Component Drought

[Sasquatch-1]

Are we headed for another component Drought? The club I belong to recently tried to make a group purchase of reloading components. I had ordered large and small pistol primers and a jug of 2400. None was availible. Came home and started looking on line and found these were scarce. A lot of other things were either low or out of stock.

Are people starting to panic again?

[Roundnoser]

No facts, just my opinion...I think that there will be a run on components. If you have noticed, companies like Ruger are so far behind on orders, they stopped taking them. They have already exceeded their annual production goal by August of this year. I would bet many others are doing the same especially in the handgun / pocket pistol market. -- As such ammunition will be at a premium.

As I understand it, the primer manufactures supply ammunition contracts first, before selling primers as components. So as the demand for commerical ammo goes up, our supply of primers goes down.

As for powder, a high volume component supplier in my area explained that powder shortages are not really a product of ammo demand or politics, but rather that of shipping. Many of the powders are manufacured overseas. As cargo ships are delayed due to weather, inspections, etc., the local supplies fluxuate. As long as powder imports remain steady and on time, powder supplies generally remain stable. -- Thats not to say that local demand has no affect on it, just not as much.

[Jim]

I think there's a run already on .22 ammo. I went to 5 different distributors trying to find CCI Blazers. I ended up calling a friend in SC to get a 5K case for me from a gunshop in Columbia. When it comes in, I'll drive down for a visit and pick it up.

[dragon813gt]

We will cause a run. There are threads like this on every board. I may not be able to get a particular brand primer locally. But I can still get every size. Same goes for all other components. Powder Valley is showing all CCI primers back in stock. Apparently some powders are out of stock but this seems to happen normally anyway. And I have no issues buying any type of .22 ammo I want.

IMO we are going to make this a self fulfilling repeat of 2008.


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[arkypete]

There's more then a passing resemblence between ammo and the stock market. The Americans tend to sell their stock at he bottom of the market and buy at the top. They do the same with ammo and components. Shooters should get together, buy powder and primers when times are good and the suppliers are willing to cut some slack.
My buddies and I bought lots of primers, both types of pistol and rifle all Winchester. If I remeber correctly it was a total of some where close to 180,000 primers. Powder came a few weeks later, I think it was five cases of four canisters of Bullseye, Unique, H110, mostly Unique since it's the most useful. My share of this buy should last me for 10 years.
I buy 22s most every week just have them, some times it's for trade and other times my preferred rimfire ammo. Shotgun shells I buy when Walmart has them on sale in the fall. I'll try to keep 20-30 100 round boxes.

Jim

[Freightman]

We will cause a run. There are threads like this on every board. I may not be able to get a particular brand primer locally. But I can still get every size. Same goes for all other components. Powder Valley is showing all CCI primers back in stock. Apparently some powders are out of stock but this seems to happen normally anyway. And I have no issues buying any type of .22 ammo I want.

IMO we are going to make this a self fulfilling repeat of 2008.


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Yep! we are our own worst enemy !

[geargnasher]

I restocked everything I shot up during the past 'shortage' plus a bunch in a big group buy while everyone was sleeping last spring. I waited as long as I could for prices to come back down some but got in there before the next panic buy began.

Gear

[Jack Stanley]

I'm with Gear , this past winter seemed like prices had returned to where they should be considering inflation and metals market . Through the last couple of shortages I didn't buy a scrap of components at the high prices , I left then stuff for the guys that really needed them . Sorta silly the way I do that ain't it ?

Jack

[mxjunky78]

Seems to be mainly just small pistol primers here in Vegas that are short. I guess I'll have to make another PV order here soon.

[zomby woof]

Just made a run for supplies. They had the three different powders I needed and only Winchester small primers. I'm good for the reloading season.

[mxjunky78]

Just made a run for supplies. They had the three different powders I needed and only Winchester small primers. I'm good for the reloading season.

But did that come at a price is the question?

[9.3X62AL]

I've been through several "runs" on reloading components since I became a steady-demand shooter in the late 1970s. I share the views of others here that much of that nonsense is created by panic buying, and that many (not all) retailers just love to feed the frenzy by jacking prices through the roof. I flatly refuse to purchase components at panic prices, and always have an ammo supply for hunting seasons and prep sessions "in reserve". The net effect of these idiot-wind "shortages" for me is to curtail or halt my recreational shooting--'cause I'll be d--ned if I'll pay exorbitant prices for consumables. It's just plain DUMB. And I can fish pretty much all year where I live, so there's always something fun to do. To h--l with the rip-off artists.

[JudgeBAC]

Amen, Al well said.

[LUCKYDAWG13]

things look good here i was just at my cabelas there stock was good

[Saint]

I remember when the shortages happened in 2008 and the complaints would look something like this "because Obama got elected my local gun shop hasn't had primers in stock so when I saw that they had them today I bought 20000 of them" I was amazed that these people couldn't see that the reason nobody had them in stock was not because of Obama but because of people buying 20000 primers at once because they were afraid they would go out of stock again. Meanwhile beginning reloaders like me had to wait 6 months after getting our final piece of reloading equipment to buy one pack of 100 primers because of the guy sitting at home with 20000 primers collecting dust in his closet.

[Moondawg]

What about those government orders for millions upon millions of rounds of pistol ammo? One newspaper article said that Homeland Security had an order for something like a billion rounds of ammo to be spread the next couple of years, and other agencies from Dept of Education to IRS or ordering large quanities of ammo. This isn't even counting what the military orders. Government orders alone should cause a component shortage.

