I"m glad I dont have friends like yours ,mine know I"m looking for BH209 and will buy it for me knowing at this point it aint cost just buy it and tell me how much I owe you! And know I dont hoard which is why I did not have any to shoot when I used up the last 10 oz from last year ,just got 2 bottles from my local dealer (40 + yrs ) relationship . She called and said a buyer who asked for and never picked up 2 bottles reminded her that I was looking for 4-5 bottles so she called and said I got 2 ,when will you pickup and told her Pauline Im on my way ! Got there and she informed me with the lack of every thing she is closing up shop only thing left is shot gun wads ! Thanks BIDEN)/Ed
Without getting too deep into politics, I believe the Covid-19 mess has allowed that element of our society here in the United States that wants a completely disarmed general public/citizenry, to slowly choke off the supply of components that allow the dedicated shooter/hunter to economically afford to shoot both centerfire weapons (rifles, handguns, and shotguns), and muzzleloading weapons.
Affordable .22 rimfire ammunition, which in my youth used to allow children to shoot/hunt for the most reasonable of costs, purchasing a single 50-round box at a time for mere pennies; is now a long distant memory. A brick of 500-rounds, which used to be priced so reasonably that a father could take his kids out shooting for an entire weekend day, is now priced up in the stratosphere. With prices for bulk .22 ammo (325 round to 600 round bricks) ranging from a low of $50.00, to over a $100.00.
My personal opinion is that certain corporations have used Covid-19 as a means of strangling out the competition, as well as being able to raise prices to make a greater profit margin than ever before. While at the same time keeping inventory scarce to make buyers willing to pay prices for guns, ammunition, and reloading components that a year & a half ago would have been unthinkable.
If the ammunition companies have had, and continue to have, the manufacturing capacity to produce billions upon billions upon billions of rounds of 9mm, 5.56x45mm NATO, 7.62X51mm NATO, and .50 BMG ammo, just to name the most common calibers, to militarize branches of the Federal government that previously had never been armed in any fashion (FEMA, IRS, Dept of Agriculture, etc.), then those ammunition companies surely have had the manufacturing capacity to provide an adequate supply of ammunition, in all calibers, for sale to the American shooting public.
The last statistics that I saw stated unequivocally that all of the combined branches/departments of the Federal government that are not one of the 5 branches of our armed military forces; now have in excess of 25 billion rounds of military grade small arms ammunition stored in supposedly hidden depots scattered around the United States to be used in the case of an armed uprising of the common citizenry. Along with the ammo are stored battle rifles, handguns, submachine guns, machine guns, grenades, rocket launchers, mini-guns, Humvees, field gear, uniforms, body armor, boots, night vision equipment, sniper rifles, etc.
In other words, multiple, civilian branches of our government have armed themselves with the exact same clothing, equipment, and weapons that the fully trained members of the military are armed with.
This, in my opinion, is why everything firearms related, to include muzzleloaders, has gone up in price exponentially over the past decade. And the rising prices, and shortages, don't appear to have any end in sight.
