Primer purchase help needed

[bbogue1]

My son lives in Washington State. He's down to about 20 small pistol primers. In the last month he has called an ever widening list of possible local spp suppliers. There are none to be found. Apparently the state's new inspection process has made it nearly impossible for the vendors to warehouse primers and powder. He's now looking at buying them from a source that ships them. I know he'll have to pay a hazmat fee and shipping. I see there are suppliers that have specials or discounts available. This brings up the question, Who do you buy primers from based on price, hazmat fee, shipping quality and fee. In other words for someone who punches holes in home made targets for fun who would you recommend?

Admin: If this post is in the wrong place feel free to move it.

[Huskerguy]

Look at Powder Valley. They often run specials on various components. They have everything related to reloading and sometimes have specials when they wave the haz mat fees. They are in Kansas so I gather lots of orders and make the trip and only pay the sales tax. Really good people to deal with.

[Camper64]

If you keep an eye on some of the sites below, they will have free shipping and/or free hazmat deals. Most require a purchase of X dollars to qualify. I just purchased CCI small pistol primers from Graf and Sons that had free hazmat if you purchased $150 worth of primers and/or powder.

Graf and Sons
Brownells
Midsouth Shooters Supply
Midway USA

I'm sure others will chime in on some of the other vendors.

[bbogue1]

Thanks, Actually Powder Valley is on the top of the list. Without a sale they seem to be a little high. Go to their website and take a look at all the primers they list as out of stock. There is practically no CCI available. The free hazmat is interesting.

[GoodOlBoy]

Midwayusa (https://www.midwayusa.com/)
Ballistic Products (https://www.ballisticproducts.com)

They sometimes run discounts, but honestly if he is down to 20 primers he is pretty well sunk on discounts at the moment. It might even pay him to drive to another state.

God Bless, and good hunting!

GoodOlBoy

[2A-Jay]

My son lives in Washington State. He's down to about 20 small pistol primers. In the last month he has called an ever widening list of possible local spp suppliers. There are none to be found. Apparently the state's new inspection process has made it nearly impossible for the vendors to warehouse primers and powder. He's now looking at buying them from a source that ships them. I know he'll have to pay a hazmat fee and shipping. I see there are suppliers that have specials or discounts available. This brings up the question, Who do you buy primers from based on price, hazmat fee, shipping quality and fee. In other words for someone who punches holes in home made targets for fun who would you recommend?

Admin: If this post is in the wrong place feel free to move it.

Where in WA does your son live? I have found SPP's lately at Ace Hardware In Long Beach.

[Cheeto303]

Try this. I don't know shipping and hazmat is as I live 25 miles away and do free in store pickup. Keep an eye on Midsouth as they will offer free hazmat a lot. https://www.midsouthshooterssupply.com/item/00257ugspp/unis-ginex-small-pistol-primer-5-and-000-count-case

[shaune509]

I too would like to know were he is in this state? Washington is known to change rules/codes/laws with out telling the public but if on the west side may be more county/city that is the cause. I've not been to a gun/reloading store in a few months but last I saw [October] it did not seem limited here in the conservative east side.
Fire code has been the excuse for not having real BP in places like Sportsmans warehouse but the local outdoor discount has been the only place to get BP for the last 30+ years.
Shaune509

[bbogue1]

Just west of Tacoma. I think that used to be a common commodity at hardware stores. He never had a problem buying at Sportco in Fife which created complacency, we all do that, probably too often, but, now he can't find them anywhere. I did find a great website thanks to this forum. Wikiarms.com It will search 100 other sites for guns and related merchandise. Problem is when I go to the website of my choice from Wikiarms most of the primers are out of stock. Found a good discount at Brownells and sure enough Midsouth is having a sale, too. Each have spotty choices of primer brands. I like the lists from Camper 64 and GoodOlBoy Most I have checked I will look into Balistic Products. Thanks for he info, We'll remain alert.

