"Where Have All The Primers Gone?" La La La...

[Mulee Pete]

So why are the manufacturers not making hay while the sun shines.  Knowing all the reloading equipment they can turn out would be bought up in an instant, why have they not geared up.  Makes little sense to me.   
Even if the new kid at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. does manage to pull something on the 2nd Amendment, they could be making a pile of cash until then.
Is this Bizaro America?

MuleePete

[Ten Wolves Fiveshooter]

 Howdy Pard

        The problem is there sales are a 1,000 times over normal, even with crews working OT, they can't keep up with it, the shooting crowd is and has been PANIC BUYING, it's the me attitude, and the H$$$ with every one else, some of my gun shops the owners have told me the components sell as fast as they come in, and in most cases they don't even have to put them on the shelves, there might be five guys standing in line to get supplies, and the first guy will buy everything.
       This really is ruining our sport, and there is no need for this, new people can't even get started, they can't fine guns or ammo. all because of a few HORDERS, I'm not saying it's wrong to keep your supplies up, but one guy commented to me that he now has 60,000 primers on hand, where as he used to only have 2,000, so this is why things are the way they are, I guess we will just have to wait for things to settle down. IMHO 


                                                   Ten Wolves 

[Daniel Nighteyes]

And it isn't just primers, either.  In a gun store last week, I could see at least 5,000 rounds of 9mm on the shelf.  I wanted 400 for a couple of upcoming events.  They would only let me buy 250 rounds -- a store-imposed rationing so that more people could at least buy some instead of a few getting it all.

-- Daniel (shore is puzzled) Nighteyes

[Mulee Pete]

Thanks fer the 'splaining.
You know, I've noticed that there is a lot of "me, me, me" in the American attitude these days.  I don't mean self sufficiency.  I mean plain selfishness. 

I find no sense in the 21st Century , nor pick up sign of where it went........

[River City John]

I called around today to get some large and small magnum primers. Cabelas was out. Only shop I found had them for $32.00 /1000!
The owner told me they had to raise them to that price and refuse all discounts or wholesale prices because all the dealers were coming in and buying up their stock.

So, almost doubled from the last box of 1000 I bought last year. I could only budget ONE box of each until mid-summer.


Soon the Black Market, I fear.
RCJ

[HappyTrigger]

I too have experienced the store-imposed rationing. They say the distributors are rationing to them, and as soon as they get a few boxes, customers come in and want it all. They can't tell you when they are getting a next shipment or how much they are getting, and they won't take your telephone number to let you know when they get it. My strategy has been to stop at every gun shop along any route I'm taking and hope to get lucky. Last week, for the first time in about two months, I got lucky on the 3rd stop of the day. This is crazy!

[River City John]

Well, fortunately I had bought several tins of Remington # 10's about two years ago at a closeout. Then another hardware-type store was closing out their shooting stuff and picked up 4 tins of Dynamite Nobel #1075. (? Why they had just those I'll never know. Maybe other customers had snatched up the other brands if they had carried them.)

So I'm good for awhile on the cap'n'ball caps.

RCJ

[Wagon Box Willy]

I'm new to all this so I was never able to enjoy the cheaper prices but luckily I have a local gun shop who while expensive, has plenty in stock.  Lots of primers although I paid $34/1000, Winchester brass at $32/100, Trail Boss at $18, BP at $17, and Remington caps at about $5.50/100.  I justify the higher prices by realizing the savings in shipping and Hazmat.

Even so, at $38/50 for cowboy 45 colt, while it may take a little while longer to recoup the investment because of the higher prices, it's still significantly cheaper to reload.

   -Willy

[Short Knife Johnson]

I've been told that everything is going to military contracts.  What is leaking out to the civilian market is being gouged.  I totally seen this coming, and having remembered the big primer famine of 1994 loaded up well in advance.  Powder prices aren't too nasty here in Canada, but I'm told the average primer price if you find them is around 45 to 55 Canuck dollars per 1000.  I have about an 8 year supply, so I'm hoping to ride it out.  A good friend of mine called a major barrel maker that shall remain nameless to order a .45 barrel for a BPCR.  He got told it won't be for a while because alomst every major maker is swamped with government contracts for .223, .308 and .50 pieces of rifled pipe.  It sounds like a "no-bid" contract, they were told "Just keep building them, we'll pay for them."  De-escalating the Middle East indeed.  This does not sound good.

[Mulee Pete]

The anti gun mob may not have to worry.  Manufactures will make our shooting irons usless if they have no lead to throw.

Maybe its time to move back to a Flint-lock.   Anybody got a recipe for home made blackpowder?

Or bow & arrow........maybe spears

[Short Knife Johnson]

Find a copy of "the Backwoodsman" magazine Volume 30 No. 1  Jan/Feb 2009, it's in there.   

