Bottom line
The fast pistol band — everything from N310 up to Shooters World Major Pistol on the merged chart — is the best-stocked corner of the market for the brands that are shipping and the worst for the brands that are not. Thirty of the 44 powders in the band were in stock at Hodgdon direct, Graf & Sons or Lohman Arms on every one of the fourteen days we sampled. Fourteen were in stock on none of them.
The always-there list is what most 9mm, .45 and .38 loaders actually use: Titegroup, HP-38 / 231, CFE Pistol, AutoComp, HS-6, 244, 572, Sport Pistol, the whole Vihtavuori N300 line from N320 to 3N38, Zip, Silhouette, No. 2, No. 5, Nitro 100, WSF, WST, and all four Shooters World pistol grades. One Alliant surprise: a single jug of Unique sat at Graf's all month at $55.37 a pound, and nobody bought it.
Prices did not move. Graf's median for the band was $46.75 a pound in August and $46.75 on 27 September — two Shooters World 8 lb cuts and nothing else. The band's cheapest in-stock jug is still Titegroup at $38.50, with No. 5 a quarter behind it.
Cheapest in stock
Shelf price per pound, cheapest in-stock listing on 27 September at Hodgdon direct, Graf & Sons and Lohman Arms. Shelf price is not landed price — hazmat and shipping change the order on small orders, and the price desk does that arithmetic per retailer. Sizes matter here: a one-pound can at $35 is not a better buy than an 8 lb jug at $41 once the hazmat fee lands.
- Ramshot Zip
- Hodgdon Titegroup
- Accurate No. 5
- Accurate Nitro 100 NF
- Accurate No. 2
- Ramshot Silhouette
- Winchester Super Field (WSF)
- Hodgdon HS-6
- Winchester 231
- Hodgdon HP-38
- Winchester WinClean 244
- Winchester 572
| Powder | Cheapest $/lb | Size | Where |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ramshot Zip | $34.99 | 1 lb | Lohman |
| Hodgdon Titegroup | $38.50 | 8 lb | Graf's |
| Accurate No. 5 | $38.75 | 8 lb | Graf's |
| Accurate Nitro 100 NF | $39.25 | 8 lb | Graf's |
| Accurate No. 2 | $39.76 | 5 lb | Lohman |
| Ramshot Silhouette | $40.24 | 4 lb | Lohman |
| Winchester Super Field (WSF) | $40.62 | 8 lb | Graf's |
| Hodgdon HS-6 | $41.25 | 8 lb | Lohman |
| Winchester 231 | $41.50 | 8 lb | Graf's |
| Hodgdon HP-38 | $41.62 | 8 lb | Hodgdon direct |
| Winchester WinClean 244 | $41.80 | 4 lb | Lohman |
| Winchester 572 | $41.94 | 8 lb | Lohman |
| Hodgdon CFE Pistol | $42.75 | 8 lb | Graf's |
| Winchester AutoComp | $43.87 | 8 lb | Graf's |
| Shooters World Major Pistol | $46.62 | 8 lb | Graf's |
| Vihtavuori N320 · N340 · N350 · 3N38 | $51.50 | 4 lb | Graf's |
| Alliant Unique — for comparison | $55.37 | 8 lb | Graf's (1 listing) |
| Alliant Sport Pistol — for comparison | $58.00 | 8 lb | Graf's |
If your load calls for Bullseye, Power Pistol or Universal, you have now gone a full sample month without seeing one on the shelf at three of the four retailers we read.
The two Alliant rows are the price of scarcity: $55–58 a pound for powders whose Hodgdon and Winchester neighbours on the chart cost $38–43. If you are an Alliant loader, this is the month to open the cross-reference, find the powders that rank near yours, and go read their published data — not to guess a charge, but to know which manufacturer's data to look up.
Missing all month
Fourteen powders in the band were listed at the three retailers and in stock at none of them on any of the fourteen days: Bullseye, Power Pistol, Red Dot, Green Dot, Promo, American Select, Herco; Hodgdon Clays, Universal, 700-X; Accurate Solo 1000; Ramshot True Blue and Competition; and Vihtavuori's cowboy-action N32C Tin Star.
