I have talked with many local gun stores and reloading stores recently looking for Alliant 2400 powder. They all tell me it has all but vanished from the marketplace. What's up with that?
I have found the powder on auction sites, but I am not going to pay scalper prices. I have several brands of powder to use at home, but I really like 2400 for my .41 Mag.

I found some at my local Scheels a couple of weeks ago. That was after 2 years of being on the look out.

Saw a container of 2400 at Fin Feather Fur Berea about a month ago,it was immediately in my hand.

I haven't found ANY handgun powders in the last three years, wish the panic buying and hoarding would ease up.

What's up with it? It works! Good magnum handgun powder, small rifle powder, cast bullet rifle use too. It's pretty popular so if any shows up, it's soon gone...

I just bought a 8lb Jug of H110,Works for me in Handgun Magnum Rounds.

If you can find some (yeah big IF) N105 and N110 are good magnum powders
BUT you will have to work up new loads from scratch.
I am currently investigating N105 in the 44 Special for medium/top loads.
It's slightly faster and cleaner than 2400.

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Nemo

H110 is a reasonable substitute for 2400. Fortunately, I have 4 pounds of 2400 (from back when Hercules made it), used mainly for .30 Carbine. 4227 is also a reasonable substitute for 2400, and I have a few pounds of that also.

I don't shoot nearly as much Magnum Ammo as I used to.Now it's mainly .44spl,.45LC and .45ACP all of which I use Unique for.I have been lucky to get Unique locally for $20/lb.

2400 is like most of the other popular pistol powders and 22LR. Hard to find and when a little bit shows up on the shelves it is usually grabbed up pretty quickly.

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Can my S&W Mdl 10 shoot +P

Where in Texas are you?

Pigeon Road outside Stephenville had some 2400 last week.

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USAF, 69-92
Vietnam, 72-73

That's a cool place. The old man was hilarious. I was in there last summer and found some Trail Boss and RX15 that I had been looking for. If you're in that neck of the woods the lgs in gatesville usually has a good selection. I picked up 8lbs of LilGun and some more TB in there about a month ago.

The owner of my LGS says that any most Alliant powders are non-existent at his wholesaler. Gonna be a shame when in 15 years, all that powder being hoarded, starts to go bad......

Except powders stored properly will last decades.

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NRA Cert. Inst. IDPA CSO

What Fredj338 said. I've loaded powder way older than 15 years. A nice dry place in my house is right under the bed.
George

Yup, I have used several different brands of 30+ year old powders that I found in my Dad's shed after he passed a coupla years ago. All works great. Some old primers I found with it too, they all worked just fine also.

I recently broke into a 4# jug of RedDot that I bought back in 1995. Tried it in some 40 minor loads, single digit SD, 1" 50ft groups in my xdm 5.25. So 20yr old powder, still going strong.

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NRA Cert. Inst. IDPA CSO

How are shortages made? Need a pound, buy eight pounds, just in case it isn't on the shelf next time. Mea culpa.

In today's climate, I disagree. The days of buying 1k primers & a # of powder are pretty much over. Best to wrap your head around that if you want to keep shooting. I buy stuff when a good price presents itself, whether I need it at the moment or not. It's not like it goes bad. If you don't have a 2-3yr supply for your shooting, don't whine when you can't find your # of powder.

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NRA Cert. Inst. IDPA CSO

My stockpile of powder, primers and 22 LR ammo is the result of knowledge. I learned my lesson when Clinton was elected. The day after O's first win in November '08 I stocked up on primers, two weeks later I bought powder. I haven't experienced any shortages.

My 22 LR was bought 10 years ago during divorce proceedings. My ex-wife worked at Wal Mart, and I made good use of my spousal 10% discount on 2004 and 2005 ammo prices.

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S&WHF 366

I am also one of those people that if I see a good price on something I buy it, even if I don't need it at the time. I currently have about five different types of handgun power on hand. I have four pounds of 4227 that I yet to use.
The intent of this question was to try and determine if Alliant was having problems with production or if the lack of 2400 is due to hoarding.

I have reloaded everything from shotguns, rifles, handguns and even the 7.62x54R for my Mosin-Nagant. I really like the 2400, but I can't find it anywhere.

