I joined this Forum 4 years ago and it's the only one I visit daily. At the time (2013) components of all kinds were hard to come by and most of us were scrambling to find them so we could continue to enjoy our hobby.

My "go to" powder had always been Bullseye, but there was none to be had in my area. A trip to F,F,F in Ohio scored me an 8 lb. jug in 2014. Not until 2016 did any ever show up locally on a shelf! In the past few weeks, I was able to pick up 13 lbs. via internet and LGS. Took 4 years, but I now have 25 lbs. of Bullseye and have not had to over pay (IMO) for it at $16.05-$19.99/lb. With ALL the powder I have bought in the past 4 years, I could probably load app. 200,000 rounds in the 4 standard calibers I load/shoot. Primers and bullets are still lacking, but right now available in all the quantities you wish to buy.

So, my question is; when is enough-enough? I still have the opportunity to buy Bullseye at $19.99/lb. and other powders just as cheap or cheaper (as low as $15.99 lb.). After scrounging these past 4 years, it's hard to walk away from it. anyone else finally become maxxed out on powder? And do you (can you) walk away from it without buying more?

I'm sitting pretty good on powder myself, especially since I found a site online that had 8 lb bottles of 2400 in stock. I still have around 7 lbs each of Accurate #9 and H110, around 4 lbs of Longshot, a couple of pounds of HP 38, Blue Dot and H4831, around 7 lbs of IMR4350 and couple other assorted powders I can't think of right offhand. Oh, and I have an 8 lb bottle of Accurate 2200 and around 4 lbs of LT-32 for 223 also. Probably have around 10k small pistol primers but only around 1500 or so of large pistol and have a few thousand small rifle primers. I'm probably lacking most in rifle bullets for my 264 Win Mag and 260 Remington as I only have 200-300 for those rifles. Pistol bullets come and go and at present I have adequate supplies of them.

Lead. Bullet casting is the next step in being manufacturer independent and cheap scrap lead is the holy grail. Very hard to find and buying it commercially is about as expensive as buying cast bullets outright.

You can never have too much scrap lead.

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Just Say No - To Social Media

The engineer in me would determine how many rounds of each caliber I shoot per year. Then I would use one of the online calculators to figure out my statistical life expectancy. With this info you can calculate how much powder you need to keep shooting at your current rate for the rest of your life. :-)

Don't forget to check local fire code and your home owners insurance. Some of the powder quantities bantered around would require a powder magazine for storage.

"enough" is that delightful place between "not enough" and "too much"....

like most of everything else.....the best anyone else can do is give you THEIR idea of 'enough'.....

good luck in solving your quandary

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Dum vivimus Vivamas

I wish I could get powder that cheap here in Houston area. I am even having trouble getting the small primers now. Limit of only 300 if they have them. I have powder but no primers now.
So when is enough? I guess that depends how much you reload as to how long that much stash would last.

I remember the time when I swung a pick axe into the dirt mound of the NYPD outdoor range and a 100lb or better chunk of lead easily came out.If I didn't have my pick I could sweep up a couple hundred pounds lying on the cement walk in front out the target stands.There was over a hundred firing points.

Mom said the house was leaning to the side where I had all the ingots stacked.

Without the lead source I buy swagged and plated commercially produced bullets without an investment in molds and pots.

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NEVER GIVE UP YOUR GUN

What philbert4 said. I am no longer in the market for powders. I'm 42 years old and at my current rate of shooting should run out of powder by the time I'm 90 or so.

Primers maybe 70. But slugs I'll likely run out of in the next 10 years so that's what I look out for mostly now. I'm always looking for a bargain on slugs and although I don't currently cast, I have begun to acquire scrap lead.

It would be really sad to encounter another shortage and find yourself with tons of powder but run out of primers. I try to match my inventory of primers to my powder.

It did force me to discover a few new things. I bought some random brands of bullets, and powder, because it was all I could find. I discovered that 700X and a 125gr LRN is wonderfully accurate in the .38 spl.

