Powder and primers supplies scarce??

[Cold Spring]

Originally Posted by Craig Larter

I can understand primers going to the ammo factories and being prioritized before the reloading market. What puzzles me are Hodgdon and Alliant. They claim to only service reloading. Lead shot and plastic wads are plentiful why not powder. The only thing i can think of is the powder feed stocks are the supply problem, maybe nitrocellulose comes from China like about everything else.

Craig, check the MSDS for a few favorite powders and you’ll find they have small quantities of anti-sour stabilizers, burn deterrents, non-clump coatings and other ingredients, and many of those additives are far more “exotic” than NC or NG. Disruption in supply of any of those ingredients will stall production of that powder.

[J.B. Books]

It is now 7 months later and this remains the latest news from Hodgdon on the powder shortage. A few things stuck out for me. They mention all the new gun owners being part of the extraordinary demand for powder then they go on to say that selling powder to ammo manufacturers is just a small part of their business. Which is it? Did all those new gun owners start reloading as well?

They go on to say that normal demand for powder would not be enough to support an expansion of their production facilities. How long and how much longer will there a severe shortage? With all the new guns and shooters is the old normal demand still a viable measure?

They say they shipped a record amount in 2020 and plan to ship even more in 2021. If so why does it hardly ever show up on shelves, why are decent size gun stores with empty shelves saying they have long standing and huge back orders and having back orders cancelled?

This is a link from the home page of Hodgdon Powder that I am referencing. "Where is the Powder"

https://hodgdon.com/wp-content/uploa...ate-ver6-1.pdf

https://hodgdon.com/