Primer shortages.
I think there is gov involvement. When the gov started placing 5 year contracts on ammunition versus year over year, it causes bottlenecks in the system as the manufacturers have to set aside x percent to be able to fulfill those contracts if needed. That may not directly impact Hornaday as it seems to have small contracts, but it would impact suppliers of things like primers.
Primers go to the production of loaded ammo first, then what’s left goes for a reloading component.
Long time handloaders have gone through this shortage before.
More people are handloading and instead of buying a box of 1000 primers they are buying primers by the case so they don’t get caught short.
I have over 25,000 primers in my stash and I’m probably on the low end for most handloaders.
I used to buy 2 or 3 cases of primers at a time. The last trip to my local store there was a limit of 5 boxes of primers per customer per day.
Thats about all the problems I have besides finding projectiles. I already pick up brass from my classes. Pistol powder (H38, HP6) is not hard to find.
Yeah, primers and lead are scarce and expensive.