Where are the primers going? Seriously

[Woofie]

No, not at all for three reasons:

The huge military stocks and turnover policy saw vast amounts of 'surplus' military ammunition, especially 7.62mm ball dumped on the international arms market each year, much of which ended up in the civilian guntrade.

There were more factories making components 20 years ago, and far more if you go back another decade or two.

I miss R-G (Radway Green) 7.62 ammo. Bought my last at JG Sales in Prescott AZ probably 20yrs ago. Oh, and Mk2-Z too
Also, whither ICI/Nobels?

 

[D Coots]

Take all the black rifles and make them single shots and the rest of us will have ammo/primers.....

 

[tommeboy]

There is a nuclear plant near me. I hear them 4-5 times a week training. Each session there are at least 1000 rounds fired. You hear rifles pistols and shotguns. It goes on for hours. I fish in the river outside of the plant. It gets really annoying listening to all the gun fire while you are fishing. And this is just one agency shooting that much

This the security at the plant. Back when 911 happened, They had 2 of the huge inflatable boats in the river in front of the plant. There were 2 .50cal guns I could see and the front gun was a minigun. It looked like 6 total machine guns on each boat. Then there were two military trucks that looked like the Patriot missile launchers.

But I seen where right now certain commercial loaders cant get supplies to load ammo for the govt contracts. BUT, the govt is bringing these loaders the everything needed to load for the contracts. So where are they getting these?

 

[rijndael]

BUT, the govt is bringing these loaders the everything needed to load for the contracts. So where are they getting these?

They're buying from the manufacturers on big contracts and getting priority over us schlubs hitting the refresh button hoping to make a buy. The government has priority buying on a lot of things, including IT gear, in times of need.

 

[Downeast]

They're buying from the manufacturers on big contracts and getting priority over us schlubs hitting the refresh button hoping to make a buy. The government has priority buying on a lot of things, including IT gear, in times of need.

But the government doesn't need it.

 

[rijndael]

But the government doesn't need it.

Your definition of need doesn't have to match theirs.

 

[STORM2]

I wonder what the primer production line can produce per hour ? I’m contemplating a factory ROI per minute for primers, ammo, cars, or other durable goods. Perhaps the widget folks might switch products, especially if they can’t get chips for their current product. Profit limited by capacity only with no risk sure seems appealing to me!

 

[Sniper338]

My guess is something politically motivated and under the table.

Im not convinced its hording anymore. People only got so much money to spend and can only do it for so long. Theres more too it all.

 

[lefty222]

I have been told that the storage in the 50’s-70’s was over double of what is on hand today, must have been a REAL CRISIS for loaders and shooters then. Yet, you never hear anyone speak of that era…….oh, that’s right we didn’t have social media then.

There was no shortage of ammo primers power or heads from 68 and on until we got nut jobs in the government, even with the Vietnam war going on, l was chuck hunting and loading in the late 60s then got into Bench Rest Shooting in the early 70 until 80s, l still have some empty power cans IMRs Winchester 748 & Hogden H380 from that time with price labels $3.75 to $4.50 lb, heads the same except for match heads grade one box Sierra 52g match from that time sitting on my shelf $7.46pr 100, have a 12lb keg Rem. 700X l paid $35.00 that's just under $3.00 a pound about 5lbs left us it now for my Marlin 1894 n 357mag., off the top of my head l can't remember what l paid for primers but they were cheap maybe around 2 cents each, back then all readily available at most good gun stores in NYC and NJ. l have been through the good time and now the lean time for the last 10 years but at 80yrs l'm still able to shoot but not as much as l would like to can't afford it.

For me, there is more going on than what we are told.

 

[jmkasza]

My guess is something politically motivated and under the table.

Im not convinced its hording anymore. People only got so much money to spend and can only do it for so long. Theres more too it all.

I was in North 40 yesterday evening, a northwest regional farm and ranch store, in just a few minutes browsing the ammo aisle I saw a young guy grab 5 boxes of 6.5CM Hornady precision hunter ($42/ea) and another fellow grab 1000 rounds 9mm CCI Blazer (pretty sure he did not even look at the price). I won’t say money is no object for these two, but it sure didn’t look to be slowing them down.

 

[mauser284]

Take all the black rifles and make them single shots and the rest of us will have ammo/primers.....

I am almost 49. Dad was in the Army for my first 23 years of life. He was Drill Sargent at Benning late 1980's Harmony Church. I grew up with the M16 and AR's. I used them extensively they were to me what a knife or fork is to most people. That said I did not own one myself until the beginning of Covid-19. I still have not used it. I prefer to spend my ammo one shot at a time out of bolt gun.

Why do I bring this up? All of my rifles other than it all take LR or LR Magnum primers. I do not even own 223 Rem Dies! Oh I forgot about my 6.5 Grendel I have brass and dies but no primers for it. So still the It has not affected me. What I really want is LR and LR Magnum Primers!

 

[newbieshooter]

some available online today

 

[waterfwlr]

Yeah for about 10 minutes

 

[DRNewcomb]

Take all the black rifles and make them single shots and the rest of us will have ammo/primers.....

