.44 special

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Reese-Mo
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.44 special

Post by Reese-Mo »

These days diligence pays off. Starline set 44 special as available so I ordered a thousand pieces. I guess other folks did too because of the six hours they were completely sold out again.

Same thing with Missouri bullets. I called to see if they had anything in stock in 44 Cal. They did. I ordered, they shipped. A few hours later I called thinking I could get some more. Sold out.

I guess we really have to be grateful for what we can get.
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Re: .44 special

Post by Archer »

I haven't been looking too hard for ammo or components.
I've been buying ammo and components with the intent of having some on hand for the past 10-15+ years. Moreso as CA laws get more stupid.

Bought a 50 cal can of .30 Carb right before the lockdown.
I hadn't bought anything since prices soared and the lockdowns happened.

Some of my coworkers know I go shooting and want to go so I've been checking prices because they can pay for their own ammo.

Supply of everything limited.
So far: .30-06 and .308 (also 7.62x51) are running about $31/20 either FMJ or basic leaded expanding tip.
.243 Win a little higher as is 7mm08. (sometimes higher priced non lead is the only thing on the shelf and sometimes not that.)

9mm at $100/200 rounds. (Best price I've seen locally in a year and a half.)
.22 WMR at $17/50. (Very Limited supply at best, bought the couple boxes I found.)
.45 ACP at $80/100 rounds.
10mm was running $34 for the one box I've seen in the last year and a half and I went ahead and bought it.
5.56/.223 at a buck a round plus or minus.
7.62x39 sort of available but priced pretty higher than I like.
.22 LR is out there but running between 9 and 20 cents a round.

Nobody local seems to have any .357 or .44 Mag but they admit to having seen .38 SP once in a while.
Nobody has any .45-70, 6.5 Grendel or .50 Beowulf. Not a lot if any .30-30.
Haven't been looking for 40 S&W or .357 Sig but I haven't noticed any either.

Component wise a lot of the shops that USED to carry primers aren't anymore. They've let their hazmat permits drop since they haven't seen any primers in over a year. The only powder I've seen locally was running $45/lb.

Some of the online shops that used to carry 250 or 500 count lots of hard cast are now selling them by the 50 or 100. Jacketed bullets are usually running between 50% to 300+ percent higher than pre-pandemic rates.

Every step in the supply lines have gotten tighter and more expensive over the past year and a half with less being produced and more demand. It is also becoming evident that the government is and has been printing money like it was water and throwing 50-70% of it to fraud including people in prison and foreign agent applicants.
Reese-Mo
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Re: .44 special

Post by Reese-Mo »

Archer wrote:
9mm at $100/200 rounds. (Best price I've seen locally in a year and a half.)
.22 WMR at $17/50. (Very Limited supply at best, bought the couple boxes I found.)
.45 ACP at $80/100 rounds.
.22 LR is out there but running between 9 and 20 cents a round.

Component wise a lot of the shops that USED to carry primers aren't anymore. They've let their hazmat permits drop since they haven't seen any primers in over a year. The only powder I've seen locally was running $45/lb.

Some of the online shops that used to carry 250 or 500 count lots of hard cast are now selling them by the 50 or 100. Jacketed bullets are usually running between 50% to 300+ percent higher than pre-pandemic rates.
We're at $49.99 per 50rds on 9mm here, and that's basically WWB stuff. HP and premium stuff is "fuggetabuoutit". Don't shop 45acp or 22LR, have plenty of that on hand, might even sell some at 9c/rd. I think I paid 3.5c/rd before things went nuts.

Not aware of any "hazmat" permits, unless you mean local commercial storage permitting. My employer ships/receives all sorts of hazmat daily. We just pop an ORM-D sticker on stuff, and out it goes, same for inbound. Our hazmat is flammable, toxic liquids and powders so I dunno...