Likewise TiteWAD (note not Titegroup) in the .45 ACP with a 230gr LRN. With the tiny charge weight that pound will load 2300 rounds.

The option of casting your own is a good idea. I used to cast but gave it up due to time constraints. Now that things have settled down I've bought what I need to cast my own without paying the gouge-level pricing. Scrap may be hard to find, but I can live with buying virgin alloy if I need too. At least I'll have bullets and it won't cost me more than buying them. I'm buying lead here and there if I see it but I'm not concerned with laying in thousands of pounds.

How many rounds do you shoot per year? If you keep up this rate or even increase it some how long will the powder last? Next question is how long do you think you'll be shooting. Buy that much powder.

If the quantity that you have on hand falls short, I would buy NOW. It's not going to get cheaper and may end up being hard to find. I had a rate pretty established of rounds fired, then I got into semi auto in addition to revolvers I'm going through more ammo than I ever thought I would.

If you have leftovers when you are done with reloading, some soul will probably give a decent price on leftover stuff.

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

Experience has taught me that planning ahead always beats chasing your tail. I used to advocate a 1yr RESERVE of powder & primers. The Clinton 1 happened in the 90s. So I went to 2yr RESERVE. Then Obummer happened & it is now a 3yr RESERVE.
So how much is enough, depends on your shooting. Right now I am shooting 9-10k rds a year of pistol, maybe 1k 223 & few 100 other rifle calibers. So I need 30K rds worth of RESERVE powder & primers. Then my annual needs on top, so that would be 40K pistol worth at any given time. I add a little annually to always maintain that 30K reserve. Some day I'll slow down & shoot less, then my needs will reduce accordingly.
If you must stock anything in large amounts, it is primers. I can make coated lead bullets for all my handguns, even swage 223 from 22lr cases. I can scrounge powder from other calibers & many diff powders will work for all pistol & most rifle. Without primers though, you are not reloading anything.

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NRA Cert. Inst. IDPA CSO

As I am getting ready to retire in about a year and my gross income will drop by 54% when that happens, I asked myself that same question so that I could lay in the supplies I needed for the rest of my life and not have to fund them from my retirement income.

I made an Excel Spreadsheet for each cartridge I shoot that looked at:

• How often did I shoot?
• How many rounds did I shoot each time?
• For semi-automatics, how much of my brass was recovered?
• Did I anticipate increasing or decreasing my shooting of the cartridge in retirement?
• How many years did I anticipate shooting that cartridge (i.e. I can't see myself shooting my 50+ year old .25 ACP pistol much beyond age 70)?

This formed the basis for computing how many rounds I intended to shoot for the rest of my life. A lifetime supply is optimal in my case as my sons have no interest in the hobby.

Then I took inventory of my current supplies of:

• Brass
• Primers
• Projectiles
• Powder

Knowing the charge of powder for each projectile/cartridge combination allowed me to work out what additional components and what quantities I still need to buy.

This has allowed me to focus my buying on the things I'm actually likely to use rather than things that just caught my eye. Plus, it keeps my inventory in balance so that I'm not long on brass but short on primers. As it is, I'm now:

• 600 40 grain .223 diameter bullets,
• Two pounds of IMR-4227 or 2400 powder
• Four pounds of powder suitable for .223 Remington, and
• 1200 primers

short of having enough to last me as long as I'm likely to be shooting.

Sure, some of my estimates will turn out to be wrong and I'll need to add something here or there (perhaps trading something I have too much of to get it) but rather than spending hundreds of dollars a month, those acquisitions will be in the tens of dollars per month.

I can thank Obama and Clinton

I think I am good on all aspects. I have no urge to cast bullets as long as folks drop off 500 for $35 at my door.

It's so hot here I have no desire to sit out and melt lead an not going to mine the the berm. Plus buy the molds and other assorted accessory's. Hell they are gonna ban lead in the near future I am afraid.

