John I thought a little bit more about the analogy you have drawn above in regards to my posting the availability of reloading powders in this current and prolonged environment of scarcity. Really, what is the difference? Not sharing your examples is a form of hoarding, it is the very "I got mine" mentality you closed your post with. In your examples the motivation is a selfish desire to preserve something for ourselves. Certainly understandable. I have enough powder for myself that I will use, and I have the technology to find it, albeit with a little patience should I want more. Since I believe it helps other members of the PGCA I will post powders I think people are looking for when I can, if I see it available. Oh and like the grouse cover above, what I won't share is the technology and method that allows me see where these items become in-stock on a dealers website as it happens, but what I will share is the bounty it provides.

Thanks Dave for your post and the idea of what the Maryland shooters website is doing. I have started a similiar thread here.

so just when we thought we wouldn't get any powder till spring some came in Saturday at our club ,20/28 , pb , 700x ,h110, 296, it was like Christmas , lots of 1lb bottles of pistol and rifle powder, and for the first time in a year small rifle and pistol primers

A sign of the crazy times. Winning bidder paid over $50 a pound for 8 lbs of Hodgdon TiteGroup.

http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/Vie...Item=392561195

I guess I should run down to the local sporting goods store and buy what is on hand.

According to this shooting sports writer there is no relief for the shortages in the near future.

http://bearingarms.com/think-the-amm...r-think-again/

A demand of 17 billion rounds per year?

"That’s about 5 billion rounds a year more than we were producing during the height of the Second World War," according to the author of this piece.

No one can tell me a civilian market consumes that much ammo per annum. This writer has been hosed.

The number does sound out there but is it?

If fifty million people (14% of the population) buy or fire 1000 rounds a year (remember that includes 22 rimfire) that would be 50 billion rounds of ammo per year. The number may not be as outrageous as it sounds.

But the average shooter/hunter isn't seriously shooting clays or practical pistol or 3 gun.

They may shoot a box of rifle ammo every couple years, a couple to check the sights each year and a few at deer.

A grouse hunter may do a round or two of clays and a box or two at birds

Duck hunters maybe a couple more boxes of shot shells

I would be surprised if the average hunter shoots a hundred rounds a year

Rick is right. A box of 5 shells lasts entirely too long for some of us turkey hunters.

What is really perplexing to me about this situation is that it has persisted for over a year, yet heroin, meth and pot have fewer problems in their supply chain than smokeless powder or 22LR. Explain that. :corn:

I'll make up for some of the low volume shooters as I easily go through about 5000 rounds per year. I'm still not very good but it's all in the practice:rotf:

I think at your age, practice is over, you will never be very good :shock: :rotf: scott

Oh the pain of the truth, but practice will continue s long as I'm able:dh::)

Ya but it is kind of sad to hear of so much scarce reloading supplies being wasted like that :rotf:

I just scored on 16lbs of 7625 and 10 bags of shot so the practice will continue:whistle:

Once the price escalates to $250/oz. I think we'll see things loosen up a bit.

On the other hand, once ammo is illegal the black market will make sure there is plenty available.... at a price.

It became clear to me last night that consumer demand for loaded ammunition and reloading components is THE reason for all the shortages we have seen for 22's, primers, powder etc. Last night I went down to the Kittery Trading Post and in discussion with one of the people I know there he told me the store sold as much ammunition and reloading supplies in the last 10 months as they did in the last 10 years.

A greater than ten fold increase in demand, no wonder manufacturers have not been able to keep up.

Obviously this has been fear generated demand with scarcity demand (hoarding and resale gouging demand) piling on top of it. I suspect the situation will not change much until the fear subsides. I think our first chance for that happens in November '16 so I don't look for things to return to normal anytime soon. Let's hope I am wrong.

Pete, The neysayers will claim politics has nothing to do with it, it's the evil hoarders and gougers, put the tin foil away, blah, blah, blah. The fact is you are dead-on right.

I just paid $48 for a bag of shot. Price for 4 lbs of Blue Dot was over $100.

If it makes you feel better someone is willing to pay over $60 a pound plus shipping and hazmat for 11 pounds 14 ounces of Hodgdon Clays.

http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/Vie...Item=399668290

WOW! That Auction is at$725 and it still has over 3 days to run! This is nuts.

It sure is nuts and not as isolated on GB as you would think.

http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/Vie...Item=400725502

I don't get it...... The current bidding is higher than the "buy now"??? If you really wanted the powder, wouldn't you just buy it for the listed 400 than bid/purchase higher than that??

Correct me if I'm wrong... I think the BIN option ends as soon as bidding begins.

I almost hate to mention this here, but I just bought 8 lbs of Promo for about $93... off the shelf.

Local gun shop has a crate 12,500 rounds of .223 . I believe the asking price was around $6,500. You could outfit your own militia.

Either that, or provide Homeland Security with a fun afternoon at the range...

Home land security only buys shells. They don't actually know what to do with them so they store them. They are probably monitoring this site.

And if they're not, the NSA will tell them!

Let me put on my tin foil hat.:shock:

If you have any extra tin I could use some. I need to cast some 650 gr bullets for one of my sharps.

By the way - at the local show this past weekend - ammo seemed to be in good supply- prices varied from table to table - but I got what I was looking for at a price I had not seen for a while.

Stopped into my regional sporting goods chain today just to see what the powder supply situation was like. I think "nonexistent" sums it up. They used to have about 12 shelves, 15 feet long devoted to all kinds of reloading powders. Now these shelves are 99% empty. And absolutely NO shotgun powder of ANY kind or size is available.

But the BLM in Nevada seems to have plenty of guns and ammo at the moment...

I was down to a half 14 oz can of Titewad, use it for 7/8 oz 12 g loads. Rationing my SxS shooting. Stopped in a shop out of town just looking, they had a fresh supply of 8 lb jugs of Red Dot. Had 8 lb jugs of 20/28 too, limiting purchases to one jug could not take advantage of it. They said it was a fresh supply just received. Alliant must be shipping.

Bill

Friend of mine just bought 4 boxes of .45 ACP for $19/box at Gander Mountain.

How many rounds per box?

50. Don't know if that was one store (Detroit suburb) or if it is available everywhere

That's a good price these days.

Don't think he told me the brand, but they are brass casings, not the aluminium junk

At $19 a box, I'll bet it's something like Seiler & Bellot. If you're using it in a 1911, or clone, be sure the case mouth doesn't have a knurled edge. Lots of the Eastern European imports do, and they don't feed worth a darn.