How long ago did CCI stop making pre-packaged APS-loaded primers, and has anyone seen any in the wild recently? Likewise the empty primer strips at any place besides eBay?

Back story: A long time ago in a life setup far away, my ex bought an RCBS Pro 2000 reloading kit for me as a birthday/anniversary/whatever present. It was placed on the bench, supplies were bought and I started cranking out pistol ammo.

Fast forward: Different situation, different bench location. I began putting everything together earlier in the year after a several year hiatus from reloading. One of the tasks was inventorying supplies. I have a LOT of primers, but not too many boxes of CCI APS. Just a few of different types remaining. One of the goals is to lay in primer strips, boxed CCI APS primers or both -IF- I can find them. As far as the press itself goes, I've a considerable number of die plates and shell holders plus spare parts and wisely bought the auto-index upgrade at some (now unremembered) point. Plan is to run this thing for as long as it'll produce good quality ammo in all the calibers I use it to load, and that implies finding more APS strips. Or finding a tube-feed conversion. Or another Pro 2000 press with both options already installed. One mounting area of my bench is set up specifically for the 2000, and swapping presses would be a 10 minute job (if that).

Don't feel like buying a Pro Chucker 7 at this point and the only other realistic option if I wear this press out is a higher-end Dillon. So I'm on the supplies hunt.

I havent seen pre loaded APS strips in quite a long time.  Probably 2019?  The strips and strip loader are still available.  

I havent seen that conversion kit for sale for awhile either.

I see empty (new, in original packaging) strips on the auction site in hit-or-miss frequency. Have you seen any at your local shooting suppliers or at the area shows? Just wondering what the market is like for people who look for them.

The place where the press was bought didn't have any strips on the racks. It's been years since I was in the joint and I recently paid them a visit. Their reloading department manager remembered me. He didn't have a lot of good things to say about the early version Pro Chuckers (along with a few contemporary offerings from other manufacturers, and the only brand they don't carry is Dillon.) It was on his recommendation years back that the 2000 was purchased and I agree...very good piece of equipment.

As far as hand priming goes: There are a lot of times I'll do this, and it's mostly with rifle cartridges when loading on the T7. Low volume pistol loads (say, a run of 100 45 Colt or 44 Magnum) is fairly easy to do. When I'm mass producing anything else an on-press priming setup definitely helps throughput.

Time to look up all the little hole-in-the-wall shops and see if any of them have things that are gathering dust.

Graf & Sons
has some of the strips and the load listed available on their site.

RCBS has the empty strips. Just buy the APS strip loader and strips and be done with it.

I've been using the same 4 LR strips in my hand primer for more years than I can count.

I've never purchased any preloaded strips.

If it isn't too far off-topic, please remind me of the supposed benefit(s) of using primers in the APS strips.

Didn't the APS strips require a new/different benchtop priming tool?

How do you get primers into the strips, does that require yet another tool and another operation?

As an option, you could get a Lee APP (new style with the primer feature). Decap all brass first and wet tumble to clean cases and primer pockets. I do this religiously with all brass but it may not be on your agenda.

Prime cases on the APP before loading them on your progressive. Remove the decap pin from your sizing die and you can load as normal but skipping the prime step.

APP is really fast with the hopper feed that uses 4 tubes.

You can also put up a local WTT ad.  When primers were in short supply, lots of dudes stocked up on any primer that hit the shelves.  If it came on the strips, you just spend some character building time watching TV and poking primers out of the strips with a tooth pick.

If OP actually wants primers in the strips, there are a bunch of dudes out there who would be willing to trade you straight up.  Your loose primers for their primers on strips, you both get what you want.  I definitely have a couple thousand small pistol and small rifle primers on APS strips I'd swap for normal people ones.  

If OP wants the empty strips, natchezss shows a bunch of different sizes in stock.
https://www.natchezss.com/catalog/search/?query=APS%20strip

Y'all are gonna spend my money one way or another...

I've seen strips at Natchez but didn't know if the listings were still valid. So last night I got on the RCBS website, loaded up my cart with a bunch of theirs plus other accessories then spent two entire hours trying to check out - with no success due to payment processor failures.

(Disclaimer and rant: I've been involved with electronics and computer tech for almost my entire life - literally. The past 30 years of my career have been spent in the financial self service and e-commerce end of things for some not-insignificant OEMs and players in various spaces. Whomever is running the RCBS e-storefront needs to be kicked to the curb right effing yesterday. "Temporary problems" are one thing. They've been down for 12h and counting now. Tomorrow I get to play phone tag with them and call in an order the old fashioned way. )

/rant off

Decapping and priming off the press: As a rule of thumb when loading for semiauto pistols I'll decap and tumble freshly picked up range brass before reloading it, and if any of my repeat reloads show excessive fouling in the flash holes the entire lot gets run through the decapper and cleaned up prior to hitting the press again. Single shot and revolver cartridges are often done this way too but in small lots they're always decapped and tumbled first. I hand-prime most rifle cartridges but if I can get fairly consistent loadings on the progressive I may let it handle the task.

I have the RCBS strip loader and used it often when the setup was going. When one could buy CCI APS bricks that's how I was obtaining extra strips. Managed to munge one up the other evening when I was test-cycling the press during setup, so it's getting replaced with several others in a pack. Too bad CCI stopped making them pre-loaded.

Got through to RCBS Sales this morning, connected with Robin and we went through the website exercise. She saw it was FUBAR and took the order manually.

Should have enough strips to do me for a while. I'll still keep looking for them at the area fun shows.

On a side note: I really hope their live customer support remains as it has been. She was top-notch once we worked through some technical issues.

The strips were kinda nice. My FiL gave the press mounted tool that used them when they first came out.  It also came with a plastic device to flip primers and reload the strips.

I have it sitting on an old Partner Press and still use it.

If fills a nice niche for me.

Priming <60 rounds, RCBS hand primer
Priming >60 rounds , RCBS strip tool
Bulk loading- Dillon 650

For me, the juice of another tool to prime kicks in after 50 or so pulls on the hand primer.