Where are the primers going? Seriously

[BULLET 05]

All my local gun shops have not received any primers in almost 2 years. It is not that they got a shipment in and someone bought them up fast. It is the fact that they have not gotten any to sale. Spoke with a buddy from another area and he tells me the same thing. His dealer has not got in a primer in a long time. The only people that got a few to sale were Dunhams sports and academy sports back last fall. They were gone fast and had a limit on purchase of 3. This excuse that people are buying them up as fast as they hit the shelves is the reason for the shortage is bull POOOO. Reading posts on here and talking to two local gun store owners in my area it sounds like most places cant even get primers to sale. So where are the primers? 2nd question why in the world if primers are such a hot item and people wanting them all over the country why hasn't someone converted some warehouse into a primer manufacturing plant? It sounds like it would be a good investment.

 

[Catfur]

Into loaded ammo, which is selling like hotcakes. The same people that make primers ALL make and sell loaded ammo. And if foregoing a sale of a 6.5 Creedmoor round at $2/each (retail), or even a .223 round at .60/each is what it takes to sell a $0.08 primer (retail), what choice do you think a manufacturer is going to make?

 

[tommeboy]

Govt is hoarding them.

 

[nakneker]

I see primers more and more it seems. The large rifle and large rifle mag primers are pretty scarce along with certain others, I’ve been looking for Remington 6 1/2 primers and haven’t seen one in two years but I have seen Quite a few offerings online. My local shops have had limited deliveries but they have had multiple deliveries in the last 5-6 months. The price isn’t pretty, seems like 75.00 per 1k is a good deal right now and the BR4s and BR2s are closer to twice that.

Vista Outdoors owns most of the primers being made right now and I’m sure they are making sure they have all they need for factory ammo production. Ammo sales seem to be slowing a bit, I see pricing coming down on many of the most sought after cartridges but the demand is still heavy.

I could use some 215m, CCI 250s and Remington 6 1/2s until I land some I’ll just keep using alternatives.

 

[std7mag]

2 million of them just went as loaded ammo to Ukraine.

 

[Capt. Oblivious]

Apparently its the retired peoples fault

 

[JSH]

As mentioned many times before here if you read any of the other threads, loaded ammo comes first.
That is not just on the civilian side of things, many seem to forget this. The yearly turn over of “old” ammo would shock a lot of people, let alone what is in storage. 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.

 

[KMart]

As mentioned many times before here if you read any of the other threads, loaded ammo comes first.
That is not just on the civilian side of things, many seem to forget this. The yearly turn over of “old” ammo would shock a lot of people, let alone what is in storage. 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 wasn't as many RETIRED people then, as the good Capt. pointed out above. At least RETIRED people with spending money.

 

[Laurie]

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.

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. Go back to the 80s, even 90s, and most range-shooters I knew owned 308 Win rifles to take advantage of the bargain 7.62 on offer. Relatively few UK shooters handloaded as a result, and only started when 'surplus' dried up (which it has entirely in Europe, can't comment on the US).

There were more factories making components 20 years ago, and far more if you go back another decade or two. This was the remaining inherited national security infrastructure when each country needed to be at least partly self-reliant in military supplies for strategic reasons. Since then, privatisations of government arsenals, rationalization of plants by the multinational corporations who invariably ended up owning the factories, closures caused by obsolescence and/or new health & safety regulations (many historic plants had deliberately been sited close to residential areas for workforce access in the days before private transport became the norm and were now deemed to be too close to housing). All of western Europe now has only three or four powder factories for smallarms propellants, when it would have been a double figure number in the 1950s/60s for instance. This is a result too of the 'peace dividend' after the Soviet bloc disintegrated in the 1980s - we'd only ever need resources for 'police actions' and minor wars was the thinking. Finally, governments not only closed and/or sold off production capacity, but they were unwilling to fund any reserve capacity. The view was that with procurement from around much of the world, there would always be some countries / suppliers with capacity and willing to sell at short notice. Only Israel, which has faced existential threats from its neighbours over generations and fought two major and no end of minor wars in living memory, kept a defence industry geared up to a significant part of a wartime need (and even so, had to beg and borrow consumables from the US to keep its forces in ordnance during the short 'Yom Kippur' war of 1973). The UK barely managed to have enough artillery ammunition to fight the 10-week fairly small-scale Falklands War of 1982, and would have run out of naval and air ordnance if President Reagan hadn't agreed to help out.

Finally, there were far fewer recreational shooters and those that were there went through a small fraction of the ammunition and/or components that many of today's shooters need. Most formal fullbore rifle competition was geared to or influenced by service rifle shooting and in many countries, competition organisers provided military grade ammo whose use was mandatory. Even today, many mainstream UK sling shooters ('Target Rifle') don't handload. (The GB NRA contracts with private suppliers for annual 223 and 308 shipments, first from RUAG, now from GGG in Lithuania, and issues it in major matches or sells it to shooters in its NSC Bisley facilities.) A US 'black rifle' shooter will often today consume more ammunition in a few 'plinking' or semi-formal shooting outings than many bolt-action rifle users of a generation ago used in a year. Alfresco desert or whatever ranges springing up all over the place to shoot plates are a recent innovation. Finally, self-defence gun purchases have 'exploded' in the US, and the owners want factory ammunition for occasional, sometimes regular practice. Every pistol cartridge primer that goes into these cartridges is one less available to handgun handloaders, but also potentially rifle shooters too as the producers juggle production line set-ups and production run durations to meet the demand for their own factory ammo products.

