Muwahhaha - yet another reason to keep all that small primer 45ACP brass rather than denigrate it and throw it away.  Although my collection is still small, it grows every time I collect 45 brass.

I'll pass on a warning from a trend that is always a prelude to a coming panic because "something" is about to set off another panic...

I've been seeing primers for sale in my local Academy. Started seeing some on shelves about a month ago. Was there this week and saw a variety, large and small rifle and pistol primers. ...even CCIs.

If you are shy on primers, better nab while the nabbing is good. I figure "something" will trigger another ammo panic within a month, if past observances hold to normal.

(Removing tinfoil helmet)

Your post prompted me to remember that I have some Federal small primer brass in my range finds pile.  I was going to eventually recycle it, since I don't have a .45 anymore.  168 pcs, but I suspect that shipping would cost more than the brass is worth.

It seems for SPP these are currently the best price available at $70/k or $67/k delivered depending on how many you order.  They charge me no sales tax when shipping to SC.  My internet searches show Fiocchi primers get good reviews.

American Reloading SPP

SyA SPP are available at $50/k shipped.

Agreed. That’s why I’m only loading 9mm subs and 147 gr HP’s.

Ive been loading the blem FMJs from AR and they are by far the only way to make 9mm reloading worth it unless you need a specific load/match load

For bulk shooting all the other bullets I find push the cost/rd too high at current factory prices.

Im still using W231 at retail so not as cheap as if I was using the MP variants from AR

Saw some $90/k CCI LRP pop up on Brownells this morning... do people actually use those strip primes? Why aren't they making more #34?

Starting to feel this way too. I placed a bunch of orders between thanksgiving and Xmas when they had multiple coupon codes active.  Used ship to store to avoid hazmat. Had a big order for LRP never show up. Had customer service look into it and the said when my order showed up a new guy just put all my primers out on the shelves. Sucks cause with all the discounts I had them down to about $60/k.

I have a sinking feeling primer availability and pricing will improve and then powder availability and pricing will deteriorate

You get the least 'savings' loading 9mm plinking rounds.

Compare the prices of what you can make using premium rounds in your reloads to what it would cost you to buy those same rounds 'factory' and consider that difference in cost as well.

Yes if I wasnt buying bullets close to $52/1k I wouldnt bother right now. Even so the time to load has been a big factor

Can you get that in writing? Sounds like a Cabela problem, not a you problem. If you bought a boat, and they sold it before you came to pick it up, would they just say sorry and refund you the sale price of the boat?

I'd get that in writing and take it up the chain, seeking replacement product at the same price. Can't hurt. Worse they could say is "no, sorry."

Now apply that to other calibers like 38spl or 45acp

It gets spotty even there- as the primer cost is now the dominant cost.  For a window, you could get 115 FMJ for about 4 cents to even 3.5 cents.  Amd I bought many thousands - knowing that's not going to sustain.   But at 10 cents a primer even that gets strained a bit.  Now that you can get primers almost as low as 5 cents, that goes a long way.  But no way can I make the economics/ effort work for 9mm at retail bullet and primer prices - and even powder, which I see Powder Valley has on "sale" for $60/lb.  

For "performance", that's another topic  - but then, that's rarely relevant, as nobody is going through 3000 rounds/year of "performance" ammo - so it really doesn't matter what it costs for just a fee hundred rounds.

WLP in stock all over the net - no limits. I'm not saying the shortage is busted open but you can stock up today for all your 45/10mm/44 Mag needs in one fell swoop.

Free shipping at Midway right now too...

The question is, when is this going to happen with LRP?

Well that's dumb. Midway's sites says they're still labeled for both, but Winchester's site says "WLP #7 - 111 Large Regular Pistol".

I doubt anything has changed. If I were making a WAG, there was probably some sort of liability complaint from people running 40k PSI handgun loads.

I probably could have pushed the issue but I told the CS rep to just cancel / refund the order.  I’ve used coupon codes, discounted gift cards, credit card points and shopping portal cash back deals to get stuff from them for huge discounts (I’ve outlined this a few times in the where to find thread). Having dealt with similar situations in the past where it literally took years to get the item(s) I just decided to move on.

White River LRP at Republic Ammunition. Price is nothing special (12¢), but there was a question whether White River Energetics was sending all their product overseas. Guess not. Seller is trustworthy.

White River broke the contract with Republic. So they decided to just start selling them. FOR NOW. But the primers are still slated to be shipped overseas

Local academy had sr on the shelf for 6.99/100

I agree the supply is catching up to demand.

My off the cuff guess is it will settle at 4.99/100  give or take.

For 9mm practice ammo, the cost savings comes from casting. If you like to do that (I do, because if makes me feel like I made a thing), then you don't mind the extra time. Reclaimed lead from the berm plus a little tin and antimony, powder coat and I'm at about $.01 - .02/projectile.

