Gentlemen,
We've been through times of ammunition and reloading component famine before but this one could be much worse. The war in Ukraine is consuming vast amounts of gunpowder each and every day. Even though artillery uses bags of powder containing individual grains half the size of a man's thumb, it comes from the same factories that in peacetime produce powders for sporting arms.
Each gunpowder factory has a production capacity consisting of not only plant equipment but also skilled munitions workers. If a manufacturer such as Nammo group which owns Norma shifts all production to meet military munitions needs, don't count on finding any Norma reloading powder anytime soon.
Sweden has contracted ammunition developers Nammo Sweden and Norma Precision to supply small-caliber shells for its armed forces.
www.thedefensepost.com
www.ft.com
The article from the above link mentions that Nammo is fighting the Chinese owner of Tik-Tok to more electricity to expand their plant capacity. Who would have thought about that?
Currently nitrocellulose is in short supply. It is what was once referred to as "gun cotton" and the base for gun powder.
en.wikipedia.org
And artillery shells consume pounds of gunpower and thus nitrocellulose with every shot!
Hard-to-find gunpowder is hindering Europe's scramble to provide hundreds of thousands of shells for Ukraine's defensive effort against Russian invaders, with solutions only starting to emerge.
www.barrons.com
From the above
Barrons article;
"EU internal market commissioner Thierry Breton told reporters in Paris Friday that the bloc also faced challenges finding the raw materials for gunpowder.
"To make powder, you need a specific kind of cotton, which mostly comes from China," he said.
Nitrocellulose, also known as guncotton, is a key ingredient in gunpowder manufacture.
"Would you know it, deliveries of this cotton from China stopped as if by chance a few months ago," Breton added.
China and Russia have in recent years ramped up economic cooperation and diplomatic contacts, and their strategic partnership has grown closer since the invasion of Ukraine.
In Russia this week, China's Vice Foreign Minister Sun Weidong declared relations "are at their best period in history".
Breton said that "Nordic countries have found a substitute for the Chinese cotton... innovation is at work, precisely to meet the need for powder, because... we have problems today with powder capacity".
Companies producing the substitute ingredients for powder would be among those selected for grants under the EU's Act In Support of Ammunition Production (ASAP) to be announced next week, Breton said.
Breton predicted that EU efforts to boost artillery shell output would bring the bloc's annual production capacity to between 1.5 million and 1.7 million by the end of this year.
He estimated that the equivalent figure for Russia was "a little below two million".
"Everyone is putting themselves in a position to manufacture on a much larger scale," said IRIS expert Maulny.
"For now, the Ukrainians are short of shells... the Russians don't have a shortage since they got stocks from the North Koreans, but it could happen in the coming months," he added.
"No-one was ready for a high-intensity conflict where there's enormous consumption of military equipment. We haven't seen a war like this since World War II," Maulny said.
So listen up! If you want to keep loading your own ammo, stock up on powder and primers when available. The same logic applies to loaded ammunition. If you do not and a year or two from now post that you cannot feed your dangerous game rifle, it will be your own darn fault!
PS: If some fool calls you a hoarder for stocking up, well they just confirmed their foolishness...