 

[mdram]

primers have been dropping almost daily in the discord.
target sports has some, but they are pricey

 

[FNSafari]

There wasn't as many RETIRED people then, as the good Capt. pointed out above. At least RETIRED people with spending money.

Regarding retirees, there are also a lot more young folks who have "woke" to the fact that life without a job or with a part time job can be a lot more enjoyable than working 5 days 8/10 hrs a day. God help them when the government checks dry up, not to mention what its doing to their SS payouts down the road. Good luck wokers!!!!

 

[Orr89rocz]

Plenty on gunbroker if you are a wealthy man lol

 

[MSS]

Keep an eye on this thread. I was FINALLY able to score sm rifle primers late last year for an ok price due to it. They do show up.

Reloading Components in Stock -- Running Topic

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forum.accurateshooter.com

 

[Rsadams]

I am start to see plenty of factory ammo and SOME primers... I actually saw a thousand SRP at Cabela's the other day which means they made it through the rush.... As normal they just put the ammo out on carts when it comes in and they say when it's coming , then people attack it till normally it's all gone... 5 box limit... Still $90 a K though... I of course left them on the shelves... I don't need them and won't buy at those prices , just like the previous times this happened they will go back down when people stop buying everytime they see them.... Everybody said they wouldn't come back down after sandy hook also...

I just leave my stuff on the shelves during these times and either just shoot factory when I want to shoot even at high prices and yes my shooting has suffered because of it but I don't shoot pistol or rifle in organized sports only for self defense training and I can still cut the center out of a target but not as well as I could 2 years ago but that will come back and it doesn't help having 54 year old eyes....

I started shooting skeet when this crap first started and that was right before pistol and rifle ammo disappeared but shotgun was still available especially reloading stuff for it... Now pistol and rifle stuff is starting to come back but shotgun stuff is hard to find and shot and primers have reached a level I won't pay... Just like everything else I have just cut back to once a week and trying to shoot more factory...At this point it's only about $1.00 more than what it cost to reload a box... Worse comes to worse I now own a nice sporting Beretta over/under...

Hang in there folks the midterms are coming , so get out and vote people.... Then we just have to make it two more years... I have a feeling you know who is running again , he should smash it in 2024.... I don't think anyone is buying what their being told right now...

 

[Coyotefurharvester]

During the Obama years, changes were made about the "handling" of surplus government ammo. Demilitarized is the standard since, with the hundreds of billions in discretionary spending held by the executive branch, a sitting anti gun president can issue contracts and then have "excess" demilled and sold. This is a very effective method of side stepping the 2nd Amendment. And you of course pay for it. This also included what we consider hunting ammo, as different agencies "experimented" with different calibers, the secret service played with the 7mm mag for awhile. All that "extra" ammo demilled.

 

[Dgd6mm]

Where are they going? They are in loaded ammunition for Military and in ammunition sales for sportsmans. The rest are here and there for reloader's. If you WANT them buy them when you see them. They are out there, may not be in your local store for one reason or another, but they are out there on line.

 

[JSH]

During the Obama years, changes were made about the "handling" of surplus government ammo. Demilitarized is the standard since, with the hundreds of billions in discretionary spending held by the executive branch, a sitting anti gun president can issue contracts and then have "excess" demilled and sold. This is a very effective method of side stepping the 2nd Amendment. And you of course pay for it. This also included what we consider hunting ammo, as different agencies "experimented" with different calibers, the secret service played with the 7mm mag for awhile. All that "extra" ammo demilled.

Clinton didn’t help things by any means either. Clinton, Obama, stupid is, stupid does.

 

[rijndael]

Clinton, Obama, stupid is, stupid does.

Stupid? No. Calculating and anti-gun? Yes.

 

[338 dude]

All my local gun shops have not received any primers in almost 2 years. It is not that they got a shipment in and someone bought them up fast. It is the fact that they have not gotten any to sale. Spoke with a buddy from another area and he tells me the same thing. His dealer has not got in a primer in a long time. The only people that got a few to sale were Dunhams sports and academy sports back last fall. They were gone fast and had a limit on purchase of 3. This excuse that people are buying them up as fast as they hit the shelves is the reason for the shortage is bull POOOO. Reading posts on here and talking to two local gun store owners in my area it sounds like most places cant even get primers to sale. So where are the primers? 2nd question why in the world if primers are such a hot item and people wanting them all over the country why hasn't someone converted some warehouse into a primer manufacturing plant? It sounds like it would be a good investment.

I’ve heard of one new primer manufacturer starting up in the US this year

 

[wbm]

Where are the primers going?

away?