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What is your powder $ spending breaking point?

BCR1 said:
At what dollar amount would it take for you to stop buying powder on line to load with? $100.00 + all the fees or higher still?

Bill
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What's your limit Bill? I'm thinking out the door at a LGS I'll go as high as $50.00 for 1 pound of powder. And that's only for testing purposes. I normally don't buy my powder in 1 pound increments. In my lifetime I've bought a total of 3, 2 IMR3031 and 1 AR Comp. All 3 under $30.00 a pound each out the door.
 
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dgeesaman said:
I’m not in a position to buy right now but powder is the least worrisome of my costs.

My 222, 6ppc, and 6BRA each take a primer that I paid .05 for, plus .10-.20 of powder, and a .30-.55 bullet. I bought mostly in 2019-2020 and i don’t have facilities to store big amounts. Ignoring brass costs, at todays prices that went up to .10 primer, .15-.25 powder and a .40-.66 bullet.

I suppose if I shot a lot of inefficient magnum size cartridges I’d care more about powder specifically. At 70 grains of powder, a pound barely covers two ammo boxes.

I’m not sure how much centerfire I’ll shoot when my stash runs down. I’ll probably slow my burn and replace powder as required. I’m a plinker and don’t sign up for competitions so there is no pressure for me to constantly dump out a hundred+ rounds multiple weekends per month. I have airguns and rimfire too and while those costs have increased some, it’s much less than the centerfire.
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i shoot a cheytac that burns 130-140 grains of powder.

have you ever priced factory ELR ammo?

even with prices where they are now the savings is significant
 
I have already started looking at les costly alternatives. Shooters world and ramshot are significantly less than alliant and hodgdon, I have enough of everything I use in my hunting rifles to shoot for quite some time, maybe th erest of my life on powder, primers and bullets. I will say I shoot far more 22 for practice than I used to. But I cant see completely stopping loading.
With th ekids and I getting into trap I will be shooting more shotshells than rifle amd the cost there is driven much more by shot than powder, it’s barely in the black financially to load trap loads from what I hear, so I can see myself buying ammo in bulk down the road amd having lots of fun on the journey to being poor LOL
 
Dgd6mm said:
What's your limit Bill?
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Well, I have plenty to last for years to come, same for large/small primers but I did buy 2 lbs of Power Pistol and a pound of AA # 2, all still sealed, earlier this year at a local club trade day for $20.00 each.

Bill
 
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It killed me to part ways with $350 (delivered) for 2000 CCI BR2 primers but, what choice do I have? Air rifles are looking better every day, maybe dust off the Wrist Rocket slingshot :mad:
 
So I see threads like this, I do the math again, laugh and say to myself I guess I’ll know when I get there but it’s funny how we focus on powder. At today’s prices of $100/1,000 the primer costs 10 cents a round. At say $300/8lb jug of powder and say a 40 grain charge the powder costs 21 cents a round. You shoot 60 grains? Fine, then it’s 32 cents a round.

Now bullets on the other hand can really impact the equation but it depends on the sport you shoot. If you enjoy sending 55 grain FMJ’s down range out of your rifle, then bullets are likely relatively inexpensive. If you are strictly a hunter, none of this probably matters because you likely don’t shoot much anyway.

Should your game involve placing hand made bullets precisely on target the bullet cost suddenly surpasses gunpowder cost by a huge margin. Since the latter is my game and I am used to paying $60/100 (60 cents per round) for the best hand made bullets that money can buy, the cost of powder doesn’t phase me. The availability of powder however…

Dave.
 
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Paying the price for something you can buy is vastly different from not being able to buy something, regardless of price. I lived through the 1970's oil embargo; when you run out of gas and you're still car number 100 of 300 in the gas line, you know what it's like. Here's hoping it does'nt come to that.
 
HTSmith said:
Alliant just reached mine.
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Speaking of Alliant, a buddy of mine hasn't been able to find RL-16 at any price, for more than two years now. They come available now and then, sure, but then poof! they're gone. Prior to Covid, he occasionally picked up the big 8# jugs for under $30/lb. Nowadays, one is lucky to end up with a jug at less than $500 shipped (more than $60/lb).

A small nearby shop does occasionally have the stuff, but it's rarer than "hens' teeth" as the saying goes. Closer to $45/lb.

I figure they've got some larger contracts and are sending most of these powders elsewhere. 'Cause it sure isn't showing up regularly on shelves in America.
 
Alliant, similar to Namo products, was always something of a gift to the handloading public, and who knows if that can be permanent. I believe that Alliant is or was under ATK (cannons), under General Dynamics.

I don’t know the extent that they actually gin up these European powders themselves, but either way, it’s subject to redirection and with these companies, we compete for employee resources and material they can fulfill other contracts with.
 
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not shooting matches, i have come to entertain myself with smaller caliber cartridges. significant savings on bullets and powder, but only way i can mitigate the primer cost is by hoarding br-4's and shooting 400's. lgs has been running a 15% off sale on powder.... and that means i can occasionally get some less than $35 otd, even after paying 9% tax.

shoot small and shoot more.

ot: it all scales, i suppose. i recall 1971 i had a buddy that bought a new camaro for $2700. for years i said 'who the hell would pay almost 3 grand for a new car?"
 
The biggest issue over this side of the pond is finding components in stock. A lot of the time it's just unobtainable at any price. £120 /Federal 205M primers, Berger's £80/100, VV powder £100/kg, Lapua brass if you can find any £130/100. By all accounts Ukraine is absorbing a lot of resources and various EU powers have decided a fortnite's worth of ammunition stocks isn't sufficient:rolleyes:

Sadly I think we currently have a perfect storm of conditions causing shortages.
 
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