Hate to make a negative post but I have been trying to pick up a .22 cal. pilot for my RCBS case trimmer and some 130 bullets for my 270 since the week before Thanksgiving. Every week its the same story "they should be on the truck Monday" I can understand lots of folks stocking up on bullets with the recent political changes and I understand about letting stock dwindle at end of year to avoid taxes but this is getting a bit ridiculous. Rant off.

SW moved 10 miles down the road many years ago and dropped reloading altogether when they did. Haven't been back.

Check Graf's fixed online shipping rate. You'll be happier.

Order it off line. MidwayUsa has it in stock. Or Natchaz or Graf.

Steve

SW does a poor job of managing its powder and brass inventory here too.

There was a new Sportsman's Warehouse built about 60 miles from me a couple of years ago. At first they were pretty good. The last year and a half there stock has shrunk a lot, to the point that it's not hardly worth the trip. You are going to have to pay freight on what they don't have, so you might as well get it all at one place.

I was at the SW in Wichita, Ks. earlier this week and the reloading shelves were pretty sparsely stocked. The rifle ammunition shelves were also very understocked. There was a reasonable amount of shotgun ammo in a decent selection though.

I was wondering if this had something to do with falling metal commodity prices and not wanting to get caught with a lot of overly expensive ammunition. We have already seen lead shot fall in price about 25% since august. I don't know if loaded ammo will also get cheaper any time soon, but they may be waiting to see if there is any deflation in the prices of reloading supplies or ammo.

Gander Mountain still has a good stock of reloading supplies the last time I checked. At the prices they have on the stuff, they will probably have it for a while.

The Sportsman's Warehouse fishing department looks pretty well stocked right now and that's the next big season.

quote:

I was wondering if this had something to do with falling metal commodity prices and not wanting to get caught with a lot of overly expensive ammunition.

This and the fact of enormous buying of certain items such as those expected to be effected by legislation in the near future may just be the case.....

As to the .22 caliber pilot.....five will get you ten that RCBS would have sent one free if you asked!

The inventories at my local SW were dwindling (except for 13-cents-apiece cast lead pistol bullets!) all of last fall. Come election day, it looked as if locusts had descended on the reloading aisle! There's still almost nothing to be had in popular calibers (except those precious-metal pistol bullets!) even now.

I used to say SW's prices were high, but you could always find what you needed. That's no longer true.

Mark

I haven't shopped at SW as of late because of their inventory. I got a 100$ gift certificate to Cabela's for Christmas and went out there and found their supply of bullets, primers and powder was out of stock also. Went to a local MOM and POP SHOP yesterday and found everything I needed. I paid a little more but I have it in my hands. Worth it to me.

I have two SW stores to choose from here. Both of them only have a few lbs of powder on their shelves. Their bullet inventory is meager at best. I also have Three Ganders to draw from and their prices are the highest anywhere. I have a couple of Cabelas to pick from and inventory isn't the best at either, and prices are close to Ganders. I do however have a small shop that has 90% of what I need on hand. If they don't it has never taken more than a week to get something. Here we also have a couple of Scheels sporting good stores within driving distance. When my list gets long they make it worth my time. Excellent store.

WS

Several factors are at play here regarding SW inventory:

1. SW was purchased by another oompany, I
forget the name.
2. Suppliers and manufacturers are dealing with
some rough times and are not flooding the
large megolith stores with inventory that is
paid for with lines of credit.
3. As we all know, this is a terrile time to
have too much taxable inventory.
4. Most inventory is controlled by persons that
are not at each individulal store's location.
One example is the one in my area sells
lighted knocks, expandable broadheads, and
various other "electronic" devices that are
not even legal to use in this state.
5. Your local sole-proprietor should be able to
take of your needs much better, even if it
is at a sight increase in price.

quote:

Originally posted by Bear Kodiak:
Several factors are at play here regarding SW inventory:

1. SW was purchased by another oompany, I
forget the name.
2. Suppliers and manufacturers are dealing with
some rough times and are not flooding the
large megolith stores with inventory that is
paid for with lines of credit.
3. As we all know, this is a terrile time to
have too much taxable inventory.
4. Most inventory is controlled by persons that
are not at each individulal store's location.
One example is the one in my area sells
lighted knocks, expandable broadheads, and
various other "electronic" devices that are
not even legal to use in this state.
5. Your local sole-proprietor should be able to
take of your needs much better, even if it
is at a sight increase in price.

All of that combined with:
1. turbulent metal markets

2. the current rush to beat a possible assault weapons ban

3. it being currently the off season for hunting

4. the current economic recession

makes a lot of sense for having some bare shelves. Still it is more that a little unnerving to see that much vacant shelf space in your local sporting goods gun department.

Our Mesa SW store is flat empty in the reloading shelf. As well as the auto loading shotguns, handguns and AR's are nonexistent.

They have always been in the rears with keeping up the powder stock even long before the elections. But I will give them a great, friendly gun and archery counter staff!

