Primer Availability & Prices

[Beck]

Inflation is certainly part of it, but large rifle primers going from $29.99 in 2019 for 1000 to $229.00 is organized crime! I bought 1000 Winchester large rifle primer from Midway for $29.99 right before the pandemic.

I have a lot of things I could sell too and gouge people who want or need it. I've said before on this forum and others that I refuse to participate. It goes against my values.
Everyone's values were tested and are still being tested during this time in history. A lot of people failed the test... fell flat on their faces.

When I see vulnerable people, I don't see an opportunity for me to profit. I see people who need some lifting up.

Anyway, this primer thing is harder on some than others. I only load for one caliber (7.62x39), and I only handload things I can't buy in factory loads for limited purposes. I have tons of factory ammo for plinking.

I currently have 4,000 large rifle Boxer primers, plenty of powder, projectiles and x39 brass. It will last me for a very long time. Certainly long enough to see happier prices down the road.

I have nearly 5,000 large rile Berdan primers, if that counts.

 

[tactikel]

My first primer purchase was in the late 1960s, $9.90 for CCI small pistol brick of 1000. For perspective: gas (not gasohol) was 32 cents/gal, McDonald burger 13 cents, 7 ounce beer 15 cents, a 3 br 2 bath brick house in the suburbs $35k. Primers are a bargain IMHO.

 

[Bush Pilot]

I'm still sitting on several thousand primers I paid $7.99/1000 in the 70s. I just roll my eyes when I see what's going on these days.

 

[CQB45ACP]

Inflation is certainly part of it, but large rifle primers going from $29.99 in 2019 for 1000 to $229.00 is organized crime! I bought 1000 Winchester large rifle primer from Midway for $29.99 right before the pandemic.

I have a lot of things I could sell too and gouge people who want or need it. I've said before on this forum and others that I refuse to participate. It goes against my values.
Everyone's values were tested and are still being tested during this time in history. A lot of people failed the test... fell flat on their faces.

When I see vulnerable people, I don't see an opportunity for me to profit. I see people who need some lifting up.

Anyway, this primer thing is harder on some than others. I only load for one caliber (7.62x39), and I only handload things I can't buy in factory loads for limited purposes. I have tons of factory ammo for plinking.

I currently have 4,000 large rifle Boxer primers, plenty of powder, projectiles and x39 brass. It will last me for a very long time. Certainly long enough to see happier prices down the road.

I have nearly 5,000 large rile Berdan primers, if that counts.

I think you should give your stuff away to the more needy among us. Just give it away. Some peoples values elsewhere don’t think firearms should be permitted at all. Don’t give your stuff to them though.

 

[GeoDudeFlorida]

I'm still sitting on several thousand primers I paid $7.99/1000 in the 70s. I just roll my eyes when I see what's going on these days.

I didn’t start buying bricks until I started shooting service rifles and club matches. Before that I bought sleeves, when they were available, and reloaded the same cases as I emptied them after a hunt. I remember being really shocked the first time the shop owner I’d known since I was in elementary school - with his youngest son - told me they were out of stock. And when his order did finally arrive they had gone up from 50-cent a sleeve to 75-cents. Inflation, trucking costs, taxes - it was OPEC, the Unions, the Carter Malaise. No sense griping about it, just knuckle down and get by.

 

[blackd24]

My LGS has tons of primers. All priced $90-100 per thousand. 2k limit per type. They are getting steady shipments as well.

 

[ParallelCode]

My LGS has tons of primers. All priced $90-100 per thousand. 2k limit per type. They are getting steady shipments as well.

Not too bad considering no shipping/hazmat.

 

[JSneezy]

The only LGS I know of that consistently has primers is Bruno's, and considering their prices, I'm more than happy to wait it out. CCI #41 were around $115 last time I looked, and that was their "on sale" price. Sportsman's Warehouse occasionally gets some in, but that 2 sleeve limit is a giant pain.

 

[2ndtimer]

Was at achedemy tonight and the winchester mil spec srp just sitting. I'm guessing people afraid of them.

A few years back Winchester primers had a reputation for leaking and engraving bolt faces. Given a choice (not very often these days) they would be last on the list, even behind imports.

 

[2ndtimer]

My LGS has tons of primers. All priced $90-100 per thousand. 2k limit per type. They are getting steady shipments as well.

Curious as to location? Southeastern Washington State and Northeastern Oregon has none on the shelf. The Scheel’s store in Billings MT had a one brick limit with decent selection $80-$100, but no large rifle.

 

[blackd24]

South central PA

 

[deadeye dick]

My first primer purchase was in the late 1960s, $9.90 for CCI small pistol brick of 1000. For perspective: gas (not gasohol) was 32 cents/gal, McDonald burger 13 cents, 7 ounce beer 15 cents, a 3 br 2 bath brick house in the suburbs $35k. Primers are a bargain IMHO.

In my day 8 o/z beer was .10 AND a free lunch. Guess i'm dating myself but who cares.
Life is like a roll of toilet paper, The closer you get to the end the faster it goes!

 

[hdwhit]

Yesterday I paid $ 7.00 for a medium cup of coffee and a bagel. And it wasn't at rip-off Starbucks. Later in the day took my daughter for a treat, paid $ 11.00 for 2 ice cream cones. Almost fainted both times...so primers at 15 cents a piece is what I expect from the barbarians and their supporters. Staying home more in the future.........