As I get older I think I will just join the 22 LR plinking guys,

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Still Running Against the Wind

The other thing to consider is costs going forward. I have primers from 2005, some powders too. Cost were a lot cheaper then than now. As I get closer to retiring, I will have to spend less to shoot as I have already purchased my components with my working $$. Stored properly, the stuff never really goes bad, so no downside to having more than you think you need.

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NRA Cert. Inst. IDPA CSO

Except I shoot 45acp for less than most shoot 22lr.

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NRA Cert. Inst. IDPA CSO

I can't help you with the price of powder, but if availability of components is an issue, you might want to take a day-trip to San Antonio. I was there last week and the sporting goods stores were very well stocked; everything you could want provided you didn't want it to be cheap.

Yes, I can too based on today's prices but I have stuff in the Bargain Bunker so I am not to worried.

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Still Running Against the Wind

I want whoever goes through my guns and ammo when I'm gone to stand there, jaw on the floor, wondering, "What was he thinking?"

You buy 10# of powder, paying $5 more per pound than you would like to. That's $50. I don't want to pay more than I have to but 5-10 years from now that doesn't sound as important as being without and only able to buy what you can find at inflated prices. I just don't think that in that time the price of powder (or anything) is going to go down.

In simpler words, it's get while the gettin's good.

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

This is a VERY good point. I am planning on retiring in about 5 years or so and will not have the income then as I do now. Stocking up on supplies now will be a huge benefit later.

Funny my wife and I just had this conversation about doing things to the house now while we can afford it. Looks like shooting components will now be part of the 5 year plan.

Thanks to all for the responses. I keep my powder stored in 3 different locations, since I have accumulated so much the past 4 years. Will be working on primers next, but how should those be stored in quantity? Seems they would be more dangerous than powder. I have app. 25K assorted primers-mostly small pistol. How many cases/5,000 can you store safely? Hoping to at least have the next 3 years to work on my supplies :-)

Well, I did a quick calculation and I have enough powder to load 160,398 rounds of 4 assorted calibers. At app. 5,200/year I have enough for just over 30 years. I'll be 60 my next birthday, so I may need to double the amount I shoot per year!! LOL What a problem to have :-) Great, now I need a progressive press....

A decent supply of primers and powder should be the priority, since those things cannot normally be "fabricated" by the hobbyist. But, that said, I never encourage others to lay in 30-year supplies, or anything along those lines. Too many things change and experimenting is half the fun of reloading, IMO. I like to have a decent supply of the tried-and-true stuff, maybe what I think is sufficient for 3-4 years and then just keep rolling in new inventory and/or adjusting what I think I need as time goes by and I use items from my stores. Of course when a new caliber comes along, sometimes my "adjusting" gets shifted into high gear.

SO you need 100K primers to light all that off with!!!!!!!!!
Yes storing primers is the more hazardous issue. Leave them in original packaging. I just stack the 5K cases on a shelf, the 1k boxes go into 20mm ammo cans, lid loosely attached with dessic packs.

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NRA Cert. Inst. IDPA CSO

25lbs of powder and 150k primers in my house or garage would make me a bit nervous.Maybe build a small bunker waaay at the back of the property

I'd say that 25# of Bullseye is a lifetime supply. If the feces really hits the oscillator, you can make your own bullets, so I'd say primers would be a stockpile item for me.

I'm at a point right now where I can shoot shoot shoot without spending any money on ammo, 22LR being the exception. It is funny how you think that your supplies of powder or primers is good then all of a sudden you look at the shelf and it's not bare by any means but there are some holes for sure.

Having said that this summer I'm going to go out of my way to shoot as much as possible, I want to kick my steel scores up a notch. I worked up a new load and I think I have it right but want to shoot it one or two more times and if it's ok I'm going to load up 6K. My goal is to shoot 8K of various handgun loads this year so the 6k will give me an idea of exactly where I'm at as the season progresses.