From what I see, hard cast is about what it used to be on line, just longer waits mostly, and fewer selections. That is, I see companies sayin' "We're only offering this, that and the other, rather than 10 varieties, so we can concentrate on having items to ship". I lucked out really, getting 240g coated 44's from Missouri, with no wait. Same thing on powder. Scored 8lbs of 231 at slight discount (companies normal marketing prices). Just happened to be in the right place at the right time online. However.... they have a "new" policy of taxing internet sales, and they taxed the hazmat fee, and the shipping. I won't argue with 'em, but wont do business there again, moved 'em to vendor of last resort category.

Primers. Last I got was last Sept or so, and those were in the funky strips. Gettin' down to just under 4k of those now, and only have large pistol. Sucks, as I've got a load of 38special to put together.

I have totally eschewed using anything magnum. Just don't need it. Years, decades really, I had that magnum-mania, and pushed 357's and 44's to the limit. I don't need the blast, the recoil, or the terminal results. More into the big hole, heavy bullet concept. If I can't stop "whatever" with 45acp or 45LC or 44special, I dunno... we got a real problem on our hands that magnum won't fix. We got nothing like big brown bear here and gators go down real easy.
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Re: .44 special

Post by HarryAlonzo »

I just broke out my supply of dirty 44 SPL brass to clean, and found that I had stupidly intermingled 44 Mag and cleaned & primed 44 SPL. Grrrr. Separating now. My AZ county is currently under a Stage II burn ban, which means no shooting. It’s back to the reloading bench. I have plenty of pre-COVID powder & primers for the 44, but none for the 348 or 30-06. Grrrrr. Bullet availability and price aren’t bad, but powder and primers are another story. I have plenty of brass.

Sales taxes on interweb sales are the result of a recent SCOTUS decision. Ebay instituted them early this year, Gunbrokers last month or so, and eventually all will follow. The party is over.
Reese-Mo
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Re: .44 special

Post by Reese-Mo »

But not tax on freight, nor hazmat. In Fl freight/hazmat is listed separately, its not taxable, _if_ the seller has a brick and mortar store in their home state. I can afford the three and a half bux, its the principle.
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Re: .44 special

Post by Archer »

ebay and Amazon have been charging tax for certain communist leaning states like CA for the past ten years or more.
CA has been going after any business of any size on the interwebs for the past 10-15 years.
They go after anything that has to be delivered through a licensed business (FFL for example, or automotive repair parts & supplies vs. labor charges) for as long as I can recall. So you always save your receipts so you can prove you've already paid the tax otherwise you get double taxed at the point of delivery.
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Re: .44 special

Post by Archer »

Reese-Mo wrote:But not tax on freight, nor hazmat. In Fl freight/hazmat is listed separately, its not taxable, _if_ the seller has a brick and mortar store in their home state. I can afford the three and a half bux, its the principle.
Hazmat and shipping shouldn't be separately taxable on your shipments.
If it is rolled into the retail cost of an item then it could be taxable but a shipment of a dozen or so boxes of primers would drop that hazmat down to next to nothing and the sales tax markup on it being rolled into the cost would be negligible. As I mentioned in CA there are additional license fees for a shop to be able to sell primers or powders (OR AMMO) and with none available the past year many shops have let those licenses lapse.
Reese-Mo
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Re: .44 special

Post by Reese-Mo »

Ok, so the "permit" is state/local. We have (or had) that for black powder sales, in addition to federal permit. The shop I worked at got nailed one time with a minor fine. The BP magazine was too far from the exit.
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Re: .44 special

Post by Reese-Mo »

Also.... Holy shamolee.... Missouri got me the order in two days. Coated mic out .4305-.431.

Fastest service in months!
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Re: .44 special

Post by Reese-Mo »

And.... Its about 99 & 44/100ths percent certain UPS "lost" my .44 Special brass. Starline has a claim in.

This is the THIRD reloading component shipment UPS has "lost" of mine recently. Too many to be a fluke sez me. I am guessin' when they see the vendor, it somehow falls off the truck and into the hands of others. Sad situation. Midway, Natchez, and Starline. They need to use initials not name on the boxes and labels.
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