Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters New IMR powders for sale from Hodgdon

John, I understand your point about semi-panic buying being among the reasons you mention for causing the shortages, but you have to admit, or at least I think there is at least a mustard seed worth of rational reason for this.

Given the [/i]general[i]direction of anti-gun liberal-think, this administration, and the general mental climate of popular culture, the ever proliferating of rules, regulations, and laws, it's a natural reaction. And not a completely irrational one.

I agree with Mule Deer. The shortage has been caused by us. And I, for one, am part of the problem. I tried not to be, but when I had to go without certain components for a while, I stocked up the next time it was possible.

The cycle is feeding on itself now.

George,

To a certain extent I agree with you, and the problem was exacerbated not long after Obama's reelection by the school shooting, which stirred up the entire anti-gun community, and really cleaned out a lot of gun stores.

But by the next summer the threat of new federal anti-gun legislation had died, thanks to the Republican-controlled house. A few laws were passed in ultra-liberal states, but the big threat was gone.

Unfortunately, by that time some people had figured out how to profit from the .22 ammo shortage, something that's apparently continuing. This fed into our anxieties about loading components, and as TheBlueMountainApe pointed out, the panic buying started to feed on itself.

Every previous such panic, like the one during the Clinton years fueled by the "assault rifle ban," and then Obama's first election, started to ease up within a year. I suspect this one's been going on longer both because so many shooters thought there was no way Obama would get reelected, and because of cell phones and the Internet. Nowadays, every time some .22 ammo or hard-to-find powder or bullets appear anywhere, there's a feeding frenzy and they're gone. That wasn't happening nearly as much during the previous two panics. So this one's at least partially information-driven.

It's interesting how many people post here (and no doubt on other sites) when stuff appears in stores or on websites. Apparently they think they're doing everybody a favor, but it feeds the buying frenzy, and thus prolongs the shortages.

I even know of one old sporting goods store here in Montana, where I did most of my component shopping when living in that area 25 years ago, that got out of the reloading business. The owner simply grew tired of shooters hounding him about not finding stuff on the shelves--and then buying it all in a day or two when it did appear. So he said screw it and sold what was left to another store.

John, I witnessed what you referred to myself here in our local Walmart. After two years of unsuccessfully walking in to buy 22's when convenient for me, I finally went to the store assistant manager for the scoop.

Apparently there was a group of guys who knew the delivery truck schedules and one of these guys would show up at 7:30 AM or so right after the truck arrival and buy his allowed allotment (two bricks); next, he would text or call his buddies and they would buy out 3-5k worth of .22 ammo by 8:30 or nine that morning.

Hate to admit but I too recently bought some Unique just because I could. Only one jug and I left several, but when i saw they had it, it went home. As soon as 22 becomes available and reasonable I wont leave wally's without a brick.

MD - yes, completely understand about the factory ammo, however, anyone seen any 257 Roberts or 35 Remington ammo lately? I see quite a bit of other rounds (6.5x55, 7x57, 280 etc.) but I haven't seen any 257 factory ammo in quite a while. I'm sure the factories are doing all they can just keep up with the requests for the more popular stuff (243, 270, 30/06, etc.), same as components - once the rush ever stops on everything, maybe they will have a chance to produce other, less popular rounds.

I think the industry missed the boat on the effect of Concealed Carry laws that swept the nation.

There are a lot more shooters now and the industry just wasn't prepared to handle the demand.

I'm beginning to regret some of my own purchases as these new and presumably improved powders come on the market.

I expect to find it hard to use up what I have and I'm already open to swapping off some of what I have locally as the shortage eases up. FREX I've got some BallC(2) and 748 I'll probably never open but use a newer cleaner burning less temperature sensitive powder instead

I didn't buy vast quantities but I did buy enough to spread the hazmat charges - typically an 8 pound jug and an additional 2 of the one pound bottles to make the vendor's limit for a given powder.