[Montana Slim]

Doesn't seem to be a run on blackpowder...I don't expect one either...least in the near term.
Frankly, primers have been available for reloaders in the past only to sell excess capacity of their manufacture.
The real money is in selling ammunition....primers are first used for manufacture of ammunition, the secondary market is to reloaders suc as ourselves. Once the supply of ammo outpaces demand, I expect primers to be readily available again.

I recently popped in to my local gunshop looking to see if they had any CCI #10 caps as I'm a bit low and would like to get 2-3 tins and be ready for next spring. Well, the shelves were bare....NO rifle or pistol primers, a FEW 100 packs of shotgun primers and a COUPLE tins each of CCI #11 and "magnum" CCI #11 (no 10s)... the clerk was surprised at my response to his inventory when I stated I had a better selection at home....I was waiting for him to make me an offer, but he didn't 
$50 / 500 for .44 or .45 cast bullets, very few jacketed bullets, but they did have smokeless propellants and BP substitutes....plenty of guns too, prices did not seem inflated. Could be because they had very little ammunition and/or components for sale. 

Oh, well....nothing you'all didn't know.

Regards,
Slim

[Professor Marvel]

  Anybody got a recipe for home made blackpowder?

Ah my Dear Monsieur Pete,

In fact over the past year I have been seeing postings on numerous forums as the homemade BP crowd is coming out of the shadows, and posting their recipes, methods, etc. Whilst there is always the crowd crying "OMG that is so unsafe" the proponants of
said recipes have been following safe techniques succesfully for some time, often taking their proceses and procedures from the remarkably large Amature Rocketry crowd; interesting folks who actually legally manufacture their own rocket motors, thrust chambers, nozzles, and solid propellants.

Additionally, several folks on Reloading forums have dug up the old NRA articles (from the '50s I believe) regarding the actual reloading of primers and expediant (non BP) powders, as well as how to create jacketed bullets from copper pipe. 

Betwixt all these resourcefull individuals, and the casting of lead bullets,  I am confident we can keep our smokepoles running.
yhs
prof marvel

[Jbar4Ranch]

Supposedly, the military is buying ammo up at a rate three times what they have in the past, and civilian demand has easily doubled. Hornady tells me they are running 24/6 at nearly 200% their normal capacity and backorders are still several months to a year out. Expect at least another 12-18 months before things return to any semblance of normal.

On the plus side, I've been getting in limited, but regular shipments of .380, 9mm, .40 S&W, .45 acp, .38 spl, and .44 mag lately. (Wholesale Sports, formerly Sportsman's Warehouse) No .357 mag and only a few boxes of Hornady LEVERevolution® .45 Colt though. Of course, no .25 acp, .32 acp, .32 S&W, .32 H&R mag, .38 S&W, .45 Schofield, .38-40, .44-40, .460 S&W, .480 Ruger, .500 S&W or any other handgun ammo. Lots of .45 GAP for some reason - CASES of the stuff, and I don't know ANYBODY who has one. I guess those of us with S&W M25's could shoot it up too. No primers or percussion caps yet either, although they are showing up in limited quantities at other stores around town. We did just get in 5000 CCI-35's though, if ya happen to have a .50 BMG laying around.

[delmar]

Ah my Dear Monsieur Pete,

In fact over the past year I have been seeing postings on numerous forums as the homemade BP crowd is coming out of the shadows, and posting their recipes, methods, etc. Whilst there is always the crowd crying "OMG that is so unsafe" the proponants of
said recipes have been following safe techniques succesfully for some time, often taking their proceses and procedures from the remarkably large Amature Rocketry crowd; interesting folks who actually legally manufacture their own rocket motors, thrust chambers, nozzles, and solid propellants.

Additionally, several folks on Reloading forums have dug up the old NRA articles (from the '50s I believe) regarding the actual reloading of primers and expediant (non BP) powders, as well as how to create jacketed bullets from copper pipe. 

Betwixt all these resourcefull individuals, and the casting of lead bullets,  I am confident we can keep our smokepoles running.
yhs
prof marvel

Yup, I have reloaded a few hundred primers. I made a video. 

[Mulee Pete]

I love American inginuity!    I am gonna have to try this myself.

[delmar]

I love American inginuity!    I am gonna have to try this myself.

It is very time consuming but it is gratifying to know that you can always get what you need to keep loading. If you have any trouble finding strike anywhere matches, they sell them at Ace Hardware.

I have also  made a bit of powder as well, out of stump remover and sugar. I sort of enjoy that too! It takes more powder to get the same bang, but it sure is a cheap way to fire my muzzleloader!

[Daniel Nighteyes]

Maybe its time to move back to a Flint-lock.  Anybody got a recipe for home made blackpowder?

Or bow & arrow........maybe spears

The bow I have, along with about five dozen arrows.  As for spears (or in this case lances)...