I don't understand the shortage............

The wars are at a low.
We are not gearing up for a war.

Are we shipping the primers out of the USA ?

At some time sml pistol primers have to surface again, so we can get some.
Maybe put a 2k limit on all buyers?

I think it's a combo of things.

First, the easy guess, is the panic driving people to snatch everything up.

Second, and take this for what it is, I heard somewhere that companies are devoting their primers to making actual loaded ammo at the moment. So...Fed or Win, or CCI not currently shipping primers because they are being used in loaded bullets.

Hoarding started it, now going into loaded ammo. My guess.

typetwelve has it correct! primers are going into loaded ammo.
plus the loaded ammo is being snapped up by first time gun buyers, (9mm) and experienced shooters buying more than they need-remember the toilet paper shortage? "I heard there might be a shortage so i bought a years supply-pretty soon there is a shortage.
this happened after Newtown, 1999(y2k scare) and several time in the iterim after a year or two things return to normal

sitting in front of my computer last night, I get the email notification from Midway that the small rifle magnum CCI came in, I clicked on my Midway account with a minute and they were out of stock.

I bought what I figured was a life time supply back in the Clinton era. So glad I did. Nothing makes me smile like opening a new brick and finding a receipt showing I paid $9.99 for the brick.

I have also been helping 3 younger friends that are getting into loading. With my help each of them has probably secured about 1 year worth.

What I have preached is the simple fact that primers and powders will never be lower priced than they are now. Also they do not seem to rot and go bad. If you can afford to stock up, you can also get a big grin on your face similar to mine when you open a box in 20-40 years from now. My son thinks I am going to leave him a bunch, but I have plans to use them all up in the next 20 years---if I last that long.

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"Tastes just like chicken"

Only thing I understand is there's no shortage of primers in my workshop.

People are buying up all the ammo. The same companies that make primers make ammo. It’s more profitable to sell loaded ammo.

Couple that with many people wanting to start reloading and others that might not typically reload buying up components and you have no primers to be found except for very inflated prices.

If 9mm ammo typically costs $.20 per round and the price jumps to $.60 per round it’d make sense that the demand for primers and all other components would jump.

Yep, I believe the current political situation spurred panicky ammo purchasing, and closely followed by panic component buying. Then primer manufacturing is primarily going to ammo manufacturing with a little trickling down to reloaders (I think primer manufacturers would rather sell/ship 1 million primers, all at once to a large ammo manufacturer than sell 1 million to a large reloading component vendor a bit at a time to a few warehouses).

Firearm sales are also record setting and I think that too is from panic buying. I visited the local Big Box store today and saw a gun I had been thinking about so I bought it (or I thought I did). After the NICS paperwork was filled out the clerk asked me for my phone number mentioning I'd get a call when the NICS check goes through, in a couple weeks! My last gun purchase only took one extra day, back in Feb., but it seems like the 15-20 minute check is taking weeks because I was number 4,568th in line for my background check...

As soon a someone gets primers in stock speculators buy as many as possible & sell on Gun Broker or elsewhere for $150 plus per thousand


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

We ARE gearing up for a war.

I had to look it up...

OH.MY.WORD.

This is pure insanity:

10000 Federal No.100 small pistol primers - Reloading Supplies at GunBroker.com : 878874402

10 boxes of primers, current bid of $1400+, buy it now of $2900. Holy smokes!!!

$290 a case?!? Those are...er, were everyday $30 cases.

Wow...I guess if someone is willing to pay that much but for me? I'd just not shoot.

This time last year retailers couldn't give them away... You could find them on sale and the manufacturers were offering 25% rebates. I got some for close to $20 a case.

Six months ago I was selling off excess reloading components inventory. Various bullets and brass went quickly, primers I offered for $30/brick, had no takers, so I'm still sitting on them and not for sale.

About 20 mins ago I shopped for ammo for the first time since the pandemic started.

Not because I need it, but I was curious.

WOW.

Luckily I reload 95% of what I need and have enough components to last for a couple years or more if I ration.

