Are you a powder HOARDER? Am I? Is your buddy?

I have a selection of 37 different types of powder. As little as 4 oz of some.................as much as 10 lb of others. One bottle of my powder is over 35 years old (still gets used occasionally for one of my specialty loads).
Call me a hoarder if you want to, but I'm loading for 16 different cartridges as well as 12, 16, & 20 ga shotguns and as far as I'm concerned, need the large selection of powder.
 
I wouldn't consider myself a hoarder I shoot alot of different calibers and always buy enough powder for at least a year everytime I develop a load I like. so I have somewhere in the 50-60 lb range. mostly VV powders
 
Around 20lb. Enough for my needs for a couple years anyway.

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Auggie D
 
The question is, would you rather have more powder on hand than you will use in a year or so, or would you rather run out, and have to go around trying to scrounge up some more. I warned several people to stock up over a year ago, and the people that didn't take my advice have run low or completely out, and some have been begging me to sell them some of my powder. If I no longer use a certain powder, I trade it or sell it, but I won't run myself low, because someone else didn't plan ahead.
 
I generally like to have 3 lbs of powder for each cartridge I shoot.I used to buy a new one before reloading and cycle the stock forward but when things started to look bleak I picked up some extras of the stuff I use a lot. I don't consider that hoarding so much as Preemptive shopping.
I did sell off my 45-70 as I never got around to buying the powder and dies to work up a load for it
 
I'm a newbie hoarder, just getting started!
Just bought 8lbs 4277 5lbs titegroup couple of lbs this and that.

Anyone want a lb of Superperformance?
 
When the shortages started in the US I stocked up on powder, primers, and 22lr ammo. I didn't buy out stores entire inventory but I made sure I had enough for my average usage for a couple years. Have picked it up here and there as I've found it locally since then.
Have a 2-3 year supply of each powder I use. For some that's 2lbs, for other's that's 10lbs+; depends on the powder. Only one I'm short on is Alliant BlueDot but I swapped out for Hodgdon Longshot because of the issues with Alliant availability.
Have a 3-4ish (maybe?) supply of primers. I was a little late stocking up on primers so I had to switch a bunch of my loads to Winchester from CCI. Have since switched back to CCI for most loads.
Had a 2-3 year supply of 22lr based on my usage when I had friends coming out all the time. Most of my friends lost interested so as a personal supply it'll last me probably 7-8 years at my current usage. If my friends regain interest it'll get used up a lot quicker and I'll try to replenish it as it goes down.

It's not too hard for to stock up for my own use since I don't really shoot high volume. When you include waiting for the barrel to cool I will often only shoot 20-30rnds/hour.
 
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I have only been reloading for maybe a year or so, haven't had a chance to hoard. Currently have about 16lbs of various rifle/pistol powder. I only shoot a few times a month so having 3-4lbs of each powder I need seems last me for awhile. I'll usually buy more when I have less than 2lbs of a powder, or when I see some for sale I'll pick up a pound or two, especially pistol powder. Rifle powder I find is actually fairly easy to find.

Being a hoarder all depends on how much/what you shoot. If you're shooting a few thousand rounds every month you're going to use a fair bit of powder. So having enough powder to sustain that for a year or so I wouldn't say is hoarding, or if you're shooting rifle cartridges that take like 90grains each, then a pound won't last long. What I would call hoarding is the people who will buy a store out of powder yet they actually go shooting only a few times a year. So if you have powder that's going to take you 20 years before you actually come close to using it all, yet you buy every lb that you can see, I would call you a hoarder and that kinda ticks me off. That's why I honestly agree with some places limiting powder quantities to a few lbs per person.
 
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The line between hoarder and someone with foresight can be very blurry at times. There are lots of people that have 20, 30, even 50 years worth of powder stockpiled because they bought it really cheap and are trying to save money in the long run. There are people who have 40lbs kegs of powder they don't even use anymore because they bought it when it was cheap and thought they would use it. I'm hard pressed to call those people hoarders because, generally, they bought when supply was in surplus.