I bought some powders that very much overlap each other in their applications - first I stocked up on H4895 because it would work with many of my rifles then I bought some Reloader 15 because I could and it might or might not do better in a 9.3x62 and so it goes with Varget and Tac and the rest of the Ramshot line because it's there. I suspect Accurate 2700/H414/760 which I bought because Swifty said it was good for the Swift would do for most of the same applications. I suspect I'll notice differences between the powders in my use and equally that the differences I notice won't be real in the sense that on another day with a different rifle results would be different.

But I suspect a large part of the impact on me and my own binge buying is indeed the result of a flattening in the distribution system. Time was I bought powder in small quantities at my friendly local gun shop where the owner knew me and I knew the owner and instead of stocking up I could make do with what they had If no Bullseye I could wait a little while or make do with 230 later with 231 or use the 452 I had in bulk for AA shotgun hulls. When the crisis hit my local gun shop was mostly gone and certainly was at the end of the line for shipments - properly so if the supply was based on the size of last year's orders/sales - compared to the big boxes and online sources. So to buy anything at all I had to buy more to cover the HAZMAT and to be in line to buy anything at all. My LGS might once have put aside some .22 rim fire for regulars WalMart won't.

Bottom line I expect to be spreading some of my own current stocks around the neighborhood - increasing the local supply of traditional powders - to make room for some of the new and presumably improved powders - so I expect a more selective rush to buy and a shortage of the newish powders - and I will buy jugs instead of pounds - the more things change the more things can stay the same.

I agree with all of that and I feel there is an additional reason for the continual frenzy. We all know the hatred that the Obummer team has for the 2nd Amendment & the American way/Constitution & many fear Executive orders on lead, Powder/explosives, firearms in general, at least the mere possibility of such an attempt keeps all of this alive.

Yep, especially when Obama is so fond of executive orders. He hasn't been able to get any major anti-gun laws passed, but he can sure create hassles in other ways.

All excellent points.

I remember just a few years back when I would go down to the LGS and buy just a little smidgen of powder in a plastic container, say enough to load 20 rounds of some oddball loading I wanted to try. He would have everything in stock and would sell as little or as much as I wanted straight out of the jug.

Now, there's none there, and he will only sell in full bottles/jugs. No more experimenting for me.

My LGS has a bunch of all the new Enduron powders on the shelf now. They're priced at $32 a pound instead of the $27 a pound they get for everything else. I'm just wondering if there's anything about these powders that warrants the extra $5 a pound. The Hodgdon extreme series is already pretty temperature stable and the rifles I shoot the most have custom barrels that hardly copper foul anyway so the anti-fouling stuff is mostly moot for my purposes.

Your LGS appears to be hiking the price. I just had some shipped to me from an Internet site and paid less per pound even with the hazmat fee and shipping.

I read your article in "Handloader" and found it very interesting. I am a smart guy, but didn't know all that about powders. It sounds like the new powders are very good in temperature variations and bore cleaning capabilities.

The only problem I see, is that I have a ton of H-335 and other powders that blow up guns and I don't see myself running out soon. I guess I will have to borrow some of the new stuff from you when I need it.

Thanks John...

I'll be happy to give you 2-3 ounces of any of the new powders anytime you can catch me at home!

I used up all my H335 over a dozen years ago, not too long after TAC appeared. Did buy a pound a couple years ago, just so I could include it in magazine articles for the shooters who still have a bunch on hand.

Am I'm the only "wannabe" neighbor of John's?

I'm afraid, I've got more H-335 than you have TAC...

Keep using that 335 and you will be shrapnel....

But the way things are going, you might get through that 335 before TAC in an eight pounder ever materializes at the retail level.

I can't get excited about new powders when I haven't seen any H-4895 anywhere for over three years.

Oh man, there were 8 lb. jugs of H-4895 stacked about 5 deep at the LGS a couple of days ago.