If you can, now is the time to stock up.

[Catshooter]

I just got back from our gun show. Large pistol primers are $97.95 for 5000. And they ran out.

The prices, they are climbing, with availability dropping.

Seems like six or eight months ago they were $65 a pop.

Since every man who casts is a reloader I figured y'all might care and some of you may not know this is happening. All componets are increasing in cost, and dramically so.

Heads up!


Cat

[tomf52]

Prices will climb just so high that I for one will return my focus to fly fishing. Shooting is fun but I will not be held hostage to another's greed, and that is exactly what is happening. They are capitalizing on the rise in metal costs, but metal costs are not responsible for that much of a percentage of the product cost.

[targetshootr]

Is it possible to do a group buy on primers? Hazmat is probably a deal breaker but I thought I'd throw it out there. A local stop sold a case last month for about $92, iirc, which was about number 6 last year. (At some point shouldn't a guy shoot better?)

:Fire:

[leftiye]

Tomf..... I don't suppose that's what is happening in the medical/ insurance conspiracy. Do you?

[imashooter2]

I just bought a case of Federal LP on Thursday here in SE PA. Price was up at $98.05 out the door, but I didn't see any shortage of product on the shelf.

[tomf52]

leftiye - You lost me on this one. Maybe I'm just over tired but can't make the connection. Fill me in please. If you are refering to the greed of the mediacl ins companies, yes that is what is going on. Here in northeast PA BC/BS pledged $175 to area hospitals for expansion of their services. Not at all like they are looking for additional income frome those services (yeah!). LAwsuit put pledge on hold while someone wants to know why rates are escalating with this kind of money avaialble for giveaways and elderly and lower income folks in the area can't afford med ins.

[mike in co]

guys it aint greed ..its supply and demand......
there is a war on, eating supply, there is china moving into the 21 century and they are devouring product.
i can sell scrap brass at 7-8 times what it was last year.
i have an order put together.......and will try to get it in before the prices go up

prices will go up. the shot show is the normal time frame for price adjustments.
by febuary we shoud see the price hikes.....

[dakotashooter2]

It's not only primers. Brass took a good jump also. Just got a midway flier a while back and most brass went up $20-$25 per 500. I managed to grab 2 bags of .41 mag brass at Cabellas that still had the old price (13.99) listed on the shelf. They were good about letting me have it at that price (rang up at 20.99). Their catalog also has a disclaimer that prices may change at any time. Starline still has theirs listed at last years prices on the web site but I see their ads have no price and the retailers selling it have marked it up as indicated above. Might have to call and see if the old price is still valid and order 1000. should have ordered last year when it was around $105/ 1000

[abunaitoo]

You guy's think you got it bad, you should see the prices here in hawaii. Just picked up a #1 bottle of H4895, $29.95!!!!!! :(

[UweJ]

folks,prices here in germany are even worse!!!!!!!!!!!
federal small pistol primers 5000-142.59$
Bullseye small can 1lb=454gramm 46.66$
A friend of mine from the club just had a super deal on Magtechprimers small pistol.10 000 for the price of 5000 so I took em right away .Don´t think a deal like that comes along very often.
UweJ

[BCB]

I sort of agree with tomf52. I’m on the other side of Pennsylvania and although I don’t fish, I have substituted a few other things to do in my spare time. I still go to my shooting bench, but I just observe and enjoy nature a bit more. My bench is located on a wooded plot of real-estate and the dog and I just wonder around. I still do some shooting, but it is minimal now. I got some primers, surplus powder and lead laid back and I am using it sparingly. I think it might be partially caused by the Iraq situation—don’t know. I do know one thing, I will be glad to get out of the work rat race and just kick back—then I might do a bit more shooting—provided one can still even purchase reloading components. And so it goes…BCB

[Bad Ass Wallace]

Prices are blamed on everything from material to "Chinese demand" but I can't help wondering if the gummint ain't got as finger in the pie to encourage us to quit:twisted:
Here in OZ;
Remington 45/70 brass now over $114/100
Starline 45/90 $38.90 per 20
Bertram 577/450 brass $140/20
Powder made here (Alliant) - $39/lb
Swiss black powder $69/kg
Primers Win LR - $172/5000
Sierra Projectiles 30cal 168gn Match - $64.50/100

We save $200-300 importing quality scopes over the internet.