Given any reasonable storage, it will last a lot longer than that. I am still using powders from the 1960s.

Same here in central Pa. Most other powders yes but not 2400.

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Stay safe people!

Thanks for the tip!

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USAF, 69-92
Vietnam, 72-73

Dad still shoots powder from DuPont. l sell the empty cans on ebay for more than when they were full !

I found a pound of 2400 at a gun show last October. At the same show I also bought some pounds of Accurate #9. Good powder! I've been burning the #9, saving the 2400 but have to say I will not feel bad if all I come across is #9. I would also like to try #7 for lighter loads.

I just use #9 and #7. Haven't used 2400 in a number of years.

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NRA Life Endowment

Interesting thing just happened. I learned a gun store/range about 2 1/2 hours from my house just received 100 one pound cans of 2400.
Now I have to decide if I want to drive 2 1/2 hours each way [5 hours total] for powder I can't find anywhere else. The dealer was not interested in shipping any of the powder.

Between now and the time you get there, 3 or 4 guys will have come in and cleaned the place out, so they have some to shoot in 20 years.....

My local powder store usually sets a limit on individual purchases like 4 1lb's or 1 8lb when they
have limited supply to try and spread the love around to more of us.
They still get cleaned out when word gets out due to the number of customers they have.
At least they are close enough for me to drive to well within an hour.
That's a lot cheaper than paying stupid hazmat fees.
(And there is a restaurant we really like up there).

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Nemo

I have been blessed through this entire mess. Picked up cases of primers, CCI, for $26/1000 when people couldnt find anything. I was helping others with powder and found 8lb jugs of varget, 231 and lots of H335, titegroup, and more 2400 than I can use. I havent used 2400 in the past but I wanted to start. Cant count how many times I passed on 2400 at a local pawn shop. Now I just need to find time to work up some 357 loads with the 2400 I have. This is from two different sources but both had one thing in common, they kept ordering and eventually things catch up and they had ample supplies on hand.

IMHO, if you have enough on hand for at least five years of the most active shooting you imagine you would do, then you're pretty much set, but maintain the five year cushion.

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The triple smoker

I am 67 years old.
I may not be here in five years, much less still able to shoot.

My wife does consulting work for hospitals during the week. This requires her to travel. Next week she is working in a town not far from the range that has the 2400 powder. She said she would pick up a few pounds for me on Monday.

This is what Neumann was talking about; Need 1 lb. of powder, buy eight lbs.. Need 1k primers? Buy 5 thousand. "Me, me, me! I want mine!!!"

Bob, try Triple Creek Rod & Gun near Landisburg (on PA850 just east of town). I stumbled upon it earlier this week and found quite a few powders that "nobody" has. He even has 22LR ammo including CCI MiniMags and says he was only out of 22s for a week on two occasions since the "shortage" began.

Ed

Went to the gun show in Berea Ohio today. After the show,stopped in at Fin Feather Fur about a mile away. Powder shelves stocked full,the way it was before the 'frenzy'. All varieties of IMR rifle powders in both 1 & 8 lbs. Surprised by the availability of IMR4227 as that's a decent magnum handgun powder. Alliant powder shelves were full. There were 6 one pounders and 4 eight pounders of 2400. Assume there was a lot more in stock as they couldn't fit anymore on the shelves. Grabbed a pounder of 2400 as I did about a month ago. If this secondary FFF store is so well stocked,I can imagine the stores in Canton,Boardman,and their big main store in Ashland have stock too.

They seem to always have a lot of powder.
They are also the ones that charge a lot on Gunbroker.
They go by honker something.
Have never understood how they get so much, and out west is dry.

why do you think/suspect that Fin Feather Fur is selling on gunbroker by 'honker something' ?

Funny. I just started reloading about three years ago and I'm already up to 87 lbs of various powders. All without paying ripoff prices. Just today, I picked up two 8 lb jugs of Titegroup and 15,000 Federal SPP from my LGS. $280 for the TG and $450 for the primers. Love my LGS. They are able to get powder and primers in on a consistent basis.

What's your problem with that? If you can afford it and want it, buy as much as you want. I can and I do.

Funny how most gun owners are very pro-capitalism until there is a shortage of something that THEY want. Then they turn into freaking socialists and insist that everyone share.

