At what price point do you stop shooting?

[dverna]

Currently, primers are over $150/1000 on Gunbroker.

Primers are not available in my area. There is no option to buy ammunition in most calibers.

What is your level of pain? If you had a very limited supply of primers, at what cost would you decide to stop or severely limit shooting?

For me it is $200/1000.

If the “new normal”, after 12 months, becomes $60/1000, how will that affect you?

[Cargo]

I paid $60 for a brick of small rifle primers about three months ago so I would probably be ok with that. Our shooting has slowed quite a bit. We're shooting more shotguns lately as target loads are still running around $25 per 100 and the kids are worn out after a couple of boxes lol.

[Chris S]

I have a large stockpile of ammo built up. All the calibers that I shoot. But still... I have turned to airgunning to keep my skills up. I have several guns that I can shoot in my garage/back yard that will not alert my neighbors. Pellets and CO2 or even pumper/springer guns are cheap and easy to find...for the time being.
FWIW
Chris

[Der Gebirgsjager]

My personal opinion is never. You just shift your shooting habits a bit. These shortages always eventually come to an end and then it's time to stock up for next time. Myself, I am not experiencing any shortages as I have lots of primers stockpiled, lots of powder, and can make by own boolits. However, again my own personal situation, winter is here and I don't greatly enjoy shooting in the snow. So I use the winters to reload, which might be why I've stockpiled a lot of components. This winter I decided, among other reloading projects, to reload .410 shotgun ammo. I recently acquired two (2 1/2" & 3") .410 Lee Loaders from a fellow forum member. I have two coffee cans full of empty .410 hulls I saved from my activities over the years and always wanted to reload them. So I needed wads and started investigating on line for what might be available. I checked BPI and found that they had several types of wads, about half of them sold out, but some that would work very well. Surprisingly, they also had 2 1/2" PRIMED Cheddite hulls at a very reasonable price. So I picked up 200 hulls and two bags of wads. Next, I shopped MidwayUSA and they had 3" PRIMED Cheddite hulls, a .410 roll crimp tool, and a manual. Went back to BPI and picked up a second, different manual and a bag of No.7 nickel plated shot. I'm set for many hours of reloading, but already thinking I might need to invest in a MEC press. Anyway, if the shortages have put a person off balance they just need to adjust accordingly. One can always spend their time casting boolits, sizing and gas checking them, lubing or powder coating, processing brass, etc. Buy a couple of old guns and see if you can't restore them to usefulness and beauty.

[Kraschenbirn]

Uhmmm...something I haven't as yet given a lot of thought. I turn 76 in a couple of weeks and between loaded ammunition and components on hand, I have, at least, enough to keep me shooting for the next 3-4 years. After that, who knows?

Bill

[Der Gebirgsjager]

We're in the same boat, Bill, me being 78. When discussing continuing to shoot the rest of one's life......

Kind of reminds me of the two lifelong shooting buddies, Ron and Bob. They had a deal that whichever one died first, he'd come back and tell the other if there was shooting in Heaven. Bob went first.

Not long after Bob's death Ron awoke in the middle of the night, and there stood Bob at the foot of his bed.

Bob said, "I told you I'd come back Ron. I've got some good news and some bad news."
"Well," said Ron, "give me the good news first."
Bob said, "Sure enough, there is shooting in Heaven. There's no wind, every shot is a bullseye, and you never have to clean your rifle."
"Wonderful," said Ron. "What's the bad news.?"
Bob replied, "You're scheduled to shoot in the first relay tomorrow morning."

Sorry.

DG

[Dapaki]

I too have just shifted my shooting habits (thanks Der) to shoot my Benjamin .22 break action airgun instead of gunpowder rifle shooting and dry firing drills with the pistols. I am also loading primed .22 LR shells with BP, turning cast booloits down to 40gr to take nuisance animals.

I will return to 'normal' once we see the supply chain start to open up once more.

(That there is funny, DG!!)

[Ickisrulz]

I won't pay more than $40/1K of primers. Fortunately I have enough stuff for several years and eventually I will be able to re-stock at normal prices.

[dkonrai]

I won't pay more than $40/1K of primers. Fortunately I have enough stuff for several years and eventually I will be able to re-stock at normal prices.

But will normal prices ever be the same? I stocked up when primers were cheap, 15.00 per 1k. Don't think it will ever be that cheap again. IMHO 40 per will be the normal once things get settled.

Sent from my A7 Pro using Tapatalk

[adcoch1]

If primers are over50 bucks for 1000 I am in disaster mode. Which is basically very little shooting and we switch to bows, slingshots, etc. I will still shoot a little bit, but my primers get kept track of. I am decently stocked, but shot up all my 9mm ammo right before covid hit and hadn't ordered more yet when stuff sold out. So lighter on spp than I want, but not desperate yet...

