Here is a message from one of the well known blank re loaders.
W.
All,
As a fellow reenactor I know what effects us and feel obligated to take a moment to explain some of the reasons behind the huge change in the area of the hobby that I am very actively involved.
As you may or may not know, over the last 6 months the entire firearms industry has gone through an upheaval not seen since 1968. This also extends to ammunition and now to blanks.
Scrap prices going to over $3+ a pound last summer is a large part of the current problem, as "scrap raiders" were buying out entire warehouses of brass just for a quick buck. Combine that with the insane amount of panic buying that we've seen since the presidential elections and the price and availability of reloading components have been increasingly in demand already. It has been a down hill spiral for the last few months.
Up to this point I have been purchasing 40-60k brass cases a month for the rifle calibers. This month so far, I have been able to plead with my suppliers and get some brass, but ONLY for about 5k cases. The price on these new cases is now higher than what I sold the loaded blanks for last week--to that end, there are two problems, supply and demand.
Supply is not forthcoming. Simply, there is not enough brass on the market at this time in the U.S. to sustain the hobby by doing things the way we have been for the last 30 years. We could buy new factory new brass, double the price of the blanks and hurt our supply down the road by taking just that much more out of the supply chain. That isn't going to work and the prices will ruin the hobby.
Demand is not slowing down much, which, in a way makes me think that on the whole, the country is not in as bad of shape as we are being told on the news. This is a big problem with the supply problems above.
I have seen this coming for a while and have made plans to keep blank rounds on the market but it has not been quite as smooth as expected. The glitches should be worked out in the next few days as plans rarely work out the way you hope. (Damn you Murphy!!) My biggest priority at this time is to not sell ANYTHING that I do not have IN STOCK, thus not making people angry that they've paid for something we can't ship. Again, I should have this taken care of by late this week.
The new plan......
As .30-06 and similar brass is now prohibitively expensive to form blanks on, I am switching over to full length blank brass from over-seas for many of my calibers.
8mm Mauser will be made almost exclusively with this brass. It will be higher in price than medium crimp blanks that most of you buy now, but it is a high quality virgin European Spec.. case. I would have to sell the medium crimp rounds at roughly $38/100 now - if I had enough brass to make them for more than a day - so the extra $2 is worth it since it feeds perfectly in 99% of weapons. The price is high, but you will like the round. I sell a lot of it, and there is a reason for that if you get my drift.
The Brits are used to the full length rounds so you should see little or no change.
The Americans are going to be the hardest hit. Again, since I cannot make the round for a reasonable price - if I had the brass, I am going to do something a bit different. We are going to switch over to selling blanks made by Military ammunition manufacturers. I have tested these blanks extensively and found them to be a quality round.
We are keeping the price as low as we can and will be selling them at $36/100. This is far below retail if you take a look http://www.grafs.com/product/237395 I am not going to pawn these off as my blanks. They are not. I do however have faith in their quality and sell them with confidence.
This may all sound very doom and gloom and it is pretty crappy in short term, but as with all things, the market will recover. I have found some new suppliers to restock smaller amounts of brass at reasonable prices and the panic buying should start to let up in the next few months. With that brass prices should return to a reasonable price in about a year or so and we can return to making all rounds in house and at lower prices. I do see an end in sight, but it will be a rough year for prices.
If you have any questions please contact me. I will continue to provide a full line of blanks for reenactors and even have plans to expand the line this year with some substantial equipment purchases. This summer will a bit rough, but when the greed and panic are over, things will return to normal.
Sincerely,
Robb Walters
Atlantic Wall Blanks
W.
All,
As a fellow reenactor I know what effects us and feel obligated to take a moment to explain some of the reasons behind the huge change in the area of the hobby that I am very actively involved.
As you may or may not know, over the last 6 months the entire firearms industry has gone through an upheaval not seen since 1968. This also extends to ammunition and now to blanks.
Scrap prices going to over $3+ a pound last summer is a large part of the current problem, as "scrap raiders" were buying out entire warehouses of brass just for a quick buck. Combine that with the insane amount of panic buying that we've seen since the presidential elections and the price and availability of reloading components have been increasingly in demand already. It has been a down hill spiral for the last few months.
Up to this point I have been purchasing 40-60k brass cases a month for the rifle calibers. This month so far, I have been able to plead with my suppliers and get some brass, but ONLY for about 5k cases. The price on these new cases is now higher than what I sold the loaded blanks for last week--to that end, there are two problems, supply and demand.
Supply is not forthcoming. Simply, there is not enough brass on the market at this time in the U.S. to sustain the hobby by doing things the way we have been for the last 30 years. We could buy new factory new brass, double the price of the blanks and hurt our supply down the road by taking just that much more out of the supply chain. That isn't going to work and the prices will ruin the hobby.
Demand is not slowing down much, which, in a way makes me think that on the whole, the country is not in as bad of shape as we are being told on the news. This is a big problem with the supply problems above.
I have seen this coming for a while and have made plans to keep blank rounds on the market but it has not been quite as smooth as expected. The glitches should be worked out in the next few days as plans rarely work out the way you hope. (Damn you Murphy!!) My biggest priority at this time is to not sell ANYTHING that I do not have IN STOCK, thus not making people angry that they've paid for something we can't ship. Again, I should have this taken care of by late this week.
The new plan......
As .30-06 and similar brass is now prohibitively expensive to form blanks on, I am switching over to full length blank brass from over-seas for many of my calibers.
8mm Mauser will be made almost exclusively with this brass. It will be higher in price than medium crimp blanks that most of you buy now, but it is a high quality virgin European Spec.. case. I would have to sell the medium crimp rounds at roughly $38/100 now - if I had enough brass to make them for more than a day - so the extra $2 is worth it since it feeds perfectly in 99% of weapons. The price is high, but you will like the round. I sell a lot of it, and there is a reason for that if you get my drift.
The Brits are used to the full length rounds so you should see little or no change.
The Americans are going to be the hardest hit. Again, since I cannot make the round for a reasonable price - if I had the brass, I am going to do something a bit different. We are going to switch over to selling blanks made by Military ammunition manufacturers. I have tested these blanks extensively and found them to be a quality round.
We are keeping the price as low as we can and will be selling them at $36/100. This is far below retail if you take a look http://www.grafs.com/product/237395 I am not going to pawn these off as my blanks. They are not. I do however have faith in their quality and sell them with confidence.
This may all sound very doom and gloom and it is pretty crappy in short term, but as with all things, the market will recover. I have found some new suppliers to restock smaller amounts of brass at reasonable prices and the panic buying should start to let up in the next few months. With that brass prices should return to a reasonable price in about a year or so and we can return to making all rounds in house and at lower prices. I do see an end in sight, but it will be a rough year for prices.
If you have any questions please contact me. I will continue to provide a full line of blanks for reenactors and even have plans to expand the line this year with some substantial equipment purchases. This summer will a bit rough, but when the greed and panic are over, things will return to normal.
Sincerely,
Robb Walters
Atlantic Wall Blanks
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