I may be a bit premature but just observing some things... I see primer prices trending down. The SA made primers are being sold by PV today at 80 dollars with free shipping. Don't misunderstand..still high but if they pay more than 50 per I would be surprised. And they have had in stock for a fair time now. They don't ship free out of the kindness of their hearts you know! There seems to be more LGSs getting some stock. There are a few sticky wickets. I saw LRPs sell in a online but pretty local auction last night for about $.25 each. They don't ship so literally a local affair. SPP and SRPs are running at 80 in the same auction. Powders are becoming available more and more. So if you can hold off buying for a bit if you can do without for a while. I do have primers but I'm not buying more any time soon. Don't think they're going to 40 bucks but do see.50-60.

I have been checking constantly over the last 6 months and is am now seeing small pistol primers in Stockton the internet sights and staying there. Not the case with large pistol primers yet. Seem like the compnies are running huge,lot of one size at a time. I have had federal small primers in my shopping cart for a while waiting for large pistol and powder to become available. Dam Hazmat fees. I think all the major on line resellers have to be stocked with all their brands and sizes for the prices to drop. If primers are like everything else I don’t think the prices will drop much. I think $50 -60 is overly optimistic but I would gladly take it. I guess that it will more likely be $75-85 .

I've been buying the Fiocchi Small Pistol's at Sportsmans
Warehouse. They run just under 6 cents a piece taxed .
The down side is only 2 of the 150 packs per day. So I
ride my bike over and get them.

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never get out of the boat

My local Sportsman Warehouse has them for $6.12/hundred limited to two trays at a time. Good thing it’s not too far away……..

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"Your other right........."

At my gun club, whose bylaws prohibit markups over actual costs, had Winchester small pistol for $81/1000 plus sales tax.

Probably a good indication of the baseline prices for name brand primers.

I Went to the Sportsman's Warehouse near me last weekend and saw primers there for the first time in 3 years. Like others have said, they were Fiocchi and limit of 2 trays. Still way too expensive for anyone not running out.

Powder stock is increasing as well. They actually had a good variety of some useful powders. I picked up some StaBALL 6.5 to compare with H4350 in my bolt action rifles. Noticed a "one bottle per customer" sign, so my wife decided to get some too.

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What could possibly go wrong?

I was in Scheels yesterday. This was was my 4th time since the first of the year. Every time they have had primers. For CCI small rifle and pistol, they had priced at $84.99. CCI #34 and 41 were $124.99. They have a good supply and variety of powder. CCI standard primers have come down from $105 the first of the year.

I still see them in the low to mid $5's at some chains that aren't scalping them. Yet at the gun shows I'll see guys walking around with a smile because they just found primers at $10 to $15. I'm not sure why they keep paying those prices and keeping the market up.

I just bought a brick of CCI #500 Small Pistol Primers for $100 at the LGS where I get reloading supplies. Ten cents per primer is still more than they were about 5 years ago, but less than 3 years ago.

That's more than I paid for 22 LR CCI ammo 4 years ago. Cost was roughly $0.05/rd.. One would think 22 LR ammo would cost more to produce than primers, but I guess it's a new market for just about everything, including primers. Nothing seems real anymore to this boomer. That ammo is still cheaper at 0.07/rd than primers. Go figure.

I'm beginning to think that reloading components are being driven out of the market by companies that manufacture both ammo and components like Vista.

As re-loaders, I don't think we will see any significant changes in the market in the future. It's going to cost almost as much, or more, to load your own as it will to buy ammo. I think that's the plan by Vista and the other companies that control the market.

I just compared the cost to load 12 ga shells to buying a flat on line. Not worth the effort. 9 mm ammo is the same.

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That's just somebody talkin.

Reloading 12 ga has always been relatively close to the cost of factory. I bought my first case of Peters trap loads in 1959-60...21.00 a case Paper shells.. 1.05 a box. I figured the cost to reload was about 50-55 cents a box. A lot more work to reload then. When Winchester quit making the original AA case shells were still under 4 dollars a box(wholesale) by the case. When we shot pigeons part of what we got paid was AA shotgun shells. If we shot in towns I quite often used the 20 ga reloads. Almost 2/3s the cost of 12s. The real savings in shotshell reloading is the small gauge and the 16 and 10 ga...less powder and shot with the price of 28 and 410 so high for factory...10 ga was wow...even wholesale. For the last 24 years or so I even made my own shot. But now the price of shot is 50 bucks or more. I sold a ton of lead for a dollar and a nickle per pound. I have nuff shot. Going to sell the shotmakers now. I hardly shoot the 12 any longer. In fact I have a Spolar Gold loader with all gauges and Hydraulics. Never used the 12 ga dies in it nor the 20. Cost on investment of reloading is narrowing on 9s too.

I was in Omaha a couple weeks ago and always visit a couple of local stores. One had a pretty good stock of Winchester SPP and SRP but no LPP. They were 79.99/1000 with a limit of 2000 per skew. I bought 2000 SPP just to keep my stock replenished. They also had a overflowing isle of Hodgdons powders. Ammo was no bargain but their shelves were overflowing with good choices in every caliber.

Let’s hope prices continue to drop but I’m not holding my breath.

I have faith although it might be a blind faith, that primers will be available for under $50/K and maybe even closer to $40/K. I'm holding out but we will see.

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Freedom is never free!!
SWCA #3437