[Bass Ackward]

Instead of collecting "one more gun" when I was at that stage of my life, I bit the bullet and used the money to lay in a stash. Just opened a brick of Fed 150s last night from that stash that I remember paying retail for the whole case. I feeling pretty good right now, the brick was marked 7.99.

All of this brings up a good point. You can collect all the firearms you want, you can cast for bullets, you can even make powder. But unless you have a hole to the outside, you need a primer which you can not make. And brass can be an issue also if you use proprietary calibers, so choose wisely.

You don't have to go hog wild, just the next time you buy primers buy twice as much and set them aside. You never know when YOU may come on hard times and the stash can carry you through it or it can be bartered or sold.

[arkypete]

Several years ago a couple friends and I bought a bunch of primers and powder from Powder Valley. I got 70,000 LP and 20,000 LR primers. My buddies did like wise.
If you can get a bunch of guys to order together, in quanity, the price and hazmat fee can becomes a bit more reasonable.
Jim

[1Papalote]

Morning Fellas. I am new to this site and casting. I am an old hand at Leverguns, Ruger and Marlinowners. I saw this price increase coming some time ago. I bought close to 15m primers at $20M and was glad to get them at that price. Gander Mountain has them priced at 24.90M but they are overpriced anyway. Sportsmans Warehouse was reasonably priced just below $20. But......when I saw the mail order houses increase their prices to $20M, I figured I should get into gear. Scrap metals are bringing the highest prices ever! Brass is $1.20, copper $2.30, aluminum is .50. I don't know what lead is but it had to go up also. This actually pushed me begin casting my own bullets. I'm kinda glad as I had been riding the fence for quite some time.

1Papalote

[targetshootr]

I agree, insurance companies = organized crime.

[rugerman1]

Welcome to Cast Boolits 1Papalote ! :drinks:

[Texasflyboy]

Discounts can be had ...even today, but you have to work at it.

A large volume buy is the only way to go if you want to save money. Several factors come into play on large volume powder, and primer purchases.

First, what is large volume? In our example, 1 million primers was the last volume order we put together. Primers are 5K to the sleeve, 10 sleeves to the cardboard case.

10 cardboard cases will fit on a shrink wrapped wood pallet. Truck freight from the factory via a truck carrier is about $50. for the cheapest carriage. The load was shipped from the factory to a local dock and then we picked it up at the dock and drove it home the rest of the way. The cost of fuel for the truck was not factored in the cost of the primers, but would probably have added another $100.00.

The quoted price last time for a 1 million order was $14.90 per thousand. That's $14, 900.00 for the material + truck freight.

$14,900 + $50 = $14,950.00 delivered.

$14,950/1,000,000 primers = $0.01495 cost per primer or one point four nine cents per primer.

This was at a time when 5K of primers was selling at the local gunshows for $89.00 + local tax.

The group buy consisted of 9 individuals, all buying various amounts for their own use.

It took 5 months of work to put the deal together, working over the phone and getting all the cash together. Two people dropped out before the deal was finalized (we call those "tire kickers" as in "I wanna do this, but, um, well, maybe, let's see...:-).

The factors that helped make this deal work were members who had familiarity with buying and selling ammunition (one is a former large volume ammo seller), someone with knowledge of the trucking industry, and someone who knew who to call at the factory to get a volume quote. I will advise you that it will probably take more than one call to the factory to even get a quote, as they jealously guard their dealer/distributor networks, but, persistence eventually pays off when the money is presented. Sales trump everything else.

I have my share stacked in a closet built just for primers. I figure I am good for at least 10 years, maybe more.

My cost was the equivalent of three or four handgun purchases that I would have made in that year, and was hard to cough up that money at first, but opening that closet and seeing that stock is well reassuring when I see primer prices going up.

Put your own deal together, all it takes is work and patience.

This year we are putting together a powder purchase. We are still arguing Winchester vs. Alliant at this point.:-D :Fire:

[Ricochet]

It actually is possible to make one's own percussion primers from a variety of materials, but it's a very hazardous undertaking, and it's highly doubtful that you'd end up with any thing approaching the reliability of the primers we're used to. It's definitely not something I want to mess with. I haven't looked into the Federal laws regarding explosives manufacture, but I think you'd likely run into some heavy legal issues if you tried doing that without a permit and got caught.

