Sorry, not a true reloading ask or tell.
So I’ve been a member on this forum for a long time. I sometimes drop out for a couple of years when life gets busy and drop back in when i can catch my breath.

I shoot a lot of what some would call weird calibers (6.5x47 Lapua, 6XC, 243AI, 7MM LRM, 7MM-08AI, .338 Edge) and a few of what would be normal calibers (.223, 300RUM, .280) so I have to reload for my rifles. I even bought another rifle today to start a new semi-custom build.

When I buy or build a rifle i start with load development. Once that’s done i buy a few hundred rounds of brass, 1K primers and enough bullets and powder to reload everything until the barrel is shot out. So I end buying a lot of everything all at once.

Well, Since I have gotten down to my last eight pound of Varget and three and half pounds of Benchmark i figured I should star looking to restock.

HOLY CR#P!!!!!
THIS STUFF IS EXPENSIVE!!!!

My last 8# of Varget was around $180. My local shop is asking over $500 now.
I used to spend around $27 a pound for Benchmark. The want $65 today.
Thankfully I still have plenty of H1000, H4350 and H4831SC.

Bullets are just as bad. I was going to order some Berger 300 gr., .338 VLD Elite Hunters and those things are over $1.25 each now!
I’m afraid to look at the price of brass.

I guess I saved some money over the last two or three years so I maybe I need to get a part time job now or maybe even a new hobby.

Lots of things have doubled or more in cost, real estate, groceries etc.

Thank Biden, assisted by Congress for build back and build back better looting of the economy. He printed so much money that the value of the dollar tanked. Thus inflation that increases the cost of living. This is Economics 101.

You must have bought powder back in the 90's at $180 per 8 lb. But retail pricing on Varget at $500 is ridiculous. You can order it online for a lot less than that. But, yes, ammo has more than doubled in cost in the last few years.

This is Bidenomics for you.

A Bartlein barrel blank used to be $350, now it is $430.

I started reloading right around 2014-15. Since I started with 308, I asked the internet what is the be-all-end-all powder and the answer came back Varget. Bought my first pound and 100 cci 200 primers at a local store for almost $40 with tax. i think the primers where like $3.50 + tax. it did so well i got my first 8lb jug at the first free hazmat sale i saw. I believe it was about $240 in 2015, so basically $30/lb including tax and shipping.

The first time I ever bought my own components instead of mooching off my uncle, I bought a can of Unique, a sleeve of CCI primers and a box of Speer bullets. I think I spent around $10 and it seems like it was 1980-ish. The other side of the coin is the fact that I was working for about $6.50 an hour in those days.

One thing for certain, I've always been aghast at the price of powder. Just when I get used to a price they jack it up some more. I have finally reached the point that I won't ever have to buy any more---unless I just want to try something new. I WON'T try something new, though because I know it will work better than what I've stocked up and I'll think I need about 20 pounds of it.

Yeah, I priced an 8 lb jug of N570, the other day. I’m getting back into the reloading game after being out of it for several years. I couldn’t recall prices of powder, but the quote sure shocked me.

I have 11 pounds of N570 that I would sell if you are interested

I track all the prices year round for components - well, my bots do. For the ones mentioned here, The lowest cost I show tracked last month, with availability of 7 days or greater at that price, and for 8 lbs:

Varget - $391
Benchmark - $357
H1000 - $391
H4350 - $358
H4831SC - $365
N570 - $395

Similar pricing throughout the year. Should give you an idea for pricing moving forward.

Blame it all on the 6.5 Creedmoor

Ramshot and Accurate powders are not as bad. I use TAC a lot for 223/308/350 REM MAG. Not as temp stable as Varget but better than most ball powder. Works great in shorter barrels. Burn rate similar to IMR 8208.

Nope.

Blame on a whole lot of people shoot Magnums. The number one cartridge I have performed load development for is .300 Win Mag. They eat over 70 gr of powder per shot.

Creedmoors and .308 Win type cartridges eat 38 to 45 gr of powder per shot.

I bought 4 one lb bottles of Varget for $28 each and 3 bottles of benchmark and I still haven’t used a full bottle of either. It seems I always find something I like better or something that groups better. I am just not as sold on Varget as a lot of people are. I load about 20 different calibers for my Son, SIL and grandsons. Right now I probably have 50 to 60 lbs of different powders and around 50,000 assorted primers.

Having loaded for 300 H&H, 257 WM, 7 RM, large powder capacity is the reason I don't shoot them anymore.

Just a guess, but I'd bet there are 20 6.5CM's sold for every 300 Win Mag.

That is probably correct.

And the vast majority of people buying those rifles are also buying boxes or cases of ammo to go with them. They are not buying smokeless powder. A main reason the cartridge has been so successful. Good ammo, off the shelf.

Save powder shoot a 22 CM!!

I'm going to be the rebel here and say that there aren't enough handloaders in the world, no matter what they are loading for, to make any meaningful difference in smokeless powder prices. We aren't that important in the market.

Don't you think that huge ammunition manufacturers also use the same powders that hand loaders use?

They certainly use the same primers. That is why ammunition was still available through Biden. But Large Rifle Primers were not available, until September 2023.

Powder prices on the shelf makes me absolutely sick..
Primers aren’t terrible..

Bullets thou have really increased and are hard to come by (the ones I wanna shoot)

It has always been a rich guys game, just now it’s getting to be seriously rich guys game..

Shopping carefully and using the bots some of these guys have created will help save you some coin.

Yeah but nope..



I don’t have to buy powder, brass, primers or powder very often. When I get/buy/build a new rifle I honestly buy enough components to shoot the barrel out.
After all who wants to do another round of load development just because the lot number changes on something.

Maybe I get better pricing because when I buy powder, bullets and brass I buy enough to load a couple of thousand rounds.

And this still doesn’t matter. Pricing for this stuff has become stupid expensive!!

Hey Henry,
Where did you see that 4831SC at?
(Not asking for a friend)

I wish I only dropping 70 grains of H1000. My .338 edge is eating over 90 grains per shot.
Heck, my 7mm LRM is chewing up up almost 71 gr.

Thank god I gave up on my 300 RUM.

I said "over 70 gr"

86.5 gr in my .300 Normal Mag
93.0 gr in our .338 Lapua Mag