Primers

ballman6711 said:

There was a place years ago called "The Reloading Bench", I think it was in Alexandria. Not sure if they are still in business.

There also were several gun shops near Gainesville, or thereabouts, when I left Virginia two years ago.

And don't forget the gun shows. Chantilly is huge, but the one in Woodbridge at the VFW was always interesting to me, lots of antique military stuff if that's your thing.

I'm pretty familiar with Northern VA and if you don't mind a drive west you can probably find something. Make a day of it and just go shop to shop, never know what you might stumble across.

chris

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Yeah I’ve lived here since ‘66 and am pretty familiar with past and present stuff.

Reloading bench along with a couple of other gun shops and a very small range were in Annandale (the inside the beltway part) but closed maybe 20 years ago. Today they are Korean bbq, Pho shops, or Halal meats (and I don’t mean that critically only that things are really changed).

Woodbridge, Manassas, warrenton, leesburg, etc, one can travel far and wide but, the point though isn’t gun shops or gun shows— been to them all—it’s reloading components and there aren’t any such animals. The cabelas to which I referred is in Gainesville btw.

And I’m not talking about they are out of components, I’m saying they never sold them.

CQB45ACP said:

Yeah I’ve lived here since ‘66 and am pretty familiar with past and present stuff.

Reloading bench along with a couple of other gun shops and a very small range were in Annandale (the inside the beltway part) but closed maybe 20 years ago. Today they are Korean bbq, Pho shops, or Halal meats (and I don’t mean that critically only that things are really changed).

Woodbridge, Manassas, warrenton, leesburg, etc, one can travel far and wide but, the point though isn’t gun shops or gun shows— been to them all—it’s reloading components and there aren’t any such animals. The cabelas to which I referred is in Gainesville btw.

And I’m not talking about they are out of components, I’m saying they never sold them.

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Hala meat is good! they bleed the animal and it has a super clean taste! try some wings! or a roast

Glad to hear you all are seeing some at the lgs. my area has been dry since right after the start of covid.

Hoping they get some soon hunting season is coming up and I need them !

Mark_Mark said:

I stop going to Locals and looking for components, was not worth the time and gas (Prius 55mpg, don’t hate). I’ll give it a few months! Saving my $$& for a Les Baer

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You'd be better off saving it for a Les Paul.

Mark_Mark said:

Hala meat is good! they bleed the animal and it has a super clean taste! try some wings! or a roast

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No thanks, but Halal shops are all over the area along with Peruvian chicken, the aforementioned east Asian joints, and also Thai, Curry, Salvadoran, Mexican, texmex, sushi, and a five Guys.

Five Guys. Yummmm. I can feel my arteries cloging.

My co-worker found LPP and shotgun primers in stock last weekend at a local shop. He didn't buy any, he needs SPP. He also said that powder selection and quantity has increased there over the past few months, too. Other components were plentiful, but somewhat random. It's looking better!

GeoDudeFlorida said:

Five Guys. Yummmm. I can feel my arteries cloging.

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Five Guys is not Unhealthy! it’s meat, bread, and vegg! LOVE IT

GeoDudeFlorida said:

Five Guys. Yummmm. I can feel my arteries cloging.

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Okay then we also have Elevation Burger, Social Burger, Burger Shack, Melt, BGR Burger Joint, Fosters Grill, and that’s just on this end of Fairfax. Heck, now that you mention it, maybe they’re trying to clog arteries to reduce the population.

Been lurking the "where are reloading components available" thread, and scored some CCI small pistol primers at midway for $100 delivered. I'm down to 300 spp, and not as price-sensitive - I can understand those not wanting to pay that much.

So, primers are coming back to the major mail-order retailers. Next up: availability at the LGS, which I would much rather support.

3 times in a row now I've scored some primers by accident. SPM, LR and SR #41, all CCI. The one today, I went to buy a 3D archery target, and chatted with the gun guy a bit. "Aren't you the guy that usually asks about primers?" He had one lonely box of CCI 41s hiding behind the 9mm ammo pile. On a positive note there, all common calibers including .22LR were available and holding inventory until more arrive.