Yesterday, I made coffee at home at a cost of about $0.59 and had an English Muffin with Sausage for $1.29. There are (almost) always alternatives. Inflation is impacting every aspect of the economy. Don't surrender. Instead, become imaginative and creative.

 

[GeoDudeFlorida]

Yesterday, I made coffee at home at a cost of about $0.59 and had an English Muffin with Sausage for $1.29. There are (almost) always alternatives. Inflation is impacting every aspect of the economy. Don't surrender. Instead, become imaginative and creative.

Skilled labor is still the biggest cost of manufacturing and transportation - fuel costs - are close behind. There isn’t a way around either one that I find acceptable. This is exactly why a few folks out there are making their own primers. Personally, I’d rather pay for someone more experienced using better equipment, with competent QC checking their work making my explosives - but that’s just me.
I agree, making your own breakfast at home will save money over eating at a restaurant. You’d save more if you baked your own muffins using eggs from your own chickens, and made your own sausage from pigs you hunted and butchered yourself. But how much time and skill do you have in those directions?

 

[Will Munny]

Skilled labor is still the biggest cost of manufacturing and transportation - fuel costs - are close behind. There isn’t a way around either one that I find acceptable. This is exactly why a few folks out there are making their own primers. Personally, I’d rather pay for someone more experienced using better equipment, with competent QC checking their work making my explosives - but that’s just me.
I agree, making your own breakfast at home will save money over eating at a restaurant. You’d save more if you baked your own muffins using eggs from your own chickens, and made your own sausage from pigs you hunted and butchered yourself. But how much time and skill do you have in those directions?

That is actually not necessarily true. Economies of scale make many things less expensive if you buy them versus make them yourself. I guarantee me buying most food items at Walmart is going to cost less than raising livestock, etc.
Reloading is similar to cooking at home, its a final assembly of components that can be cost effective, but if you start going down the product chain it gets absurd. The economies of scale in making brass for example are so tilted that doing it yourself would never be cost effective.

 

[JEBruns]

Curious as to location? Southeastern Washington State and Northeastern Oregon has none on the shelf. The Scheel’s store in Billings MT had a one brick limit with decent selection $80-$100, but no large rifle.

Same here in NW Arkansas. Primers have become easy to find of late, and they are staying on the shelves. $90 per K for non-Bench Rest.

 

[berettaprofessor]

SPP primers starting to appear locally for $69.99/1000 but I cannot confirm it.

I can...at least for SRP; I bought two bricks over two weeks at the local Academy Sports for $69.99

 

[RainDodger]

A retailer near me has CASES (case = 5,000) of primers out on the shelf. They're $99.95 per brick. Very, very few people around here will pay that for primers. Including me; at least until I've exhausted my personal stock.

I see all the reports of millions of rounds going to the Ukraine and figure that probably doesn't make it easier for us hand loaders, who want just one drop in the ocean of primers in the world.

 

[Bush Pilot]

Curious as to location? Southeastern Washington State and Northeastern Oregon has none on the shelf. The Scheel’s store in Billings MT had a one brick limit with decent selection $80-$100, but no large rifle.

Why don't you drive over to Lewiston and tap on CCI`s door? I'll bet they'd help you out lol

 

[Bush Pilot]

In my day 8 o/z beer was .10 AND a free lunch. Guess i'm dating myself but who cares.
Life is like a roll of toilet paper, The closer you get to the end the faster it goes!

Were you friends with Matt and Chester in those days?

 

[deadeye dick]

Were you friends with Matt and Chester in those days?

I was seventeen when rhey were on tv in "55" Back then they weren't reruns. Bet you didn't know his horse was named Buck. The same one that Ben Cartwright rode. Can't remember what i had for breakfast but i know my old westerns.

 

[armoredman]

The only LGS I know of that consistently has primers is Bruno's, and considering their prices, I'm more than happy to wait it out. CCI #41 were around $115 last time I looked, and that was their "on sale" price. Sportsman's Warehouse occasionally gets some in, but that 2 sleeve limit is a giant pain.

I just stopped by there on the way home from Jerome. Bruno is the only guy who has consistent supply, but that's because of the prices...I bit the bullet and bought some small pistol magnums for $110.
I hear ya about Sportsmans - limit two sleeves on primers and two tins on caps, too! However, the last time I found large rifle primers at CAL in CG, they had dropped the limit to ONE PER! Probably because they were still under $6 per.

 

[Zendude]

I’m buying 9mm FMJ reloads for $114/500ct at 2A Warehouse. So someone is selling primers cheaper than $100 per 1k of primers to 2A Warehouse.

 

[rg1]

Have kept a good supply of primers since the Clinton years. I have bought a couple bricks of CCI SP primers at todays criminal prices just to add to the inventory. My complaint is not so much high primer prices rather the price of new and once fired brass cases. Brass prices are outrageous and several calibers are unavailable !!!

 

[JSneezy]

I don't buy at these prices because I have enough of each of the types I use that I don't need to worry about it for a while. I've seen instances where everything worked out to around $150 a brick, and people were paying it. If you need them, by all means, get them at that price. I'm just not in a position to feel like I need to spend as much on a single primer as people were loading 9mm for just a couple years ago.