$500 on Primers,Powder,or Lead???

[sw282]

l have $500 l can spend out of the budget on primers,powder, or lead between now and New Years. The money will be used for pistol components only. right now l have app 10k pistol primers and 15 lbs of powder. Lead on hand is around 1200 lbs. What should l buy with my $500??

[hithard]

Primers, primers, primers,

[WilliamDahl]

It's going to depend upon what calibers you shoot and your preferred loads, but it appears that when I run the numbers, your primers are not sufficient to cover the amount of powder or lead that you have on hand. Personally, I have about 60 lbs of various powders and 40K primers, but not near enough lead to be able to accommodate either of those. During the last shortage, it was easy enough to get powder if you weren't too picky about the type of powder. Maybe it wasn't the optimal for your load, but you could develop *something* that would work. Primers, on the other hand, you just can't go substituting things very well with them. I'm not picky on the brand of primers, I'll work up a load with whatever I might have, but the key thing is that you must have *something*. I would say get some more primers and maybe another couple of kegs of powder.

[Mooseman]

Best way is to figure out how many loads you get from a pound of powder for the calibers you load and that's what you need for proper primer to powder ratio.
I like to have around 1000 to1500 primers per pound of Powder for pistols .
Less for large rifle powders...

[Wayne Smith]

If you go with Tula primers you have enough money left over to get something else, too.

[GRUMPA]

The advise given so far is pretty spot on, only thing I would do is get out a calculator and figure how much powder I use per loaad in the given power. Figure how many you get per pound and have enough primers based on that.

If it were let's say 38spl and you use 6gr of whatever, then 6 divided into 7k would be 1166, so I would have on hand at least that many primers per pound of powder.

[frkelly74]

primers then powder. I can still scrounge lead.

[Roundnoser]

I'd say primers...followed by powder. -- As another CB member/friend once told me, without the primers there is no BANG! It states the obvious, but it certainly is the truth.

I think Tula is around $20 per 1K, and you might be able to find Winchester or CCI primers for $27 or so. Thats 100 - 135 dollars per sleeve. If you purchased 10K, you'd still only spend 200 - 270 dollars on primers. You'd have $ to spare for ____?_____.

[mac1911]

I would stock up on primers also. I need lr rifle primers and no luck finding local.

[Floydster]

Just put in another order for primers and powder from Powder Valley, no telling what the future holds

[EDK]

Back in July, I drove 150 miles each way to GRAFS in Mexico MO to buy 15 K large pistol primers. I saved $8 per thousand over the cheapest local shop. Gas was under $40 and it was a beautiful day driving.

For pistol usage, a rough estimate is 1000-to-1200 loads per pound...an 8 pound keg of powder and 10 K primers.

FWIW The local guy is within a dollar or two of GRAFS price on the 8 pounders of powder, but NEVER close on primers. HI-TECH ammo is 20+ miles away for mil-surp powder, the CCI primers and J-words for the AR15 or M1A.

Lead could be a problem, but I have a storage area with some in it...a steep bank behind my targets that looks like you used a garden tiller on it. I need to figure out some sort of screen and start re-cycling.

[runfiverun]

hmmm short term thinkers.
figure out how much you shoot a year then times that by how long you might live then go buy that many primers.
then you don't have to worry about it.
you can scrounge lead and your powder likes might change over time but you'll need those primers either way.

[prs]

hmmm short term thinkers.
figure out how much you shoot a year then times that by how long you might live then go buy that many primers.
then you don't have to worry about it.
you can scrounge lead and your powder likes might change over time but you'll need those primers either way.

I wonder how much it would cost to put in a side track for a railroad box car to enter my property?



prs

[500Smith]

Current conditions: 1/3 Powder 2/3 Primers

[Harter66]

I don't have nearly enough of either 1 . If it was me 4k sp 4k lr 2k lp and 2 8# of 4350. But that's me padding what*I*have.

EDK,
I have a frame 4ft long and 18 in wide set up at about a 30* incline of 1/4 mesh aka chipmunk wire. Even in the area where I am w/the other berm miners I can come up w/20-50 lbs an hr. More if it happens to be a hot week/month for the blow sand filled tire traps.

[bobthenailer]

Primers #1 as theres no substution avalible . #2 powder but substution are avalible . #3 lead theres allways some around somewhere and less people are looking for it as most are reloaders not casters
1,200 lbs of lead yealds 42,000, 200 gr cast bullets
15 lbs powder @7.0 per charge yealds 15,000 rounds
10k primers yeald 10,000 rounds

Powder & primers can be shipped in the same box under the same HZ MAT fee !
In all of the reloading componet shortages weve had through the years the #1 item that was hardest or most expensive to obtain has allways been primers

[H.Callahan]

I am squarely in the primer camp, too. Almost everything else can be made (assuming that the brass is good for many reloadings). Primers there is no good substitute for.

[Nocturnal Stumblebutt]

I agree with Grumpa, do some math and try to buy enough powder for primers and vice versa, so basically you are buying powder and primers for X number of reloads.

[762 shooter]

You didn't say what caliber pistol so here goes:

158 grain 38 special.

You have:

Lead for 53,000 boolits.

If your powder is Unique you have 17,000 - 6 grain powder charges.

You have 10,000 primers.

Buy 13,000 more primers @ $390.00,

and buy 8 pounds of Unique at $117.

You now have 26,800 powder charges,

and 23,000 primers.

Buy primers after that.

762

[bumpo628]

Here's another post similar to the one above. If you used 200 grain boolits and about 5 grains of powder, then you would have enough for the following:
@ 20K worth of powder, 10K primers, and 40K boolits.

That means you buy about 17K primers and about 4 lbs of powder. That would balance you out to be able to make about 27K rounds.

HOWEVER:
Powder and primers might be good to stock up on in case there is a shortage, but lead is easily convertible to cash if you need it. It is pretty difficult to ship powder or primers. Lead is easy and cheap to ship due to the flat rate boxes. There would be no point in stocking up on $1/lb lead only to have to sell it later. If you can get a deal on some lead locally then you might consider this second option.