It's 2024, Where's GOEX? | GOEX Blackpowder Distribution Update January 2024 | Muzzleloading News
Where’s GOEX?
It's 2024 and a lot of muzzle-loading enthusiasts are still asking, "Where's goex?"
To get right to it here, I sent an email to Carl culling the CEO of Estus energetics on January 3rd and he was able to get back with me that same day with this update about the current state of goex distribution.
“Production and distribution of black powder continued through the end of 2023. We got powder to 12 of our distributors in all parts of the country as well as several other commercial customers. As we go into 2024, we have more orders on the books and we’ll continue getting powder to the remaining distributors.”
I've independently looked at several of the GOEX Distributors to see what powder was available and how much was available and the Distributors that do have GOEX black powder in stock, as of about January 1st here , don't have any limits on their orders. That leads me to believe that if you're ordering GOEX blackpowder through distributor that has it, they have a fairly good confidence in a supply chain and in their inventory.
In short here, goex black powder might not be available at your choice retailer as of yet but, it can be ordered - primarily online. We are seeing some retailers pick up for in store purchases, but I will say that some of the more regular gun shops that I'm seeing and being reported here are charging upwards of $40 a pound for regular new production GOEX.
So as usual unless, you live you know within reasonable driving distance of a distributor that orders in bulk, it's going to be best to order online from a distributor.
If you're new to ordering real black powder online, it is going to add on a hazardous materials or "Hazmat fee" to your order, so I recommend ordering more than one pound. If you can try to order 5 lbs to average out that Hazmat and shipping fee across all of your pounds of powder there are a few advantages. For one, it's going to make sure that you have plenty of powder. Most people don't go through a full pound of powder in an entire year so you're looking at maybe five years supply and as long as you keep that powder dry it's not going to ever go bad. It's also going to get it right to your door which is really handy and that 5 lbs is going to get you through any lean times that could happen like happened over the past few years. Even imported powder and production powder here domestically has been a little shaky at times and so it's nice knowing that you have a few pounds of powder on the shelf and you don't have to worry about supply.
I think that everybody should and and can get into the better mindset of is is putting a little bit bit back saving a little bit for the next guy of course but putting a little bit back so that you're not panicking when hunting season rolls around and you don't have any powder.
Where’s Olde Eynsford?
While Olde Eynsford wasn't mentioned in this particular correspondence I think it's fair for us to still assume that we can expect to see it sometime early here in 2024. Back in September 2023 GOEX was hoping to have Olde Eynsford in distributor hands in Q1, so that means by the end of March. Based on my understanding, when asked this question on the muzzle loading forum Mr. Kulling did clarify that regular red can goex and Olde Eynsford are made with the same raw materials Olde Eynsford just takes a longer time to manufacture, so they won't be waiting for different supplies and different raw materials to come in to make Olde Eynsford.
When I'm talking about all of these themes about ordering online and making sure you have some saved back and maybe some issues with production across muzzle loading there's a lot of similar themes happening with that across the industry here and I'm working on a full muzzleloading news report that tries to align more of these themes to put things into context.
I think they're now that we have GOEX back on line, we have Schuetzen and Swiss in stock across the country, percussion caps are the main bugaboo here among a few other things things.
What’s wrong with the muzzleloading supply chain?
I bring this up and I mention this here at the end of the article because I feel like this is if you haven't realized it already things have really changed. Whether it's just with the muzzle loading world the muzzle loading industry or the economy in general things have really changed, it's not the 80s 90s and early 2000s anymore. If we want to keep this going we've got to adjust a little bit and we've got to, I think buy a little bit and put a little bit back to make sure that we can keep this sport going. Keep that in mind when you're ordering bring it up maybe with your Club to make sure that you guys have enough supplies going through this year and the next few years.
I really do appreciate your patience we're going to be continuing to watch this story as we go through the New Year. I'm excited to get on the Range and do some really in-depth testing with new production GOEX and I'm really excited to see some Olde Eynsford getting into shooters hands here as we head into the 2024 muzzle loading competition season.