[Harter66]

Much over $40/1000 and I'm pretty much shut down but I spent 2+ yr buying 2-4k every 6 weeks at $24-38/1000 mostly . I bought what was available at first and what I needed to fill in the gaps later for about 3-4 months all I could get was spp then the lpp srp and pro came back in and I didn't see an app for 2 yr . It took 3 years to get some #41s and when I did I bought a 5241 ct arsenal pack . See this face ? It's my remorse for hoarding face .

Of course if a guy runs out of powder 20k primers does nothing for him .

[Chad5005]

we are down to sighting in hunting guns and hunting,no plinking or practice.id never pay over 100/1000 but have enough to last till prices get back to normal.i guess you really never have enough

[tomme boy]

It will all depend on who actually gets to be POTUS. If they successfully pull off the fraud that was put on us then $60-$80/1K or more will be the new norm. It we get the truth about what happened then $40-$50/1K will be the new norm.

I have enough for several years to come. But I am always on the lookout for more primers. I have been buying up all I could get the last 4 years. But I have been going through 4X the # of 9mm than I ever have. A AR9 is just too much fun to shoot.

[namsag]

I am already at the point where I am not buying anything at current prices. My local state gunowner's forum has had quite a few "long-time members" with 15-20 posts come out of the woodwork lately, selling their marked-up ammunition and components. I am sorry to see that some of the members are buiying from them. I am going to wait for things to settle down again, although when that will be, who knows. I guess I will cut back some on shooting. For self-defense shooting though you can still get some good practice from dry-firing, will probably increase that.

[weldprof1]

Excellent! How come, being a life long shooter (competitive) and other, I have never heard that one?

[weldprof1]

Wow! I am shocked at the complacency in the responses to the question asked. This is not good. We should seriously be looking at taking offensive measures instead of waiting for it to get worst. These prices are ridiculous. They don't need to take the guns away and they know they can't but a gun without ammo is nothing more then an ornament to look at and remember what it was like "back in the day". What about your kids, grand-kids? Are they going to be born of the Bill of Rights or will they just look at us and say, "grandpa/grandma what were those guns on the wall there used for"?

[Conditor22]

I won't pay more than the normal price before covid.

IF businesses price gouge now I will remember and avoid them when this is over.

Same with private parties. Individuals can charge what they want but I won't do business with them after this is over.

Like many of you who lived through the last shortage, I stocked up. I did find myself a little low on SPP so I did some trading straight across and now have an ample supply of SPP.

I'm shifting my shooting practice and load development to calibers I have the most primers for.

[dverna]

The way I looked at it, if I went down to shooting 100 rounds a week that is 5000 rounds a year. If primers got to $200/1000 that would add $170/1000...$850 per year over “normal” costs. At $100/1000, it adds $70/1000 or $350 a year. Shooting is my favorite past time so even $100/1000 primers would not be too terrible.

I would do less plinking with the pistols and pistol caliber carbines. Do more 5.56, .30/30, and .308 rifle shooting. Cannot see myself ever stopping completely.

Certainly something to think about. I bet the socialists follow forums like this, and if $50/1000 primers is a tipping point they do not need to pass much in terms of more gun control.

I like the idea of investing in air powdered guns to keep shooting for fun at a reasonable cost. Trigger time is trigger time. And if I can cast decent pellets it would be very inexpensive. $1000- 1200 for a PCP rifle, compressor, and mold might not be a bad move even at my age (70). If I sold 24 bricks of .22 ammunition, my grandkids and I could plink for free for the rest of my life.

[slim1836]

I've just shifted my expectations to minute of torso at 200 yards for my load development of rifles, for my pistols it's 25 yards. I've got plenty to to pick from. I set no schedule, it's when I decide I need to get out and shoot. Makes it more enjoyable. At this rate, I can shoot well over 2 years if I rotate properly.

This gives me time to think about what I can change to tighten up the groups, should give me something to do until the good Lord takes me.

Slim

[samari46]

All of our primers,powders and projectiles are finite. Including Pistol and revolver calibers we make our own projectiles. I had bought a jug of 2400 few weeks later a good friend from the gun club showes up at my house with some trade goods for a high dollar stock someone had given me before they had passed away.
He gave me 8 pounds of 2400,3cans of 4895 and two cans of 4227, which if things get worse two of those powders are usuable as pistol loads.Plus what I already have on hand. As far as rifle projectiles are concerned well I can make my own, For years I have a aluminum box full of 150 grain 30 cal spitzer bullets. got them in a deal so long ago cannot remember where or how I came in posession. And some odds and ends. But as said everyone has their limits. Blackpowder can still be had but percussion caps sre in short supply. And a lot of stuff we have were legally prevented from shipping across state borders by federal law.Frank