More bad news, gunpowder shortage

[Darrell]

I suppose this was inevitable: 

 

US sporting and outdoor products group Vista Outdoor warned in a letter to customers that ammunition prices are set to surge due to “an anticipated global shortage of gunpowder.”

Vista Outdoor confirmed the authenticity of the letter to Newsweek days ago. The increase of ammo and gunpowder prices is expected on Jan. 1. 

 

“Due to world events our suppliers have notified us of unprecedented demand for and an anticipated global shortage of gunpowder, and thus has increased our prices substantially,” Vice President of Sales, Sporting Products Brett Nelson said in the letter.

Nelson continued, “We must, therefore, raise our pricing to help offset those increases.”

Ammo and powder prices at Remington, Alliant Powder, CCI, Federal, SEVI-Shot, and Speer are set to rise in the coming weeks:

[RED333]

I am not worried

[gregintenn]

Self fulfilling prophesy. Everybody run to Academy and get in line!!!!

Vista Outdoors has found a better sales campaign than commercial advertising.

[Jamie Jackson]

I'm not concerned either, but this chronic panic buying just wears on my nerves.

Of course you're right Greg. A remarkable sales campaign fueled buy the shooting community. 

And as a shooting community, we can be our own worst enemies.

[TripleGGG]

The power of fear is truly amazing. 

[gregintenn]

Have you considered we haven’t seen fully stocked shelves since before the last great American component panic?

I think it is a new business model.  Nobody’s paying 100/1000 for primers when there are cases of them stacked to the ceiling, but set out one box at a time and folks line up for them.

[deerslayer]

I don’t advocate for panic buying, but with Israel, Ukraine, and an upcoming election, I’m stocking up on primers and powder if I’m a handloader.  

[deerslayer]

2 minutes ago, gregintenn said:

Have you considered we haven’t seen fully stocked shelves since before the last great American component panic?

I think it is a new business model.  Nobody’s paying 100/1000 for primers when there are cases of them stacked to the ceiling, but set out one box at a time and folks line up for them.

I haven’t seen primers stocked in meaningful quantities since 2019.  

[gregintenn]

3 minutes ago, deerslayer said:

I haven’t seen primers stocked in meaningful quantities since 2019.  

Right. You’ve seen prices double or triple though. Scarcity tends to do that. I’m thinking there isn’t any real shortage, just an updated business model. It seems like retailers would be pizzed were that the case, but what are they to do?

 

Vista Outdoors has gobbled up just about all the shooting related companies. I thought there were antitrust and monopoly laws against this type practice. However, it would please .gov to see a decline in the shooting sports, so here we are.

Edited December 15, 2023 by gregintenn

[deerslayer]

13 minutes ago, gregintenn said:

Right. You’ve seen prices double or triple though. Scarcity tends to do that. I’m thinking there isn’t any real shortage, just an updated business model. It seems like retailers would be pizzed were that the case, but what are they to do?

I think the shortage is/was very real.  I’ve seen local stores that were reliable sources with 0.0 in stock for several months straight.  That doesn’t serve their (retailers or manufacturers) business models.  Several smaller bullet companies have closed shop because people are reloading less because they had no primers and therefore didn’t buy bullets.

 

13 minutes ago, gregintenn said:

Vista Outdoors has gobbled up just about all the shooting related companies. I thought there were antitrust and monopoly laws against this type practice. However, it would please .gov to see a decline in the shooting sports, so here we are.

I wasn’t happy to see three of the four American primer manufacturers lumped under the Vista umbrella (Federal/Remington/CCI).  I was even less happy when I learned that Vista was recently sold to a Czech group.  I’m glad I’m not short on primers.  

Edited December 15, 2023 by deerslayer

[gregintenn]

1 minute ago, deerslayer said:

I think the shortage is/was very real.  I’ve seen local stores that were reliable sources with 0.0 in stock for several months straight.  That doesn’t serve their (retailers or manufacturers) business models.  Several smaller bullet companies have closed shop because people are reloading less because they had no primers and therefore didn’t buy bullets.

 

I wasn’t happy to see three of the four American primer manufacturers lumped under the Vista umbrella (Federal/Remington/CCI).  I was even less happy when I learned that Vista was recently sold to a Czech group.  I’m glad I’m not short on primers.  

I’m pretty cynical. I’d like to see the actual text of recent government contracts. I believe this was planned one way or another. You are spot on that it does retailers no good. I’m not so sure about Vista.

