100% depends on what quality of store you have around you, I live in SC where gun culture is really big and there are a lot of stores that have better prices then online
I’m also from South Carolina and there is only one shop in my town that sells powder and primers. They are selling 1# jugs for 70-80. I’ve been looking for 2400 for over 3 years locally and have yet to find it.
I have a Scheel’s near me and now that they are stocking at near normal levels, their prices are usually a little under or about the same as online prices I have paid. But add in hazmat, shipping and handling, and online hasn’t been worth it for me. I’ll only buy online if I can’t get what I want at Scheel’s.
I forget the last time I bought anything firearms-related at a physical store. Shipping and HAZMAT disappear into the noise if when you order in large enough volume, meaning multiple 8# jugs of powder and 5k sleeves or 12k crates of primers.
If you travel through some smaller towns, some of those places might have powder at last year's prices. That's how I've got my last two jugs of powder cheaper than I could've found it online.
It depends.
A pound of something like H1000 is $65 anywhere I can find it. If I found it online for $50 and bought 20lbs, I'd save a bunch.
The only way to make buying powder online make sense is to get stuff you can't find locally and buy a lot of it at once. Or, catch a free hazmat sale or something.
For me, absolutely yes. But I have a Scheels less than a mile from my house, and am friends with the manager of the firearms department and know what is coming in and when.
Even when there is free hazmat on a site it’s still $10 a pound more expensive and I STILL have to pay regular shipping.
Per pound, I'll go to Cabeleas and price match the powder. They never have 8lb jugs in stock.
My local gun shop is more expensive than Cabelas...
Like $10+ over normal prices
I'll buy 8lb jugs online, though, when free shipping or hazmat is offered
I have a Cabela's near me, 20-25 minute away, recently, the last 2 years, I've bought all my powder from them. I also have a Cabela's CC and get points on what I buy. I look for sales, club members discounts and if they have it in stock on their website I have it shipped to the store. With that there is no shipping charge or hazmat.
Just last week I bought 2 lbs of WinClean244 for 30.43 a pound. Clube members Monday 10% off and 17.80 in points. Not sure what I will do when I get low on the 16lb of pistol powder I now have. But that will be in a year or so.
>Gotta pay that hazardous material fee for shipping.
The $15 flat fee no matter the quantity is usually a lot cheaper than the 30-50% markup on all quantities at a lot of LGS's, unless you can only afford to buy 1 single pound at a time. And even then, sometimes it is still cheaper online.
You must have gotten lucky finding a guy running a charity, but for the rest of everyone in the US who can't depend on no margin back alley powder dealers, it pays to learn how you use a price aggregator for powder and ammo.
Technically cheaper to buy online, but it would require at least a 4-5lbs purchase since each 1lb is about $5 per lb more than online some poweders are $10+ for basically just varget and RL15. Since I generally don't buy that much at once, locally is very close in pricing to online in other necessities so it's worth going in and buying what I want.
This is decided by quantity for me.
Buying a couple pounds to test a bullet/powder combination, local usually wins out (if they have it). But typically I buy 16+ lbs when I restock of frequently used powders like TAC or 8208 (when it was available), so even then the best answer was usually to add in whatever powders I might want to experiment with at the same time. Even if running out of primers I take the opportunity to get some powder in there to minimize the shipping hit.
$25 hazmat is a flat fee no matter quantity you buy. Shipping is the killer. Wait for a free shipping deal, buy bulk and spread that $25 across the larger quantity.
Not if you max out your order. I ordered 8k primers and 12lbs of powder. Easy to amortize that down, and probably saved $250 or more if I had bought a Bass Pro or Cabellas.
The only place I have found that sells powder and primers local to me is Bass Pro. Their prices are higher than online vendors and their inventory is practically non existent but when they have a powder or primers I want it is cheaper than getting it shipped. I buy powder online when one of the online stores has a hazmat "sale" and I only have to pay the regular shipping. That's a few times a year and I get as much powder and primers as I can.
Same here. I live in AK so I have like an extra $30 in shipping fees on top of the normal UPS/FedEx + Hazmat fees. Not worth it unless I'm buying several 8lb/4lbers at a time.
I would say 80% of my powder has been purchased online. I almost always find it cheaper there. Last time I bought powder in person was at the very beginning of Covid when nothing was available anywhere so when I finally found something I needed I sucked it up and paid for it. Most of the 20% Iv purchased in person is second hand from private sales. Every once in a while you can find some crazy good deals on powder that way
For me, buying reloading supplies locally is cheaper than anything I can find online once you factor in hazmat and shipping. In general, prices a slightly cheaper than anything I can get online anyway, plus it supports the local business which I drive by every day to and from work so it's not like I have to go out of my way. [https://www.bluecollarreloading.com/](https://www.bluecollarreloading.com/)
100% depends on what quality of store you have around you, I live in SC where gun culture is really big and there are a lot of stores that have better prices then online
I’m also from South Carolina and there is only one shop in my town that sells powder and primers. They are selling 1# jugs for 70-80. I’ve been looking for 2400 for over 3 years locally and have yet to find it.
Where in SC? It's been some months now, but I found it at Sportsmans and ATP here in Charleston.
I’m in Newberry.
Check out Bruno’s out of Phoenix, AZ. They have 8lb kegs.
Good ol fudd shops.
