100,000 Primers

[bobm]

On the way to a rifle match last summer we made our annual stop at a famous mid west shop to stock up on loading supplies. I brought four cases (20 bricks) of CCI 200's up to the counter. The clerk says I can have one case only. "We need to have some on the shelf for other customers." I handed one case each to my three amigos shopping with me. Four individual sales instead of one. Take that.

 

[antelopedundee]

Roughly 33 years worth for me and I'm 60 now. Is that a lifetime supply? Mike

Do you think you'll use as many at 90 as you do at 60?

 

[mike a]

Do you think you'll use as many at 90 as you do at 60?

Good point. If I die and there's even one left then 100,000 would last forever. Technically.

 

[BenPerfected]

Do you think you'll use as many at 90 as you do at 60?

Some of us can only hope...

 

[Dgd6mm]

I'm 60 and have about 40,000 and need some more srp. I probably will never shoot them all. 30,000 of them are Tula LRM.

 

[jimcasey01]

I don't consider myself a heavy user, but you got the best of my curiosity. I didn't realize it, but I have 36k+ SR primers. I do not consider that excessive. Mostly Wolf SRM and Federal SR bought when the price was right. I might add, I am semi-retired and not a lot of free cash to throw away, so bulk/value is a good thing.

 

[ebb]

Back during the last shortage I bought 17000 Remington small pistol primers for $50. I knew something was wrong but I couldn't resist. The boxes were a little rough, but when I opened the fist few boxes they had condensation inside the box. I remembered a guy on BRCentral that had tested new primers and put 10 in a water bucket and ten on the window sill for 30 days blew the wet ones off and let them sit in the window sill a few days and shot them. Extreme spread was 10FPS. I put all of them in a dehydrator for 2 hours and have never had a misfire yet.

 

[kelbro]

That's a good start.

 

[Dusty Stevens]

Wonder how many a heavy shotgun pro competitor uses?

 

[Switchbarrel]

Any of us who have shot, competed a lot over the years, know you need a two year supply of everything.

Yep! Having been thru primer & powder shortages, it’s 2-3 yr supply for me

-Rick

 

[bluealtered]

The biggest question where i live is not that you 10-20 or 100,000 primers, but that if you should actually use some of those ... then you don't have 100,000 any more and have to start over!
The standard answer here when asked by someone about how many bullets, brass or primers you have is... a couple. Or the answer will be ... not enough.
Another thing here is when plowing up a field is to stay away from the fence line cuz every third T post has a rifle buried under it, ... i used to think that was a joke.

 

[butchlambert]

I don't consider myself a heavy user, but you got the best of my curiosity. I didn't realize it, but I have 36k+ SR primers. I do not consider that excessive. Mostly Wolf SRM and Federal SR bought when the price was right. I might add, I am semi-retired and not a lot of free cash to throw away, so bulk/value is a good thing.

Jim, don't BS me! I know you have a million dollar crib.

 

[KMart]

Wonder how many a heavy shotgun pro competitor uses?

For me, I fired in excess of 200,000 shots during my ATA days. One of my squad mates went in the ATA HOF last August and his target count was 1.2 million at that time.

 

[MikeT124]

Been thinking about my primer supply lately and think I may need to add to the stock. MY copy of Shooting Times arrived yesterday with a cover story about lead free primers currently on the market. The header for the story is "Lead-Free Primers Make for Cleaner Guns". The story centered around two pistol calibers (38/357 and 9MM basically both the same). The primers tested were from Federal, Fiocchi, Remington, Speer and Winchester, some were in loaded ammo others were primers alone. Basically the gist of the story (test) was that loaded ammo fired cleaner (less carbon fouling) with the lead free than the same load with same brand regular primers. No testing of how they compared ballistics wise. They also tested primed cases with no powder or projectile and in most cases the carbon fouling was less in the lead free ones, except for the Federal test. Both my wife and I shoot, she has determined that she cleans the dishes (we also both eat), so I get the unhappy task of cleaning firearms. I may wait for a healthy supply of lead free primers to hit the market do some ballistic testing and hopefully ease the pain of gun cleaning.

Mike

 

[mike a]

For me, I fired in excess of 200,000 shots during my ATA days. One of my squad mates went in the ATA HOF last August and his target count was 1.2 million at that time.

How can a human shoulder take that much! Mine hurts after a box. Of course that's why I shoot 6BR. I'm a sissy. Mike

 

[rogina]

I remember making ppc cases from 7.62x39 brass. You would buy 1000 to get 25-35 worthy of using. I was super gluing primers in sako brass just so they didnt fall out going to the line. Shortages are a nightmare for sure. As far as 100,000 primers- hope its a good lot!

I built my first 6ppc in 1993. No brass so I built some from imi 7.62 39. They shot great. I still have my cut-off 270 die.

 

[rogina]

Good point. What if it's a crappy lot. Will they take it back?

I didn't cull any of my imi brass. I didn't know enough to do it.

 

[KMart]

How can a human shoulder take that much! Mine hurts after a box. Of course that's why I shoot 6BR. I'm a sissy. Mike

It is the equivalent to launching a 450 grain bullet at 1200 fps. The shoulder does ok. The neck get whiplash over time. It is easy to wear a hole in your cheek from the stock. A 500 target day is not unusual.

My gun weighed 12 pounds and that helped a bunch. Mount a 12 pound gun in the standing position, 500 times and see how tired you get.

 

[Steve Ladino]

A poster on another message board was wanting to thin out his herd of reloading stuff. One item was 100,000 primers tho size and type was not specified. Would you consider this to be a lot or not very many. I can just imagine having 100 boxes of Federal large rifle primers in my basement, not.

A lot for one guy !

 

[Brians356]

Been thinking about my primer supply lately and think I may need to add to the stock. MY copy of Shooting Times arrived yesterday with a cover story about lead free primers currently on the market. The header for the story is "Lead-Free Primers Make for Cleaner Guns". The story centered around two pistol calibers (38/357 and 9MM basically both the same). The primers tested were from Federal, Fiocchi, Remington, Speer and Winchester, some were in loaded ammo others were primers alone. Basically the gist of the story (test) was that loaded ammo fired cleaner (less carbon fouling) with the lead free than the same load with same brand regular primers. No testing of how they compared ballistics wise. They also tested primed cases with no powder or projectile and in most cases the carbon fouling was less in the lead free ones, except for the Federal test. Both my wife and I shoot, she has determined that she cleans the dishes (we also both eat), so I get the unhappy task of cleaning firearms. I may wait for a healthy supply of lead free primers to hit the market do some ballistic testing and hopefully ease the pain of gun cleaning.

Mike

I read that article. Cutting to the chase, at this time only Fiocci sells lead-free component primers. The other brands tested were in loaded ammunition. Lead-free primers are mainly aimed at handguns for indoor shooting. The dramatic reduction in carbon fouling demonstrated stems in large part from the relatively small powder charge in pistol cartridges. I wonder if lead-free primers would even register any fouling reduction in any but the smallest rifle cartridges?
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