Primers.

[rjm52]

Some good and bad news primer wise..

Am down hunting in NE Pennsylvania and stopped to see a dealer friend. He is getting in an order of primers shortly...good new is there are primers coming into the pipeline...bad new is the wholesale price is now $65 a 1000...

Bob

[45MAN]

THIS PRIMER SHORTAGE IS REALLY PISSING ME OFF. ACADEMY SPORTS HAS PLENTY OF AMMO SO WHERE ARE THE PRIMERS? WHY IS IT THAT A "BIG DOG" LIKE MIDWAY NEVER HAS PRIMERS? HAS MIDWAY ABANDONED ITS CORE CUSTOMERS IN ORDER TO SCALP PRIMERS TO WHOLESALERS?

[rufus]

My guess is all the primers are going to Federal, Remington and Winchester.
To your point it seems like Midway should be able to get some of them. Assuming they or a pretty large customer !?

[Fowler]

Gentlemen realize that all of the primers are made by the ammo manufacturers so they only sell what they can’t load themselves. They sure as heck are not going to turn production lines down so we can have some primers for our own use.

Places like Buffalo Bore I’m sure had contracts set up long ago to keep supplied with powder and primers, so they will get their first but then buying millions of primers at a time does buy some favoritism I’m sure.

Now I am seeing ammo shelves getting well stocked again. Perhaps not the traditional mix of brands and such but they have ammo to sell. It is getting better but we are a year or two away from “normal” supply’s at whatever ends up being the new normal price…

[bigbore5]

Midwayusa.com has a sweepstakes going on that includes 5000 srp and 5000 lrp in the package.

[cmillard]

Just to give you all a perspective of where primers are going. You need to look at agencies and their need for ammo along with military. Where I work, I placed an order for my work bolt action back in March, have an unknown date of shipment. Our other weapons systems, we ordered back in January and were told that our order would be shipped by spring of 2022. We have been getting some of this ammo trickled in, but not in one big shipment like we used to.

[contender]

Business contracts.
A company selling a product accepts contracts well in advance of supplying things quite often.

At the annual SHOT show,, MANY dealers, & businesses set up their yearly order in one meeting. And often,, even a 5 year contract for the guaranteed delivery of a product. Manufacturers have to fulfill these contracts.

As for pricing,, as long as the demands for raw materials is high,, so will the end product reflect such cost increases.

Take raw material to a scrap yard right now & see what they pay for steel, lead, copper, brass etc. Then multiply that by at least 4 times to get an idea of what a mfg might have to pay for their materials,, BEFORE they make their product.

[Encore64]

I just wonder how many people will learn from this. When things are available, stock up. I've pointed out good buys on primers and other components before. Most simply have the mindset that they'll buy them as they need them.

I grew up in a family that made it through The Great Depression. They apparently learned and made sure we all did too.

[bigbore5]

Stocking up is a good thing. But it only goes so far if you're a high volume shooter, or like myself where the Woman and the kids also compete and practice regularly. A normal range day for us can be 2000+ rounds easily. I shoot at least 200 a week myself every week. It's a combo of rifles, pistols, revolvers, and shotguns. I stock powder and buy lead by the half ton, but my primers are dwindling. I only have a couple thousand of each type pistol left. That's not going to last too long even with our cutting way back.

[junebug]

My local store has CCI small pistol primers for $89.00 per 1000.

[contender]

bigbore5,, many competition shooters who also buy in bulk,, have also cut back. BUT,, one thing a lot of them have done to stay "tuned" is increase their dry fire practice. Then compliment that with reduced live fire exercises.

[sixshot]

To me dry firing is like kissing your sister, I would just as soon watch someone else play chess. I want to shoot & I'm able to do so & will be able to for a long, long time. Just my opinion but this primer thing is kind of suspicious, I recently seen on another forum where 80 tons, yes I said tons of loaded ammo was being loaded on an aircraft to be flown to Slovenia & it was the fourth load! When I was in Africa recently you could buy any bullet, primer or brand of powder that you wanted, they had it on the shelf, anything.

Dick

[bigbrowndog]

Would not surprise me at all Dick. The right to bear arms is protected but commerce of ammunition is highly regulated.

Trapr

[45MAN]

I WENT BY A PRETTY DECENT LGS IN HARLINGEN, TEXAS TODAY, GOOD SELECTION OF AMMO, POWDER & BULLETS BUT NO PRIMERS, SO I WENT TO THE BASS PRO IN HARLINGEN, PLENTY OF AMMO, VERY LITTLE POWDER, BUT A FEW PRIMERS, i.e. 2 1,000 BOXES OF THE CCI BR-4 (10x100 IN EACH BOX), 2x100 OF CCI 300's, 1x100 OF FEDERAL 155M's AND 4x100 FEDERAL 155's, I BOUGHT ALL THE FEDERALS @ $8.99 + TAX FOR EACH BOX OF 100 PRIMERS AND "FELT LIKE I GOT A DEAL".

[pleadthe2nd]

My brother lives in Harlingen, did you happen to see any Unique, if so, I'll have him pick me up some, and what size containers? Thanks for the help.