Reviving this thread with these:

Servicios y Aventuras Small Pistol Primers

< $45/1,000 if you buy 5k

Now we're talking! Never thought I'd see $45/k again

Even though Winchester primers seem to be populating the shelves, avoid the temptation to buy any regardless of how cheap they are.

Aparently the pressure to get primers back on the market by Winchester has resurrected some old and very serious quality problems. I just had a recently purchased batch of defective Winchester primers that trash two bolts and made me waste hours of time and mony relaoding 2K rounds of ammo that's now useless.

Glad to see it.  Though, I have read enough on the SyA primers to pass on them.  I think the Fiocchi SPPs are worth an extra cent or two for reliability with striker-fired pistols.

It's free shipping, plus $20 hazmat. Total is $244 shipped for 5K. For comparison, I got this same deal from this vendor in Oct 2023 for $269, so they're down $25 since then!

I haven't used them yet, so no review on the primers, but the vendor is G2G.

In the early 2000s I had a box of 1000 SPP's of those and my breach face on a Glock  22 I owned was getting etched. Did an internet search and a lot of people were complaining about the same thing that year. I wish I could remember exactly when it was, I want to say around 2004 or 5 ish.

That being said I also had 3000 of their LPP's with no issues.

Rats!  I didn't realize a $20 hazmat.  I thought free shipping was free everything.  But still < $50/k shipped.

I ordered 5k yesterday and received tracking today. This will be my second 5k order. I have loaded a couple thousand but only shot 200-300. All ran good in my glocks and MP5 clone.

6k of the Fiocchi SPP for $350 = $58.34/1,000.

Fiocchi SPP

Great.  I bought 10k large rifle in the last few months.

The market didn't bounce back near as fast or fullly as I was expecting, but it is coming back, if you shop.  I have some concerns that right now may well be the bottom for a while, and would suggest now's the time to get serious about restocking, at least soon.  In particular, imports from Eastern Europe I fear my be disrupted, if the fomer YugoSlav's start getting sparky and finish some unfinished business.  There was some sabre rattling a couple months ago suggesting that might be emminant, but looks to have quieted down some... for now.  point there is they were a price leader and availablility leader for cost-effective yet high quality primers for the last year or so, and so would be an impact if disrupted.

In the meantime, AR just released a batch of "factory Seconds" small pistol primers mid-day today.  By my estimate, looked to be on the order of 1.5MM to 2MM primers, priced at 4.5 cents a primer (delivered).  There's a few left, but but in a few hours, the bulk of that sold out.  By midnight tonight, they will certainly all be gone - that fast.

be aware these apparently are veyr hard primers, and anything labeled "factory Seconds" should be taken as being just that - but from the description it looks like these are a hard-primer cup lot, that some lighter striking guns won't ignite.  But if you happen  to have guns you know strike hard, looks like one Hell of a deal right now.  If you have a PCC, (which tend to hit hard), 5,000 to 20,000 might not be a bad call in the few minutes left...

Powder on the other hand, is insane.  I've been looking for pistol powder literally 3 times a day for over a month now.  I'm too irked to spend the ~$40/lb it'll cost to get inhand from mainstream, and that other site has random powder from pull downs that's priced way too high for my tastes.  Anyway, AR had some Win 231 pop up today, and in the time it took me to click, and pull out my credit card, it was gone.  That fast.  (grr).

Relevancy being, just like with bullets for a while, when other components are unobtainable, and you can't actually reload, then the available ones will start to come down in price.  And I think that's what is happening with primers right now.  So now's a good time to look hard at restocking primers, IMHO.

4.5 cents per is MORE than otherwise proper and brand name (not factory seconds) primers were going for only a few years back.





I was killing time today and stopped at my local Sportsmans Warehouse to browse their reloading section. Was surprised to see they even had any primers but they did. Small quantities of non-regular stuff, various brands and everything WAY overpriced in my opinion.

$150 bucks per thousand for CCI BR4's and only maybe 5 or 6 1k boxes on the shelf, Some Remington SPP's, some (I forget the brand) SP Magnum primers (again a handful of 1k boxes) at $89.00 per k, Some (3 or 4 of the 1k boxes) Federal 205M's for $108.00 per. They did have a few k of some LPP's on the shelf in the $108 range. Surprised to see they had any LPP in stock at all...



I took a pass on all of that. Prices were too high, Had nothing (brand wise and type) available that I would 'normally' keep in stock and on hand, and had no large volumes of anything that they DID have on the shelf available. (prefer to have a larger pile of whatever from the same exact lot if I can help it)


Most of my reloading money here lately has been going towards projectiles and tools related stuff as those prices (for what I would normally be buying anyway is concerned) seemed to have remained fairly stable.