[bbogue1]

Midwayusa (https://www.midwayusa.com/)
Ballistic Products (https://www.ballisticproducts.com)

They sometimes run discounts, but honestly if he is down to 20 primers he is pretty well sunk on discounts at the moment. It might even pay him to drive to another state.

God Bless, and good hunting!

GoodOlBoy

In talking about this he's decided to allocate $80 to $85 per month to primer and powder purchases. After a 2 months he should have enough to stop buying monthly. He should have about 2,000 primers and 2 pounds of powder. If he shifts his purchases to, say, quarterly he can reduce expenses by waiting for sales. I

If I was a few states closer I could give him some of mine. I actually looked into shipping some to him and we found it was roughly the same price to buy them with either a reduced hazmat or reduced shipping. This is something I don't buy often so, I thought asking this great bank of knowledge would help. It has for sure.

[lightman]

I use Powder Valley pretty often. I'll get a group order together and order the max weight that they will put in one box. We split the shipping and hazmat charges.

[dverna]

I have rarely paid a HazMat fee as I shop the sales. But sometimes the HazMat cost is worthwhile if the sales price is attractive. I once bought 50,000 primers IIRC for $16/1000 and paid HazMat. It worked out to less than $1/1000.

If he has buddies. or others at the gun club, look into splitting a group buy. Most places will ship powder and primers together. In the last 25 years, the only primers I have bought retail was a carton of S&B to try them out about 8 years ago.

Also, I was a member at two gun clubs that organized groups buys with distributors. One was AJ Reloading and the other Dawsons...both in Ohio.

[richhodg66]

Sounds like a time to take a vacation and make a road trip out of state.

I have been having good success the past few years buying them at gun shows. Not sure if that's an option or now.

[Tom W.]

Small rifle primers will work just fine.....

[rbuck351]

Save his money for a few months and take a road trip to Oregon or Idaho. Also might try calling sporting goods stores on Indian reservations. They often have things that are difficult to get and are cheaper from lack of taxes. Another option might be sporting stores in Wenatchee or Spokane. Best option would be to move to Idaho or Montana although I realize that may not be a real option in his situation. We moved from Washington to Alaska in the early 80s to get away from the leftist developing state and then retired in Montana. I understand Washington is almost as bad as California and rapidly getting worse. Call around and see who has what and make a road trip.

[gwpercle]

Go on a little over nighter with the wife in the car .... adjacent state with fewer restrictions , do a little (or a lot) of shopping and drive back home .
Is another primer and powder shortage looming ....? Election jitter's...?

The "new inspection process" sounds like a slick way to ban ammo components ...explain the process and why it creates a shortage of primers and powder .
If you can pass laws to control the components ...then pass an amendment to control the ammo ...you don't need gun control .

Also check the thread ..."Today's Best Deals" in this section , for any sales .

[Rich/WIS]

RECOB'S target shop in WI will ship. Not sure of shipping costs and HAZMAT. Show CCI SP in stock at @$150 for 5K, probably other brands as well along with powders.

[Dapaki]

Natchez has the CCI #500 SRP for $28.99 a brick of 1000, on sale now.

$19.99 hazmat plus shipping, leaves you about where they retail.

[gwpercle]

Natchez has the CCI #500 SRP for $28.99 a brick of 1000, on sale now.

$19.99 hazmat plus shipping, leaves you about where they retail.

He's looking for Small Pistol Primers !

[Dapaki]

My bad, I fixed it, #500 are SPP.

[Huskerguy]

Natchez sent out their daily email of deals and they have CCI primers, standard not magnums for $28.99 and $5 flat rate shipping. In my parts, anything under $30 is good.

[FLINTNFIRE]

Midsouth has the unis ginis for fairly cheap , I use powder valley when the manufactures are running rebates , shows used to be full of them decent price not so much anymore , local shops have them so probably a tacoma seattle thing as they are bent on closing gun shops down , I buy in bulk to cut hazmat , could cut price even more if I could find others to go in on bulk buys , I do consider it getting low if I was down to 20 packs of a hundred as there will be more shortages , used to be I could find primers at a lot of stores same with reloading gear , now it is down to a few stores and not a lot of selection , good luck and there are sportsmans warehouse and cabelas tacoma area that should have primers .

