After reading Badger's original post about the present and coming powder shortage yesterday morning, I took an inventory of my ammo and components, and identified some serious holes. So yesterday morning I found a good price on some PMC "Bronze" .308 which is loaded with 150 grain soft point bullets which will work for target practice - and for hunting if I'm out of .308 that's loaded with Nosler bullets - and ordered a plentiful supply.
I use IMR 4198 for two of my favorite centerfires - a Henry .45-70 and a Cz .221 Remington Fireball - so yesterday morning I spent some time on the internet looking to augment my supply, and called a couple of Montana stores whose websites said that they had it on hand. The people who answered the phone all said that their websites were wrong - they didn't have any, and I couldn't find a single online dealer which had IMR 4198 in stock. Then I drove into Helena and checked a couple of likely stores without finding any IMR 4198. Bob Wards in Helena had T7 2F for $33 a pound (after my veteran's discount), though, so I bought 2 pounds. On a whim, I drove to Great Falls to see if Scheels had IMR 4198, even though the guy on the phone said that they didn't. To my surprise, they had 5 lbs in stock, for $47 a pound, and I bought 2 pounds. Between Scheels and North 40 Outfitters I also picked up 100 Hornady 350 grain flat point .45-70 bullets, 250 Berry's 158 grain .357 bullets, a Lyman pocket-sized digital scale, and 250 rounds of CCI Velocitor .22 rimfire ammo.
My only remaining shortage is duty and practice ammo for the 4.2" barrelled Ruger SP101 .357 mag that I carry on my daily walks in the mountains behind our house, and keep handy when I'm around our property in case we have more trouble with black bears (I had to kill one in my yard in 2022), other varmints.... or whatever. For practice, I'm thinking .38 Special +P loads with the Berry's 158 grain bullets I bought yesterday, and some Hornady 158 grain XTP-HPs that I need to buy. I have two powders that should work - Bullseye & Universal - but I'd like to try Longshot and HS-6 too. For duty, I'm thinking reasonably stout .357 mag loads with Hornady 158 grain XTP-FPs, which I need to buy. I have Lil' Gun and H110, which should work pretty well, but would also like to try HS-6 and Longshot. The nice thing about .38 Special and .357 Mag is that a pound of powder loads a lot of ammo, and both rounds can be loaded with many of the same powders and bullets.
Yesterday pretty good selections of pistol powders and bullets were available just about everywhere, but I'm not gonna let the grass grow under my feet. This evening, after reading about the "Border Deal" the US Senate is gonna vote on, and thinking about where things seem headed, I fired off a pretty blunt letter to one of our senators. Tomorrow I'm gonna plow the snow that fell last night and then go into town and buy the pistol bullets and powder. When I'm not writing letters or working on our remodel, I gotta a whole lotta ammo loading and target practice to do!