Visited a big LGS today. No Small Pistol Primers. What I wanted was 125gr .357 bullets. None. Ammo was available but very expensive. Close to 40 bucks for a box of 50 Blazer Brass 9mm.
I did buy a 250 ct box of Nosler Custom Competition .223 69 gr bullets at $58.00. Under the circumstances I thought that price was acceptable.
The price of guns was astronomical. Im glad Im all set but really wanted to get those 125gr .357 bullets.
I hope we can recover from this price hiking and shortages soon.

Guns and ammo I can speak about...

Reloading supplies, not so much.

Personally, I've been through late 2008 and late 2012 and in time, both settled down. Early 2013, run of the mill $750 AR's were fetching easily double that, you couldn't get ammo like 223 or 9mm to save your life and we all know the 22LR absurdity.

By fall of 2010 and 2014, things had settled down. I bought my first AR in Oct of 2010 and with it, a case of Fiocchi 223 for under $300. I built another AR late 2014 and parts were readily available as was ammo.

I've only been reloading since early 2019, but I listened and learned. A Co-worker at the time was a decades long reloader and was telling me horror stories about powder/primers during droughts...and I listened.

One way or the other, if I had to make a guess, things will settle late 2021, spring 2022. In other words, get comfy...it's going to be a while.

How long the shortage continues depends entirely how the fall elections go.

A friend of mine said the reason for the shortage of primers, and shortage of regular loaded ammo is due to the ignition material not being available , the primers are made in the US , but the material is made in china.
don't know the truth in that but it adds up, I recently found everything I am wearing is made in china from cap to shoes
Thanks Obama administration for giving china the ability to do this.

It’s real simple to me. All the guns in the world are useless without ammo.
Gun control can be about ammo control. Have enough in case.

I have only about 200 spp, but a thousand small rifle primers,
I have been using them to load all my ammo , and large pistol primers for my .45 colts the last 1000 pack I bought about 2 years ago at the gun show in PA was 37.00.
the small rifle primers work in my semis and revolvers.
members at the range come in shoot about 10 rounds to conserve the supply, very low attendance there lately.

Yesterday I picked up 3000 Federal SPP at sportsman’s Warehouse yesterday. I was first in line this morning. The early bird got what was left of the worm. 1000 Federal LPP ($23.99)and 200 Federal match SMPP ($2.89 per 100).

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213th FBINA

Folks need to think ahead. IF the dems take the WH and IF they take the Senate and hold the House things will change re ammo and components. Right now they have ignored the reloading aspect but I don't expect that to stay ignored for long. those young folks, I'm 75 and have more than enough reloading components to finish out my life, had better take heed for the future. We may hold it off for the next 4 years but sooner or later, the time will come. Seems to be the trend in the US.
SCOTUS can turn on a dime too.

And where did he come by that information? Ammunition manufacturers usually make their own priming compositions using readily available common chemicals that don't need to come from China.

What primer shortage.?

I have plenty!

Funny how you can now get toilet paper, same logic, panic buying

At the first of the year my neighbor, a 29 year old single man, asked me to help him set up a Dillon 650 for 9mm with a case feeder. He knew I reloaded and shot a lot. His dad had bought the press and never used it. It sat for 10 years. I told him he needed to stock up on primers, powder, and bullets. He had half of a five gallon bucket of 9mm. I spent a few days with him showing him how to load 9mm. He saw what was about to happen with the Kung Flu.

He scoured the area and scored about 50 bricks of SP primers, 20k of bullets, and 8 pounds of CFE Pistol powder. He has over 10K of reloaded ammo now and is hitting the range weekly. I am showing him the process of reloading 5.56 right now. We are about half way through removing the military crimp on the 10k surplus brass he bought. He has 20K primers, 4lb of powder, and 10k of 68gr bullets.

He is an example of those who have just jumped into the reloading market. He spent a lot of money early this year to create a stock of reloading supplies. He is the 4th I have tutored on the reloading-fu.

