Future availability of primers

[orpington]

I have plenty of powder and brass for the rounds I load for, I have plenty of bullets, lead, and the ability to cast more. The only limiting factor are primers. All the other components I have, if kept cool and dry, should last my lifetime. What is the lifespan of primers? They are available locally at $29.99 per thousand, which is no screaming bargain. --- So, what do you think? What's a realistic lifespan for primers and do you see a significant price increase on the horizon and/or limited to no availability?

 

[kcofohio]

Politics aside, I have been using primers, CCI 200, made in the '70s. No failure to ignite yet.

 

[au_prospector]

Powder will spoil before primers

What I have heard.

I dont have anything really old, more than 8 years anyway.
If you rotate your stock and shoot regular, should not be any problems.

Even with the current politics, see no reason to have 5 decades worth of stock and supplies.
I wont live that long.

 

[ReloaderFred]

I'm still using some Winchester Small Pistol Magnum primers that I bought in 1978. I've yet to have a failure to fire with them.

Hope this helps.

Fred

 

[ArchAngelCD]

My shooting buddy is still using powder and primers from just after the Vietnam war. He never has a problem with either.

 

[hdwhit]

... do you see a significant price increase on the horizon and/or limited to no availability?

There may be shortages (and consequent increases in price) because of panic buying by people who fear the government banning everything.

We have been here before. In 1992, Bill Clinton was going to ban everything and there was panic buying of guns, ammunition and reloading components. Primers at the local gun store jumped from $1.75 per 100 to $2.19. I bought enough to load all the brass I had at the time. Now, I have to worry whether those primers, stored in a garage in North Texas for a quarter century, are still good. Rather than risk it, I recently bought new primers and paid $2.99 per 100.

Unless you use primers by the caseload, the potential price increase is probably going to be immaterial when compared with the potential to mis-handle, mis-place, contaminate or just start to doubt the large stocks of primers bought in anticipation of future need.

 

[orpington]

In the 1990's, I fired 3 .40-65 rounds from the 1890's. Two of the three did not fire. Presumably the weakest link was the primer. I think probably primers will be good if stored properly for at least half a century. So now I have to decide if to stock up at least some, or not?

 

[mdemetz]

That old could have been mercury fulminate primers which do degrade.

 

[spur0701]

In 2008 I got into a deal through a friend of a friend on a lot of reloading stuff.....this fellows brother had died a few years before and I got a pickup truck load of stuff. In the mix were about a half a dozen small plastic bullet boxes, these were filled brim with small pistol primers. Why the guy dumped them out of the 100 count storage trays into these boxes where they could bounce around is beyond me but he did and I've been using them since 2008 to reload 9mm and .38. I never had any problems with them and had gotten to the bottom of the last box when I started to run into failure to fully detonate causing some squib loads so I threw out the rest.

 

[orionengnr]

Thirty bucks/thousand isn't bad....if you had been looking a few years ago, you'd say it was pretty dang good.

I'm not sure you will see them for much less in the future (the occasional Cabela's sale excepted) and I'm pretty sure they will go higher and/or be far harder to find. How soon? How bad? Who knows?

Guess I don't understand why you haven't already bought 5-10 years worth...or more, if you are young.

Storm clouds are on the horizon. Buy a few of these, few of those, every payday. Or save up and make a decent sized buy. Or participate in a group buy.

Primers are not tomatoes...they won't go bad in 30 days. And you sure can't grow your own.

 

[DudeRick]

It's time to start banking powder and primers.

 

[Walkalong]

Primers will continue to be available. The price may vary if folks get panicked again and start a buying frenzy, but they will be available. Folks are much better prepared than they were going on 8 years ago.

I just can't see a a panic like the last one no matter what happens, as folks have been buying like mad men for 7 plus years.

I have one favorite bullet which disappeared, and has yet to return. *sigh* But hey, there are other options.

 

[gojones]

Well, I started back reloading about 5 years ago after about 27 yrs. laying off. I am still using powder ($5 lb) and primers from the 1970's. I have hornady and sierra bullets ($4.95 per hundred) for rifle. Everything is new for pistol though. Everything shoots fine and loads with no clumps, or signs of degrading. One thing I have noticed though, too many choices now.

 

[medalguy]

Walkalong, WE have been buying and laying back stocks for the past several years. However, don't think everyone has been doing that. At the range a few weeks ago I was talking with several guys who were asking if they should start buying ammo just in case someone non-gun friendly is elected. They buy ammo every few weeks as they decide to go shooting, no extra stock at all. I fear there are a lot more like these guys.

To the OP: If the situation turns against us, you will have no one to blame except yourself. We have been saying for years to start buying supplies a little at a time and be prepared for the future.

 

[tcoz]

I'm not as optimistic as some people. There will be panic buying as anti-gun rhetoric ramps up and primers will again be among the hardest components to find. I've also noticed a lot of new reloaders over the past couple of years. These are people who weren't around for the last shortage and haven't yet stocked up.

Today's primers should keep almost indefinitely if stored properly.