Example: The Zero brand / type bullets that I really, really like have not moved in price that much over the last few years. A tiny bit more yes, but nothing like or even remotely similar to the increases that happened to powders and primers.

I have been unable to buy powder from AR in the last year by responding to an email notice and by that I mean I am literaly online looking at my email list and AR powder deal hits, I click, click buy and it is sold out that fast.

Recently I happen to click on AR cold just as some 495 (AA2520 like) came on and was able to get it in cart went to pay and when I clicked the final buy the screen froze and when it cleared it said start over and sold out but luckily it had gone through but I only knew that as it showed up on my CC

So, you are right it is hard to win the AR powder lottery. That Laotian guy that won the 1.3billion Power-ball was debating if he should go and buy those tickets or try and get powder from AR and he decided his chances were better with winning the Power-ball.
OK that may not be true but it wouldn't surprise me
------------------

Nah!

Something is still serious wrong with the reloading suppliers.

You can't get the powder and primers that you need.  Prices have doubled for what is available.  

Small pistol primers are basically the only things readily available but at those inflated prices.  There's a smattering of small rifle primers around, also at high prices.

Where's the large rifle and large pistol primers?  Where are the large rifle magnum primers?  Where are the large and small versions of the magnum pistol primers?

No, something is still seriously wrong.  Whatever started this is still in play.  I suspect this messed up situation is the direct result of the managers running the companies or large institutional purchasers, not retail consumers doing this (small scale hoarding).  

Whoever is doing this, if they want to destroy the shooting sports, this is one way to go about it.

It's all going over seas so people can shoot each-other to death.

Large Rifle production has all been shifted over to Small Rifle. Powder production is being used for the big stuff.



I would expect price increases in June.

This...

When the price doubles in such a short time - That is a sign that it is NOT the time to be buying.



Those of us that laid in on critical components (primers / powder) during the salad days are not sweating this mess.

Again, projectiles are still relatively cheap and that is what I am currently buying and stocking deep(er). :)

Have we discussed primers from White River Energetics?

If anyone bought the White boxed SPP with hard cups "seconds" from AR , please post results in another thread. I passed on them because of the "seconds" disclosure and I have plenty of SPP stocked up, but I might be regretting that decision soon.

Just ordered LPP at 7 cents ea with over 200 still in stock at AR.

These were available for a short time Friday, and I was able to get in my $219.99/5k order.  I figure I'll first try them in hammer fired revolvers and test in my striker fired handguns.  I have no handguns with reduced hammer/striker springs so am optimistic they'll be good-to-go.

The description states they're Made in USA.  Reckon these are CCI?

SPP Factory 2nds

Description:

Factory Seconds – Hard Cup Primers – NATO Spec
These are only considered seconds due to their hard cups.  Light striking firearms may have misfires.  These are still within NATO Spec and function perfectly.
-Nickel Plated
-MADE IN USA
-Boxer, Non Corrosive
-White Labeled Exclusively for American Reloading

I'll be interested in how they work in DA revolvers

There were a couple hundred cases available. I was in the middle.of ordering 10k and stopped when I realized they weren't small rifle. Just saw nato and got excited...

They might be White River. The blue tray with a little hole in it 2 spots from the corner are what make me think that. The WR boxes look the same shape as CCI so that's not a great clue.
https://republicammunition.com/product/whiteriver-small-pistol-primers/

The part in bold....Those two things usually go hand in hand. When retailers can't get product do you really expect them to keep the same prices so they sell out instantly and have no product to sell? I'm suprised the word "gouging" wasn't used in this post.

Thanks.  Based on the blue tray with the dimples these probably are White River primers.

I'll continue using from my stock of CCI SPP and save these WR for later, when needed.  My reloads are for plinking, I have HST in the self defense magazines.

One of my neurons fired and this is what came to mind.

Primers and powders are being consumed by commercial ammo makers and by the US Government.

Those government contracts take first priority (contracts with high DX ratings), with delivery quantities and dates needing to be met no matter the financial consequences to the supplier.

Now, if the primer equipment is set up for small rifle primers to produce 5.56 ammo to be supplied to the US Gov't, there is no way they can reconfigure to produce large rifle primers.  Monday thru Friday make SR primers for contracts.  On nights & weekends, run the line as-is and make some for commercial sales to reloaders.  Ditto for the small pistol primer - make what you can to supply the reloading marketplace.  

In this scenario (right or wrong), the production lines are configured for SR and SP primers and they have to stay that way.  We, the reloaders, get only what is not needed for USG and commercial customer deliveries.

The use of overtime pay to run the production lines for our benefit explains some of the price hike.


It's just a thought.  I'm not in that business.