A few years back Academy had aluminum Blazer 9mm on sale for
$6.99 a box. I waited too long and they ran out. However, they were substituting Winchester White box in its place. I bought a case. Went to the other Academy we have here and got another case. Couple of days later, I did it all over again. Still got a bunch of that stuff left. I hear 9mm is hard to find right now.

There are a lot new players in the reloading game now, also. Not only are we seeing a lot of first time gun owners, there are a bunch of "first time" reloaders that have just recently figured out what we have known for years......that you can buy a lot more for your money and have a potentially better supply in tight times like these. Look at ALL of the reloading section at the big stores. There are few , if any presses in stock; no 9mm, 223, or 45 dies to be had. Heck, even the plastic ammo boxes are in short supply.

I would guess it has everything to do with a dramatic change is purchase behavior as of late both from hoarding and new buyers. I struggle with the idea there’s less for retail bc supply diverted to commercial ammo manufacturing. That would imply there was a bunch of under utilized capacity in ammo manufacturing that has now tightened. That’s not typically how manufacturing is operated, but then again I’m not in the commercial ammo business.

Ok, I get it.

BUY my ammo.................. Please !!

Then, maybe I will sell you some stinking primers.

Got it.

Fear not, just like after the holidays everybody gets a gym membership, and then a few months later they stop going.... same will happen with new reloaders, after a while, they will get tired and go back to buying factory ammo.

Are you guys talking about a case (5,000) or a brick (1,000)?

$20 for 1,000. $.02 each.

Last summer, Winchester had a 25% rebate on primers, the prices were low, I found a place that was selling them for $26 a brick (1000) + 25% off. That was June 1st to be exact, I purchased 11,000 ( 11 bricks) I always look for sales, and buy big time when they have them. Economics 101. Works out for times like these...Remember a few months ago, you couldn't find toilet paper ? So, this will pass too...

The big indoor range in this area was still letting people buy up to two boxes of 9mil @$18 a box as of last month. Just a swag, but I bet they have several truckloads of that ammo in the back someplace. I am going there tomorrow and plan to shoot 20 each through two 9mm’s ... a little .380 and as much .22 through my G44 as $20 for an hour of range time will allow. I noticed that Xtreme bullets has had bullets in stock for the last two days so people must have realized it doesn’t do any good to buy other components unless you have primers

I am like many others,... I buy "cases" of primers and not just boxes/bricks of smaller amounts. Bought nearly all of my current supply of primers, after the last 2nd Amendment panicked buyer's episode. Saved quite a bit of $$$...

Rumors abound; I was told the other day that primers and 22LR are made on the same production lines and that production had been diverted to replenishing the 22LR supply long enough for things to get short in primer supply. First priority is filling the manufacturer's own needs, of course.

Why? Because Joe Average is lazy and stupid. Post election when components and ammo was plentiful he didn't buy much or anything. Instead, he waits until DEMAND is high before buying.

Then you have horders sucking up whats out there in larger quantities than they can ever use.As well as those hoarding for resale and profit.

American ammo companies cannot meet the demand for loaded ammunition at this time. Therefore, there are no excess primers for sale to the commercial or hobby (that is us) reloader. Europe was on "summer holiday" in July or August time frame, and ammo production was ZERO. Now Europe has returned to work. Foreign ammo and primers should become available before the November election.

The indoor range where I reload handgun ammo for their range use only, is supposed to receive 1 million primers in ?? October ??, hopefully. The distributor has stated emphatically, "I will never run out of primers again!" The distributor has signed a long term purchase contract to guarantee his supply from the manufacturers to his customers.

As explained to me, the primer and ammo shortage is high demand above production capacity, and the European summer holiday, not political intrigue. When the indoor range receives their primer shipment, I get my 2 cases of small pistol primers at cost.

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S&WHF 366

wow

I see you hold your fellow man in high esteem.

Maybe some of us have other obligations and simply can't afford to stock up on primers...then or now.

