My primer buying is on pause

[GeoDudeFlorida]

Primers have been available through this entire 18 months, or so, on the secondary market. An unwillingness to pay the asking prices doesn't mean there is a shortage.

If by using a "secondary market" you mean buying from an online auction, failing to use a legitimate retailer employing fully compliant methods of shipping "could" land you in jail. Yes, I know there have not been any big stories about people going to jail for mailing or receiving primers in the mail but a lack of enforcement, or delayed enforcement, does not invalidate a prosecution. It certainly "appears" as though these "secondary market" sellers, the online sellers requesting sketchy payment options (lookin' at you PayPal), in particular, are getting away with mailing primers in the USPS due to a lack of enforcement... however, that doesn't make it legal to receive explosives or any other hazardous material through the USPS - or by any means NOT in compliance with Federal, state and local laws - and not being legal in these days of selective prosecution is a very bad place to be. So maybe before recommending "secondary markets," it might be a good idea, for the sake of clarity and to avoid problems, to specify which secondary markets and exactly what is meant by a "secondary market." We never know when the Postal Master and BATFE are watching...

 

[gonoles_1980]

Zincpoint has had primers made in Argentina available for 11-12 cents before shipping and hazmat fees. If I was desperate, I'd probably buy a 1000 form them to give it a try. They have come down in price from 14-15 cents. You can find other places on Ammoseek, Shaw Arms has CCI 500 for 20 cents each before shipping and hazmat fees. So they're sorta available. I'd prefer places I trust like Powder Valley, MidWay or Selway.

 

[n2omike]

When you can find primers at Brownells, Midway, etc they are usually around $79/1000... or around 8 cents each. With hazmat, make that 10 or 11. Usually not THAT hard to find if you pay attention to the thread topic here.

To save on hazmat, Brownells will ship 2 bricks, but Midway only one. One place does around 8 I believe... Natchez, maybe? Of course buying needed powders at the same time will also split up the charges.

Availability comes and goes, but sometimes you can find both powder and primers at the same time. At least if I'm in the market for primers, I'm also looking for powders I can use. Would like to try some CFE Pistol for some 147 grain subsonic 9mm.

 

[Encoreman]

Sure "they" could build a new plant just to manufacture primers. After they spend a bundle to get it built, where are they going to find the people to work there? Most business' can't find warm bodies just to show up, let alone someone competent enough to be trained to make primers. Plus if they pay $500 bonus and $15+ for Mickey Dees how much would the primers cost that is after their margin is included!!

 

[JDTomba]

Up here in N. Florida, the Bass Pro's have had little or nothing. No primers at all. For me, it's not even a question to buy in person.
Bass Pro - 40 miles each way
Academy Sports - 150 miles each way
Cabela's - 350 miles each way

I drive 38 miles each way everyday for work. From work it's only about 5 miles to Bass Pro but if they had primers at 9am by 6pm they're long gone. Tried that. Didn't pan out.

What ticked me off was they advertise the Bass Pro down in Destin to have them and you go there and check and they say only in the Orlando Store. I'll look elsewhere from now on.

 

[brewer12345]

I went to sight in my elk rifle today to make sure I am ready to go this weekend. Managed to get my adjustments done with 6 rounds (3 to see where it hit at 100 yards, 3 to confirm my modest scope adjustment was correct), which is good because I am now down to about 2 boxes of my Partitions and Varget hand loads for the 30-06. I looked to see how hard it would be to get more 165 grain Partitions, saw how scarce and expensive they are, and thought "ruh-roh!" Out to the bench I went in a bit of a panic and started pawing through my stack of components. Hah, 300 Partitions waiting to be loaded, probably a lifetime supply.

This shortage is getting old. Hope things come back before I run out of something I consider to be important. Can always improvise, but dang.

 

[ballman6711]

My primer buying is not on "pause", nor am I going crazy buying primers or stocking up right now.

If I find them, AND I can use them, AND they are at a price I'm willing to pay, then I buy them. It really is that simple for me. As others have said, .03 to .05 cents per shot is not going to make or break me. If it is, then maybe I should cut back my shooting, stop shooting altogether, OR cut back on some other expense so I can keep shooting.

chris

 

[armoredman]

I'd been picking up SPP primers for several months now, mostly from my local Bass Pro store. When they first started to show up late winter this year, they about $40 per K for CCI No.500's. They've been steadily climbing but seemed to be plateaued at $65 per K, which is what I bought some a few days ago for. Today the price has jumped to $79.99. $15 in just a few days. They had about 40 bricks of SPP on the shelf, which is the most I'd seen for a while. I'd guess the new price had something to do with how much they had sitting there.