[Dapaki]

I just got primers from cabelas last week, under $30.00 a brick for #400 CCI.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

what about gunshows?

there is two this weekend. One south of him and one to the north.

Wes Knodel Gun & Knife Shows
Southwest Washington Fairgrounds
2555 N National Ave, Chehalis, WA


Lynden Classic Gun & Knife Show
Northwest Washington Fair and Event Center
1775 Front St, Lynden, WA

[Chad5005]

midsouth has the unis ginex small pistol primers on sale for 114.99 for 5000

[GoodOlBoy]

In talking about this he's decided to allocate $80 to $85 per month to primer and powder purchases. After a 2 months he should have enough to stop buying monthly. He should have about 2,000 primers and 2 pounds of powder. If he shifts his purchases to, say, quarterly he can reduce expenses by waiting for sales. I

If I was a few states closer I could give him some of mine. I actually looked into shipping some to him and we found it was roughly the same price to buy them with either a reduced hazmat or reduced shipping. This is something I don't buy often so, I thought asking this great bank of knowledge would help. It has for sure.

Yeah getting back up to a decent stock over time without spending a fortune in hazmat is tricky at best (as you know). The last big "primer haul" I found was actually at a gun show a few years back. Powder prices at the show were stupid. Most primer prices were stupid. Then I found a guy with NOS of Winchester Western Staynless Primers and got the buy of the decade. After a bit of haggling I got the primers for something like $10 per thousand because nobody else wanted to touch "old" primers, and he threw in a couple of partial boxes. Like I said, buy of the decade for me.

Other than that, I don't know if you have Academy sporting goods up there, but I've been told that some of them in Texas now carry primers. I haven't been out and about for while, so I'm not sure. Hope he finds a way to get what he needs, but since it isn't urgent urgent (that's what I was thinking when you said he had 20 left) then he should be able to get back to where he wants to be on supplies by playing the waiting game.

Anywho, again, God Bless and good hunting.

GoodOlBoy

[Idaho45guy]

Small rifle primers will work just fine.....

Really? I didn't know that.

I had to go to Walmart today for a special request item for my daughter in Japan and I stopped by the reloading section. Before they went anti-gun, I used to buy most of my supplies there.

They had the CCI SPP marked to $1 per 100 since they even got rid of not only pistol ammo, but all reloading components for pistols, including bullets and primers. Jerks.

Unfortunately, they were all gone, but they had plenty of the small rifle primers.

I was at a Cabela's in Idaho yesterday and their prices on most everything were high retail. I didn't even look at primers.

Their powder selection was a joke...

257929

[shaune509]

Looking like there may be a supply problem, the online site for Sportsmans two Spokane Wa stores shows CCI, Rem and Win spp's are $2.30-2.89/100 and slight savings on brick of 1000. But limited to 1-10 cards by brand and out of stock on all brick's. Supply, or run on buying like the 22lr's a few years back??? At least my supply is good at a brick+ of spp, lpp, srp, lrp, lrpm, 209's, and 109's if I ever find old shot shells that need them. Also have a selection of berdan sizes along with #10, #11 and musket caps.
What is frustrating in any of the so called shortages of ether 22lr's or now maybe primers is that CCI is down the road south of me in Spokane and are friend Idaho45, in Lewiston, Id.
Shaune509

[adcoch1]

The gun show this weekend in Centralia would be a good place to pick some up, honestly the best prices I've seen in person for reloading stuff has been at that show. Not a long drive from Tacoma.

[Idaho45guy]

Ironic that the CCI/Speer plant is about 45 minutes south of me in Lewiston, but I find cheaper prices online than locally. I believe my nearest LGS has them for $3.99 per 100.