Gun powder shortage?

[danosrs]

I was reading an article on Newsweek and it was reporting a worldwide shortage in the future for gunpowder, has anyone else heard of this? It’s report to drive up the price and also cause a shortage of loaded ammo. Hope this is just more fake news??

[akley88]

i wouldnt be surprised with the war machines going in the Ukraine and Israel.

[Delkal]

Not sure if it is fake but this has been going on for decades, the big powder companies like DuPont and Hercules are long gone.. The only plant still making gunpowder is St Marks and they only make a few types of ball powders. All of the other powders are made overseas and are from just a handful of companies.

Making the powder is not to be confused with companies marketing and blending the lots of powder. I don't think companies like Hodgdon and Alliant ever made powders. There are even examples like H100/W296 and WW231/HP38 that are the exact same powder made at the same overseas plant. Just sold by a different company under a different name.

[GunLawyer001]

The regulatory burden on anyone thinking about starting up an American plant that (a) is in the arms trade, and (b) uses and makes HazMat by the ton, is enough to eliminate the 2nd Amdt over time.

Was it 1992 that the president banned imports of certain arms, by Executive Order? What if the current puppet banned all ammo imports by EO?

Anyone know if it's possible to make a reasonable substitute for modern smokeless powder at home? I know that we can make black powder from charcoal and dried urine and such, and maybe that would suffice for revolvers that tolerate wide variances in pressures.

Now I'm wondering about .357 Magnum rounds made from cast bullets and black powder . . . still have the primer issue.

[knight0334]

The regulatory burden on anyone thinking about starting up an American plant that (a) is in the arms trade, and (b) uses and makes HazMat by the ton, is enough to eliminate the 2nd Amdt over time.

Was it 1992 that the president banned imports of certain arms, by Executive Order? What if the current puppet banned all ammo imports by EO?

Anyone know if it's possible to make a reasonable substitute for modern smokeless powder at home? I know that we can make black powder from charcoal and dried urine and such, and maybe that would suffice for revolvers that tolerate wide variances in pressures.

Now I'm wondering about .357 Magnum rounds made from cast bullets and black powder . . . still have the primer issue.

Just open the primer flash hole a little.

[cephas]

This is the note, I think from Vista, that set off some of the speculation:
(had to copy and paste)



December 1st, 2023

Dear Customer:

Thank you for your business and for your continued support of American jobs and

manufacturing. 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. We must therefore raise our pricing to help offset those increases.

Effective January 1st, 2024, Alliant Powder, CCI, Federal, HEVI-Shot, Remington and SPEER will take the following increases:

Shotshell 1-7%
Rifle 1-7%
Handgun 1-5%
22LR/Shorts 1-5%
WMR/HMR 1-7%
Primers 5%
Alliant Powder 10% (Limited Availability)
Unless you notify us to cancel an order, we will reprice all existing and future orders shipped on or after January 1st, 2024, to the new prices. New pricelists will follow in the coming weeks.

Thank you for your continued support of our brands and our American workforce.

Brett Nelson

VP of Sales, Sporting Products

https://www.outdoorhub.com/news/2023...iers-shortage/

[2dogs]

Article:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/mark...5b2a3435&ei=25

[Delkal]

Effective January 1st, 2024, Alliant Powder, CCI, Federal, HEVI-Shot, Remington and SPEER will take the following increases:

Shotshell 1-7%
Rifle 1-7%
Handgun 1-5%
22LR/Shorts 1-5%
WMR/HMR 1-7%
Primers 5%
Alliant Powder 10% (Limited Availability)

Made me look at my reloading stash......

I found primers from

3/16-small rifle $30/1000
10/16- Small pistol match $33
12/17- small pistol $35
12/17 small rifle $33
1/18- $35
These were all from a local gunshop and not the best prices at the time.

And for powder

2/2016 W231 $25
7/19 16 pounds of surplus 844 (H335 equivalent) $12 per pound shipped
10/22 CFE pistol $25

And I didn't even mention the multiple boxes of primers and powder for under $20 because I didn't write the date on them.

Can someone with better math skills or an inflation calculator explain why this clickbait "the end is coming kind of thing" is really a major shortage? From what I see it is the smallest increase in years and we have the largest powder and primer selection now than in the last 10 years.

[chkrdflg]

I've heard this discussed on several different podcasts that I listen too. One of them read an e-mail from a wholesaler to a gun shop that basically said shipments after the beginning of 2024 will be going up by x percent. This also included orders that were previously made but due to ship after the beginning of the year. If I remember correctly the increases were in the range of 2-7% on everything.

[JoshIronshaft]

Or...

Sales are slow, time to stir up the panic buying with a scary letter.

Prices always go up and shortages are nothing new.