I've been buying primers for just under 60.00s. More money than brains?? no..I still have much cheaper primers...as low as 5.00 per 1000 in fact but the bulk of them are in the 20-25 dollar range. I still sell some of the more expensive/newer...I make a profit. I bought a few LRPs not long ago..I only needed 3000.Put 3000 more in an online auction. after the auction house took their cut I ended up with slightly over 103 dollars per.......6000 at 60 is 360 dollars less 309...51 dollars for 3000 LRPs ain't too bad. SPPs SRPs are much easier to find and I can get a few wholesale...just about 53 right now....but I have to buy 70,000. So I generally just buy them locally for just under 60. I do sell them at 70...so my actual cost for SRPs and SPPs is about 49 dollars. It's not big buck profits but averaging primer costs for my use keeps the price down....It's just you have to buy a lot of primers. When I had the shop back east it wasn't unusual to buy a 1/4 to 1/2 million or more at a time. Before the pandemic Cabela's was selling S&B primers for under 18 dollars delivered. I bought 50 cases and yes over a period of time I made a great profit...I still have a few for my use. Trying to clean out the grudge a couple days ago I found 4000 Rem 209s 2000 Rios 2000 Nobel Sports 500 CCI BR-2s and 1100 S&W Spps hidden from myself...even found 2000 or so once fired Rem STS 410 empties. Gonna load 'em up and sell 'em.
Primer Sticker Shock
- Thread starter AJ
- Start date
I've been buying primers for just under 60.00s. More money than brains?? no..I still have much cheaper primers...as low as 5.00 per 1000 in fact but the bulk of them are in the 20-25 dollar range. I still sell some of the more expensive/newer...I make a profit. I bought a few LRPs not long ago..I only needed 3000.Put 3000 more in an online auction. after the auction house took their cut I ended up with slightly over 103 dollars per.......6000 at 60 is 360 dollars less 309...51 dollars for 3000 LRPs ain't too bad. SPPs SRPs are much easier to find and I can get a few wholesale...just about 53 right now....but I have to buy 70,000. So I generally just buy them locally for just under 60. I do sell them at 70...so my actual cost for SRPs and SPPs is about 49 dollars. It's not big buck profits but averaging primer costs for my use keeps the price down....It's just you have to buy a lot of primers. When I had the shop back east it wasn't unusual to buy a 1/4 to 1/2 million or more at a time. Before the pandemic Cabela's was selling S&B primers for under 18 dollars delivered. I bought 50 cases and yes over a period of time I made a great profit...I still have a few for my use. Trying to clean out the grudge a couple days ago I found 4000 Rem 209s 2000 Rios 2000 Nobel Sports 500 CCI BR-2s and 1100 S&W Spps hidden from myself...even found 2000 or so once fired Rem STS 410 empties. Gonna load 'em up and sell 'em.
A very good point. when I started loading in '73, 89cents/100 was pretty much all I could afford to buy at one time. Considering my farmboy wages of $1.75- 2.75 an hour, it was much harder for me to scrape together $8.90+ tax back then than it is today to pay $79.00/1000 on my retirement income.
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scattershot
Member
When I firs started reloading, primers were $7.00/1000. Adjusted for inflation, that’s $55.00,today. Prices today don’t make sense.
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I live in a townhouse. In the event of a fire in my unit, or either of my immediate neighbors, I'd feel compelled to inform the responding fire crews of the presence of a large stash of dangerous materials in my unit.
I would not expect that to work out well for me in, well, oh so many ways.
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The shortage of LRPs is the only real problem. I continue to have people looking for Federal 215 Match...really unobtanium. That is the primer of Weatherby aficionados. Other LRP magnum primers are also scarce. The bad thing about the mag primers is the people that pay outrageous prices for them. I recently had a fellow offer me 300 dollars for a 1000 215 Match Federals. I had 200 and he Knew I had a 1000. I gave both boxes away to two Weatherby reloaders...one to him and he was annoyed I didn't give him both. I still have a few Rem LR mags...Maybe 500 and few 100 CCI 250s. I don't use LR mags. I gave a fellow at Walmart a 100 last week. There are some SG dealers selling primers at reasonable prices. Check your favorites Locally Scheel's is one. Locally Cabela's is not your friend
I just checked the Billings Scheel's and they have a mix of Small Rifle and Pistol primers on stock from 69.99 up to CCI 41's at 99.99. Just a heads up...if you need 'em
I just checked the Billings Scheel's and they have a mix of Small Rifle and Pistol primers on stock from 69.99 up to CCI 41's at 99.99. Just a heads up...if you need 'em
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OP
AJ
US Veteran
No more than these.........