If I were desperate, I'd probably keep buying. But I have enough to last me at least 4 years at my current once or twice a week range visits, so I'm going to sit on the sidelines and hope to see the market come down. $80 a box is even higher than CCI lists as MSRP, so it looks like Bass Pro is joining the price gouging party now too.

I paused my primer buying too - can't find any.

 

[Zendude]

Is the current estimate still around Fall 2022 to have somewhat decent availability?

 

[packetloss]

I would think by Fall 2022 supply should be somewhat back to a reasonable level. I still don't see prices going down much if at all from where they are now. Inflation is just out of control.

There are places now that have reasonable stock of 9mm ammo at $19 a box with no listed limits on orders, so just like it took about 4 months after ammo was not readily available for primers to disappear, it will probably take 4-6 months for primers to start coming back.

 

[Varminterror]

Is the current estimate still around Fall 2022 to have somewhat decent availability?

There does not seem to be any statistical data to support that that time makes any more sense than tomorrow. It’s pure speculation by folks who just want to either feel better or feel smart, or both. The same folks have been moving the goalpost with the interest of eventually, coincidentally, being right.

If you need it, buy it when you find it for whatever price satisfies you. I’ve bought only from reputable sources/retailers and have picked up sufficient powder, primers, and bullets in multiple opportunities since this thing started to keep my inventory at a responsible level for my shooting volume. I’ve paid more for it than “normal,” but not a terrible amount, and not enough to make me consider slowing down.

Gas price, grocery price, and grocery supply limitations have affected my life and my pocketbook far, far more than my shooting volume, and I don’t have an inconsequential annual shooting volume.

 

[Palladan44]

First the ammo drought needs to get under control, which it is. At that point, the ammo "remanufacturers" (which may I add mostly make poor quality ammunition with whatever components they can get their hands in) will stop, then making more primers available.....they will come around, it just may take another year.

 

[GeoDudeFlorida]

Gas price, grocery price, and grocery supply limitations have affected my life and my pocketbook far, far more than my shooting volume

Brother, you can say THAT again!

Gas and durable grocery items, in particular. We haven't been able to restock our hurricane supplies since early 2020, after the Spring storm and flood season passed. We got hit HARD on the coast with flooding and had to give up some of our personal stash to help needy families and now we're low on candles, lantern fuel, portable cooking fuel, canned goods and durable dry goods (yes, including TP!). What's been done has been done on purpose, in my opinion, and not by private "capitalists". I'll say no more to save @Walkalong the trouble of having to delete my post but, all I got to say is, if primer prices are your only concern, you're quite blessed. Count those blessings and pass them along to those less fortunate, please.

 

[gonoles_1980]

What ticked me off was they advertise the Bass Pro down in Destin to have them and you go there and check and they say only in the Orlando Store. I'll look elsewhere from now on.

I'm about 60 miles from the Orlando Store, really would hate to drive there with all the Orlando traffic to find out there out, same with the Melbourne store it's about 50 miles away. Use to be close when I worked there. I'm a little dependent with online, I use to order 5000 primers and 2lbs of powder to help offset the hazmat fees. Though I did drive 30 miles because I found a place that sold Duval Ale, thought I'd have to fly back to Belgium to ever get some again.

 

[GeoDudeFlorida]

I'm about 60 miles from the Orlando Store, really would hate to drive there with all the Orlando traffic to find out there out, same with the Melbourne store it's about 50 miles away. Use to be close when I worked there. I'm a little dependent with online, I use to order 5000 primers and 2lbs of powder to help offset the hazmat fees. Though I did drive 30 miles because I found a place that sold Duval Ale, thought I'd have to fly back to Belgium to ever get some again.

Driving TO Orlando will cost me $30 in gas, bare minimum. That's assuming slow traffic on I-75 and a clear path on FL19 to SR24, just getting to I-75 can take an hour or more in bad traffic. Driving in Orlando is not something I do often or want to. Tampa's bad enough. I don't how y'all in the big cities put up with all them people around you constantly.

 

[Mark_Mark]

Let me roll my Primer Dice +_+_+_+_+_+_+

full availability on 12/15/2021

Let me roll my Primer Price Dice +_+_+_+_+

$98/1,000

 

[GeoDudeFlorida]

Let me roll my Primer Dice +_+_+_+_+_+_+

full availability on 12/15/2021

Let me roll my Primer Price Dice +_+_+_+_+

$98/1,000

What are you rolling? 5-sided dice or something?
The three new top-secret primer factories won't even be open by then....

 

[packetloss]

There does not seem to be any statistical data to support that that time makes any more sense than tomorrow. It’s pure speculation by folks who just want to either feel better or feel smart, or both. The same folks have been moving the goalpost with the interest of eventually, coincidentally, being right.

