Powder/Primers in Houston?

[MechAg94]

Hey, I was looking for suggestions on good places to buy powder and primers around Houston; mainly North of Houston near Spring or within easy reach. The West side of Houston would be helpful also. Just looking for some smaller places to look other than the chain stores.

My brother has started reloading recently and I think the only local places he knows are Gander Mt and Carter's Country. I know there have to be other places up there.

I bought him some supplies today so he can load some pistol ammo for me, but I got that at Bailey's House of Guns just South of Houston. They seemed to have decent prices though I am no expert. I think my brother preferred not to order primers and powder on the internet due to extra shipping, but I guess that may change.

 

[Bowfishrp]

Must be a great brother!

 

[MechAg94]

I guess I better watch what I say.

 

[the pistolero]

You might try Jim Pruett's Guns & Ammo, on Huffmeister just north of 290.

 

[Peter M. Eick]

Welcome to reloading in Houston. It stinks!

I live on the west side and Bass Pro is hit or miss. Lately they have had a few supplies in but not much.

Carter's on I-10 is also now hit or miss. They lost their reloading guy a year or so back and the new folks have had trouble keeping things in stock.

American shooting center's on westheimer is probably the best place for powder and primers right now. Usually they have the big jugs in stock.

Me? I order from Midway or Powder Valley and try to buy in 70 lbs blocks which is the max that can be shipped in one box. Last fall I bought 69 lbs of primers from midway and 140 lbs of powder from Powder valley. I am set in general for another year or so.

Keep in mind that if you bulk buy, there are legal limits to how many primers/powder you can store at your home. I parted my stash out to several of my friends around the neighborhood to keep in the limits.

 

[Texastbird]

I live on the opposite side of town, but I'm of the same opinion. Carter's in Pasadena has a pretty good supply of powder and primers. But unless you want RCBS equipment, then no dice. I'm waiting for the next gun show that I can get to over at the Pasadena convention center to see if anyone is selling at a better price than Carter's. I went to the new Bass Pro Shop yesterday and the salesman told me they won't be selling any reloading supplies since they didn't get a "liscense" for it. They had black powder substitute like Pyrodex sitting on the shelves though. Supposedly they had a couple of pistols on sale, but there were none available... I don't suppose I will need to go back there. My wife liked some of the clothes, ha, ha.

 

[MechAg94]

Just an FYI, but I have bought some powder and primers from Bailey's House of Guns. I didn't find anything at the Bass Pro on HW288, and I remember there was a range nearby. They have lots of reloading stuff at reasonable prices, or so I am told. They are off HW521 just outside the South Beltway. Kind of out of the way, but not hard to get to.
http://www.yellowpages.com/info-LMS57442301/Baileys-House-of-Guns-Inc?from=qpibp

Let's see:
Hodgdon Titegroup - 15.40/lb
Hodgdon Longshot - 18.25/lb
Winchester Large pistol primers - 25.85/1000
CCI small pistol primers - 24.55/1000

If anyone knows other options, please post. I keep forgetting to check Carter's.

 

[Quoheleth]

+1 on Carter's. I go to Pasadena semi-regularly; I try to go to the North store when I can. Powder & primer prices are OK; most powders I look at (Unique, Bullseyw, AA#5) are right at $20. Small pistol primers are about $3/100. Their bullets are nothing to brag on. You'll do as well or better on-line.

Equipment is limited to RCBS.

Good luck!

Q

 

[Texastbird]

Drat, I went to the gun show in Pasadena yesterday, and there was only one vendor that I could find selling reloading components, and no bullets at all that I saw. I had to make a quick trip, and maybe missed something, but this was dissappointing to me to say the least. No good prices on the powder and primers I found. I'll have to check out Bailey's if i can find it. Ordered some 38 special bullets from Conervera yesterday. Pretty good price for delivered.

 

[deafsg1]

Warning - candy store alert!

Try this one:

10ring.com
11616 Cypress N. Houston Rd.
Cypress, TX 77429
281-894-7464

This is the company where, in a shotshell thread, I mentioned I had a high rejection rate with the Win AA once-fired (?) hulls in a box I bought from them. I returned it, showed them what I inspected thus far (20-30 out of about 130 had problems). I looked around in the shop and decided to get extra wads and powder for the Rem STS reloads.

This is a reload shop, strictly. It's VERY small, but it's not like gun shops where they have tons of guns and maybe one or two reloaders and almost nothing in the way or reload components. They got nearly everything, with the exception of once-fired hulls, overshot cards, and lead shot/buckshot at this time. The hulls they DO have are brand-new Cheddite hulls from 12 ga to .410 bore.

The last batch of hulls came from Grafs and Sons. 10ring will talk with them about how the quality dropped so low (buying from a public range instead of a police range?). They will attempt to locate a new source for the Remington hulls, as I told the sales person that I was finding out that the Rem hulls are much more reloader friendly than the Win AA hulls (and he agreed with me), and I would be willing to make the 45-minute drive to pick them up if he could get them for a competitive price.

They have at least 8-10 reloaders (mostly Lee) mounted on a bench so that you can try the action and see how they work and if you like the feel of them. They've got Lee dies as well, lots of them! They got primers at $32.80/1000 and powder at about $20 something a pound.

If you go there, tell Jennifer, Jack, Bobby, and Bryan (owner) that I sent you there.

Stephanie

 

[Deavis]

there are legal limits to how many primers/powder you can store at your home

I haven't found the law concerning that yet but I've heard a lot about it. It doesn't appear to be in the Texas statutes. Do you have it?

 

[rundm]

the law for Tx only counts for hourding. from what I found and have been told there is no set number of lbs of powder or number of primers that one can have. you just can not be guilty of having such large amounts that you would be considered to be hourding supplies, whatever that means. it definatly seems to be open to conjecture. RG

 

[Deavis]

So, I finally found a Texas statutue, Ch 235 gives regulation to the local authorities. However the houston code contains no reference to smokeless powder that I can find