Going on 2 years now with minimal reloading supplies showing up at local retailers. Curious if there are some new reasons why?.....actually starting to wonder if we will ever get back to normal.........

According to Biden and his twat it’s because we buy to much. How can you buy to much when it’s not on the shelf. Inquiring minds want to know. Edk

I'm guessing its because most companies were shut down because of the China virus

The offshore suppliers probably have limited ability to ship, and some like ADI are under armed lockdown

For things that are made in the US, their suppliers may be screwed.

Demand is still sky high - it seems highly likely war is coming, and even those with no grasp of historical context are seeing it.

According to the US manufacturers they are making components in record amounts. One conspiracy theory I heard was the liberals we’re paying for BOT programs and the minute it shows in stock the flood the system and get it bought up quick, they must have a big warehouse because I’ve been keeping close track on components especially primers and they are none to be had.

Hmmm, I guess the liberals most also have an unlimited supply of money. So much for crackpot conspiracy theories.

I'm set so it doesn't really affect me, but I haven't seen any ammo or reload supplies recently. I'm beginning to think there could be a conspiracy or conspiracies.

Very little of it is being bought by liberals (which is good). What is happening is that companies don't like to be seen selling at the market clearing price because it's viewed as price gouging, so one way or another supply gets diverted in backroom deals so that it can be sold on auction sites or to friends and family.

Most components are in stock on Gunbroker. You may not like the price, but they are there.

A large amount is also being sucked up by commercial ammo manufacture. There's more money to be made selling ammo at $3/round than there is selling the pieces of it for half that.

Ammo.and bullets are starting to show up
at the Bass Pro shop near me....I went up there tonight and they had almost a complete line of Hornady bullets and a lot of rifle and pistol ammo....but still no primers or powder. I feel like they are coming soon.

Aren't a lot of Ramshot/Western powders made in Australia?

Ramshot is mostlyBelgium. ADI, which makes the Hodgdon Extreme line among others, is Australian.

It's just not bullets, primers, and powder that are nowhere. Simple things like old Lee loader kits are always out of stock and prices for these are staggering on Ebay and other places. Why? Those were never high demand items but now they're rare and highly priced.

The AR rifle market is now cold but the hunting rifle and accessory market is still selling. How in the world have we landed in a place where 30-06 and 270win cant be found on shelves in the middle of America. There no excuse for it.

How are the gun shows doing? I was thinking about the availability of used dies, presses, scales, etc.

Within the last 18 months i have purchased some 1200 7mm and 308 caliber bullets mostly Hornady sst's, eld m's, interlocks and sierra gk's. An 8 # keg of h4350 and h414, 2 #'s of 7828ssc and R-23 [ i left behind a 8 #er of R-23] And just last week a brick of 215m primers. All from my local stores! Keep in in mind i didn't buy everything they had, just what i needed or wanted to tryout! And there has been alot of loaded ammo showing up in the last 6-8 months! Caveat everything sells quickly u snooze u lose!

As soon as ammo manufacturers (i.e. Hornady) start firing employees due to vaccine mandate non-compliance, it will get worse.

Seems like supply has gotten better of late, in my experience. I've bought several pounds of powder and a couple bricks of primers in the last couple months. Online stores have been getting stuff back in stock fairly regularly lately, it just sells out FAST, so you gotta keep an eye open for when they get things back in stock or you'll miss it.

No powder or primers in my reloading store, a few bullets.

This is just the beginning of the shortages. Things are going to get a lot worse and more expensive. Be prepared for a long ride. There may never be " back to normal " again.

I contacted Speer 3 days ago asking if they were making rifle bullets anymore since I've not seen any in stock for over a year. Here is their response:
Thank you for reaching out to us and we appreciate your business and patience. The team here is working hard to meet demand and ship orders as soon as possible. We’ve hired additional staff, purchased new equipment, and are constantly improving to get your ammo out the door faster. We are shipping product weekly to many locations across the country—please keep in touch with your local dealer, online retailers and our own website for updates.

Thank you,

How exciting for you !!!!

In early 2014 I had to go by a PA Cabelas on my way to and from JFK. Then, as now, the shelves were nearly bare of components. Pure politics at that time, no pending civil war or Plague in the mix, nor inflation IIRC. It passed, so will this.

We landed in this place by forgetting the value of autarky. We got to thinking that it was better to get our lead from China, our copper from Chile, our nickle from Russia, our steel from Japan and our nitro powder from Australia, even though all of the above are readily producible in the US. But it was a few bucks a ton cheaper to get it somewhere else so we did. Now China, Chile, Russia, Japan and Australia decide if, what, and when we produce. And they've decided it'd be better if we didn't produce much. For our own good of course.

Look around you and think what things you see can be manufactured within 100 miles of your current location from raw materials. If the answer is not a damn thing except maybe food, be prepared for some serious hurt coming down the pike. And don't think "at least there will be some food" because there won't be - the materials for industrial farming can't be produced within 100 miles of the farms either.

Correct.

There’s no excuse, except abject poverty, for allowing oneself to run short of needful things when all the warning signs of previous market blips are right in front of one’s face. There are reasons: inattention, laziness, distraction, arrogance, naivety. Finger-pointing and conspiracy theories might soothe hurt feelers, but I’ve yet to see any evidence that there’s some evil plot afoot to wreck Deer Season.

And get prepared for the day when an FFL will have to "transfer" reloading supplies to you. It will be a very easy switch for the anti-gun legislators to flip, because the system is already in place.

