Has anyone else seen a lb of powder go up nearly 10 dollars a pound. Here in PA it hit last week. Very sad to see a pound of powder at or over $60 a pound.

I think you can do better on-line.

Yes, when do you last buy powder? I’ve watched Hodgdon times like H4350 and Varget go from $42 a pound to $52 a pound here in under a year. Alliant powders, don’t even get me started.

I saw A-5744 at $62

Yep..

Seems it happened in a week here. Very odd. Has anyone looked at midway. Wow.

I could not believe it but Brownells was cheaper on my Sport pistol powder than Powder Valley was. $307.00 for 8 pounds compared to Powder Valley at $340.00 for 8 pounds. I bought 5,000 sp primers so I should be set for awhile. I have been having trouble getting CCI #450 SR magnum primers. The last I bought was $99.00 per thousand plus tax. If you want to shoot you must pay the piper. And I like to shoot often.

Take a look at Midsouth. Not cheap but maybe a little better than the others mentioned?
Good luck all,
Rick

We are burning lots of powder around the world these days… and there seems to be no end in sight of that.

I have been buying powder from Natchez. I live about 50 miles from the warehouse and my local dealer makes a run there every week, so I don't have to pay Hazmat. Trouble right now is the powders I want are not in stock.

It was just about 5 years ago powder was $25/lb.

I know this is just hearsay but... it feels like the local governments and federal government are making it harder for the gun businesses and increasing the cost of production to try and make it too expensive for people to reload. I think they know they are loosing the gun control issue and are trying a different route to keep people from shooting. Again, this is just hearsay or conspiracy, but it really feels that way. I mean, even in the last couple years, liberals put up a bunch of "new" fake reloading websites to take people's money, donate towards liberal causes, collect usage data, and I heard of a lot of people not getting any components actually delivered to them.

That sounds like tinhat territory, but I agree with what you said.. It's all a ploy.

It shouldn’t, but it still surprises me how many people are not aware of the world around them. At least it makes for entertaining conspiracy theories….

Let me cut and paste, and add, from a previous post of mine:

We’ve gone from the biggest hoarding event the shooting world has ever seen to a full house run on munitions by half the world’s militaries.

One big military powder or primer order exceeds what we burn through in a year. Plus most of the governments in the western world have told the munition manufacturers to start producing. Most countries have War Production Acts similar to ours.

Japan military spending is the biggest proportion of GDP since…….1945.

The German Parliament has voted to spend the biggest proportion of GDP on defense since……..1945.

Congress has appropriated 3 billion dollars in grants and loans to increase munitions production in the USA.

Look at the now discontinued Enduron powders—that plant went from 8k 155mm artillery rounds to 12k a month, and is adding on to the facility to make 20k+ a month.

A couple years ago the only black powder manufacturing plant, owned by Hodgdon’s, blew up (as black powder plants often do). Hodgdon’s washed their hands of it and put the plant up for sale.
Enter Estes Model Rockets. With a loan from Congress, they bought the plant. With grants from Congress they repaired and upgraded the plant.
Black Powder is still used in some cases to ignite propellant for artillery, rockets, and even missles.
Estes Model Rockets is now a Tier 2 defense contractor.

Rheimetal—one the biggest munitions manufacturer in the world appears to have secured financing to build a 25k artillery rounds a month plant.

The raw materials have be dug out of the ground, refined, combined, and processed just to arrive at the basic components.

This kind of demand creates scarcity of basic materials/commodities and is sending prices through the roof.

From Poland to the Philippines the whole world is arming up, and civilian recreational shooters/handloaders are the last hairs on the tip of the tail.

There’s no conspiracy here—unless we choose to point the finger at Putin, Ping….and Iran.

I know this is less fun than conspiracy theories, but there it is…

Theres alot of people needed to listen to the conversation I had with a Aramco company man about the gas " shortages " in the 70's. when I was in Saudia Arabia.
What does OPEC do?
What happens when a camel farts over there?
A shot is fired?
A tanker is attacked?
Sound familiar with powder and primers?

Yep. Man’s desire for power through violence is driving this train.

It is not that but company's preying on fear of people emotions, what did people do when they announced a gas" shortage" in the 70's. People lined up for miles to buy every drop of gas they could.
So Aramco saw that and pounced forming OPEC to control production and prices.
What about Toilet paper, eggs etc?
Why is 93 Octane gasoline 50 cents a gallon in Saudi Arabia and 5.00 here or more?

