Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire WTH? Gouging? Powder price.

It’s very seldom to see anything powder wise under $50’a pound.
I got 2 H335 a couple weeks before hunting season at $45, but most any place you find it, you’re lucky enough just to find it.
Primers, any rifle , large and small, are practically nonexistent.
It makes a fellow wonder how this came about.
Your own government all but declares war on American Values, and at the same time, ammunition and components disappear from store shelves.
It can’t be just hoarding.
Like I said, there’s too many “black swan” events not to be paranoid.
7mm

You think.

when short supply meets up with high demand, prices go down. Right? laughiing

one source mentioned that with the military getting ready to switch to the new rifle, billions of rounds are needed, and that takes powder. The guess is that government is taking the majority of powder production for it's own needs, thus shorting the civilian market.

I run a lot of H110 through the 41s and 327s. When shopping, remember that W296 is exactly the same thing. Buy whichever you see first

Got a email from Midsouth. They have a lot of powder. Only one I saw for $50 was 5744, always expensive IME.

https://www.midsouthshooterssupply....ss-powder?instock=true&currentpage=1

Powder Valley running free shipping today only...

NOT free Hazmat, but Free Shipping is something maybe.

Serious question, and I'm certain the correct answer is "It depends".


But where is the main cause,
of outrageous prices during a normal political based shortage?
One where demand suddenly jumps?



Took 10th grad economics, don't need that explanation.

Who raises the prices. LGS, Wholesaler, Manufacturer?
Again, recognize downstream effects.

Well remember Cheaper Than Dirt having Federal LEO 9mm for years.
Started selling it around $25/50. It went down to about $17 over a year or two.
The whole time I'm thinking I should buy a case. The morning after Obama got
elected I called to order, and was given a price around $40. "GFY"

Obvious who did it then, and that outfit is corrupt.

But across the board, does it start at the manufacturer.


I know one thing personally, if I owned a LGS scalpers would never be buying
my stock out to resale it at a 200% markup! Not sure how I would avoid it, but there
is no way I'd be a willing accomplice in a deal that had me running a licensed, tax paying, insurance buying business, with low margins, supplying a low rent non-working guy with
merchandise to earn those margins.

Those guys alone might push my prices up.
Not so much to gouge, but to avoid being used. As part of a scalping operation.

Thanks for taking time out to share that brilliant comment.

Hodgdon doesn’t make ANY powder.

They are a broker and importer, only. I don’t know if they control both the wholesale/industrial supply AND the retail sales of the various manufactures, or just retail.

As said, wholesale customers were running flat out, which sucked up almost all of the supply. Whatever was left could be diverted to retail at robust margins.

With hodgdon controlling everything except pull down military, Norma, VV, and Shooters World, the retail powder market is an oligopoly, at best, very close to a monopoly. That’s hardly something to be happy about as consumers OR as citizens.

All I can find around here is black powder and pyrodex powders. Guess I'm going to have to cast some bullets and shoot black powder. PRIMERS are the biggest problem.

That is a fact...

We're a long way from any sort of "Normalcy" with loaded ammo let alone any components. Yes, it's gotten a little better, but nowhere near "normal". I get into a couple dozen well run gun stores on any given month. There might be 4-5 SKU's for the most popular "deer" rifle ammo chamberings when there used to be 15-20. I'm thinking all the different weights and projectiles one used to be able to buy loaded in 30-06, 270, etc. Then add in all the "seasonal-run" stuff that hasn't been run in 3+yrs. Think 35Rem, 32 spcl, 6MM Rem, 284Win, etc, etc, etc.

I don't think we'll see ammo shelves that resemble say 2018 for another 2-3yrs, and maybe never. Manufacturers may decide that it's not worth their time and $$ to tool up for seasonal runs of lower use ammo anymore.

Component "normalcy" is going to lag the ammo aisle by a good 12-18Mo.

CV-19 showed the world just how fragile the "Just in Time" inventory model can be. Trouble is, NOBODY is going to buck that trend especially with the rising interest rates making it so much more costly to bring in any more inventory than a business can sell quickly.

It isn't just ammo, powder, primers. Many items across the board have almost doubled in price. Garden tools at HD are 3 times what they were. Inflation (currency debasement) is no longer subtle. Literally $Trillions of new money poured into the economy in 3 years for Covid and Ukraine is the culprit. The FED is doing the gouging! I can't imagine how people of modest means, barely getting by to begin with, are coping these days. We are staring a total financial collapse in the face. Poking the Bear into WWIII won't fix it either. My daughter got the highest raise possible in her company last month; just laid off along with 13% of the entire work force! Local pubs are worried their higher costs will knock out half their customers. All my powder and stuff is old, thankfully, but I'm into 223 these days . I did "give away" some match bullets the other day without checking current prices. Made bank on one pistol I "stole" a few years ago though. It's all a game until it isn't...

A few weeks ago from my LGS, $28.55/lb on the left and $26.25/lb on the right.

The scalpers show the retailers and manufacturers that their product might be under-valued/under-priced. The true value is somewhere between what the scalpers are charging and what the manufacturers/retailers are creeping up to.

The longer the scalpers scalp, the more the retailers and manufacturers are going to creep up to "scalper-prices" in order to break the scalping and of course, maximize their own profits.

Just to reiterate my actual answer to your original question: "What's the main cause of outrageous price jumps?

Scalpers

This is a take what they are gonna make market.
Customer selection is irrelevant now and business likes that.


It's all at their price, with their raw materials they can make the most from in a controlled availability manner.

And the new norm if their ever is one.....
Will be 25 to 50% above pre c19 bullschit levels.
And that will be with their raw materials dropping 50% at least.

Across everything from apples to zylophones.....

Never let a crisis go to waste is not just a Liberal Socialist Democrat thing....

To the OP
I use a lot of Ramshot powders and they work quite well. I’m not sure what you are loading with 4227, but alternates are available. Things aren’t what they used to be, and I don’t think they will be again.

Locally, powder is $40-45 for Hogdon. Ramshot is $36. I did head up to one of the chain stores toward the city and found 100 lbs or more of Varget on the shelf for $56/lb. They had CCI Benchrest primers for $90/1000.

Oh please, don’t take the wind out of the sails of these “price gouging” anti-capitalist morons with FACTS, facts are not allowed.