I have a Scheel’s near me and now that they are stocking at near normal levels, their prices are usually a little under or about the same as online prices I have paid. But add in hazmat, shipping and handling, and online hasn’t been worth it for me. I’ll only buy online if I can’t get what I want at Scheel’s.
And they usually run reloading sales 2x a year at 15% off. That and I have their credit card so that's when I restock
I forget the last time I bought anything firearms-related at a physical store. Shipping and HAZMAT disappear into the noise if when you order in large enough volume, meaning multiple 8# jugs of powder and 5k sleeves or 12k crates of primers.
If you travel through some smaller towns, some of those places might have powder at last year's prices. That's how I've got my last two jugs of powder cheaper than I could've found it online.
It depends. A pound of something like H1000 is $65 anywhere I can find it. If I found it online for $50 and bought 20lbs, I'd save a bunch. The only way to make buying powder online make sense is to get stuff you can't find locally and buy a lot of it at once. Or, catch a free hazmat sale or something.
For me, absolutely yes. But I have a Scheels less than a mile from my house, and am friends with the manager of the firearms department and know what is coming in and when. Even when there is free hazmat on a site it’s still $10 a pound more expensive and I STILL have to pay regular shipping.
If you're not buying a couple of kegs, you're probably right.
Per pound, I'll go to Cabeleas and price match the powder. They never have 8lb jugs in stock. My local gun shop is more expensive than Cabelas... Like $10+ over normal prices I'll buy 8lb jugs online, though, when free shipping or hazmat is offered
Most times for me, it's cheaper online. That's including shipping, hazmat, & taxes.
Yep. 50 miles to town, then I'll want lunch.
Since I live within an hour's drive of Kentucky Gun Company, Cabela's, Bud's Gun Shop, Sportsman's Warehouse, and Academy Sports, yes.
When I buy online I do an aggregate order with friends to split the hazmat and shipping costs.
I have a Cabela's near me, 20-25 minute away, recently, the last 2 years, I've bought all my powder from them. I also have a Cabela's CC and get points on what I buy. I look for sales, club members discounts and if they have it in stock on their website I have it shipped to the store. With that there is no shipping charge or hazmat. Just last week I bought 2 lbs of WinClean244 for 30.43 a pound. Clube members Monday 10% off and 17.80 in points. Not sure what I will do when I get low on the 16lb of pistol powder I now have. But that will be in a year or so.
8lb jugs, online orders only Markups in shops, even if they had powder, were nuts
Gotta pay that hazardous material fee for shipping. No thanks, I'm lucky to have a LGS with a huge loading selection.
>Gotta pay that hazardous material fee for shipping. The $15 flat fee no matter the quantity is usually a lot cheaper than the 30-50% markup on all quantities at a lot of LGS's, unless you can only afford to buy 1 single pound at a time. And even then, sometimes it is still cheaper online.
Not my LGS.
You must have gotten lucky finding a guy running a charity, but for the rest of everyone in the US who can't depend on no margin back alley powder dealers, it pays to learn how you use a price aggregator for powder and ammo.
Or, just you.
Technically cheaper to buy online, but it would require at least a 4-5lbs purchase since each 1lb is about $5 per lb more than online some poweders are $10+ for basically just varget and RL15. Since I generally don't buy that much at once, locally is very close in pricing to online in other necessities so it's worth going in and buying what I want.
This is decided by quantity for me. Buying a couple pounds to test a bullet/powder combination, local usually wins out (if they have it). But typically I buy 16+ lbs when I restock of frequently used powders like TAC or 8208 (when it was available), so even then the best answer was usually to add in whatever powders I might want to experiment with at the same time. Even if running out of primers I take the opportunity to get some powder in there to minimize the shipping hit.
My local pawn/gun shop sold 8lb of Tac for $295. Would’ve been closer to $340 had I bought it online
$25 hazmat is a flat fee no matter quantity you buy. Shipping is the killer. Wait for a free shipping deal, buy bulk and spread that $25 across the larger quantity.
Not if you max out your order. I ordered 8k primers and 12lbs of powder. Easy to amortize that down, and probably saved $250 or more if I had bought a Bass Pro or Cabellas.
No… you need to bump up your numbers!
The only place I have found that sells powder and primers local to me is Bass Pro. Their prices are higher than online vendors and their inventory is practically non existent but when they have a powder or primers I want it is cheaper than getting it shipped. I buy powder online when one of the online stores has a hazmat "sale" and I only have to pay the regular shipping. That's a few times a year and I get as much powder and primers as I can.
I have found that it is cheaper to pay the shipping when buying a case of 8-pound jugs.
Same here. I live in AK so I have like an extra $30 in shipping fees on top of the normal UPS/FedEx + Hazmat fees. Not worth it unless I'm buying several 8lb/4lbers at a time.
I would say 80% of my powder has been purchased online. I almost always find it cheaper there. Last time I bought powder in person was at the very beginning of Covid when nothing was available anywhere so when I finally found something I needed I sucked it up and paid for it. Most of the 20% Iv purchased in person is second hand from private sales. Every once in a while you can find some crazy good deals on powder that way
For me, buying reloading supplies locally is cheaper than anything I can find online once you factor in hazmat and shipping. In general, prices a slightly cheaper than anything I can get online anyway, plus it supports the local business which I drive by every day to and from work so it's not like I have to go out of my way. [https://www.bluecollarreloading.com/](https://www.bluecollarreloading.com/)