found some primers :-(

Small cartridge, not any exceptionally slow powder. . . I think you won't see much increase in peak for the magnum (meaning you weren't missing much with the CCI).

You might see more flattening or cratering vs the CCI, see so I'd step back 10% to check.

I load a lot of tg and my Lyman manual has a max lower than that for 38 spl. I load 3.3 for my son but in a 357 pistol. Where did you get that load and is it plus p

I see in the “Where are the reloading components “ thread that Natchez has large pistol primers for like $94 per 1000 so your not far off.

I lol'd at the vernacular in the OP's narrative. That's Hollywood script writer good. Lol Was it Appalachian or just good old Southern Redneck? Either way not a twang one might expect to encounter in Noo Hampshire.

But yeah, 10 cents a pop is the new norm and I seriously doubt it will ever be much better .... y'all.

One day someone, some chemist, is going-to figure-out a way for us to reload our spent primers and, whomever does will be a hero ... and I'm not talking about the current corrosive home remedies either. I'm talking about a genuine modern primer home build kit.

It can and will be done.

Airborne Falcon said:

One day someone, some chemist, is going-to figure-out a way for us to reload our spent primers and, whomever does will be a hero ... and I'm not talking about the current corrosive home remedies either. I'm talking about a genuine modern primer home build kit.
It can and will be done.

Click to expand...

I'm hoping someone figures out how to eliminate the primer altogether.

redcon1 said:

I'm hoping someone figures out how to eliminate the primer altogether.

Click to expand...

Time to bring back the flintlocks?

Funny!

My last BEST primer buy was about 14 months ago. I had been driving a hour to Reno 1X a week for about 10 weeks. Mainly searching for primers. And scored many times.

This time my wife told me she wanted to tag along, maybe she thought I’d found a GF in Reno?

Anyways, we get to the parking lot at Cabelas about 0855. There is a line outside. By the time we get to the door, it’s open!

Inside the 3-4 customers in front of us are waiting in a “gun line.” I ask the employee controlling the gun line, do you have any primers? He waved me to the counter. I asked the clerk, “Do you have any primers?” Reply, “What are you looking for?”

you know the rest of the conversation.

I got 1,000 CCI SPP primers. A guy cuts between my wife and the counter and addresses the clerk. “Excuse me! My wife was about to get her 1,000.” The clerk laughs.

What do you want? Please don’t get the Federals!

She liked the pretty blue and silver bix.

We walked out paying $34.00 a 1,000.

Then to Sportsmans, bankrupt.

Then to Scheels. Cabinet full of CCI #41s. We walked out with our 2,000 @ $54.00 per.

I took the wife to coffe, we went back, changed masks, got another 2,000.

Then I posted it here!

Not all of my trips went like that but hitting the Big 3, mid-week I always came home with something I needed.

I don't know why my area has been different during all of this. I've been able to pick up most of the items I've looked for.

One local shop has bricks of small pistol primers on the shelf for $9 a sleeve with very few buyers. A second shop is getting $6 for them. I actually left them for someone else yesterday.

I’ve been sneaking around and picking up primers online around $75-80 per thousand, which puts them to my door at 10-11¢ each. Doesn’t really change anything compared to paying 10-11¢ each to buy locally from a shelf, but admittedly, I’ve only bought 3k BR4’s this year so far, largely because 15-16¢ per doesn’t feel great - but I did pay it for the 3k match rounds I expect to shoot next season.

Spclk said:

I don't know why my area has been different during all of this. I've been able to pick up most of the items I've looked for.

One local shop has bricks of small pistol primers on the shelf for $9 a sleeve with very few buyers. A second shop is getting $6 for them. I actually left them for someone else yesterday.

Click to expand...

Where's "your area"? But, yes, the shortages - of everything from primers and powders to toilet paper and baby wipes - has been very much regional. A metro area will have everything while an hour down the interstate a rural area has empty store shelves - and/or vice-versa. It's been an odd kind of supply-chain mash up. Copier paper even ran short here. A colleague at The House of Mouse said they've got stacks of reams, brand new and still coming in regularly. The Mouse never ran out of TP, but my aunt who lives twenty minutes north of O-Town was reporting empty shelves in March of '20 and they're still having paper supply issues. I don't think it's just The Mouse's buying power, either. I think it's because they maintain their own supply chains. Kind of like Cabella's/Bass Pro, etc.

