Primer Company Press Releases - Not much info

[archmaker]

I was curious so I started doing some research.

Federal and CCI appear to be owned by the same company ATK.

A review of ATK website indicates that they are looking to the "ammunition segement" for the majority of their growth, with the Space segment being flat.

Here is a quote from a press release "Working in partnership with the Army, ATK has expanded manufacturing capacity at the plant and is under contract to modernize the facility. The company is on track to deliver 1.4 billion rounds of ammunition in FY09." http://atk.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=118&item=857

I was hoping to find something definate, but there is not that much out there, but if you read their news releases you can draw your own conclusion.


IMHO this is what I think is happening. . . They are seeing a huge demand for ammunition from all segments. They are expanding cautiously, because we all know what happens when you build facilities to match a spike in demand. They being the people running two of the primer companies probably are more aware then the average lay person what the market can and cannot support. I believe eventually the price of primers and other components will come down. Much like the market for a barrel of Oil surged and then dropped.

So I will order what I want, and will use. Will keep my supply in line with what I need for a year, of cautious consumption. I will order and wait for the supplier to send me my stuff, and will buy it with the thought of a six-month delay. And will buy for a years supply. And once the supply starts showing up I will drop my delay back to 3-month.

But I have been wrong once or twice (Has NO correlation to the numerous scars I have :-D )

[runfiverun]

part of what is happening also is that they are the only arsenal supplying the military with ammo there were 6 till bill took office.
during the slow times federal sells ammo to the cavilians.
now they are busy making it for the mili and there is only win and rem left to supply us with primers and such.
luckily now we have magtech and wolf available at times or there would really be a problem.
we just doubled the number of people reloading and halved the suppliers.

[oldhickory]

I made a trip to my local gun shop this morning, the owner usually has a good supply of everything and I figured on picking up a pound or two of 4895. I opened the powder locker and found a good supply of pistol/shotgun powders and slow burning rifle powders...Nothing as far as medium burning rifle powders. He had a good supply of primers, as long as you weren't looking for small rifle. I picked up 1k of large pistol primers and 3 hundred shotgun, $33.00 total with tax.

The ammo shelf was pretty bare as was the bullet shelf, plenty of once fired brass in bulk bags laying around though. I thought, "How unfortunate for those who don't cast their own and didn't prepare earlier."

Now to get plans for my own electric generating windmill...

[MtGun44]

ATK runs the Lake City Ammunition Plant on the east side of the KC metro
area. All the small arms ammo in the US is made in this one plant. The
equipment was WW2 stuff until recently, well made and overhauled at
a regular schedule, but still very old. I know they are working on an
upgrade, but not sure if an overall modernization or just adding some
new stuff.
I don't know if more modern equipment is needed to replace all the old
stuff, or just more of it the same, but I have heard that they have been running
24/7 for years to keep up. On top of this, many smaller orders for military
ammo have been given to small suppliers like Black Hills. I have heard that
the sporting ammo manufacturers are also supporting the military, too. If
anybody knows much about this, it would be interesting go know.

Sierra is about an hour drive east of here and I have been told that they are
making a lot of bullets for mil spec ammo - what I have heard about is special
high accy grade stuff like M242 and sniper ammo.

The fact that we only have one military ammo factory left in this country is
a real shame and not smart, IMHO.

A friend works on special equipment that they use in the primer manufacturing
facility at Lake City, so I know that they make their own primers, but they might
be so loaded as to be overrunning their own primer manufacturing capacity
and buying on the regular market. This could certainly make a shortage
for us, esp with the high rate of purchasing now.

Note that the "small contracts" mentioned above are many millions of rounds,
I have no ideas what the LC annual 5.56 qty is, but it has to be billions.

I also have heard that powder suppliers are running at about twice the powder
sales of one year ago. I know that I have had trouble buying particular powders
in particular sizes in the last few months.

It looks like the combination of a couple of wars and the "0bama effect" are just
overloading the whole ammo system capacity.

Bill

[Ole]

I went to a local gun store last week to buy some case lube. Their shelves looked a heck of a lot better than they did a month ago.

[waksupi]

Primers are starting to trickle into area shops. Be patient.
One gun shop owner that was shooting with us today, said he didn't raise prices on primers, or any other components when they were sold. He said his price was still the same from the suppliers. I haven't noticed any price gouging at any of the local stores, aside from a raise of $2-3 per thousand, that was expected due to metal market fluctuation last year.
Once the supplies build up again, remember which dealers took advantage of you. And don't buy there again. You may want to stop in though, and tell them why they lost a customer.

[Mtman314]

I was told today that Big Bear in Billings will be running a sale on powders starting this Thursday Morning. Limit 2 to a customer per type. I was also informed that supplies are coming in they just sell out right after hitting the shelves.

The flyers won't be out before wednesday.

They also have american eagle brand 22 rf in 400 round packs.