Been talk on many sites that suppliers are telling dealers it will be increased even more in 2024. Here in NYS, where our leaders are f**king crazy, we are glad to get ammo or components at any price. If the November elections go bad( fill in a Democratic sweep) this will be nationwide.

Its gone up online, too.

Consider, as an obvious alternative to your perspective, that man's desire to keep his own life (fend off the power hungry you mention) through violence is just as potent a driver.

Alpincrick's post is drenched in objectivity, which is precisely why it'll go mostly ignored, even though it shouldn't be ignored.

Objectivity is usually abandoned because it is hard. And, it leaves the emotional interpretive systems cold and ignored. Ignore a man's passions and you'll offend him, severely, even if he claims to be a gun slinging 2A conservative that carries a copy of the constitution in his breast pocket.

seems ramshot powders are scarce probably because of the price ...most reasonable presently on price

reloader 16 seems to be available probably do to the 60.00 a pound

varget and h4350 seem to have been available for the last 6-8 months

About a month ago Vista Outdoors announced there will be significant ammo price increases because of the cost of powder. In the past month I’ve seen this bit of news carried on a dozen or more websites.

And yet, most folks on here are still unaware….

We reloaders are a really really small portion of the powder consumption. If you wish to do your part in minimizing powder consumed then more efficient cartridges are the best option I have encountered.

Personally primer prices have been as much of a concern to me as anything.

I have not backed down to 221 fireball for deer though 6mm ARC has been very effective. Thinking I could have went to 6x45 though.

In light of the current pricing and availability issues, I am developing Barnes-StaBall loads for all of my center fire hunting rifles. I have found that both Barnes bullets and the StaBall powders have been readily available and somewhat reasonably priced. I have also had some very good results on both paper and critters with this combination. Moreover, if Biden goes out the door signing an executive order banning the use of lead bullets on Federal land, I have my workaround already in my recipe books.

For now. In some cases it’s because the price increases are not even across the board. Material costs inputs are locked in through contract in advance. When those contracts expire the new costs may go down, or up.

When most Alliant powders were cheaper and available guys on here were threatening to blow off Hodgdon and their price increases. Then costs caught up with Alliant. Same claims with Ramshot.

Staball powders might be selling under contracts made months and months ago, and the next production run may come in at an entirely different cost.

None of the powders or primers are immune from being preempted by military contracts. Hodgdon made note that the StaBall line is USA made. But remember, the Enduron powders were made in Canada by General Dynamics—an American company. What happened to Enduron can happen the StaBall.

Powder prices are ridiculous. I will not pay those prices. Alliant, if you can find it is 59 per lb in my neck of the woods. Hodgdon and Ramshot powder are available, along with VV. Several years ago, Trump Era, I could see the writing on the wall. I decided to start laying back what reloading supplies that I thought I would need for my rifles for the foreseeable future. Probably enough to last the rest of my life

I have many, many thousands of LR primers. Thousands of bullets, Many, many, many pounds of powder and plenty of brass. Matter of fact, back in Oct I had a friend give me 8lbs of IMR 4895 and 8lbs of IMR 4831.

If there's ever a fire at my house Im going to inform the fire dept they had better fight the fire on that side of the house first, (while pointing). LOL

Yeah-that is possible.

But, StaBALL is currently priced right, available now and has more shelf-life than I have years of reloading in front of me. If necessary, I’ll deal with your forecasted potential pricing issues when I run out of all the StaBALL I have purchased…

Yeah it has! Just for curiosity I was cruising around on Midway's site. IMR 4831 is $72 for 1lb and $514 for 8lbs and is out of stock. Wow, wow, wow.

Sometime in 2020 after a pretty good powder price jump I paid $219 for a 8lb jug of IMR 4831 and don't shoot it that much but I got it just because. I also at the same time paid $237 for a 8 lb jug of H4895 to add to my H4895 I had, because I do use that quite a bit. My one buddy shook his head and basically called me an idiot. Not an idiot now.

Not too long before that I paid $169 for a 8lb jug of IMR 4350 from the same shop. Times are a changing fast. I'm good till the end of my days on everything but powder.

Oops, just went and looked, I'm right on the prices but wrong on when I bought it. I got those two 8 lb jugs spring of 2021. That makes the current prices even more of a jump in that time frame.

I see an 8lb jug of RL16 in a local gun shop for $525 yesterday. Insane!

