Frustrated...Like many others I'm sure

[kealil]

Hello All,

Thought I'd vent for a moment. It seems to be the same story for everyone but I can't seem to find CCI small pistol primers anywhere at a decent rate. All the mainstays are out and seem to have been out for at least a month since I've been looking(powderValley, Natchez, Grafs, etc. I've found plenty of them locally but they are blown way up in price ($45.99/1000, no that is not a joke. that's not counting sales tax)

I know its the same story for everyone at one time or another but I finally finished load development with CCI primers! Now, If I dont want to pay an arm and a leg, I've gotta start load development for primers that I CAN find at a Decent price: Winchester. Lovely....

Oh well, here we go again I suppose.

On the bright side, Now I'll have established loads for Winchester AND CCI primers. Who knows, Maybe I'll buy a few Federal and see if I can't develop a load for that too . Maybe not, I hear XL650s aren't big fans of federal primers....

Anywho, that's my rant.

Anyone know if the XL650 is actually finicky with certain primers? I know that even with CCI I have the occasional hiccup but anything really noticeable. personal experiences?

Thanks for reading!

[Gerry]

Lucky for me my wife is picking up 10,000 Winchester SPPs on her way back from work later today. I get a bit nervous when I'm down to my last big brown box (5 x 1,000). Stores have been dry in my city for the last couple months, but finally as of the beginning of this week they're in stock again here. Of course the pent up demand makes everyone buy them by the case-loads, so probably it will last another week before we face another dry period

I've tried all all 3 primer brands you mentioned in my XL 650. I found CCI to be the most problematic for consistent feeding, but that could just be me. Others don't share my experience. But mainly I hate the fact they don't color coordinate with the brass cases In all seriousness, I've also had the most problems firing them with a few out of every 1,000 not detonating. I use reduced hammer (main) springs for easier double action in my IPSC guns, and CCI's hardness seem to make them more prone to light strikes.

I know a GM class IPSC Production shooter who only uses Federal primers in his XL 650 because they're the opposite of CCI in that they're very soft and easy to detonate, working well with his very reduced mainsprings. To my knowledge he's never had a problem with them in his 650. I only used them out once of desperation myself because I found that compensating for my weak mainspring with an extended firing pin gave me an acceptable reliability rate. Plus Winchester primers here are less expensive than the other major brands.

There has been a lot of conflicting information on the relative reloading safety of various brands of primers. But I'd say an XL 650 is just as capable of turning a CCI primer into little pieces as it is Federal primers. And we've all had it happen, usually without incident. If you head over to the Dillion reloading forum on Brian Enos, you'll see that Federal is an extremely popular primer among IPSC/USPSA shooters and almost the ONLY primer that wheel-gunners use. Considering action sport shooters often load thousands of rounds a month, a third of forum members there should already be dead from primer accidents according to popular belief.

[ShootingNut]

Availability can be spotty around here also, but I feel fortunate that
I can get my WSP for $28.09/1000, or $135/5000.
To each his own, personally I like Winchester.
Regard,
sn

[Clark]

In 1995 an old engineer died and all his reloading stuff went to another old engineer and sat in boxes in his garage until 2007.

In 2007 hundreds of pounds of reloading stuff I did not need was given to me. There were 12,000 primers in addition to my own primer hoarding.

In 2010 there was a primer shortage and I gave 1,000 primers to anyone who ever hunted with me that need primers.

But most of my hunting buddies who already had many lifetime supplies of primers hoarded, drove around during the primer shortage buying up all they could in small towns.

So if you are frustrated by primer shortages, I know some of the guys who are to blame.

[Shootest]

I anticipated this problem, and I think it will get worse. Over the this last summer I purchased 45k SPP and 20k LPP. Remington, CCI, and Winchester what ever was on sale at the time. That should be at least a 5 year supply, even if I don‘t go into conservation mode.

[UtopiaTexasG19]

Since the election 4 years back I have learned not to depend on any particular brand of primers.

[Maligator]

Since the election 4 years back I have learned not to depend on any particular brand of primers.

I agree, I'm an equal opportunity purchaser

[jwrowland77]

I've never had an issue on a shortage of anything where I'm at.

[dacaur]

Its cyclical here. for months there will be nothing, then they will be everywhere, then once one place dries up, people panic and suddenly they are nowhere to be found.... The places I have talked too are still getting shipments, they just fly off the shelf as soon as they come in.....

[rajbcpa]

I almost did not read this post because the tittle was non-discript without mentioning primer supplies.

Yeh, CCI primers in my area are all gone and have been so for months. In fact 4 out of five local gun stores in my area have no SPP at all. The only SPP I can find are Federal and only at 1 store at $37 per 1K. I have been checking each store every two weeks or so for months now.

The primer shortage is real here.

You can buy CCI primers on-line occassionaly and they are around $35 per 1K before hazmat fees. Powder Valley has a somewhat reliable source, apparently.

Prices are very high IMO. I have a sufficent stockpile now but I will begin to buy some Tula primers that are around $22 to see if they are any good.

Your options:
* wait out the supply shortage
* Buy on-line at high prices
* Use a different brand

[joshf128]

Yah, last week I was 2 days away from a group buy at Powder Valley when they ran out of CCI SPP and the whole thing fell apart because some people involved won't use any other brand. I prefer CCI, but I would much rather have some than none. Luckily, I stocked up a few months back (I only bought one case, don't blame me) so I still have enough to last me through the hysteria. Cabela's did raise their prices on LPP though, had to pay $35 per 1K a few days ago to feed my 45 habit...

[m&p45acp10+1]

I use Small Rifle primers in place of small pistol primers. They seem to work the same in all of the guns I shoot them out of. When I started reloading during the primer drought they were all I could get. Though make note that none of the loads I use them in are over middle of the road for pressure and velocity. Also I carefully worked up the loads as well. Since I load a lot of rifle rounds anyway I never bothered to pick up small pistol even when they became available due to the fact that I already have loads worked up that work.

[billtheshrink]

Have you tried powder valley? I ended up with small pistol magnum primers because they had no small pistol. I will reduce the load. Last time i used WOLF primers... have a strong firing pin spring!

I use a dillon 650 and NO federal brass is no good unless you use small pistol primers. I have had no issures with winchester primers and small issue with wolf, bit i will avoid russian stuff as much as possible.

personally whenever i feel resistance seating priomers i check and its federal or it WNT. I just toss them.

heard anything about more shortages?

Bill

[GP100man]

Wolf & Tula primers around here are running $20/k

While I don`t go for extra lite springs in my Rugers I`ve had no problems with ignition, but have with seating em . The Wolf/Tula seem to run a bit large & if ya get a tite pocket ,ya have trouble ,but have`nt crushed 1 yet .

[iraiam]

I stocked up quite a while ago, now I'm down to 250 CCI small pistol primers, I will be purchasing Federals that are in stock on friday. I'm stocked up on actual HD/SD ammo until the SHTF or things improve, so I just have to supply my guns for practicing/target shooting.

[Tinner666]

All my suppliers around here were out, or so it seemed until I tripped over 500 at one store and promptly bought them.