I went through Sportsmans Warehouse several times in the last couple of months. They are out of a lot of stock. Cases, powder and primers shelves were nearly empty. Is this a local problem?

A cousin who works at Federal Cartridge told me they are laying off and the warehouses are full. They are now storing stuff in old rented semi-trailers. No money for inventory loans and retailers were returning product.

Vitha Vouri powder @ $35/lb.----sorry, not interested.

Ramshot @ $20/lb. price up from $16 in a couple of months.

Stock up on supplies. Stock up on food too boys. We are going to be in for a rough ride with this Red, a very rough ride.

Vihta rifle powders are sold here in 1000 gram containers. If that's the case, 35 $ would be alright. We pay a LOT more...

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A cousin who works at Federal Cartridge told me they are laying off and the warehouses are full. They are now storing stuff in old rented semi-trailers. No money for inventory loans and retailers were returning product.

That doesn't make any sense. If everyone is buying and stocking up why would Federal Cartridge have to lay off people? Their match primers have been hard to get now for a couple of years so it would seem that if they wanted to sell something and empty their warehouse they could start shipping primers again.

From this newspaper article looks like they are laying off 40-50 a years after they added 150 to catch up with back orders. This was from a 11/8/08 newspaper article.

Federal Cartridge Co. in Anoka is laying off 40 to 50 production workers after catching up on significant back orders for its pistol and small rifle ammunition, officials confirmed Wednesday.

Federal Cartridge, which is a division of Eden Prairie-based defense firm Alliant Techsystems Inc. (ATK), will employ about 1,000 workers after the layoffs. Affected employees were notified this week, said ATK spokesman Bryce Hallowell.

The layoffs come about a year after Federal Cartridge added nearly 150 workers to help catch up on back orders. The Federal Cartridge plant in Anoka manufactures ammunition mostly for law enforcement, hunters and civil training exercises.

ATK, which generated $4.2 billion in fiscal 2008 sales, recently reported second-quarter armament sales of $422 million, a 19 percent jump from a year ago.

The company is the largest small-caliber ammunition maker in the world. It makes military-grade ammunition in Missouri and in other plants around the country.

So far as I’ve noticed primers are about the hardest thing to come by…

Specifically rifle primers of any make or manufacture…

Everything on the web is backordered…

Spent yesterday looking around northern WV and western PA…

Most everyone only had pistol or shotgun primers…

Not sure why the supply is drying up…

The demand is certainly still there…

I'm trying to lay in a load of H4895 and can't seem to find any from the suppliers in Washington.

sportsmans warehouse was recently sold & they sold off inventory for the sale. federal layed off employees because they are moving their main offices

308 brass is rather spendy, too.

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and retailers were returning product.

That makes no sense. We read on the net that components of all kinds are low or absent across the nation. Saying "retailers are returning product" when loaders are saying the store shelves are empty is insane! That reminds me of an old yarn about a store that quit carring a line of cigars; the polish owner said he couldn't keep them in stock so he dropped them. ?? Message; order more product, it just might help for keeping them on the shelves!

Our Sportsman's here in Alb. is completely void of ALL bullets, ALL primers etc.....

It's unreal to look at that isle in the store with all of the shelves with labels for every bullet mfg in the nation ALL BARE..........

Same at SW here in San Antonio. Nothing, zip, nada, zero on the reloading shelves as it has been since last summer only worse.

Something doesn't smell right here especially with Iraq seeming to be using less small arms. Although I think it was on this forum somewhere where a picture of a "reloading bench" had something like 20,000+ Federal primers stacked up. Perhaps we are our own worst enemy! Anyone stockpiling when they find what they use?

Last summer, I asked a salesman at the Cabelas here in Dundee why their stock of reloading supplies was so much less than in the past. His response was that it seemed that most reloaders were ordering more on line than in the brick and morter stores, therefore the stores were keeping less inventory. The single exception was powder. I guess powder may be more expensive to order on line due to the additional haz mat charges.

Geronimo

I've been to two Sportsman's in the Denver area with both being totally void of bullets, primers, brass, dies, just about anything that has to do with reloading. It will be interesting to see how long the shortage lasts.

Burlington Rd - Seems as your cousin works at a plant that manufacturers ammo and not primers. Since they have now caught up on the ammo side, maybe more primers will be seen by us reloaders in stores and online. Hard to imagine that they have caught up on ammo orders as I haven't seen any ammo around for sale either. Time will tell.

Got some primers yesterday afternoon...

Small Store about 30 minutes away...

I always seem to forget they are there...

Maybe other folks do as well and thats why they actually had some inventory...

Regardless of whats causing it demand is far exceeding supply...