I disagree. A lot of this is very predictable and it follows a cycle. When ammo was still readily available, so were primers. As ammo availability started to dwindle, primers were still available even at normal prices. Then ammo mostly disappeared from the shelves, primers were not quite as abundant, but were available at normal prices and no limits on orders. After a few months of that, ammo was essentially unavailable in most stores (a few small orders would pop up for an hour at some stores but that was about it). About that time primers started to get harder to find and limits were starting to be placed on orders. The prices still remained unchanged. This continued for a few months and pretty much anyone that could backorder bulk primers was putting in as many orders as they could enter knowing they can sell them on the secondary market at vastly marked up prices. Eventually the primer manufacturers realized things were not getting better and they started raising their prices (2 or 3 times) and eventually stopped taking back orders.

Fast forward to now and ammo is starting to appear on shelves at somewhat reasonable prices ($19 for a box of 50 9mm) and with no limits being placed on orders. That is clearly the start of the next cycle. Eventually folks who can't get primers or don't want to pay $79+ will just buy ammo and then the re-manufacturers and boutique will cut down on any orders or primer consumption. In a few months primers will start to stay in stock longer and then a few months after that limits on orders will probably get removed. The exact timeline is obviously up in the air, but I do think the primer situation will be a lot better next year. Prices on the other hand will not be much better. Inflation is out of control and thus all the components to making primers have gone up. Don't expect to see a brick of primers going for less than $60.

 

[GeoDudeFlorida]

Other than milspec 9mm and 5.56mm, what ammo has now returned to being "readily available"? I'm not seeing hunting loads for .30-30 on anybody's shelves. No .300WinMag or 7mmRemMag... none of the popular deer cartridges in premium hunting ammo are anywhere to be found - not even NOS or swap meets - and what's available online is pricey or out-of-stock - no backorder. I keep seeing posts - not just here, either - quoting 9mm and 5.56mm availability as the only real measure of ammo availability. If all you shoot is 9 and 5.56, and you don't reload - you're maybe okay. But if you want a hunting load in .30-06, .30-30, or .35Rem, you are SOL.

 

[packetloss]

Those calibers were the last to run out and will take awhile before they come back. Simply because the factories are now tooled up to run off tons of the ammo that is back ordered in larger numbers. I suspect 30-30, etc. will start to come back in about 3-6 months.

 

[GeoDudeFlorida]

Those calibers were the last to run out and will take awhile before they come back. Simply because the factories are now tooled up to run off tons of the ammo that is back ordered in larger numbers. I suspect 30-30, etc. will start to come back in about 3-6 months.

Well, like everything else about this panic, it's bound to be regional. I live in a rural area - farming, horse and cattle country - and .30-30, .35Rem, .7mmRemMag, .243Win and the old stand-by's of the tree stands, deer and coyote hunting calibers, were the first to go away, not the last. I could still find 9mm and .40S&W long after the last box of Remington Core-Lokt .30-06 disappeared. .222Rem got cleaned out quicker than .22LR. Point is, seeing boxes on 9mm blasting ammo on the shelves doesn't mean much if the most popular deer round in American history is still AWOL.

 

[JEBruns]

Other than milspec 9mm and 5.56mm, what ammo has now returned to being "readily available"? I'm not seeing hunting loads for .30-30 on anybody's shelves. No .300WinMag or 7mmRemMag... none of the popular deer cartridges in premium hunting ammo are anywhere to be found - not even NOS or swap meets - and what's available online is pricey or out-of-stock - no backorder. I keep seeing posts - not just here, either - quoting 9mm and 5.56mm availability as the only real measure of ammo availability. If all you shoot is 9 and 5.56, and you don't reload - you're maybe okay. But if you want a hunting load in .30-06, .30-30, or .35Rem, you are SOL.

I'll take a better look next time I'm in the local Bass Pro. But they had shelves full of ammo the other day, and it was not just 9mm and 5.56. Lots of other calibers. I didn't pay close attention since I don't shoot much other than 9mm and 5.56.

 

[Mark_Mark]

What are you rolling? 5-sided dice or something?
The three new top-secret primer factories won't even be open by then....

I pleaded the 5th

 

[Howa 9700]

Gotta ask.......back when things were flush, how many folks bought from Graf's? Were they a reliable source? They are one of only 6 online sources for Shooter's World powders and might be the only source for Peterson brass. Seems like they should be solid.

They are still in the 5 cents a primer price range, but never seem to have any. Wondering if that price will hold up once supply returns. If so, they get my biz.

 

[GeoDudeFlorida]

Gotta ask.......back when things were flush, how many folks bought from Graf's? Were they a reliable source? They are one of only 6 online sources for Shooter's World powders and might be the only source for Peterson brass. Seems like they should be solid.

They are still in the 5 cents a primer price range, but never seem to have any. Wondering if that price will hold up once supply returns. If so, they get my biz.

I’ve been using Grafs&Sons since their mail order days. Great people.