Ammo and components in Moscow, Idaho

I couldn’t be in Phoenix with all the cool kids so I went to all the stores in town that sold ammunition and/or components. Here is what I found:

  • Walmart
    • Shotgun primers only
    • A little bit of brass and I bought all the .45 ACP brass they had
    • Virtually no handgun ammo
    • Virtually no powder
  • Tri-State
    • Lots of rifle and shotgun ammo
    • Lots of .40 S&W ammo
    • Three boxes of .45 ACP ammo but I bought two of them adhering to Tamara’s etiquette
    • Don’t carry reloading components
  • Big Five
    • Don’t carry reloading components
    • Virtually no handgun ammo
    • Some rifle ammo
  • Sure Shot
    • Lots of powder
    • Lots of used 9mm and .40 S&W brass
    • Shotgun primers only
    • Virtually no handgun ammo
    • Some rifle ammo


About half of Tri-State’s rifle ammo and in the foreground 2/3s of the .45 ACP ammo for sale in the city.


Apparently Barb called ahead for me. But I didn’t see any gun I really wanted except for the AR-50A1 and there was no indication Barb would allow me to buy the ammo to feed it.


Sure Shot had lots of powder and 9mm and .40 S&W brass.

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4 thoughts on “Ammo and components in Moscow, Idaho

  1. If you hit the right day, the Black Sheep in Coeur d’ Alene will have full shelves. Except for primers and brass they said that something arrives in every shipment.

  2. I go to this little shop out in the sticks. It turns out that someone else did, too, and told his buddies on the Internet about it. Now I wish I had a 209-primed inline, because that is all that is left. (Fortunately, I don’t need the primers, since I have a case of 209s for the scatterguns.) There are no pistol or rifle primers to speak of. Anywhere.

    Way back in January, I figured that there was some truth to the suggestions that manufacturers would be catching up by the summer. Yet here it is, two weeks from June, and supplies are /far/ worse than they were five months ago. I’m starting to get nervous, because my large pistol primers are down to only a bit more than 2,000. This is only ten sessions at a conservative clip, and certainly not enough to last until an anticipated ship date of November 2009.

    My fear is this: manufacturers will not invest in new capacity expecting that demand for components will return to previous levels. However, loading equipment that sat in stores for months is now gone, and new shipments disappear not long after arrival. I think the market for components will find a new, higher equilibrium when this is over. For now, the only proof that the Federal 150 ever existed is the fossilized remains recovered by khaki-wearing scientists with little brushes.

    I’m also short on lead. It used to be fairly easy to pick up 10 pounds of range scrap after a shooting session. Now there are so many scroungers that the ranges are picked clean. About all I can count on are the bullets I just shot. Looks like I’m bulk buying from a metals supplier.

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