Three plants explain the list. The Alliant powders are Radford, under the canister suspension since May 2024. Clays, Universal and 700-X are the Australian ADI line, which — as the general report shows — is currently arriving as rifle powder and not as flake. True Blue is a St. Marks ball powder that ought to be available and was not at these three retailers; it is the one to watch, since Hodgdon's August burn-rate chart moved it, which sometimes precedes a supply or formulation change. N32C is a low-volume Finnish specialty and Solo 1000 a Belgian one; neither says anything about the market.
- ●N310 — in stock every day
- ●Nitro 100 NF — in stock every day
- ○Competition — never in stock
- ○Red Dot — never in stock
- ○Promo — never in stock
- ○Clays — never in stock
- ○Hi-Skor 700-X — never in stock
- ○Bullseye — never in stock
- ●Sport Pistol — in stock every day
- ●Titegroup — in stock every day
- ○American Select — never in stock
- ○Solo 1000 — never in stock
- ○Green Dot — never in stock
- ●Super Target (WST) — in stock every day
- ●Trail Boss — in stock every day
- ●Clean Shot — in stock every day
- ●N320 — in stock every day
- ●No. 2 — in stock every day
- ●Zip — in stock every day
- ●HP-38 — in stock every day
- ●231 — in stock every day
- ○N32C Tin Star — never in stock
- ●WinClean 244 — in stock every day
- ●Unique — in stock every day
- ○Universal — never in stock
- ○Power Pistol — never in stock
- ●Ultimate Pistol — in stock every day
- ●N330 — in stock every day
- ○Herco — never in stock
- ●Super Field (WSF) — in stock every day
- ●Auto Pistol — in stock every day
- ●N340 — in stock every day
- ●BE-86 — in stock every day
- ●No. 5 — in stock every day
- ●HS-6 — in stock every day
- ●AutoComp — in stock every day
- ●CFE Pistol — in stock every day
- ○True Blue — never in stock
- ●Silhouette — in stock every day
- ●3N37 — in stock every day
- ●N350 — in stock every day
- ●3N38 — in stock every day
- ●572 — in stock every day
- ●Major Pistol — in stock every day
| Maker | Listings | In stock | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shooters World | 8 | 8 | 100% |
| Vihtavuori | 21 | 14 | 67% |
| Winchester | 43 | 25 | 58% |
| Accurate | 17 | 7 | 41% |
| Ramshot | 18 | 6 | 33% |
| Hodgdon | 56 | 18 | 32% |
| Alliant | 52 | 5 | 10% |
Prices and the bulk discount
Two moves in the band, both at Graf's, both Shooters World 8 lb jugs: Auto Pistol $399.99 → $389.00 (−2.7%) and Major Pistol $387.99 → $373.00 (−3.9%). Nothing else changed, up or down, and Hodgdon direct did not touch a pistol price.
The median saving for buying an 8 lb jug over 1 lb cans in this band is 11.7%. Two pairs are inverted at Lohman — Titegroup by a rounding error (−0.3%) and Green Dot by 12%, though the Green Dot is not in stock, so the inversion is academic. The deep discounts are Lohman's Universal (34%, not in stock), Sport Pistol at Bruno (30%) and Lohman's 244 (26%, though only its 4 lb and 1 lb were in stock); Unique and Herco at Graf's give 17%, and one of those you cannot get.
Late in the window
Bruno's 26 September sale
On 26 September Bruno Shooters Supply re-tagged about a hundred canister listings as sale items — sixteen of them in this band. These are one retailer's clearance prices, reported with Bruno's own stock flag (which we are not yet using for the availability figures above), so treat them as a tip, not a market: CFE Pistol 8 lb at $35.86 a pound and HS-6 8 lb at $36.49, both shown in stock; Titegroup 8 lb at $34.22 and 244 4 lb at $33.25, both shown out. If they are real, they are the lowest fast-pistol prices in our data by $3–5 a pound.
What to do with this
- Loading 9mm / .45 on Titegroup, 231/HP-38, CFE Pistol or AutoComp: buy on your normal schedule. All were in stock every day at $38–44 a pound in 8 lb jugs.
- Loading on Bullseye, Power Pistol, Unique or Universal: the second-powder rule applies. Pick a neighbour from the cross-reference with published data for your cartridge and bullet, and qualify it now while the shelf is full.
- Vihtavuori loaders: the N300 line was there all month, but only in 1 lb and 4 lb; at $51.50 a pound in the 4 lb it is the premium option, not the bargain one.
- Set a watch on any powder in this band and we email you the morning it comes back in stock.