[John Boy]

Stock up periodically and one doesn't have to be concerned with threads such as this
Plus ... have an excellent reloading supplier within a 1/2 drive that sells out of a chicken coop - no joke! Gene has more inventory than the major commercial sporting goods stores except lead ingots which he never carried:grin:

[plus1hdcp]

Tough to find SPP in the Memphis area, although I did add a brick of Remington 1.5 this weekend. This was the only brand of SPP I have seen for a while. After reading this thread, I wonder if I should have picked up another brick or two.

[9.3X62AL]

Plus 1--

If the prices were fair, I would never say "Don't buy"--just don't pay rip-off rates to get componentry. Maybe the retailer had to pay through the nose to get supplies at some point--that seems to be the case at one local shop, the guy still wants $3.50/100 for his dust-covered primer stocks selling in the rest of the known world for ~$2.15. If another "shortage" occurs, maybe he'll get well after all. Sooner or later, all of these shortages come to an end, but customer goodwill is difficult to regain once violated.

[Sasquatch-1]

My original post was not to create a panic or run. My problem was I needed primers. Try to get some through a club buy and was told everything I wanted was not availible. I went on line and was able to find what I wanted but with the Hazmat fee they came to $33.00 per thousand. and were hard to find. the original cost was $25 to $26. per thousand. Unfortunately I did not have enough funds set aside to purchase more stuff to lighten the Hazmat fee.

I just wanted to know if anyone else was ezpeiencing this. BTW, I could have gotten the primers locally but they were $35.00 a thousand.

[Moondawg]

$35.00/K for primers, locally, seems like a fairly good deal. The few places in this neck of the woods that even stock primers want $45-$50/K. Not to be rude, but everything costs more because of the inflation that our government denies. Shipping costs are increased, groceries have gone up, clothing costs more, bullets, powder and cartridge cases cost more. why would you expect primer prices to be the same as they were several years ago?

[Sasquatch-1]

$35.00/K for primers, locally, seems like a fairly good deal. The few places in this neck of the woods that even stock primers want $45-$50/K. Not to be rude, but everything costs more because of the inflation that our government denies. Shipping costs are increased, groceries have gone up, clothing costs more, bullets, powder and cartridge cases cost more. why would you expect primer prices to be the same as they were several years ago?

Im not complaining that much about the price (well yes I am because I remember $10.00 a thousand) but the scarcity. Do a search on line. You will be able to find some but most places will say "Out Of Stock".

Then again maybe the scarcity has to do with the end of the fiscal year. Agency spending what they have left on ammo making components more scarce.

[John Boy]

Do a search on line. You will be able to find some but most places will say "Out Of Stock". Doing a Shop Early - Shop Often ... decreases the "Out Of Stock" when in need or want to stock up

[jmorris]

The club I belong to recently tried to make a group purchase of reloading components. I had ordered large and small pistol primers and a jug of 2400. None was availible If your trying to save money on shipping with your group buy, a 48# order shipps with one hazmat charge from powdervalleyinc.com.

And they have small and large primers in stock as of 2 seconds ago.


Every election year people clear out local stores. Waist of money IMO.

[M-Tecs]

I have been reloading since 1970. After a couple of shortages I started to keep 5K of each size on hand. After the Hazmat fees were added I only order in volume. The minimum I will order is 20K. Normally it’s 30K. That will last for 3 or 4 years than I reorder when items are really available. Same for powder but normally I have a friend or two going in on the order so we get 32 to 48 pounds at a time.

Things got interesting during the 08 shortage. I had all sorts of people than wanted to purchase primes for what I paid for them. Some wanted to pay the panic prices on GunBrokers. I would not sell any, but for anyone that needed, I would loan them what they needed with the understanding that they would replace them in 6 months regardless of what the prices was.

Some people got really pissed at me for my terms. They were all panicked that in 6 months primers would be a dollar apiece. At the time I didn’t understand why they were pissed at me. I still don’t.

I sacrifice allot of things to support my shooting habit. If I plan ahead and they didn’t how is that my problem? We have known this election was coming since 08. Primers have been cheaply and readily available for the past several years. Other than some on a very tight budget, I don’t understand why shooters don’t keep a year’s supply on hand. For some that would be a 100 primers. For others that would be 20K.

Primers don’t go bad. Awhile back I was given 6K of SR that had been under water in a flood in the 80’s. These primes had been purchase in the mid 70’s. Originally I was going to burn them and then put them in the scrap but I decided to try some. They shot better than the new primers I was using. Out of my prairie dog rifles they would shot 3/8” moa on demand. I had a total of 5 FTF.

www.powdervalley.com is a wonderful place!!!!!!!!!!!

[mold maker]

I still have some W shotgun and rifle primers in the wooden trays. I know they must be "60 or earlier., and they still light up like new.

[Char-Gar]

Events come along, that panic folks into hoarding components. I remember 1965 when the Viet Nam war started to heat up and folks still remembered how stuff dried up in WWII.

I do think folks panic about Obama and this is the second wave that event has produced.

There is now a bunch of "preppers" and even a TV show on those folks. I think this has an effect as well.

Throw in the fear of run away inflation and there you have it.

Fear is a terrible thing, that robs folks of their critical thinking skills and their joy of living. Well, it robs some folks of their critical thinking skills. Lots of folks didn't have them to start with.

[David2011]

Our local stores have all you want at $5.00/100. The prices never came down from the last panic so they can't sell them.

[plus1hdcp]

I was out the door for just under $34 for the brick. I figure its never a bad idea to add components.