Bismuth shortage

[Pete Lester]

Twelve days ago the Chinese, the main supplier of bismuth, shut off exporting five critical metals to the US including bismuth and tungsten. If you look around you will see it's pretty slim pickings from Rotometals and Ballistic Products. It appears Precision reloading has stopped selling bismuth shot.

I read Boss Ammo gets 90% of it's bismuth from China on another forum so the makers of factory shells may have trouble getting it as well.

If you shoot game on public lands where non tox shot is required or you hunt waterfowl and use bismuth I would say we are probably headed for a limited supply and higher prices.

As Mike Koneski says if you use it, buy it when you see it.

One the headlines on Bloomberg Business this morning "A Little-Known Metal (Bismuth) Spikes as China-US Trade Showdown Hits Home"

https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/what-are-five-new-critical-metal-exports-restricted-by-china-2025-02-04/

[Harold Lee Pickens]

Picked up a box of Kent Upland Bismuth in 20 ga 1 oz of 5s 1200fps this morning at Cabelas, $47.00( 25 rounds). 16 ga 1 oz @ 1300 fps were $59. 12 ga 1 1/8 $50.
Primers were $70 for cheddite and $100 for Win 209s

[Keith Doty]

I checked when I read this post. Fortunately I have about 2 flats of 12 ga. #5 bismuth loaded and a flat of 10 ga. #5. Ducks is the only shooting I use bismuth for and have another 40# in bags! Wish the 401 account had done as well as the bismuth I bought. Got all this when it was running $1 an ounce, 1/2 of current price! With 6 bird limits over decoys this outta last me a long time.