I rack it up to the Obama scare and SW being sold to a new buyer from Cansda whom is probably being very cautious until they find out what new 'President Buckwheat' is going to do....

Barack Obama tackling the economic meltdown on his first day in office...



" Hey Michelle, turn that up baby... I want to see that Inaugeration Replay Again..."

FYI: The new majority owner of Sportsman's Warehouse: United Farmers of Alberta

http://www.ufa.net/inTheNews/a...houseAquisition.html

Ran afoul of SW about 8 years ago ( really bad treatment )and never went back. roger

It's the same story at our SW. Not only with reloading supplies but with all the items they stock. If it's not on the rack, they just say "it should be on the truck on Monday". I talked to the salesman and asked him if I could order an item. He told me it was not possible. He said they never know what they are getting on the trucks that come. I think that all the ordering is done on the basis of what is sold by someone at a central location looking at a computer for the sales at each individual location. They ought to look at the posts here and improve their business.

Same story here in C. Springs. No reloading supplies on the shelves since Thanksgiving. I think I bought the last box of LR primers in the store just before XMAS...

They are not even restocking targets or gun cleaning supplies!!!!

Of course many of the on line suppliers are also showing "Out of Stock" but went to local mom & pop and guess what -- they have lots of everything.

Barstooler

Same here in Central TX. I just go to Cabela's. They have everything I need most of the time.

I think SW has a lot of snobby workers and provide little or no information about availability of merchandise.

They are ALWAYS out of what I need. I wonder if they are going under soon? Does anyone ever notice there are no lines and very few shoppers?

It's like the place is never crowded. Cabela's on the other hand? My wife goes with me to wait in line while I get my "grocery list". Gotta love that.

quote:

Originally posted by RoccoBoxer:It's like the place is never crowded. Cabela's on the other hand? My wife goes with me to wait in line while I get my "grocery list". Gotta love that.

You're lucky. My wife goes to Cabela's with me and spends more then I do. And it's not on shooting and hunting supplies .

Ken....

The North Phoenix store is just as bad. Never have it in stock. It is cheaper for me to drive there for the hour drive but I am tired of hearing they are out stock so I will just pay the hazmat fee and order my powder. It is better than getting frustrated.

The simple facts are SW stopped paying their bills. They stopped a couple years ago. The "mentality" escapes me, but the owner of the business was pushing very hard to open as many stores as he could before the company collapsed from within and he could sell the company as having "X" amount of stores. His original goal was 100 stores. He could have cared less if the stores had merchandise or not, just get them built and get them open. He finally managed to find a sucker to buy the business and he's skipping around free with a big fat check. He got what he was after.

Now the new "owners" are stuck with a pile of stores and no inventory.

Just the view from a former manager within the company.

That's disappointing Slim. Until recently the SW nearest me was my best option for reloading supplies; they were fairly well stocked.

The Gander Mountain stores nearest here carry almost no reloading supplies, and the local Cabela's is barely any better.

The only other options I have are many miles away and keep terribly inconvenient hours. I guess I'll have to buy everything online.

sigh.

-nosualc

quote:

The simple facts are SW stopped paying their bills. They stopped a couple years ago. The "mentality" escapes me, but the owner of the business was pushing very hard to open as many stores as he could before the company collapsed from within and he could sell the company as having "X" amount of stores. His original goal was 100 stores. He could have cared less if the stores had merchandise or not, just get them built and get them open. He finally managed to find a sucker to buy the business and he's skipping around free with a big fat check. He got what he was after.

The guy who owned SW, Stu, was originlly brought in to sell the store I believe iN MIdvale UT. He thought he could turn it into a profitable deal and so ran the place. He got his pic taken with big deer, got thanks you's from all kinds of sporting associations and the began to grow so fast that inventory suffered. The business model was just that, business, not sportgin goods. Sportign goods were just the relatively untapped market on a local scale that he could use to grow the business. It could have been quick-lubes, fast food, or car washes, its all the same to a business man.

Well before the "stock" depletion at Sportsman's Warehouse a minor thing got under my skin about the store in Colorado Springs. I put a picture of my 13 year old boy with his first buck Deer and his first Bull Elk on the bulletin board at the front of the store, in less than a week the pictures were gone, same thing with the picture of my brothers big Buck, yet some pictures were permanently up there and most were the same guy I figured he must be the owner or something. No big deal but it pissed me off!
Since then there stock/selection has been slim so I just avoid it. Too bad since it is the cheapest source for powder in town when they have it.

I don`t think Sportsmans is doing to well lately. They opened a store here in Michigan and closed it 8 months later (last July). I live about 60 mi from it and worked 10-15 miles away and only found out it was there about the time it closed. They had no advertising and seemed to rely solely on word of mouth.
I never stepped foot in the store and knew hunters that that lived within a couple miles that never did either for the same reasons.

Another option that I discovered last fall is Scheels. When we were hunting in North Dakota, we went to the one in Bismark. They were well stocked on reloading supplies. I think that they are a chain. I noticed another on the way home on the east side of Reno,Nevada