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SGT ROCK 11B
Member
Buying components is just part of the hobby of Handloading.
It is, what it is.
It is, what it is.
OP
AJ
US Veteran
Yep, part of the game.........
I've been using these with absolutely zero problems.
If they've been kept away from high humidity, there's no reason not to use them.
OP
AJ
US Veteran
I've been using these with absolutely zero problems.
If they've been kept away from high humidity, there's no reason not to use them.
The primers in Post #28 were all used with no ill effects. I had several other old boxes of primers in my collection that I had bought to sit on the shelf, not to use. Had paid next to nothing for them as they were "old". When the shortages came about, I gave them to a friend to use. He did and all went bang!
taz666
Member
A fella down the road from me .. we're rural .. was burning brush year before last. He reloaded and had a store of supplies outside in a trailer (semi). Well for some reason he left the brush fire to take a shower and the wind turned. You can guess what happened. It was quite a show and the town FD wouldn't go near it till the cartridge reports stopped. Could have taken out more than it did all said and done.
You store that much stuff you have to let people know.
Sorry, that should have been 25 years ago (not 2 years ago).
That's the minimum age for something to be considered an antique - right? 25 years old? Most things have to be even older than that to qualify as an antique.
I was buying primers for $20 a brick in 2018-2019, so to me the AJ's prices look like about 2010 or so.
But I could be wrong - wouldn't be the first time (or the last).
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OP
AJ
US Veteran
I seem to remember that primers were $7.99 per thousand in the early 1970's. Now some one will come along that bought some in the 60's for less.
Got a few of the white box Remington and quite a few of the red box with wooden trays. Also some FA primers for as if says on the box(cardboard can) 45 caliber ammo...and in the stash in the grudge some WWII surplus FA primers for Large rifle(30-06)...don't know where they were picked up but possibly from Phil Sharpe late 50s...Somehow my father knew him. had a 1000 at one time. Friend in Md used a 100 to load everything in the batch surplus
Just have to add. I was given a toolbox off a WWII B-29 by a former crewman a few years back. In the toolbox he had a Lyman Tong Tool...dies for 38/357 and 4000 Red box SPPs(about 2500 left...and a small but heavy jar 18 pounds of Mercury...which he used to de-lead pistol bores...still does a great job. He was a geologist and dealt with all kinds of minerals and at one time prospected for gold...so he knew the uses of many things...even mercury. He also gave me a small metal tackle box with cleaning supplies
Just have to add. I was given a toolbox off a WWII B-29 by a former crewman a few years back. In the toolbox he had a Lyman Tong Tool...dies for 38/357 and 4000 Red box SPPs(about 2500 left...and a small but heavy jar 18 pounds of Mercury...which he used to de-lead pistol bores...still does a great job. He was a geologist and dealt with all kinds of minerals and at one time prospected for gold...so he knew the uses of many things...even mercury. He also gave me a small metal tackle box with cleaning supplies
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I just bought 1000 CCI No. 34 large rifle primers for $110. I'm happy to have them.
LRP's are the one component I don't have enough of - but I'm still hesitant to buy them at 10 or 11 cents apiece. That price just seems too high IMO.
Especially when all other sizes (SRP, SPP, LPP, and even magnum primers) are all going for 6-8 cents each.
I'm still convinced that the only logical explanation for LRPs being so much higher priced and in such short supply - compared to all the rest - is that current supplies and production are all being diverted to making ammo for the conflicts in Ukraine and Israel.
Just one man's opinion.
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I may be wrong but it seems to me #34 and #41 are nothing but Large rifle mag and small rifle mag...at a higher cot of course
