What's the situation where you live?
- Montanapatriot
- Posts: 80
- Joined: Mon Dec 08, 2014 6:32 am
What's the situation where you live?
Here in Great Falls, MT at least, things still suck cheesy donkey balls.
Powder is never on the shelf. Same with bullets, primers and brass. Even percussion caps are at 0 level.
The reloading sections of every sporting good store look like the remnants after the Zombie Apocalypse.
Loaded ammo is plentiful in most calibers but often it's 2nd rate stuff and a lot of Euro stuff.
.22 LR is still not to be found and anything that hits the store no matter the quantity is gone in minutes.
Powder is never on the shelf. Same with bullets, primers and brass. Even percussion caps are at 0 level.
The reloading sections of every sporting good store look like the remnants after the Zombie Apocalypse.
Loaded ammo is plentiful in most calibers but often it's 2nd rate stuff and a lot of Euro stuff.
.22 LR is still not to be found and anything that hits the store no matter the quantity is gone in minutes.
Re: What's the situation where you live?
Powder, bullets, and primers are pretty easy to get in my neck of the woods, but for the most part i wait until they are in stock online and buy in bulk from places like powdervalley and midsouthshooterssupply. I order bulk amounts from places like Xtreme Bullets and Bayou bullets. I can get them much cheaper and they are always in stock, my last order from extreme got me 1000 plated 124gr RN 9mm and 1000 plated 158 RNFP's for about $120 shipped, i will only try and source bullets/powder/primers locally for my dad who needs 240 gr XTP's for his .44 mag, and powder is the only difficult one to find. centerfire ammo is plentiful from all the major players. .22 is still hard to find but not impossible.
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- 1813Anschutz
- Posts: 66
- Joined: Mon Dec 01, 2014 5:13 pm
Re: What's the situation where you live?
Not much different here in Billings Ken.... although I did score 20 lbs of Unique 2 weeks ago.....still casting my handgun bullets which I swore I would never do 30 years ago. The challenge is finding lead. Not using wheel weights anymore as there is simply too much junk.
Randy
Randy
"The more I shoot the luckier I seem to Get"
NRA Certified Instructor-Rifle, Pistol, Personal Protection Inside the Home, NRA CRO. competitor in SASS, IDPA, USPSA, NRA Smallbore rifle 3/4 p. NRA High Power Rifle Service Rifle, NRA Air Rifle
NRA Certified Instructor-Rifle, Pistol, Personal Protection Inside the Home, NRA CRO. competitor in SASS, IDPA, USPSA, NRA Smallbore rifle 3/4 p. NRA High Power Rifle Service Rifle, NRA Air Rifle
Re: What's the situation where you live?
I've been looking for HS-6 for loading the 44 magnum for quite a while with zero luck. The same for .22. Perhaps once every 4 or 5 months I will catch Walmart as they get a tiny bit of .22 ammo and it's always gone before getting put on the shelf. I was able to order plenty of 10mm but still want to pick up some Buffalo Bore more powerful stuff. The Freedom Munitions 180 grain FMJ that I picked up from Randy's widow Linda has a bit of quality control issues I've found a couple of crushed case loads in the couple of hundred rounds I've gone through. 
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The more I see of little to nothing .22 LR stuff or $80 a brick crap the more I think something is going on besides the opportunistic assholes trying to profit off the lower supply and availability. I wouldn't put it past Zero and his minions to have folks out there with lots of money just purchasing up the supply to prevent the tide of new shooters from acquiring sub caliber practice ammo to learn with.

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The more I see of little to nothing .22 LR stuff or $80 a brick crap the more I think something is going on besides the opportunistic assholes trying to profit off the lower supply and availability. I wouldn't put it past Zero and his minions to have folks out there with lots of money just purchasing up the supply to prevent the tide of new shooters from acquiring sub caliber practice ammo to learn with.
Re: What's the situation where you live?
In my area, we can find pretty much what we need and want to load rifles. Primers came back first and then a good display of Hogdon Powders.
Pistol Powder is still very hit and mostly miss. I lucked into finding some old standby powders for many shooters at a Bass Pro shop. Bullseye and Red Dot. I had just read several threads about using each of those for pistols. There wasn't a lot of middle ground. Seemed like people either hate them or swear by them. I had never used either so I bought a pound of each and at this point I've only used Bullseye. It seems to do the job fine for me.
22LR bullets are very rare. I stopped by a local Wal Mart last week to buy a 25' water hose. There didn't have that size and I thought I'd wander back to Sporting Goods to try my luck. It was a deserted area so I knew they didn't have 22's. Finally an employee walked behind the counter and I asked about 22's and she said they received 1 case of the Winchester 555 bricks. She said they had a limit of 1 per customer since the only got in 1 case. I made a show of looking around for the crowd and another employee standing there said "see, today is your lucky day. You get the 1st one". Then the cashier said that I was getting the 2nd one because a night time associate bought one after they got off work earlier.
Ask every time you go in because that is the 2nd time I have lucked up on .22LRs when sporting goods looked deserted. The 1st time they had 10 of the Remington 1440 bullet buckets. Some people saw me buying 1 as they wandered through and Wal Mart only had 3 left by the time I paid for my 1.
