No, you need to start raising chickens Victor

WOW!! Who do you believe? On the internet, which we all know is the truth, a google search brings up questions. Why is there a powder shortage? The powder manufacturers say that the "shooters" are hoarding all the powder. The dealers are saying all the components are going to the shell manufacturers. And around and around we go.

Ask the "fact checkers" and believe the opposite of what they say.

My wife and I were traveling today and we made a short detour to a large reloading place. I have a good supply of components on hand but wanted to balance out with another brick of Cheddite 209's I have coming. The place didn't have any familiar shotgun powders in stock except for some oddballs in 1 pound bottles and very few of those. I did however get another case (5000) of 12 gauge Claybuster 7/8 ounce wads, and ten bags of Spartan high antimony 7-1/2 shot. Spartan is made in Spain and RST has started to use it of late. Spartan was priced at $38.95 and some limited West Coast Magnum was in stock at $48.95. Five bag limit/person on either. Then on the way home we stopped at a friend's shop and scored 8 pounds of Alliant E3 - one of my favorite powders - and a 1 pounder of Clay Dot. Both were in the "back room" so to speak, nothing but some random pistol powders on the shelf. A good day! JFI, no 209 primers at either place.

Lack of people to process the chickens has led to increased cost and less availability.

Well one things for sure , many folks myself included started laying in supplies when that Obamite was you guys so called president (he was never mine) , and I never stopped plain and simple .

Construction Co's are hurting also, maybe we will see some coming back since free money has some what stopped, we are paying people to not work under the guise of a Pandemic, Gary

I was at my local sporting clays course yesterday . I wanted to get 10-12 bags of 7 1/2’s from him even though he’s about $5 a bag higher than Mikey was . Anyway my friend has NO shot , NO primers and NO powder . He does however have a few CB wads of which I’m pretty well stocked up . Primers I’m good , wads I’m good , powder I’m good although a couple 8’s of Unique and a couple 8’s of GD would be nice . Shot I’m okay but another twenty bags of 7 1/2’s would make me all warm and fuzzy again :rotf::rotf::rotf:

So I just bought at retail prices two 4's (from a national distributor) and two 14oz bottles of clays from a friend locally.. Lead has not been an issue locally. Clay Buster seems to have a reliable supply. Another 5K of Cheddites arrive tomorrow from BP. I've spent $5300 on pistol and shotgun reloading components so far in 2021. Should be good for a year or so. I do need a 4 of Unique which still seems very scarce. PM me if you see any unique for sale at retail price.

You too...:crying:
I plan to hoard Unique when it finally becomes available again.
It seems I picked a *very* bad time to get back into clays... or anything else for that matter. Last time around was in 1986, and I am completely stunned at how different things are today... and not in a good way.

BTW Craig, greetings from NF/Buffalo!

As to the hoarding I wish I had been in a position to get 6-10 8 pounders of SR7625 and perhaps 5 or 6 eights’s of SR4756 .

Been a good week so far. 5k primers arrived via the pony express, found an unopened 8lb can of 4756 and just scored 2lb Clays and 1lb of 20/28 to go with the 7lb jug I got in a gun deal at Rock Mountain. This should be in the 2021 buy/sell thread but it is directly related to the 20/28 powder as I will be shooting much more 28 gauge than I normally do because I lucked in to a lovely little Perazzi MX28. This gun will take the pressure off my two Parkers.

So now you can let that old beater VHE 28 30” go :rotf::rotf: All BS aside I’d be intrested to see the Perazzi ! While I don’t hold it in as high regard as a Perazzi or Krieghoff we had a Beretta 687EELL two barrel 20/28 set slide they the ship a couple months ago . I’d liked to have had that , but it was in for a good cleaning and to change springs and firing pins .

Sorry Craig, the VHE 28 is staying with me for a while but you're welcome to shoot it whenever we get together.

The Perazzi is built on, what they call, a baby frame. You can kind of compare it to a OO frame. Absolutely the finest gun that I own at this point.

Sending you a PM re: release shoots at FMR.

Daryl, speaking of Alliant 20/28 powder, an 8 pound jug just sold on Gunbroker for $595. + $50. shipping + Buyer's state sales tax + 1% GB "compliance fee". Brisk bidding with 25 bidders. Let's say the Buyer lives here in PA where the state sales tax is 6%. That would make the total price: $690. for 8 pounds. :eek:

https://www.gunbroker.com/item/912261632

I went looking for Unique on GB a few hours ago, saw a couple 4-pounders asking around $400 for them :eek::eek: ... NOPE! Even if I had the money I won't pay scalpers prices. :cuss: They had zero bids.

That's unbelievable that someone would need it that bad. I found these on a shelf with rifle powders and all of them were priced at 2019 prices. I believe that if someone lives in a remote area with few outlets selling components than maybe he feels justified paying those prices.

So the Perazzi frame is smaller than the K-20 frame which I like quite a bit . The 687EELL we had at the shop was just a 20 gauge frame be it from back in the 90’s . I like the long barreled 10’s and 12’s on the 3 and 2 frames , however over a weekend with several hundred targets I’m finding once I get tired my 0 frame 20 and 28 are a relief to shoot . I’d like to find a 32” 20 on a 1 frame but I’d be almost as happy with one on an 0 frame just like I’d be happy with a 30” or 32” 28 on an 0 frame .