Some people say anyone with more than a 6-month supply is a hoarder. Others say more than 1 year, or more than 2 years, there is no definition; it's all just purely opinion.

Some people get into a panic and buy out of fear/anxiety that they won't be able to get more in the future. People who usually buy 1-2lbs a year buy 10lbs when they see it available because they're worried about their own supply.

I've only seen one example of what I'd truly call a hoarder. A guy in LeBarons tried to buy everything they had in stock, even powders he had never used before. He even tried to buy all their Pyrodex even though he didn't seem to know what it was even for. The manager refused to sell it to him and they implemented a 2lbs/customer rule after that.

A shortage can be caused by a small, sustained spike in sales in a fairly stable market. It doesn't require people to hugely increase their average purchases. If every Canadian took out $200 cash from their account over a week we would have a serious cash shortage; this was brought up during Y2K preparations 16 years ago. It's a perfectly reasonable amount of money but if enough people do it, it'll cause a shortage. I'm sure there are the guys out there clearing entire shelves and spending thousands of dollars more than normal buying ammo and reloading supplies but they've always been there on occasion. Regular consumers stocking up a little more than normal, in enough numbers, can cause shortages. Those shortages cause fear/anxiety in others who do the same and the cycle continues.

This isn't a conspiracy theory; it's basic economics.
 
LUTNIT said:
The line between hoarder and someone with foresight can be very blurry at times. There are lots of people that have 20, 30, even 50 years worth of powder stockpiled because they bought it really cheap and are trying to save money in the long run. There are people who have 40lbs kegs of powder they don't even use anymore because they bought it when it was cheap and thought they would use it. I'm hard pressed to call those people hoarders because, generally, they bought when supply was in surplus.

Some people say anyone with more than a 6-month supply is a hoarder. Others say more than 1 year, or more than 2 years, there is no definition; it's all just purely opinion.

Some people get into a panic and buy out of fear/anxiety that they won't be able to get more in the future. People who usually buy 1-2lbs a year buy 10lbs when they see it available because they're worried about their own supply.

I've only seen one example of what I'd truly call a hoarder. A guy in LeBarons tried to buy everything they had in stock, even powders he had never used before. He even tried to buy all their Pyrodex even though he didn't seem to know what it was even for. The manager refused to sell it to him and they implemented a 2lbs/customer rule after that.

A shortage can be caused by a small, sustained spike in sales in a fairly stable market. It doesn't require people to hugely increase their average purchases. If every Canadian took out $200 cash from their account over a week we would have a serious cash shortage; this was brought up during Y2K preparations 16 years ago. It's a perfectly reasonable amount of money but if enough people do it, it'll cause a shortage. I'm sure there are the guys out there clearing entire shelves and spending thousands of dollars more than normal buying ammo and reloading supplies but they've always been there on occasion. Regular consumers stocking up a little more than normal, in enough numbers, can cause shortages. Those shortages cause fear/anxiety in others who do the same and the cycle continues.

This isn't a conspiracy theory; it's basic economics.
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I'd have to agree with you there. I know a few reloaders who have quite a bit of powder but it was bought before any shortage so it was simply bought because it was cheap and supply was high. The ones that bother me are like you said that will try to buy every pound they can see even if they don't have a use for it, luckily that type of person seems to be relatively rare.
 
Yes, I bought quantities long before a shortage was even hinted at because the price was right.

For example, many years ago, Thomas Higginson offered me a smoking deal on a powder he had purchased from the defunct CIL plant.

I bought 50 lbs at the time. I also bought large amounts of 47N and 47SB[lot 10] from Thomas because of the very attractive prices.

I have never regretted those purchases, and still have some of these powders in 7 lb containers, untouched. [I regularly use them, though]

At present, I have usable amounts of 50+ different smokeless powders.
But then I load for everything from the 357 Mag and 12 ga, right up to and including the 375 H&H and 45-70.

Regards, Dave.
 
I have plenty of powder. Since the first gulf war shortages I've always maintained enough supplies to handle a shortage of a few years. Hoarder? Maybe. I call it being prepared.
 
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