I'm gonna have to get pretty desperate before I even entertain the thought of paying those kind of prices and I'm a long ways from desperate. They can keep every ounce produced, wont be getting money from me, but I doubt that and 1000 more people just like me will mean anything or make any difference.

I’m not unaware, it’s simply not a huge deal for me. I'm well-supplied with ammunition, and the stuff I need to make more. I’m only dependent on the industry for shotshells at this point, and some rimfire, and if they go up (again) I’ll pay what it takes to continue my clays shooting. A couple of years back, they were both expensive and scarce, I can do expensive to keep shooting as I please. Nothing to be done about the prices.

I came across 1lb of N555 online where the hazmat + shipping was more than the price of powder.

Think I'll wait.

Yep, a store here had it three weeks ago at $589 for 8lb of RL16. Same store last week, that 8lb jug was $563. That’s about the only price drop I’ve seen here locally. LOL! The funny thing, that same store had an 8lb jug of Retumbo for under $300.

Consider, as an obvious alternative to your perspective, that man's desire to keep his own life (fend off the power hungry you mention) through violence is just as potent a driver

Indeed. The need to defend one’s self is in the car as well, but in the second seat by definition.
Best regards sir,
F01

Some serious profits happening somewhere.

I got this in a email from Powder Valley.

Well, I was looking for large pistol primers today and saw RL16 at $88 a pound. At that price I’m done with Alliant powders.

Ouch! Shop near me had RL16 last week for $59/lb and I thought that was insane.

Who owns Alliant Hmmmm.

The price of gasoline and powder have been witnessed with the same subjectivity, based only on how expensive it is today. People have lost sight of supply, demand and politics that interfere with those prices.

The market does influence those prices more than people will recognize, but when you have something in great demand and the supply weakens or gets threatened, the price goes up.

If you bought powder when it was plentiful, you wouldn’t be bitching now, you would be reloading and happy. Gasoline doesn’t store well and it would be impossible to have a storage container to stock up, so the gas pump regulates your price.

Once you recognize this is the way things are, you will buy powder and shoot, or you won’t and just bitch about it…

Went to the Lakeland gun show on Saturday hoping to find powder and just browse.
A guy had several cans of powder, found a unopened can, 1 lb, of 4895 for $26.00, It had an old price sticker, so I asked if that was the price, he said "thought I removed all of them , but yes that's the price.

A big display of powder& ammo,, powders from $45 to $62 per pound.
Guy said that Hodgdon controls much of powders and raise prices often.

One table had a lot of primers in older looking boxes, $80.00 per 1000, and a long line of buyers.

Gun prices are down a little from last Sept. show.

That's really the bottom line, right there.

Do I like high prices? Hell no, but I like shooting, so it is what it is 🤷‍♂️ I'd rather pay and shoot than not pay and wish I was shooting.

Local farm store sells ammo, but has never had any reloading supplies. I happened to notice a while back that they 2 eight pound jugs of Big Game, priced very reasonable. The only thing I've used that powder for was for a 30-06 that I never shoot anymore. I may have to reconsider that powder.

I have come around to really liking Big Game. Pretty versatile powder really. Not the same, but similar to a 4895 or Varget in usefulness.

I know your referring to me Shrapnel, its o.k I woke up and smelled to coffee long ago way before this B.S started.
Seems though there's still some that haven't.
2+2 equals 4 not 3 the sooner people wake up to whats going on and really wanna do something about it the sooner it will get better.
Its funny you compare gas to powder and primers, OPEC dominates the oil industry and what ever they decide oil will be thats what it will be untill the U.S. becomes oil independent again. Compare gas prices to powder and primers is ridiculous what have fuel prices done last few months and what have powder and primers.

Not all of us were reloading years ago. I started just a couple months before the Vid hit. I had a couple pounds of powder and a brick of primers put away, before I ever started. I started l buying what I could when I had the extra money. I’m pretty well stocked up on LRP, SRP, and even LRMP, but I also started reloading for my 10mm pistols, LPP have disappeared around here lately.
I’ve been a let to find most powders off and on since early 2020, but Alliant powders, of which I really like have been very sporadic. I’ve talked to some dealers locally and they have told me they can’t get any of the Reloader powders on a consistent basis. Most even told me the last shipment of anything Reloader 22, 23, 25, 26, and 17 was in 2021. Yes I’ve seen 22 and 23, but only once or twice since 2022 here. I started using what powders I could find and working up loads, so now I have loads for various cartridges with various powders. I’d really like to narrow my powders down, but some of my favorites are becoming nonexistent again it seems.

