Several of my dealers are raising their powder price by 15%-18% this week. I was trying to get some orders in before the price hike. Finding certain one's in stock has been hard. It's common to see price hikes of a few points every January. But a 15-18% increase in mid Feb? That sucks! Tariffs??

That sucks.

Damn!!!

Do you think they are passing on a price increase or gouging?

Is Trail Boss, and H4895 gone till someone hollers again? Shopping around here in central Texas,
none to be found. Not doing the mail order game! Looking for powders for 308 Win suppressed loads.

I have not seen those two powders in several years. I have powder and primers shipped to me. Those two powders have not been available with online suppliers, for a long time.

I thought TrailBoss was discontinued officially.

Stopped by our local academy as I was picking up a howa mini action 6arc and asked about powder prices and were asking $75 for a pound of 4350!!!

Tarrifs shouldn't affect anything coming from St Mark's obviously, but most other powders are made in various European countries, correct? I don't believe increased tarrifs have been imposed there either.

I don't know and haven't really looked into it, but my understanding is that there has been an ongoing shortage of cellulose which has led to powder scarcity. I'm not sure whether cellulose is mostly imported or is a domestic product. If imported, then I suppose it may affect prices of St. Marks products as well.

IMR is made in Canada. Hodgdon H series are made in Australia. Some others are made in Belgium and Sweden. Some of the IMR and Hodgdon ball powders are made at St. Marks in FL. Not sure why the hike, but it's very odd in the middle of the month after the new year.

Hodgdon told me a couple weeks ago that Trail Boss is not discontinued and they are trying to get it back to the market soon. (Australia I think). Said was a need to produce other powders first (Ukraine perhaps) but they are planning on bringing it back it seems.

Murph

I think a lot of it is stuff lagging price increases trying to keep up with inflation.

Inflation may well be behind a lot of it, but primers that couldn't be touched for less than 12 cents a pop are now available for less than 8 cents a pop. I ordered some large pistol primers for less than a nickel each just the other day.

Don't expect any relief on powder availability or price anytime in the near future, but there is a glut of primers now and the price has dropped like a rock. Winchester is selling standard primers to the larger OEMs for $30./M