Primer shortage

[Mike Pearce]

I have had a order in to Graf's since April for Win LP. No luck.

Yesterday morning I got onto Midway's site and signed up for notification if any arrived. I received a email in the afternoon saying they had them in stock. I jumped over onto their site and put my order in. I did not think I would ever get thru, it was running real slow. It accepted my order. I got onto the primer site ten minutes after I posted my order and it said they were unavailable.

This morning I received notification they shipped yesterday!

I guess I finally got lucky. The last time I saw primers in a store was January.

[Winterhawk56]

It appears there is a shortage but I finally received the primers I ordered from Cabellas. I ordered them in July and received them yesterday! Took a while!

[langenc]

I suspect that when the war ends so will the shortage. In fact, there will be a serious 'rear end' collision quickly-production quantity to consumption. Ill bet many in production will be laid off after the war. Hoarders will be dumping their stocks at a loss, yippiiieee.

Ill be many shooters have several years supply. I have and have not bought or attempted to for 4 or more years, long before the shortages.

[Foxbat]

"Ill be many shooters have several years supply."

Well, that depends... I have about 30,000 on the shelf, and that should last only about six to seven months, so I can't sit on my hands waiting for the "non-shortage" to disappear, so I buy them any which way I can, including at premium on Gun Broker.

[alloy]

About 3 months now on a an order from Cabelas and the date keeps getting pushed back...shortage or not, I guess they are selling like hot-cakes.

Haven't had any problems finding them locally, but sometimes the price is too high for me. A few gun show deals here and there.

[ConradJoyce]

I think I understand all the various reasons for propellant and primer shortages; many rational arguments have been made in this thread and I appreciate the insights presented.

But what I have actually seen is fear.

I reload for the .243, 30-30 and .223 and always buy components locally, so from time to time I find myself in one of the several shops in the area. Used to be these shops were a great place to pick up what I needed and chew the fat, talk about hunting, you know the usual fraternal banter. But this year it has been different. This year I've seen way too many wide-eyed lunatics afraid of apparently everything filling up the shops, fairly frothing at the mouth to purchase firearms and ammo. Really nuts. Comments about the President abound, none of them good. And the guys behind the counter feed this stupidity, which is a pretty big disappointment to me but which makes some sense when you think about it; they've been driving prices up by incenting the demented.

Sure, it's good for business, but it sure makes things hard on the rest of us who actually enjoy firearms.

As for primers, magnum 250 large rifle seems to be plentiful, so that's what I'm using for the 30-30; 150 RN Hornady on top of 31 grains of H335 does not show high pressure problems. I have plenty of primers for the .243 and as for the .223 I built up my reserves a couple of years ago to the point where I don't need any more rounds; I mainly shoot the 30-30 as I am so fond of it (handles well, points well, yada-yada-yada and all of it true).

Crazy days. Maybe some of these lunatics will want to sell their guns in a couple of years, which might help the rest of us improve our collections. I'm counting on it.

Conrad

edit: I've been shooting my '58 Remmie mainly the past few months. No primers, no smokeless, no problem. Sure, it's a mess, but I actually enjoy disassembling a pistol, cleaning it thoroughly and baking it in the oven. Smells like victory.

[Farmland]

I walked into GM yesterday and they had more than enough primers, however at $4.99 per 100 I walked out with none. Later I drove about a 1/2 hour away to a smaller shop and they had more than enough. I bough 5,000 small and 5,000 large pistol for $3.59 per 100.

I go through about 5,000 primers a month and I have yet to go with out having any primers. I don't usually don't stock more than a couple thousand primers for the ones that I use and I don't see or feel a need to stock any more.

I just have not had a problem getting them. I think the shortage today is more of people just stockpiling and grabbing all they can each time they buy. When I have stopped needing a couple of thousand and if they just have enough to cover what I want I only buy 1/2 of what I need for two reasons.

1. Someone in more need than me may need them.
2. I haven't ever not been able to find what I needed.

[Shane Tuttle]

Originally Posted by Foxbat

I have to agree - there is no shortage... you just can't get them, that's all... but there's no shortage!
Yesterday received the notification from the Midway about the WSP primers - but missed that email by 15 minutes or so... they were already gone.
But a shortage? Naah....

I guess with people having different interpretations of the term "shortage" has to be hammered out in order for an argument to continue.

On the way back home from the Honda dealership in Cedar Rapids, my wife was feeling well enough for us to stop by a gun shop we patronize on occasion. They were LOADED with every type of primers you can think of minus small pistol. No problem for me. They still had a type of primer that's acceptable to me to use as a substitute. I walked out of there buying 5 bricks of 1000 of a couple of different types. And to really give people a kick in the pants, they were less than $30/1000. This shop isn't a tiny hole-in-the-wall mom-and-pop store hidden in a forest.

So, what's the definition of "shortage"? Not having every single type of primer at my disposal and able to buy 50,000 if I feel like it? Or not having anything on the shelf exept shotgun primers with a buyer's limit of 500?

Bottom line, whatever the definition is, it isn't ANYWHERE the problem it used to be.

[Mike Irwin]

"They were LOADED with every type of primers you can think of minus small pistol."

I call shenanigans.

You were obviously dipping into your wife's supply of pain killers (good to hear she's feeling better) and were hallucinating.

You bought a box of Q-Tips, a bag of parakeet food, and a 6 pack of BIC disposable lighters.

You'll see the error of your ways when the buzz wears off.

Pity my friends in Marion aren't coming east any time soon; I'd have them pick me up a few ten thousands.

There are still precious few primers in Northern Virginia (and even fewer decent gunshops anymore that carry reloading supplies).

A friend hit the last gunshow (two weeks ago, normally very large, very well stocked) and he said there was hardly any powder, loaded ammo was still spotty in a lot of calibers, and not many primers. The primers they did have were expensive.