primers and hazmat fees

How do you guys handle the hazmat fee? I can find most primers now. Except Rio primers which are what I need. I've been checking but the Cabelas that's somewhat nearby says they sell out so fast they started getting questions from the ATF and so refocused on other brands. My LGS either hasn't been able to get any or doesn't want to get any depending on how charitable you want to be. I'd buy the preprimed hulls from BPI but I really want to reuse the hulls I've been saving. That was part of the point of the exercise.

So before I eat a hazmat fee I was wondering: how you guys handle the purchases? Do you have a rule of thumb in price per primer with the amortized hazmat? Or just as many as the fire code lets you have?

I almost always max out on the quantity I can purchase. I think it is 50 lbs. I will mix primer sizes and add powder to the order. There are also sales where the HazMat fee is waived and I watch for them.

I buy in large orders, at least 5000 primers, and 10 pounds of powder. Last time I purchased from Precision Reloading. They have a $16 hazmat deal going on right now, and if you buy at least 5000 of one primer, the prices are decent in my opinion. PR also has $6 shipping.

one of the suppliers that I get email blasts from had rio primers for 20 bucks a brick with reduced hazmat, so of course I maxed out the order because like you the rio hulls are plentiful but they do need the metric 209 primers. sign up at all the suppliers you can, even though the emails are mostly junk I dont want, every once in a while something good pops up.

A tip about Rio hulls. If you under-size them on a MEC Supersizer (.800" or smaller), you can use American primers. I've been shooting Federal 209A's in Rio hulls, and after a few thousand, not one has ever backed out. I've tried some magnum loads, and some gas does leak by, but target loads are no problem.