I think I'm past the impulse buy stage on primers now. I do feel blessed vs some others on here. I only have 2 local stores that carry reloading stuff, but they also sell chicken feed, work clothes, chainsaw accessories, cheap snacks in bulk and other things I buy regularly, so I usually troll the reloading section on my way to other things. Things are looking up, as people like me are done buying stuff for awhile unless it's priced to sell.

I'm feeling like it is starting to turn around from what I've seen at the LGS and what I've been reading online. Current stock on my shelf is holding ok. Since it has warmed up here in Michigan, I've been busy doing other things with the family and haven't gotten out to the range even half as often as I had planned (I used to go weekly, but now I'm lucky to get there once a month). It's hard to run out if I'm not using them!

SPP and No.41 SRP at Midway this am plus SPP at Brownells.
Appears things are turning around.
Midway has a limit of 1k but Brownells has a limit of 2k.
To make things worthwhile at Midway I was able to cart the NATO SRP and SPP together to at least split the shipping and hazmat.
Been loading an awful lot of 300BO both super and sub and my SRP stock is down to under 2800. Still have 2k brass left to fill.

Natchez had CCI No.41 NATO 5.56 primers today. Limit 5k at $74.99 per 1k.
That's the 1st time in a year that I've seen any primers at Natchez.

I took my kid to Cabelas to see the fish and the animal mounts and they had two bricks of federal SPP and SRP match. They would only sell me 400 SPP and I paid .08/per but I was glad to see them. Got a couple bulk packs of Winchester .22 also. I imagine about half of them will go off. Good to see SOMETHING available after 18 months of nothing.

1KPerDay said:

I took my kid to Cabelas to see the fish and the animal mounts and they had two bricks of federal SPP and SRP match. They would only sell me 400 SPP and I paid .08/per but I was glad to see them. Got a couple bulk packs of Winchester .22 also. I imagine about half of them will go off. Good to see SOMETHING available after 18 months of nothing.

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NICE! have not seen primers at CB since April of last year. Funny thing was, the clerk talyme into stocking up a .223 powder instead of Primers!

hindsight is 20/20

My local Bass Pro has not had any primers on the shelf. I went last Sunday. The three LGS's in my area that I frequent also had none on the shelf. So we are still very dry in these parts.

Scored a sleeve of Federal small pistol today, $79 at the LGS. They had LPP, SRP and SPM in stock. Not cheap, but a darn sight better than the $149-$250 I've seen online for available primers

Got some Federal gold medal SPP at Midsouth today, recommend you put in a email reminder for when they are in stock again, I had every SPP in stock notice checked for Midway, Brownells, Midsouth and a couple others, this is the first one I was able to take advantage of. I just checked and 10 hours later they are no longer in stock. So I guess I got lucky this time.

So if you need them, place the in stock notice thingy and maybe you will get lucky too, my LGS's still have not seen primers for a year now so online is what I had to do.

Keith

1k cci SPP from midway today. Delivery on Friday!

Bill M. said:

I would pay $75 for 1000 right now if I could find some. I am encouraged that some stores have them. My local store and shooting range said they will get some this week.

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Sportsman Outdoor Superstore had some Sm and Lg Pistol primers as of Friday but they are up there in price.

I lost my flairing plug for 38/357 when i dropped my die set box. So in the search. I pulled everything from under my loading bench. Found a 100 count sleeve of large pistol and about 20 loose small pistol and 50 estimate if .224 bullets. If your out of primers might be an option to root under the bench. Still looking for my plug lol.

Our local CAL Ranch store in Casa Grande got CCI 500 SPP last week, and have been selling them $5.99 per 100, limit one per day. They had several thousand behind the counter. Over a week between me and my best friend we scored 1000, for a retail price of $60 per thou. Considering the pre plandemic prices was about $40 there, this isn't too badly gouging. I also was able to score a pound of HS-6 for under $40 with tax, and they had Hornaday 9mm 124gr XTPs as well, but they went up from $17 to $19 per 100. Still, considering they are the ONLY game in town, I am happy. I actually got to blow the dust off my reloading gear last night, what a wonderful feeling to make the ammo flow.

Oh BTW i found my flaring plug.

Third day in a row getting notification from MidwayUSA about CCI#41s being in stock, then out of stock by the time I opened the site. dang. Well, I guess I'll keep waiting.