I don't THINK, I KNOW.
I have bought from them, and Its right in the instructions if you read. They are slowing down, but at one time or another they have had all the pistols powders up there.
I Have plenty of powder, so I don't really care anymore. Some on this site are aggravated at what are considered gouger prices. I am just saying that this is one of those companies. The powder I bought averaged 38.00lb, but I needed it, and paid it.
In stead of calling me out on the forum, all you had to do was go to Gunbroker, and look.
They have sold literally tons of powder on GB..Not figuratively. Literally..
Here is one
Alliant Promo 8 Lbs : Reloading Supplies at GunBroker.com

Here are all their auctions..you can decide
http://www.gunbroker.com/Reloading-S...=1230088&Tab=2

I wasn't 'calling you out',I was just asking. How else can I get the info without asking. Thank you for the 2 links.

I haven't experienced difficulties with powder availability but I don't shop where thousands - and that's a literal term, as I'll explain - of other shooters do. I shop at three local shops that have been in business a long time - 40+ years - and are not locked into a buying contract with any one wholesaler like Bass Pro Shop and Cabela's are. The shop where I buy the most has been in business 46 years but is only open two hours each weekday evening and two more on Saturday mornings. He buys from 17 distributors all over the country and always has what "no one" has.

Shyda's in Lebanon, PA is a large, popular shop but last summer, someone told me he was on a waiting list there for something with 2,600 other people! My reply was to ask him why he would shop where that many others are seeking the same thing. Small shops hereabouts have had everything but Clays powder and 22LR ammo all along and I found a rural shop last week that had a new shipment of Clays on the shelf and the owner claims he was only out of 22s for a total of two weeks!

You're likely thinking Ed's gone 'round the bend - why would small shops have inventory when the big ones don't? Well, let's do some thinking and role playing. Pretend you're a distributor and have orders on hand from numerous dealers. These days, turning operating capital over quickly is important so who would you ship to first, the dealers who pay on delivery or the ones to whom you extend payment terms? If you are a manufacturer, would you ship to distributors who pay right away or ones to whom you extend terms as long as six months?

Keep your eyes and ears open and do some asking around at the gun clubs to which you belong (you do belong to at least one, right?). You'll stumble upon gun shops by accident and the old guys at the club will know where gun shops are that you didn't know existed. Here are some examples of ones I found entirely by accident.

While sitting in traffic last summer, I noticed the name of a gun shop I had never heard of on the back window of an SUV in front of me. I called the telephone number for it and learned where it was - four miles away and I've lived in this area all of my 68 years! I'm a big Remington Model 700 fan and own over two dozen of them but had been thinking that I'd like to try a Savage and liked the Model 12BVSS. I had also been thinking that my next rife should be in 6.5-284 Norma. When I stopped in at that shop a few months later, there on the rack was a new 12BVSS in that very caliber. As Savage's catalog will reflect, that is not a regular production caliber for that model and that rifle was part of a special-run order from a distributor something like three years prior and had been sitting on that rack for that long. I bought that brand new limited production rifle that had an MSRP of $1,300 for $750.

That shop I found last week is out in the country - blink as you drive by and you'll miss it - but he has powder and 22s. He even has the discontinued IMR SR powders and wasn't aware that they are no longer made.

Small shops don't advertise and a lot of them don't even have a sign out front. I bought a new S&W E-Series 1911Sc being sold on GunBroker by a shop located in the rear of a family-owned pharmacy in the middle of a center-city residential area in Lancaster, PA. They have no signs outside or inside because they are in a school zone and there is an ordinance prohibiting the display of firearms or anything related to them in that area but mine was the 11th gun to leave that shop that day! They have hundreds of new S&Ws on hand.

The stuff we crave is out there - you just have to look for it.

Ed

Good God, $85 for a pound of H322, or $280 for an 8 pound jug of Promo (w/ hazmat and delivery...)!!! They can certainly keep that powder.

Anyone know how much they charge in the store?

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NRA Life Member

Saturday,picked up a pounder of 2400 at the Middleburg Heights FFF store for 22.99 + Tx.

here's their current flyer
https://www.finfeatherfur.com/wp-con...ishing_Web.pdf

their 4 stores are always busy with firearm,ammo,& reloading sales. Very popular up here in NE Ohio as the place to go for availability and pricing.
They currently don't have a normal website sales set up,but supposedly they're working on that.

check out this thread
Ohio Folks are lucky!