 

[ArchAngelCD]

I buy when I see a sale but not too much at once. I have about 48,000 primers spread over a number of houses in the family. Most are from before the shortage, I gav2e slowed down shooting a bit because of the shortage. I had around 60K at my peak. I have put in some powder, I'm well over 70lbs right now. I would have more but I ran out of houses to store it in without going over the limits. The regulations are very limiting but I will not go over because it's not safe in case of a fire.

I hope I can find a sale soon because I want to pick up another 20K or so primers before the end of the year. I will not pay the current prices of $35/K...

 

[illinoisburt]

If you have a Cabelas store nearby, S&B primers are usually on sale for around $22/1000. They ran a special a couple months ago for $17/1000.

 

[tcoz]

Wow, I thought I was doing well with about 18k primers and 40+ lbs of powder.
I've seen a few places selling CCI primers for $27-28 per thousand recently. Cabelas just had them at that price with free shipping over $99 plus their hazmat is only $20.

 

[Walkalong]

Walkalong, WE have been buying and laying back stocks for the past several years. However, don't think everyone has been doing that

True, but overall folks are much better prepared this time around. We didn't buy it all.

 

[tcoz]

I had a problem reconciling this whole "stocking up" thing at first. You can't really blame manufacturers for not being prepared the last time because irrational hoarding was also a big contributing factor. I didn't want to be known as "that guy" this time around but right or wrong, I don't want to be caught short again since I had to stop reloading and shooting for six months until I could find suitable components.
In effect then, I'm considering it to be stockpiling rather than hoarding. The problem is that we really don't know what's in store for us. If certain forms of gun control become a reality, will it also trickle down to components eventually? Will their manufacture be completely halted? Will there be an exorbitant tax placed on them? Who really knows.
I'll be 66 years old in a couple of months. I retired a few years early back in 2013 because my wife is disabled (due to MS) and wheelchair bound and requires my almost total attention and care. I also have a number of severe ortho issues that prevent me from any sort of physical activity. As a result the only thing I have going for myself now is my guns and my reloading both of which are my escape and my passion. I can't even begin to fathom what life would be like if I didn't have them.
That's what I fear and how I justified stockpiling components. Even if I never use all of them, my son will get them.

Please don't take this as a "woe is me" thing. I don't ever feel sorry for myself. Rather I feel sorry for my wife who is limited to very few things that she's able to do. She's unbelievably understanding to the point of telling me to buy any gun I tell her is pretty cool. She knows how much money I spend on my reloading hobby and she's all for it.
So, this is why I stockpile the way that I looked down on others for doing in the past. It may be wrong but at least I'm comfortable with it now.

 

[dragon813gt]

It is possible to make your own priming compound and reuse the primer cup and anvil. This is something that needs to be approached w/ extreme caution. But it's feasible. Reason I know is because many others, along w/ myself, attempted it during the last shortage. I wanted to make sure I "could" before I "had" to.

 

[tcoz]

It is possible to make your own priming compound and reuse the primer cup and anvil. This is something that needs to be approached w/ extreme caution. But it's feasible. Reason I know is because many others, along w/ myself, attempted it during the last shortage. I wanted to make sure I "could" before I "had" to.

That's what I call hardcore. I'm suitably impressed.

 

[ReloaderFred]

Having gone through the shortages of 1968, the Clinton years, 2008 and again this last one, it's been my practice to always have at least a two year supply of reloading components on hand at any given time. Now I've increased that to a four year supply, and I'm pretty much there.

My powder supply is comfortable and I can make most of the handgun bullets I need, either cast or swaged. I've got a good stock of rifle bullets in the main calibers I shoot, along with the powder to load them with.

Primers are the critical component, since without primers, powder is just fertilizer and bullets are just fishing weights. I'll probably add another 10,000 pistol primers to my stock, since they're currently available and reasonably priced by my supplier. I see no need to disclose what my stock on hand is, but suffice to say that it's "comfortable".

During the last two shortages I never ran out and I didn't stop shooting. I even supplied a very few close friends with primers to keep them shooting. I did have to buy a few specialty bullets, and I paid dearly for them, but their number was limited, so the impact wasn't that great on my shooting funds.

It's a warm and fuzzy feeling knowing you can weather the storm relatively unharmed. Besides, when I leave this orb, the buzzards will need something to pick over if I haven't used it all up........

Hope this helps.

Fred

 

[Nature Boy]

If I had one wish right now, it would be that federal supported the reloading community more and would make more 210 match primers.

 

[thomas15]

I started handloading in Dec. 2013. We were in the shortage then, not sure if it was the worse of the shortage but it was bad then. The first trip out to buy powder and primers was a bust. So was the second and third trip. I had no problems buying plated 9mm and 45 cal bullets.

During the period between Christmas and New Years 2013 I finally found some primers and 3 pounds of powder right under my nose in a local LGS, one pound each of Titegroup, AA#2 and Power Pistol. From that day on, I have had powder and primers aplenty. But I'm worried that it may not be enough and would like to put about 25K federal 100 SSP and several different bullets for 9mm and 38 special in the bunker. Powder is not really my problem. That said I have enough finished target loads to last a year and enough components to last about 4 years after that. As other have said primers are my main focus. I don't cast bullets and perhaps I'm setting myself up for disappointment but I think I will be able to find bullets when I need them although I have a few in the stockroom.