I can buy powder and primers whenever I want, if I go one of my local dealers and pay full price (approx. $31-$33 for primers and $23-$26 for powder). It's finding the stuff in stock at the gun shows where the stuff sells for much less ($21.95 for primers and $19.95 for powder) that gets tough. Gee, I wonder why?
A word on what is being called "hoarding" of reloading supplies. I've been reloading for 34 years and know many, many reloaders. Up until recently, the reloaders I know would have a pound of this powder and pound of that, 3 or 4 100 packs of primers and couple of boxes of bullets of various weights and style.
When I was heavy into Cowboy Shooting in the early and mid '90s, I was going through Hercules Unique like crazy, I used in all my cowboy calibers. Then the Hercules factory blew up resulting in a serious shortage. Unique shooters were scurring around because most only had about 1 1/2 pounds of the stuff. After that (when the factory was rebuilt), I always had 5 or 6 pounds of Unique in storage.
Much of what is happening now is folks are stocking up (as opposed to hoarding). They have discovered that prices always go up and almost never go down, powder is much cheaper in 8 lbs. canisters, bullets are cheaper in bulk (by the 1,000 or more) and that relative to the total cost of reloading, primers are cheap in 5,000 or 10,000 flats. Finally, they figured out that, if stored correctly, the stuff keeps almost forever.
Finally, when the California legislature passes the 10 cent per round tax on loaded ammo and the same on a loose primer (they want to catch the reloaders, too), we'll really be saving some $$$$.