Looking in the usual places is bound to produce frustration, need to get creative in your search. Since Covid and China Joe I've been able to find everything I need to reload, bullets, primers and powder and not at inflated gouger prices either. I search gun shows, swap meets, shooting ranges etc. wherever shooters gather, wanted signs in these places always have produced what I'm searching for and at reasonable prices. Bartering works well, try it sometime.

The way I see it is, if I don’t already have it I probably won’t have

SORRY "FONZY" GUESS IM "NOT COOL NOT COOL"

Name names. Where did you buy this plethora of components?

I guess they are honey holes! So i will just say "The Badger State"

I live close to some high grade silver/lead mines here in N. Idaho and about 100+miles away is a smelter in Trail, B.C. so we are producing materials locally. Speer has a bullet producing facility in Lewiston Idaho and I lest I forget there's a antimony refinery just a few miles from my house.

We have rich defined veins of these materials. There's one road cut that intersects a lead/silver vein along I-90.

I'm seeing primers and powder start to trickle in. Mostly mail order from powder valley, midway, midsouth, natchez, etc. Bullets have been coming to local gun stores in small batches. Usually sell out quickly and prices are still going up. We maybe at the peak of prices now but it's hard to pass up when you see something you need. Eventually prices will decrease when demand drops. But it's only a matter of time until the next political panic.

Primers are going for $.08 to $.10 apiece. Used to be half that. Wonder where it's going to settle? Almost like inflation is starting to look real.

Stop whining. Biden’s Spokes-tootsie says inflation is a good sign. Of course, she was in diapers the last time it was this bad, but clearly she knows a lot or they wouldn’t let her speak for the President, right?🙄

If you really need to know why reloading components are in short supply, you're not paying attention.

Why is it you can find 6.5 creedmore and 6mm creedmore 300 blackout and 350 legend on local shelves but not 243, 270, 30-06 or so many others?

It's the new world order. They aim to divest us of chamberings linked to generations of American greatness disempowering white masculine hegemony.

does that mean the next time I see you you will be wearing a onesie and have a manbun....

It's not a onesie, it's a speed suit.

There is an ammunition manufacturing plant about 40 miles from me. I know a half dozen or more employees there. They are producing ammo in record volumes and making record profits while doing it. They rarely run FMJ pistol ammo because the JHP has a much higher profit margin and the demand is such that it will sell just as quickly as FMJ. I presume most, if not all ammo manufacturers have been operating similarly. When that happens, all the component (bullets, primers and powder primarily) manufacturers are running at max capacity just to keep up with the demand from the ammo manufacturers. This leaves little capacity to produce ‘reloading’ components for those of us who were already reloading, pre-panic. Let alone all the new ‘reloaders’ in the market because they can’t find ammo.

I just bought a 1,000 small rifle primers at Sheels in Sioux Falls. They have primers, bullets and powder. They limit purchase of primers to 1,000 of each type. The price was high in my opinion ($80) but money is not as valuable as it was two years ago. Everything is expensive! Look at hamburger, gasoline, housing etc. Try to get a discount on a new car/truck. Look at the cost of a used rusty pickup with 200,000 miles.
Until we have a representative for the people that work back in office our money will continue to deteriorate in value, that’s my opinion.

I'd say Pappy has this pretty figured out. Simple truth.

Midway has small rifle magnum primers now. Limit 1000

Thanks hanco

They had some cci-500 this morning, too, but those are gone.

I bought a couple bricks of Federals from Natchez yesterday.

17 pages of primers available, 10 seconds ago.

https://ammoseek.com/reloading/primers

I don't think that 17 pages....

Directed at nobody in particular and to the forum in general (yes, including myself) it is truly amazing how many people on this forum make a concerted effort to go out of their way to be a-holes to other members and to make themselves seem superior. It's like listening to Democrat politicians.

Plus 10 in a nutshell ,the days of buying what you want when you want for how much you want to pay are gone forever. Mb

Haven't you heard the spokes "person" from the Brandon Administration? Everything is in short supply because they have been so successful at economic recovery, that people are just rolling in cash and buying everything as soon as it's produced.

Well, this a-hole has seen plenty of vitriol slung from the Have-Nots here. Boomer, Prepper, Fudd, and Hoarder come quickly to mind. Especially puzzling is the ridiculous assertion that the stuff I’ve accumulated over literally years is somehow to blame for the current dearth of components. I feel for those in need, but what I have now has exactly zero, nada, bupkis, zilch to do with what’s out there for sale and the prices. Anything I’ve bought over the past year or so was available to anyone who wanted it and put in the effort to find it. Not into name calling, but also not in the sugar-coating business.

Betcherazz that the next time this happens, many of the same people will be in the same boat they are now, Guaranfugging-teed.

100% correctamundo and agreed.

Midway had CCI 200's this morning. Bought a brick for $75 plus hazmat, shipping and taxes. It's about $107 all in.

Woof!

The powder shortage isn't being helped because some of the nitrocellulose is being diverted to manufacturing covid test kits. Details on section 2.4 in the link.


https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7560266/

Was at my LGS (and range) today. Plenty of powder (8# TAC for $200) and bullets fairly priced. They have done pretty well throughout keeping pricing unstupid. Still no primers. Thankfully, I need nothing.

Good point - lots of shoulders dislocated from patting oneself on the back.

And since they couldn't lay straight in bed I am going to assume governments are stocking up.

Saw some powder at LGS, but nothing like H4350 or H1000