Pistol Powder is still very hit and mostly miss. I lucked into finding some old standby powders for many shooters at a Bass Pro shop. Bullseye and Red Dot. I had just read several threads about using each of those for pistols. There wasn't a lot of middle ground. Seemed like people either hate them or swear by them. I had never used either so I bought a pound of each and at this point I've only used Bullseye. It seems to do the job fine for me.
22LR bullets are very rare. I stopped by a local Wal Mart last week to buy a 25' water hose. There didn't have that size and I thought I'd wander back to Sporting Goods to try my luck. It was a deserted area so I knew they didn't have 22's. Finally an employee walked behind the counter and I asked about 22's and she said they received 1 case of the Winchester 555 bricks. She said they had a limit of 1 per customer since the only got in 1 case. I made a show of looking around for the crowd and another employee standing there said "see, today is your lucky day. You get the 1st one". Then the cashier said that I was getting the 2nd one because a night time associate bought one after they got off work earlier.
Ask every time you go in because that is the 2nd time I have lucked up on .22LRs when sporting goods looked deserted. The 1st time they had 10 of the Remington 1440 bullet buckets. Some people saw me buying 1 as they wandered through and Wal Mart only had 3 left by the time I paid for my 1.
Re: What's the situation where you live?
Central Ohio Primers are pretty much everywhere and can be had for $30 - $40 depending on the outfitter. Powder is spotty and you can't be picky for pistol powders. No 22's. Haven't seen most shotgun powders for a while. Fin Feather Fur Outfitters says Clays powder won't be back until late summer due to a plant fire two years ago. Vance's has all but stopped selling powder, but is well stocked with primers for $40/1000
NRA Life Member.
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4-H youth firearm instructor.
Re: What's the situation where you live?
Central Oklahoma is doing a whole lot better in the area of powder and primers. I buy all my brass and lead out of state. This time a year ago it was like pulling hens teeth to find any of that stuff. But I've no real complaint right now. Sure would like to find some CFE Pistol around here though. Haven't found anyone who's even seen it in person!
Chris
As a regular course of procedure, I carry a pistol because a cop is too heavy!
As a regular course of procedure, I carry a pistol because a cop is too heavy!
Re: What's the situation where you live?
I spoke with one of the Walmart sporting goods workers the other day and he said their lack of .22 LR ammo "rumor" from above was because Obama closed down the lead foundries so the producers can't come up with enough bullets to fill their orders. Any one else heard this?
Re: What's the situation where you live?
Actually, that's just a rumor. The lead purchased in America for reloading has been being purchased from "secondary" lead producers (recycled lead from things like automobile batteries) and other countries like Japan for about the past 10 years because of the Clean Air Act restrictions on our lead smelting plants. If you want to blame someone, blame the damned "tree hugger" groups.
Chris
As a regular course of procedure, I carry a pistol because a cop is too heavy!
As a regular course of procedure, I carry a pistol because a cop is too heavy!
Re: What's the situation where you live?
South Fl
I can pay $18 for crap 9mm, or I can get Fiochhi for $11.50 delivered. I sold my 22s because I had too many misfires, and ammo was $$$.
I can pay $18 for crap 9mm, or I can get Fiochhi for $11.50 delivered. I sold my 22s because I had too many misfires, and ammo was $$$.
Re: What's the situation where you live?
ridurall wrote:I spoke with one of the Walmart sporting goods workers the other day and he said their lack of .22 LR ammo "rumor" from above was because Obama closed down the lead foundries so the producers can't come up with enough bullets to fill their orders. Any one else heard this?
when the last smelting plant was closed down, it really only effected the battey market as they were the largest consumers of the virgin lead.
most of the lead used in ammunition comes from secondary sources or is from recycled lead. I just got roughly 400-500lbs of lead cast in to 25, 8, and 5 lb ingots for free, so i may just need to get into casting my own bullets after all.
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Re: What's the situation where you live?
Finding all kinds of overseas ammo at decent prices, but .22 is goners. Haven't seen it in awhile. Now practice shooting is relegated to shotguns and .38s! Oh yeah, Arizona Border...
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S&W 686 4in. stainless
Re: What's the situation where you live?
ramjet wrote:Finding all kinds of overseas ammo at decent prices, but .22 is goners. Haven't seen it in awhile. Now practice shooting is relegated to shotguns and .38s! Oh yeah, Arizona Border...
I gave up and sold my 22 (crap ammo, scarce, and high prices). I concentrate on 9MMs now
Re: What's the situation where you live?
Just came across Blazer Brass 45 ACP for $12.50 a box. This beats the cost of components if I have to buy used brass for my handloads.
NRA Life Member.
4-H youth firearm instructor.
4-H youth firearm instructor.
Re: What's the situation where you live?
Yesterday evening I was able to pick up 3 boxes of 325 count Federal .22 LR at Walmart. The Cost was $18 a box that comes to 5 1/2 cents a round. It's not as good as 4 cents but I can live with it.
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