I think there's something to this. In the past, if you wanted pew, pew, pew, you either had cheap surplus ammo or you shot .22. I can still hear my dear old Dad chiding us kids on the cost of ammo and the need to make every round count. These days, I'm always amazed at the quantity of ammo used at the range and the good reloadable brass left on the ground.

On another front, I understand that every ammo plant in Europe has shifted production to fill rush government orders for military ammo. So, the shortage is becoming global.

Moral of story, buy when there's a surplus and keep a supply adequate for a couple years' worth of activity.

 

[skeeljc]

It is just supply vs demand. The supply is fixed (has been for many years) and the demand is increasing exponentially. The result is price increases and shortages.

 

[Laurie]

It is just supply vs demand. The supply is fixed (has been for many years) and the demand is increasing exponentially. The result is price increases and shortages.

.......... and IMO as I said in earlier post, this situation will apply indefinitely until western governments wake up to the importance of having secure supply sources of smallarms ammunition in the event of a major (and crucially, long-lasting) conflict. I wonder about stocks of the high-tech wonder-weapons too! I suspect strongly that in a major fight, western nations would run out of them in a few weeks and the manufacturers couldn't catch up even after instituting emergency measures, if nothing else because they all rely on 'chips' and I bet there aren't any strategic stocks of them held either.

The best we can hope for is that the (almost entirely privatised) ammunition supply chain will eventually react to increases in civilian demand and increase its production capabilities. In the short to medium term, that will overwhelmingly feed into ammunition production leaving less for handloading components.

The other response in such a classic demand v supply balance where non-market barriers limit supply growth, as here, is to reduce demand, primarily through the price mechanism. This is of course already happening and there will sooner or later be a limit to the growth in demand for loaded ammunition. Also, I don't know what's happening on the western side of the Atlantic, but the UK and Europe now faces the greatest and fastest fall in living standards in economic history with a serious risk of runaway stagflation. Inevitably, discretionary spending on leisure pursuits will fall, potentially plummet, demand for shooting equipment and ammunition likewise.

 

[Catfur]

I wonder about stocks of the high-tech wonder-weapons too! I suspect strongly that in a major fight, western nations would run out of them in a few weeks and the manufacturers couldn't catch up even after instituting emergency measures, if nothing else because they all rely on 'chips' and I bet there aren't any strategic stocks of them held either.

Saint Javelin of Limited Supply

 

[Old Navy]

I am not into conspiracies but I really think we have one here in Utah that is true. I will tell you what is going on and you decide. Utah is a good size state. Most of the the people live up and down the mountains around Salt lake City. There is a lot of gunpowder and primers showing up on our local classifies for guns, ammo, etc. It the Utah Gun Exchange. Most of the powder is hard to find like Varget, H4350, Reloader 26 etc. CCI-450 primers by the 10 of thousands. A lot of the powder is coming from some non store front guy down in the south east corner of the state in a rural area. I am talking several 8 lb. jugs about once a week. There is another guy on The Utah Nevada border doing the same. Both say they can't ship. I am seeing CCI-450 primers every day. Some of the photos show 30 or 40 bricks. The powder prices for the most part are good. I saw $300 for an two 8 pounders of Varget this past week. Primers are still high.

 

[Ray123]

There was no shortage of ammo primers power or heads from 68 and on until we got nut jobs in the government, even with the Vietnam war going on, l was chuck hunting and loading in the late 60s then got into Bench Rest Shooting in the early 70 until 80s, l still have some empty power cans IMRs Winchester 748 & Hogden H380 from that time with price labels $3.75 to $4.50 lb, heads the same except for match heads grade one box Sierra 52g match from that time sitting on my shelf $7.46pr 100, have a 12lb keg Rem. 700X l paid $35.00 that's just under $3.00 a pound about 5lbs left us it now for my Marlin 1894 n 357mag., off the top of my head l can't remember what l paid for primers but they were cheap maybe around 2 cents each, back then all readily available at most good gun stores in NYC and NJ. l have been through the good time and now the lean time for the last 10 years but at 80yrs l'm still able to shoot but not as much as l would like to can't afford it.

For me, there is more going on than what we are told.

There was no shortage of bullets, powder, cases, or primers, during the Vietnam war... if anything the market was overrun with 223 brass an 55 gr FMJ bullets, couldn't hardly give em away...and I got 1000 cases for free. I still have 2 1000 boxes of CCI LR I payed $8.90 per thousand for primers, and sale prices as low as 57 cents a hundred.
I was reloading. 222 for less than 5 cents per shot, shooting California Sierra bullets, $2.89 per hundred. Or their Bench Rest 52 gr for $4.57 per 100, for a pricey reload. And it took the military 250,000 rds to kill one enemy in the jungle setting, a reported gustimate. That real shooting war we were involved in went on for 10 years, and no shortages of components...ever, that I experienced...so we don't have a "complete story " as to what's going on...
That said I went for the bulk 10 cent primer price awhile back and bought 20,000. Now the price keeps escalating, and for some reason the shortage continues... that of coarse is un-American, wherever there is a need, American workers would fill that need...it used to be, who we are.
But I'm good... for now.

 

[mikeinct]

Don't blame me. I've barely used 350 primers since October.