Yah that's way out of wack and I'd never even consider buying at that price level, but "scalper" is a broad term and can cover a wide range of pricings. If I think back 8 months or so there were so many guys with cavalier comments and posts how they'd never pay what were then premium prices and calling the sellers: scalpers. Much the same fellas who are now scrounging for primers, powder and to a lesser extent, shot. Also some are imposing on their grasshopper friends to help them out (Aesop's Fable analogy). Prices have gone up, period. And those who shoot are facing the reality that prices of components and shotgun ammo will never come back down to let's say 2019 levels, same progression as happened with 2015 prices, etc. For example I'm finishing up a sleeve (5000) of Cheddite 209's I dated 2015 and $109.00 price paid plus 6% sales tax. Nowadays many are HAPPY to pay $190. for a sleeve of Cheddite 209's from one of the large on-line distributors, plus Hazmat, shipping and sales tax. Works out to about $250./sleeve for me here in PA.

I think this time it's different and worse, inflation of most of what we all consume was not present during the last shortages of ammunition and components. This shortage has gone on longer and more wide spread than previous shortages and economic inflation is a factor, todays prices may look like bargains in the future.

To rub salt in the wound .... After 15-20,000 shells, I just sent my 800 Plus loader back to PW for a tune up. $75 shipping. Will be another $75 shipping coming back, plus PW's charges. Suddenly, $50 shot doesn't seem so bad

My Mec 9000 had 100k on it before I made the first repair. The stage advance cylinder leaked. It is now at about 150k and has needed a few more tweaks but what really amazes me is that it still has the original wad fingers. All of the repairs did not exceed $75

Kittery Trading Post got some West Coast shot in last week, only $76.99 a bag :eek:

I’d much rather have PW progressives for everything from the 10 to the 410 , however I can’t find them on the used market as economically as the Rube Goldberg 9000’s of which I have them for all gauges 12 to 410 and hence the reason I have backup 9000’s in 12 and 28 . As well as back up Grabbers in 20, 28 and 410 as well as a back up 650 in 16 . It goes without saying I have way way more than even the advanced shooter/Reloader needs . However when you get them reasonably it’s a rather inexpensive insurance policy for someone that quite often gets in a hurry and doesn’t like breaking down in the middle and needing to work on something. This way if one gives me a problem two thumb screws pick it up and change for another .

MEC 9000's have worked just fine for me (12 and 20 gauge) though my 12 is tired having loaded > 60 thousand rounds since I bought that one about 12 years ago. A friend kept tellin me how P-W's are the Cadillac (his term) and I tried to buy one earlier this year direct from P-W but found that company to be all promises but ongoing excuses on its delivery commitment. Cancelled that order and ordered another MEC 9000/12 direct from MEC, which beat its shipment promise by a week or so. Now that 12 year old 9000 is my backup, not that I should need it. Just an aside, my friend with P-W's in several gauges has many duds and bloopers; no doubt "operator error" as I'm sure the P-W's are properly designed. Not sure how that happens to a gent who's shot trap and loaded shotshells for over four decades. Weird.

Stopped by a small shop today just to snoop. Nobel Sport primers for $150 per thousand. Yea, right!

We had a good customer bring to sleeves of Nobel 209’s in about three weeks ago . Asked us to start them at $200 a 5,000 sleeve . Put them on GB and the two sleeves brought a few dollars shy of a grand . That’s just about $100@1000 and I thought that was crazy .

I paid $62/box for 2000 shotshell 209 primers. Outback Arms in Plympton, Mass. just received a very large shipment of lead shot (#8 and 9's I believe).

Thanks to a PGCA member I was able to purchase a 8 pounder of Unique at retail. Now I'm set on supplies for a couple of years or more. A sincere thanks to all that PM`d me over the last year with tips on in stock items and others that traded needed items for my surplus items. Great brotherhood looking out to assist each other. Craig Larter

Congratulations! Hope 8 lbs will last you a while :)
I'm in the market for Unique also, at some point in the next 10 months
Just in case anyone hears of any. Can drive to Ohio or PA if need be.
Can't do anything right now, medical bills first.

Just for info, I talked with a friend in the industry today about powder and he told me it's not well known but THERE IS A SHORTAGE of nitrocellulose, the primary ingredient (percentage-wise) in modern smokeless powders. That's because an alternate industry that had been using limited NC has ramped up production over recent months and the few NC manufacturers have limited production capacity. Net, powder shortages will continue for the foreseeable future. Buy it when you can .....

I really do wonder what that alternate industry might be, now that it has such a sudden demand. Particularly keeping the shipping disruptions and international trade in mind.

Just trying to pass some inside info to members. What alternate industry that is, is irrelevant to those who are trying to find and buy reloading powders. Peter, you can accept that info or if in doubt, do your own research to confirm/deny the increase in NC demand and please let us know what you find out from your source(s). Those who have studied organic chemistry will know that cellulose can be nitrated to a wide range of % nitrogen for products with different end uses.

The only thing that comes immediately to mind is plastics, but I'm not aware of any real upheavals in that sector lately. Certainly not on a scale that would impact other users. (I do heavy industrial maintenance for a living, so I'm not far from industry in general).

I also know that I've heard a lot of different reasons from all over the place, none of which I am able to verify independently. And of course, I don't particularly trust the government NOR the "official" sources of info either.