Well written and sadly true

That makes interesting reading. I feel a little less resentful of these big ammo companies dropping support for established, popular calibers (couldn't get '06 or 243 for a couple of years).

Yes, a useful insight for sure.
Reinforces the belief for me as a handloader that it's important to hold good quantities of components to get through time of unreliable supply. I was a bit slow taking that on board initially but when it finally hit home I did a bit of spending and so far, touch wood, I'm doing OK.

I also amass enough supplies for 1000 reloads including brass when I buy a new cartridge size the minute I complete rifle sale.
Lately I have been sticking to cartridges that are built off the same case,i.e. 25-06/30-06

quote:

Originally posted by 2th doc:
I also amass enough supplies for 1000 reloads including brass when I buy a new cartridge size the minute I complete rifle sale.
Lately I have been sticking to cartridges that are built off the same case,i.e. 25-06/30-06

When I reloaded I kept it as simple as possible. When I stopped I had a little trove of 22, 24, and 27 caliber bullets, & primers I just gave to a forum member, brass I donated to a shooting club, and powder I gave to a reloading neighbor. My press & dies & accessories I gave to a kid staring out, a friend of my son. I don't shoot much anymore so I don't need to reload, most of it I was just doing for friends. These days I just shoot on the cheap with pellets. I think I have just as much fun & never worry about ammo supply & demand. My Hatsan is about as good as my tired old eyes anyway. The hoarding that was going on really aggravated me when trying to find bullets, primers & powder. People were paranoid & men older than me (74 now) had enough stuff to reload over 80-90 thousand rounds, which I thought was selfish & crazy.

I was speaking with one of my sales reps at a wholesaler I have an account with and I was asking about powder availability or lack there of. He confirmed that Retumbo will be phased out of being imported but he did not know when. Stabil HD is its replacement.

If you are waiting on any powders that are imported from Sweden you will be waiting for awhile. With the threat of NATO being sucked into the conflict with Russia, they are reluctant to release powder they may need for massive ammo runs. Not to say that it will dry up but if it is exported to the US it will trickle in. I am not even sure it is trickling in now to be honest.

Same with primers and NATO caliber ammo and components that are made outside the US.

Just sharing what he told me.

Ammo is a tough animal to find sometimes but reloading components are even more evasive creatures.

Ammo for military comes first. Reloaders come dead last with various needs between those two groups.

I agree with the article, primers are the weak link and I've said it time and again. We are dead in our tracks without primers!

I'm not a hoarder (according to me) but I do have a sufficient components lying around to load ammo for me and mine for quite some time.

Zeke

They come up with a plethora of new cartridges to peddle and then cry about how that is putting an added strain on ammunition supplies. Well there is a simple fix for that, STOP DOING IT!!

As far as Im concerned the government is sucking up all the supplies with OUR money while the manufacturers are making an incredible fortune off of it. All the rest is lies and excuses. The blame on hoarders has been nothing but lies all along. When distributors have seen ZERO shipments of primers for over a year, that is not a demand problem, that is a supply problem! And now they openly admit that the government gets top priority. Its kind of like the $300.00 toilet seats and $200.00 hammers. Your taxpayers dollars at work.

My gun business is like my horse and cattle business.

Dad said "son, you would be better off buying hammers for $3 each and selling them for a buck apiece." Should have listened to dad who killed 50 elk with 3 boxes of 30-30s, with enough rounds left over to kill 7 deer and 3 coyotes, so he bought two more boxes to work with, and he wasn't that good a shot, just got close!

Great story Ray.
So true about the way we complicate things for ourselves. I was once a one gun hunter. I do think I need to thin the herd, but I aint going back to one gun again.