretty much.

my local store has all types of primers available, sketchy on bullets and non-existent on pistol powder.

Any idea why pistol is gone but rifle isn't? Amount people buy/shoot or some issue with making the pistol powder?
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Netpackrat
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Re: powder scarcity -- pistol only?

Post by Netpackrat »

It's hard to say. Some stuff seems to have disappeared simply because they are concentrating on producing other things. If you retool/reconfigure to produce product A, and you devote your full capacity to producing it, as long as you can sell all of your production it doesn't make a huge amount of sense to stop and setup to produce product B.

Also a lot of pistol powders have shotgun application, so there are probably clay shooters scarfing some of it up.
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Precision
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Re: powder scarcity -- pistol only?

Post by Precision »

I guess I will take some solace in the fact that it is a system wide issue.

Sucks but I guess we will deal with it.
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