I was pinged this morning on 1 lb of N555. Add up the price, tax, hazmat, & shipping was easily over $100. For 1 lb.

Hudge i feel for you but if people keep paying thevprices like Vista puts on things like primers and Alliant powder it will never come back down thats life. This sport of shooting is slowly dying on the vine so to speak, ask any body who runs a club and ask how much there membership has dropped its a fact. Some people are really naive thinking that companys like Vista are basically gouging people to many wanna believe its because Ukraine or whatever is making these prices sky rocket because it makes them feel better about the situation.its real easy follow the money its that way with anything. How many times have you heard people say "nothing you can do about it" REALLY its more like you dont want to thats the real truth.

Just pinged on Reloder TS 15.5. 1 lb for $68.52.

Wow!

Called a local shop today. They just got a shipment of powder in and I was afraid to ask prices. 8lb jugs of the 4350's were $350. Whoever thought that price would be a deal. I'm not a buyer at that but makes me wonder how other places with new batches of powder are so much more expensive including the big retailers online . This is just a small little shop.

Anybody notice anything with Alliant powders last day or 2

No, what are we looking for?

Availability hmmm right after a price increase.

Ah, okay, the only stuff I have seen near me is 16, 19, 10x and 7. But at 60 a lb I wasn't running to fill my basket..

Sherm 61,

I fully understand where you are coming from. The problem as you know, people still buy up lots of powder and primers as soon as they hit the shelves. I’m pretty stocked up for powder, primers and bullets for my hunting rifles. This year, I plan on concentrating on developing loads for a few of my AR’s, stock up on pistol ammo, and plink with my new .22 LR , I got for my birthday. I’ve kept my AR powders pretty limited compared to what I bought for my hunting rifles. I may need some here and there, but not purchasing to the extent I have in the past few years.

Get off the beaten path, is a survival way around it all. USE your head and pick up some cast bullet manuals.

Instead of complain about powder prices, be glad you don't have to rely on factory ammo... look at their prices.
how much does it cost you EACH time you pull the trigger?

Learn new stuff.... I certainly have over time.

one such example: 223 with 25 grains of H 335, and a 55 grain SP or FHJ. vs same two bullets with 13.5 grains of Blue Dot shotgun powder.

1. 25 grains of H 335, MV 3150 fps.

2. 13.5 grains of Blue Dot, MV 2600 fps.

Target: 4 x 6 inch steel plate, 3/8 inch thickness. 4 x 6 post card size.

Results when shot at 100 yds...

1. 25 Grains of H 335, MV 3150 fps : 10 shots of 55 gr SP bullets and 10 shots of 55 grain FMJ bullets
each round hit the steel plate and shattered the bullet, only showing a small indentation, and a white shadowing around it.
Bullet core hit and splattered. With ALL 20 Shots.

2. 13.5 grains of Blue Dot, MV 2600 fps.: 10 shots of 55 gr SP bullets, and 10 shots of 55 grain FMJ bullets.
ALL 20 shots that hit the steel plate ( same ones as used above), penetrated the steel plates, even tho the bullet was moving 550 fps slower out of the Muzzle.

Both shot out of the same rifle. a Remington 700 ADL chambered in 223.

Why was this seen? at 3150 MV, the 55 grain bullets when hitting the steel plate at 100 yds, the steel plates structural integrity, had the ability to overcome the Bullets structural integrity at 100 yds. So the bullets just shattered and splattered on the steel plates.

HOWEVER: at 2600 fps MV, the same type of bullets from the same manufacturer ( Hornady), hitting the steel plates at 100 yds, their Structural Integrity has the ability to overcome the Steel Plates Structural integrity.

and since 90% of most game is taken at 100 yds or under, and 95% of most game is taken at 200 yds and under. you can draw your own conclusions, but to me the answer to the question and the problem is pretty apparent.

We don't need a 500 yd load able to drop an elephant, to take down a deer at 100 or 200 yds.

At 14 grains per round, I can get 500 reloads out of a pound of powder. Less recoil will allow proper bullet placement easier.... Sure works for women and kids.

and this isn't just for the 223, The same thing can be worked out with other powders, in other calibers.

In hard times, we also need to be HARD right back at the problem.

Flame away if you desire... but prove me wrong. I've tested this stuff and long before Biden ever got into office.