The gas can or cleaning/paint products pose a greater fire threat. Throw in a propane canister or two & the family car w/ 20+ gals of gas. I don't worry about my primers & powder.

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NRA Cert. Inst. IDPA CSO

I was stocking on a 10K rounds/year basis.Then,retirement hit(feels more like a caress)and am now shooting between 15 and 20Krounds/year.
Needless to say my well planified shooting reserve is melting down more quickly than I had planned.At one point,I had 75# of powder and over 20K primers.
I guess it is back to chasing components again;and I like it ...a lot!
Qc

Even if you had no powder, you could adapt any shotgun shell powder to any handgun caliber. A single 12ga target load will yield 5-6 service caliber loads. You have to have primers though or you just aren't reloading. Having a modest casting setup would be next. Lee 2cav molds are cheap.

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NRA Cert. Inst. IDPA CSO

Well, when I run out it is not enough.

However there is this one pound bottle of powder that I have had
since 2005...........

All in all I am doing just Plumb Dandy.

I've still got about 2# of RedDot from about 1993? Remembered I had it when powder started to get short on 2012. Works great in 45acp & 9/40 minor loads.

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NRA Cert. Inst. IDPA CSO

200,000 rounds. Not sure what your loading for but 25 lbs. is no where close to enough powder.

Personally I have in the vicinity of 300 pounds of powders. I also keep more than 500M of primers. I have an outbuilding with 3 old refrigerators that hold the powder. I also keep primers in a wheeled plastic box 50-60M per box. Primers are dangerous..especially so when contained. Powder may not be as explosive as primers..but they accelerate a fire to large proportions in a great hurry. So I keep them pretty much out of the house. A fridge (no plug) was considered an acceptable powder magazine for up to 100 pounds of powder as the rubber gasket releases pressure readily. I keep the primers stored in a nice dry root cellar built into the side of a hill. Nobody knows it is even there. Temps are pretty stable at around 40-60 degrees year round... and being this is Wy...humidity is pretty low.

I can walk away.

A 2 year supply of components is all I need. Every year I do an inventory and bring everything back up to a 2 year supply. If I can't find it I focus my search and double my efforts until I do. I have a year before I run dry. I keep 8 lbs of powder, 10K primers, 1K brass and 5K bullets for each cartridge. Some cartridges can use the same powder and bullets. I only load for 2 rifle cartridges and 3 pistol cartridges. More would become a hassle to keep up with.

I do this because I don't want to be called a hoarder here on the internet. Also my neighbor is a hoarder and I don't want to end up like him. . One of these days I'm going to have to bug out of here.

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That's just somebody talkin.

Several years ago I set a goal to have my supplies laid up for retirement time. I knew I would be living on less income and stuff was never going to get cheaper and I didn't want to feel guilty about spending money on reloading in the "golden years" when one never knows what is going to happen. I shopped carefully, got to know some people and compared prices. It also helps being close to Powder Valley. It was hard for me to calculate how much I would need because finding time to shoot as much as I liked when I am working is difficult. I have started inventory on spread sheets so I have a good idea what I have. I am at the point where I don't even consider buying unless it is a smokin hot deal, other wise I just walk right on by.

I stopped going to gun shows, stopped buying powder and primers, stopped mining bullets from the berm. But my inventory 2 weeks ago showed 85 thousand primers, 75# plus of powder, 4 cases of 22 LR, and 20,000 rounds of center fire pistol and rifle ammo. There about 14 five gallon buckets of mined bullets in the shed.

My grandchildren will have shooting supplies. I go to the range and shoot enthusiastically. I shot an unofficial 2700 bullseye match last week and was shocked at my crummy score. Clearly I need more practice before I embarrass myself at an official match. There just isn't a need or reason to spend $25 on match fees and $20 on gasoline for a public display of such poor ability.