[deerslayer]

Even a couple fellow competitive shooters have given up the game due to lack of available components.  A couple years ago, whoever had reliable .22 ammo would win the Steel Challenge match.  Participation dwindled.  Primer/ammo chaos may be exploited, but long term it can’t assist a business model.  

[deerslayer]

7 minutes ago, gregintenn said:

 I’d like to see the actual text of recent government contracts.

…would probably be an interesting read.  

[deerslayer]

If this were all a plan by manufacturers, they may have shot themselves in the foot.  People have discovered that Italian Fiocchio and Turkish ZSR primers will work quite well for less money.  

[gregintenn]

6 minutes ago, deerslayer said:

If this were all a plan by manufacturers, they may have shot themselves in the foot.  People have discovered that Italian Fiocchio and Turkish ZSR primers will work quite well for less money.  

I’d buy them….were they available locally. I have some Wolf primers that work fine, but haven’t seen any for sale in a looooong time.

[deerslayer]

17 minutes ago, gregintenn said:

I’d buy them….were they available locally. I have some Wolf primers that work fine, but haven’t seen any for sale in a looooong time.

Ha ha, Wolf.  The brass colored ones are pretty good, but the nickel colored ones maaaaaay cause the occasional hiccup in striker fired guns.  Ask me how I know. 
I recently found Fiocchi small pistol primers at Sportsman’s Warehouse for $60/1000.  They actually had 10 or 12 cases (1500/case for $89.95 or so).  I believe components will soon be harder to find (wars/Lake City/Vista/elections) and I was on the lookout for primers, so I bought a few.  I told several friends about them.  A week or two later, they were up to $75/1000, but they still had several cases.  I have no idea why the price increased, unless the Vista announcement spooked Sportsman’s.  Whenever I’m down that way again (Southaven, MS), I’ll drop by and see what they have.  Anybody else have a Sportsman’s nearby?

Edited December 15, 2023 by deerslayer

[TripleGGG]

I've got enough ammo and reloading supplies to last my lifetime and some of my kids lifetime. Well my son-in-law loves to shoot so it might not go to far in his lifetime. 

With that said I still buy constantly. Old habits are hard to break. 

Edited December 16, 2023 by TripleGGG
Grammar

[Jamie Jackson]

Now if we can work in some spare time to your schedule we could put a dent in those stores @TripleGGG

 

[BigK]

12 minutes ago, TripleGGG said:

I've got enough ammo and reloading supplies to last my lifetime and some of my kids lifetime. Well my son-in-law loves to shoot so it might not go to far in his lifetime. 

With that said I still buy constantly. Old habits hard to break. 

I bet several of us are in that same boat. Unless I started shooting way more often, I'm good on components for the rest of my life as well.

[Jamie Jackson]

You have a good point @BigK.

I shoot a least once a week,  generally twice and I don't know which will expire first...

Me or my reloading supplies. 

It's not a terrible situation to be in. 

But I still look for a decent buy for my stores. 

[gregintenn]

6 hours ago, deerslayer said:

Ha ha, Wolf.  The brass colored ones are pretty good, but the nickel colored ones maaaaaay cause the occasional hiccup in striker fired guns.  Ask me how I know. 
I recently found Fiocchi small pistol primers at Sportsman’s Warehouse for $60/1000.  They actually had 10 or 12 cases (1500/case for $89.95 or so).  I believe components will soon be harder to find (wars/Lake City/Vista/elections) and I was on the lookout for primers, so I bought a few.  I told several friends about them.  A week or two later, they were up to $75/1000, but they still had several cases.  I have no idea why the price increased, unless the Vista announcement spooked Sportsman’s.  Whenever I’m down that way again (Southaven, MS), I’ll drop by and see what they have.  Anybody else have a Sportsman’s nearby?

Yeah. There’s one in Murfreesboro.

[dawgdoc]

I just bought bullets, primers, and powder from my local store.  I last bought primers in 2020 when people started getting crazy about toilet paper.  Last bought powder some time before then.

I was not prepared for the prices.  I had to use my calculator to decide if reloading was really cheaper than their bulk ammo with a 10% off sale and an ammo can.  It still is, barely, as long as I consider the labor my "free time."

[BigK]

4 hours ago, dawgdoc said:

I just bought bullets, primers, and powder from my local store.  I last bought primers in 2020 when people started getting crazy about toilet paper.  Last bought powder some time before then.

I was not prepared for the prices.  I had to use my calculator to decide if reloading was really cheaper than their bulk ammo with a 10% off sale and an ammo can.  It still is, barely, as long as I consider the labor my "free time."

It's therapy for me, so it's like I'm getting paid.

[jeff43]