Primers

[jrayborn]

We don't really have a primer specific area here so if I'm out of line posting here please forgive me.

I have been looking to stock up pre-November on primers and have noticed that they are getting hard to come by again and expensive. Looks like I am not the only one stocking up...

[salpal48]

Primers as all other Components are now Classified as a Commodity.. Or whatever the Traffic will Bare . depending on your Location and store. Stock up while you can. . If you think it's a good Buy for you. Buy It.
most guys BS on the Low Prices they Paid But I have Never got any. . I go to 2 gun shows a month. Scavenge everything I can wether I can Use it now Or not
Sal

[tred1956]

Hi,
Went to the local gun show today (Greenville,SC) and really wasn't to impressed. Had a LOT of powder and loading components but about normal prices. Did have a few folks who thought their 22LR ammo was made of GOLD There was one dealer who got my attention. He had Sellier & Bellot Primers for $18.00 per thousand. I have never used them before but at that price I had to give them a try. Has anyone used them and if so what say you? GOOD OR BAD

Got to spend the day with both My Sons so all in all it was a WONDERFUL day . Life is so busy and it is very odd for the three of us to be off at the same time.

***LIFE IS GOOD ***

Safe shooting
Doug

[DerekP Houston]

Hi,
Went to the local gun show today (Greenville,SC) and really wasn't to impressed. Had a LOT of powder and loading components but about normal prices. Did have a few folks who thought their 22LR ammo was made of GOLD There was one dealer who got my attention. He had Sellier & Bellot Primers for $18.00 per thousand. I have never used them before but at that price I had to give them a try. Has anyone used them and if so what say you? GOOD OR BAD

Got to spend the day with both My Sons so all in all it was a WONDERFUL day . Life is so busy and it is very odd for the three of us to be off at the same time.

***LIFE IS GOOD ***

Safe shooting
Doug

I've been using a ton of s&b primers in spp. No issues yet, work like a champ for me.

[jrayborn]

I love S&B primers. Problem is finding them!

[ReloaderFred]

S&B primers are good primers. I've yet to have one fail to go off.

Hope this helps.

Fred

[sixshot]

Not seeing any primer or powder shortage here in Idaho or northern Utah for the most part. 2400 has been a little tough but I've got quite a bit, no problem at all on primers.

Dick

[John Boy]

Has anyone used them and if so what say you? GOOD OR BAD

Good in the definition of Excellent based on using over 5000

[Earlwb]

The S&B primers work well for me too. I have loaded quite a few of them and fired them off and they all went bang. I do think that with the small pistol primers that the metal brass alloy they use is maybe a bit more soft or maybe the sheet metal thickness of the cups is a little more thin than some other primers. This can cause them to show signs of pressure more soon when working up a load to shoot. But with some pistols the primers work better than other brands that are more hard or stiff. But none of the S&B primers have failed me though.

[jrayborn]

I have had no issues with any brand, from the big 4 USA brands, to Wolf, Tula, S&B, or Fiochi. The only problem I have currently is paying $30 or more per thousand...

[scattershot]

No problem with S&B primers. Price is attractive, too. The only place I can find them lately is Cabela's online, and by the time you pay shipping and Hazmat, it pretty well eats up any savings.

[DerekP Houston]

No problem with S&B primers. Price is attractive, too. The only place I can find them lately is Cabela's online, and by the time you pay shipping and Hazmat, it pretty well eats up any savings.

I was debating another order from cabelas...but yeah once you add in tax/fees I might as well just get winchester from powdervalley. Gun show in town next weekend, I might go take a look around.

[Ed_Shot]

Graf's has 12K of Fiocchi SP's for $290. Best deal I've seen lately.

[ole 5 hole group]

Cabala's isn't what they use to be. I ordered 5K of 210M and 1K of 215M a year ago - they tried to cancel me on the back order. Last week I got the 1K 215 - not 215M and was charged the $20 hazmat fee and they cancelled the 5K 210M primers.

I called and bitched and the final outcome is they are cancelling the 5K order and sending me a $20 gift certificate for the hazmat fee.

They don't have a clue as to what is a standard primer as opposed to a match primer. The customer service gal told me they can't get Federal primers, so they are cancelling backorders.

I haven't a clue what's with Federal primers - can't find large match rifle primers to save my soul - I can find everything but the 210M and 215M primers.

[ReloaderFred]

For what it's worth, the match primers from Federal are the same as their standard primers, but are inspected and packaged by their more experienced employees to ensure quality. The price difference is simply the wages paid to the senior employees and a different box.

I use Federal primers almost exclusively for my handgun rounds, but my supplier gets them drop shipped directly from Federal, since he has a Class 7 FFL. The problem he has with Federal is they don't let him know ahead of time, or more correctly, in a timely manner, when he's scheduled to get a delivery. They'll call him the day they're going to ship, and tell him he's got 250,000 primers shipping that day, and it's COD. One time, the shipment was 500,000 primers that had been on backorder for almost a year. He wasn't expecting to have to pay the driver for that large a shipment at that time, and had to cancel the order. Even at the wholesale price, that's a pretty sizable amount of money for a small operation, especially when he wasn't expecting it at that time.

The major manufacturers only ship their excess primers after they've satisfied, or caught up, with their internal demand for their own ammunition needs. That makes sense, business wise, but makes it hard on those of us on the consumer side of the table. It wouldn't be a good business practice to have a whole production line for loaded ammunition sitting idle for want of primers so reloaders could stockpile for their future needs.

The bottom line is buy them when you can and always try to stay ahead of your needs. I've made it a practice to keep what I project to be a 2 year supply of components on hand at any given time ever since the shortage of 1968. I've recently increased that to a 4 year supply, since our supply and demand situation has become so volatile during the last decade or so.

Hope this helps.

Fred

[Jniedbalski]

S&B primers work great. I have been using a lot of them in small pistole and small riffle recent. My lgs has them a few bucks cheaper than cci or Winchester. Never had a problem with them

[rancher1913]

around here sportsmans warehouse and cabelas have them, but the prices are not that great. even the S&B's are 26 bucks per K

[HABCAN]

Just lookin' in a LGS (75 miles from home) the other day and they had a very few bricks of CCI for CDN$50/each/m. Same for lbs. of Hodgdon powder........but there was one pound of something's else for CDN$69. Oh, and the only brick of SR primers was priced at that CDN$69 also. Yeah, grab supplies at the gun shows even if you'll only use it for 'trade goods' "later, after Hillary". Just sayin'.

[scattershot]

around here sportsmans warehouse and cabelas have them, but the prices are not that great. even the S&B's are 26 bucks per K

You in Denver metro? I haven't seen them in awhile.

[huntrick64]

Recently placed my "pre-Hillary" order at Powder Valley. Got enough powder and primers to get me through the next 8 years. I did that 8 years ago and was needing to do it again. It wasn't that long ago that primers were bringing $80/000 at gun shows. $28/000 was an easy decision. As long as I wanted Hodgdon/Winchester powders, there was plenty at decent prices too. Good luck on Alliant Powders though.