What is really sad is that my 50 yard groups one handed were much smaller than the 2-handed patterns shot by the shooters on either side of me at 15 yards. The good news is that I finally shot up the 1996 223 ammo last year on prairie dogs. Now it's time to start on shooting the 2014 ammo if there are any prairie dogs to shoot at.

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S&WHF 366

This thread has me evaluating my needs for retirement and one thing is clear...I need to get busy stocking up! Time to start shopping powders in 4 and 8 lb containers. 5 years will be here before I know it and I'm estimating I'll shoot more when retired.

i really need to do an inventory.
I have somewhere around 25-30 pounds of powder +/- a couple of pounds.
I have around 15 thousand primers +/- a couple of thousand.
I have around 5 thousand 9mm brass, 2 thousand 38 special, 15 hundred
357, and a thousand each of 380, 44 special, and 44 magnum.
I also have around 5 thousand rounds of factory loaded ammo - which all counts as additional pieces of reusable brass.

What I'm shortest on is bullets - probably right around 10 thousand total.
I need to take a good inventory so I know exactly what I have and what I need to stock up on the most.

Only you can decide if 25# of Bullseye is enough. You said that will load 200,000 rounds. Do you have the primers to load that many rounds? The powder is useless without primers. How many rounds do you shoot a year? I have a friend who shoots at least 200k rounds a year so he would need more powder soon. You may only shoot 2000 a year. You can figure it out if you try.

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Freedom is never free!!
SWCA #3437

Primers, primers, primers. You can make bullets, reuse brass 25x plus, many powders will work in all handgun rds, but you have to have those little fire starters. I would feel waaaay behind with less than 10k per size as my reserve.

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NRA Cert. Inst. IDPA CSO

Man you folks have some serious powder and primer reserves. I don't shoot near as much these days as in the past, still go one or two times a week though. Everytime I see a pound of powder I think, "you don't need another pound of powder", then I remember a few years ago when you couldn't beg borrow or steal a pound. Yeah, I go ahead and buy one more. Very interesting thread.

Enough powder for 36,477 rounds of the calibers/loads intended for . . . 9mm, 45Auto, 223, 6mmAR, 308, 30-06, and 338LM.

33,388 bullets though some of those are just remnants of types that didn't work well.

Primers enough for half-again as many rounds. Some of that "overkill" is due to having multiple grades of (eg) SR primers.

Over the last 5 years I've averaged ~9k rounds fired per year, ~1k of which are 12ga. So . . . around that represents a 4+ year supply of components.

No, the numbers are not exactly as shown . . . but my inventories are close enough to correct for government work.

When there's enough usage to justify an order from Powder Valley, I'll replenish . . . which probably translates to keeping a minimum inventory of ~2 years of shooting. If the political climate changes . . . or my physical condition does lol . . . I'll adjust.

Stopped by the LGS yesterday (yes, open on Sunday) and picked up 5K Small Pistol Primers @ $25/K and a lb. of CFE223 powder. Owner said they have had so many primers in stock since last December; they can't get rid of them fast enough! This place gets truck loads of components and ammo all the time and they are also a distributor-their stock room is an awesome sight to see!! :-)

I wish we could get those prices on primers, here we pay $40/k. I feel like I've been robbed! Or worse....and didn't get kissed.

I learned a painful lesson in the Clinton years, you can never have too many primers................... so I have many times over what I will ever need. My boys can figure out what to do with them when I'm dead.

Yeah more like 50k, he better buy more.

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NRA Cert. Inst. IDPA CSO

Then you need to be ordering in bulk online. Pretty easy to get right at $30/1000 delivered for cci or win.

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NRA Cert. Inst. IDPA CSO

25 lbs. of Bullseye isn't all I have, just 25% of it. TiteGroup, W231, Red Dot, 700X and CFE Pistol round out the rest of the pistol powders. Then there's the rifle powders-Varget, CFE223 and BL-C(2).

I started stocking up on bullets and bullet molds last year; now working on my primer supply....