I just looked at the Powder Valley website and they are out of most all powders. New policy to not accept backorders on powders, so the crunch is still going. I see one of the posters above was playing with VV N105 in 44 Special. Think I will try that in mine. I did pick up some VV N110 a couple of months ago and started a few loads in the 44 mag. I shot a lot of centerfire bench rest in the 90's and the VV powders became the rage due to clean burns and very low SD. I have developed loads for all the centerfire hunting rifles with the VV powders and do not have a problem paying a little more for them because they bring a smile to my face when I look at how close all the bullet holes are on any paper I shoot. The N110 is suppose to be in the range of you 2400 and looks fine to me for my very limited loads in the 44 mag. Powder Valley does have N105 in stock this morning. the following was captured from their web page:
VIHTAVUORI N105 - 1 LB. Yes $32.10

I see it diff. The 1# guy also never has spare food in his pantry or a full tank of gas. It's just being prepared. You are right, I don't give a krap about the part time shooter that plans 1# & 1k primers ahead. He doesn't care if he shoots next month or next Xmas. I shoot weekly, if I want to maintaine that, I need to have a min of a yr in reserve. So I am always buying stuff. You & others may of course continue wishing for the old days.
Every time I hear someone use the term hoarding, I just hear whining because they have been a little slow wrapping their head around the new paradigm in our sport/hobby. Hoarding & stocking for the future, totally diff. If you are buying anything you don't plan on using, you are hoarding.

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NRA Cert. Inst. IDPA CSO

They are not hoarders. That extreme accuracy competition taught me that a huge variance in different lots of the same powder can and does exist. If you get an accurate load worked up in your gun, you need the same lot of powder - that's the reason you buy in 8 pound jugs, not 1 pounders. This variance is hard to see in shooting pistols, but its there in some powders. Powders, bullets and primers will always hold value when traded among people you know. I understand not wanting to purchase an open container, part used of powder from a stranger, but among my shooting buddies, no problem he wants to part with a partial 8 lb jug of some powder he will not shoot, or wants to trade me for some of my less desirables. That would be an answer to the OP wanting 2400, I trade you some of my stock of 2400 for something I am shooting a lot of now and you have that powder. For real shooters and reloaders, there should not be a shortage on their end. I decide that this N110 is shooting a lot smaller groups in my stuff that the 2400 and my buddy says he is getting a lot smaller group with the 2400 than that jug of N110, we just swap, and everyone is happy.

"The N110 is suppose to be in the range of you 2400"

N110 is slightly faster than H110/W296
N105 is slightly faster than 2400

The VV website is not exactly on the same scale as Hodgdon
(no N105 44 special data) but you can get a good idea how the
powders perform by reading the whole thing.

I usually work up even the special loads in my Redhawk on the theory that it
will take more potential abuse than my prized Smiths.
This is for loads with no previous data.
I do model in QuickLOAD and then step back a little.
QuickLOAD admits in the fine print it is less accurate as pressure goes down especially in cylindrical brass.
I end up fine tuning some of the parameters once I get chrono data.
My limit in the 7.5" in is 1000 fps and around 800 fps in the 4" Special revolver.
Most of mine are actually 3".

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Nemo

Personally I think you are just justifying your greediness. I surely know what "preparation" is. I lived in L.A. most of my life and was a Community Response Team Member for several years (trained by F.D and P.D for earthquake preparedness.) I keep two weeks supply of food and 12 bottles of water, (16 oz.) per person per day, and several gallons of "washing" water at home, and roughly the same amount of MREs and water on my sailboat. Plus a generator, spare fuel, and 3 "bug out" bags in my vehicles and at home. I know how to take care of "what if"...

When I was in a store that had powder or .22 rimfire, I'd buy one pound or one brick at a time. I now have at least 3 pounds of each powder I use for each caliber I have. I have more lead on hand than I can cast up in 3 years, and I never bought more than 50 lbs. at a time, and enough rimfire ammo to last until the second coming.

Never called anyone a "hoarder", just a panicky, greedy buyer, big difference...