Col. Harrumph said:

I found it on the jar's label:
38 special 3.8 gr. 158 gr. cast LSWC Win case, Win primer 920 fps
...billed as a maximum load and to start 10% under. No mention of +P.

I'm using CCI's and mixed headstamps, no problem so far. I'd give the lot number if I could find it.

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I checked my bottle and for sure there it is. 38 all seems anemic after 357 so I had low expectations.

I've heard many say back off by a tenth to compensate for the hotter primer to get the same chrono results.... however, ive never been able to see that difference. Either my equipment isn't precise enough, or I'm not precise enough, or my mag. primers weren't hotter enough to show a difference. YMMV.

Spclk said:

I don't know why my area has been different during all of this. I've been able to pick up most of the items I've looked for.

One local shop has bricks of small pistol primers on the shelf for $9 a sleeve with very few buyers. A second shop is getting $6 for them. I actually left them for someone else yesterday.

Click to expand...

Where are you. What. City? If it’s true it would be el worth the drive.

TTv2 said:

It will get better when there's not a Democrat in the White House and when the prices go back down on primers, get a new credit card with a 12 month 0% introductory APR and max it out. Pay it off in full after 11 months and keep adding to your primer stash for the next time a Donk steals the election.

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And the countdown begins .... God Bless you TTv2. It was good reading the open honesty while it lasted.

Those 0% 12 month transfer deals are over btw. I'd relish one somewhere except for .... there are no primers to buy at 0% and it's better to be debt free with what's coming.

Althoooouuuuugh at 0% APR .... wait. Is this a NWO mind game?

Nevermind.

Must concentrate must concentrate must concentrate

Airborne Falcon said:

And the countdown begins .... God Bless you TTv2. It was good reading the open honesty while it lasted.

Those 0% 12 month transfer deals are over btw. I'd relish one somewhere except for .... there are no primers to buy at 0% and it's better to be debt free with what's coming.

Althoooouuuuugh at 0% APR .... wait. Is this a NWO mind game?

Nevermind.

Must concentrate must concentrate must concentrate

Click to expand...

Don’t sleep. Clowns will eat you.

Locally we had Federal Small Rifle for $5.99 per 100, limit two. Managed to get a few hundred before they ran out, keep me going for a little while.

I notice that I didn’t get an answer from Spick on where he was finding primers. Kinda figured! Oh well.

When I can find a brick for $100 I buy it. My LGS got several thousand on consignment but you had to be quick because one guy would buy everything on the shelf no matter what flavor. I did manage 6K SPP for $100/1000 OTD. Got 14K stocked up for a rainy day and it's clouding up from what I can see.

Yup I think .10 is the new normal, I have told myself I will do up to .13. I am still looking, and buy when I find it, but at this point will walkaway from .13 and above, I will do anything below that because as a poster said, think this is where we are.

After all with the guy in charge talking about deer in kevlar you know it is not going to get any better......a great many things are not going to get better.

I’ve been finding some at my nearest Cabelas for $80/1000. I buy a brick when I can. Usually SPP if available.

Remington1911 said:

Yup I think .10 is the new normal, I have told myself I will do up to .13. I am still looking, and buy when I find it, but at this point will walkaway from .13 and above, I will do anything below that because as a poster said, think this is where we are.

After all with the guy in charge talking about deer in kevlar you know it is not going to get any better......a great many things are not going to get better.

Click to expand...

That seems pretty reasonable until you consider two things: inflation is eating 15% of every price change and the CODB (Cost Of Doing Business) via wages and increased energy costs is eating the 85% of every price increase. The actual "value" (as Adam Smith defined it) of every thing we consume hasn't changed - primer + powder + case + projectile is still a better value than a factory-made cartridge* - but the "cost" has. That's mostly because our average income has declined in the past year compared to our average expenses, by a huge number. Until those situations reverse - lower overall CODB and lower overall inflation, with a higher value dollar and improved real spending power - will the cost of anything come down. But even when the cost changes, the value doesn't.

* the only way that equation proves false is if one compares the lowest possible form of factory ammo to the highest possible form of handloaded ammo - IOW: if you compare banger-mag-dump-just-making-noise 9mm/5.56m FMJ ammo to hand-crafted competition/hunting grade ammo, then (and only then) is factory a lower cost - but it's also of lower value.

Available right now. Match SRP

https://www.midwayusa.com/product/953153612?pid=889153

Price delivered to TX was $120/1000 (tax and shipping/hazmat)