[HTRN]

Right now, about the cheapest is T&T and Graf's.. I buy alot of stuff from T&T because he's at the local shows. It's hovering about $100/sleeve for Federal's, with the notable exception of large rifle magnums which are $130/sleeve.


HTRN

[dakotashooter2]

On a similar note I just talk to one of the guys that does our mechanical work for our city shop. They recycle everthing they can (he was stripping copper from electric motors as we talked). He said the last quote (selling to scrapper) they got for lead was 5 cents a pound and I've been hearing they (scrappers) have been selling it for 30 cents and up. He also told me they have not seen any significant price increase for selling brass to the scrapper so somebody is making some money. FWIW I will be continuing to pick up every single brass case I see even if I don't have a gun for it. Fortunately the local PD is supplying me with 40 cal and
9mm brass but it looks like I may have to stock up on primers.

[Buckshot]

..............Now I KNOW that most you guys here recall the last big scare during the Clinton regime when primers disappeared from the market due to possible taxing price increases? Luckily at the time i had enough to easily see me through. A freind and I each would buy a couple 5K sleeves (if not 3) at the Los Angeles gunshows we went to, if nothing else. At the time Win LR primers were I think $72 per and they weren't charging sales tax.

After the scare was over, I told myself I would not worry about such a thing again. You pull the trigger and everything except the case disappears in a big assed hurry, right? So a large portion of my 'unaccounted for' moola buys powder and primers with a heavy emphasis on the LR type. I still have 6 sleeves of Win LR primers. About a year ago I think it was, Graf & Son was closing out the PMC brand of primers (made in Russia) for $56/sleeve. I posted here about it as a matter of fact.

I questioned the helpfull customer service being on the other end of the line as to why they were doing it. He said because the Russians had gotten greedy and raised their prices to the same as the American makers and no one was going to buy PMC when they could buy Federal, CCI, Remingtons or Win for close to the same money. He said the PMC's were excellent primers and many HP shooters had commented on their consistancy, yet name recognition plays a large part in purchases so the PMC were now primers non-grata.

I asked how many could be shipped for one haz mat and the conversation got bolixed up somehow or the other. I wanted 5 sleeves, but he understood me to say I'd take as many as they could ship for one haz mat, so I got (and paid for) 7 sleeves of'em :-). Now I'm glad I did as it appears as if they're about half price! Especially nice was Graf's has no shipping so they were even cheaper.

Just recently Deputy Al and I were talking about putting together a 6 jug powder order. I did a comparison between Graf's and Midway. Of the powders Deputy Al and I were interested in the price differences per jug amounted to a buck or so between the 2 outfits. However Midway charges more in other ways then does Graf's so Graf's was the clear choice.

BTW, the cheapest primers Graf's is currently showing (catalog) are the Mag-Techs. I'd sure have no problem buying them as I've heard nothing but good about their loaded ammo and components. Adding to that I still have close to 100 CBC 6.5x55 cases I bought along with my first M96 Swede from Century back in the early 90's. They have over 15 firings apiece and are correctly dimensioned for the Swede. BTW, CBC is Mag-Techs parent company.

..................Buckshot

[PatMarlin]

Good point Rick. Remember Y2K?.. :mrgreen:

Things like primers will always come back barring a federal collapse, but I think Mil surp powders are a different story. Dry ups on them can be real.

Prolly a prudent idea... at this juncture (read my lips.. :mrgreen:) would be to buy only what primers you need, then stock up on the surplus rebound afterwards.

Of course that is if you already have stock. Those that are going from box to box, I would still spend some extra and get some stock.

But on second thought don't listen to me, cause much of my last years business decisions SUCKED!!.. :roll:

[rbstern]

Never been a better excuse for buying yourself a really nice gun in 22LR.

[Ricochet]

I agree, insurance companies = organized crime.
Hey targetshootr, I've been saying that for a long time, too!

[ELFEGO BACA]

The last time I was at Sportsman's Warehouse standard primers were under $20/1,000 - that was last month. My other source - Black Sheep - had CCIs for less than that - $14.90/1000.

My challenge is to find a local source of Winchester Large Pistol. They are the only ones that work in my Square Deal in 45 Colt!