Wow, that's quite a statement to make on this Forum
There are several of us here over the age of 60, who are retired and are on fixed incomes. I for one, can't afford the extras like I did when I was working. I still buy when available and on sale/at a good price. I've gone from shooting a couple times a week (pre-covid) to 3 times in last 6 months. So my usage has gone to "0".

There will always be folks who don't think past the next day or week. I'm not one of those. I don't feel sorry for them. A lot of folks got blind-sided by the virus and protests/riots. I would never let family or close friends do without, If I could help out some way. But there will always be those who never learn from past mistakes. Don't think I've ever been anything but average, but my names not "Joe"

HA!

Truth of the matter is I am retired, lazy, and stupid.

And no, I didn't see the primer shortage coming, but at the time I wouldn't have been able to afford to stock up anyway.

And I'm way above average dang it!

Not likely. Each requires different tooling and assembly. The equipment would not be cross-compatible.

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Gun Control: POA=POI

Everglades has some

Everglades Ammo - Home

I follow prices pretty closely, newer saw primers for $20/1000 within the last 10y, maybe old stock at a gun show, maybe.
Primers are short because it's all going Into ammo. There are more than 25m new handgun owners. If they only bought 100rds of ammo, thats 2.5B rds. Then all those that dont reload buy ammo, then lea buy ammo, then covid & a pres election.. Its mostly supply & demand. I expect it to continue to about this time next year but expect prices to creep up.

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NRA Cert. Inst. IDPA CSO

Talk to some people in the manufacturing business. Each year they plan to produce X number of widgets and pre order the materials to do that. They can get amazingly close with their guesstimates and lock in their raw materials. Anything that disrupts that system creates stress on their system.

With the 22 shortage, the manufacturers went all out to increase production. The manufacturers were primarily limited by the amount of raw materials they could secure over and above what they had projected. It's a domino affect.

The biggest problem with 22 were price gougers who got on web sites and knew when stores were receiving orders. They were standing there the minute orders arrived with the friends they brought along to beat the rationing. The same is happening with primers. Just read these forums, some bought well ahead but many are not in a good position and scalpers and people thinking they can make a buck are coming out of the woodwork. As with 22, it didn't quit until the speculators lost their large margin and it became less profitable to sit on thousands of dollars or ammo.

To build more ammo these plants need a large amount of raw materials for brass, lead, powder and bullets. Primers are just one piece of that supply line.

Bottom line, I am convinced after speaking with many people that plain old fashion hoarding is the main culprit. Who on this board would walk away from a good deal on some primers right now even if they have what some consider a life time supply?

Additionally, covid has disrupted supply and production all across the world. As per primers and 22 made at the same time, from videos I have seen, that is not true. Primers are a one person job in a small isolated room independent of other manufacturing.

I may be wrong about this, but I think the ammo makers are doing us reloaders a favor by selling us components. We can't account but for a tiny percentage of the revenues of big outfits like Winchester and Federal. Bullet manufacturers like Sierra, maybe we count for a lot of their sales. But somebody like Winchester / Olin makes billions of rounds for the military, law enforcement, and the civilian market, and we can't amount to more than a blip on their sales.

I recall getting caught out in 2013. There was no pending legislation but Sandy Hook Panic came out of nowhere. I was OK on most things but very low on primers and .22LR. I remember scrounging for a couple of trays of primers, or a box of .22.

The last several years, every time I went to a gun show, I came back with a few bricks of primers. If Powder Valley or somebody had a no-hazmat sale, I'd buy some 8 pound jugs. I'd go to Everglades or Missouri Bullets and give the UPS man some weight-lifting exercises. CCI has a rebate on cases of .22? I'm there. Laid in plenty of factory stuff for self-protection guns.

So now I'm doing OK for the next several years. If things get politically really weird, could be in trouble in the far future.

Us older guys have seen this several times. 1st time back in early 1990s. Purchased copious amounts in times of plenty. Live and learn. It may be quite a while for those who did not think ahead before supply returns, unfortunately. You need to keep a least a five year supply depending on how you much you shoot.

The epidemic caused all normal trans actions to come to almost a halt