Primer shortage getting serious

[Andrew]

I have posted now and again about the lack of primers here in the US. Many major retail distributors are out of even the plainest, most common primers. I have been lucky in that the trading post in my little town has had ample supplies of almost everything and I have been buying 1 K every week.

 

Well. That ended today. They have finally put out the last of the primers they had stored in the back and what is on the shelves is what is left. I skipped my purchasing regimen to let other folks have a shot but this is a bad sign. In twenty years this outfit has never run dry of primers.

 

A trip to the City today yielded no better results. In fact, powder and brass are also dried up and gone. I found 50 pcs of new Winchester Hornet brass. All the rest of the new brass consisted of WSM and WSSM brass.

 

In any event. Stock up, ladies and gentlemen. The bare shelves will reach you eventually.~Andrew

[Guest magwa1962]

I have posted now and again about the lack of primers here in the US. Many major retail distributors are out of even the plainest, most common primers. I have been lucky in that the trading post in my little town has had ample supplies of almost everything and I have been buying 1 K every week.

 

Well. That ended today. They have finally put out the last of the primers they had stored in the back and what is on the shelves is what is left. I skipped my purchasing regimen to let other folks have a shot but this is a bad sign. In twenty years this outfit has never run dry of primers.

 

A trip to the City today yielded no better results. In fact, powder and brass are also dried up and gone. I found 50 pcs of new Winchester Hornet brass. All the rest of the new brass consisted of WSM and WSSM brass.

 

In any event. Stock up, ladies and gentlemen. The bare shelves will reach you eventually.~Andrew

Cheers for the INFO Andrew i have noticed this here in the U.K. my local gun shop has also run out of the ones i use CCI large magnum rifle primers, they dont know when they will be back in stock, they just say they are on order ???

 

Maybe your new President Obama has bought them all to STOP you all from "THE RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS" just a thought.

 

Regards Jimmy

[Andrew]

Your welcome. Everyone has primers "On order" I'm afraid. No, President Obama hasn't gotten around to gun control yet but he will. He's too busy wrecking our economy at the moment...~Andrew

[eldon]

Hi Andrew, I heeded your previous advice and bought a few up.

Why do you think this shortage is now occuring? surely any war requirements would have been taken care of so why this extended period.

 

Anybody know for us in the U.K. , how many primers are you legally allowed to hold on a normal FAC ?

[casts_by_fly]

eldon,

 

Every year the manufacturers run down their inventories at year end. It is a good business practice to not carry too much inventory. Normal years it isn't a problem as the stores have plenty on shelf to carry through until the next production batches.

 

This year with the election, it seems that people are buying up stock and hoarding them. Now that there is a 'primer shortage' people are doing it more. Give it two months and the manufacturers will be shipping them again.

 

Thanks,

Rick

[Andrew]

That may be partially true: People have been buying them, but the shortage, per se, has been going on for quite a while. Primer stocks have been falling away since mid summer. This is February and there have been no replenishing of the shelves at the major (volume purchasing) retailers. All this being said, I have seen this before. In the mid '90's there was a primer shortage. I bought 10K each Remington 9.5 and 7.5 primers and salted them away. I never did open them up and six or seven months later the supplies started trickling back onto the shelves. I am hopeful that this dry spell will break. I know that gun sales have gone through the roof. A friend of mine owns a gun shop and he said that between November and January he averaged 60, AR-15 (DPMS, Colt, Bushmaster) sales a week. Our new President has folks a bit leery.

 

Here we have no limit as to powder and primers we can keep -nor loaded ammunition, for that matter. I have a couple of 50 caliber ammo cans neatly packed with primers as well as a thousand of each that I use regularly out where I can get at them.~Andrew

[Alycidon]

I bought some BR4s from Norman Clark on Monday, he had plenty.

 

A

[Chris-NZ]

From my US mate:

 

---------

 

..the primer situation appears to be far worse than I expected. Just called Black Hills Shooter Supply, our longtime large-scale mail order source for brass, powder and primers. They are OUT. Only 209 shotgun primers left. Also completely sold out of all popular powders- Varget, IMRs, H4350s, 4895s, Winchester ball stuff, etc.

 

 

---------

 

Chris-NZ

[Andrew]

Yup! They are close to my brother's place so I asked him to scout them out. They are dry and they are commercial ammunition loaders. Ouch! ~Andrew

[Guest magwa1962]

Hi Andrew, I heeded your previous advice and bought a few up.

Why do you think this shortage is now occuring? surely any war requirements would have been taken care of so why this extended period.

 

Anybody know for us in the U.K. , how many primers are you legally allowed to hold on a normal FAC ?

AS many as you want as they are not marked up on your FAC

[Guest Tiff]

AS many as you want as they are not marked up on your FAC

 

True, but they count towards your 5kg type three explosives limit.

[Alycidon]

And you do need to show your ticket on purchase to proove you may need them, they are not entered (yet ?) but no ticket no primers. You could also PRESUMABLY not buy one size when you ticket only gives you calibers taking the other size, not sure on that one.

 

A

[AHPP]

True, but they count towards your 5kg type three explosives limit.

 

Wossall that about then?

[Guest Tiff]

Wossall that about then?

 

If you read up on powder storage limits in the law (look under the links in the final post on my previous thread on 'maxs limits'), you will see that primers count towards the type 3 (shooters powder) 5 kg limit everyone is allowed. Above that limit you have to get an explosives licence. In the documents it gives primers a explosive weight (approx) which I seem to remember being about 1.2grams (could be slightly less/more). Therefore about 5,000 primers and you've already breached the law!

[AHPP]

If you read up on powder storage limits in the law (look under the links in the final post on my previous thread on 'maxs limits'), you will see that primers count towards the type 3 (shooters powder) 5 kg limit everyone is allowed. Above that limit you have to get an explosives licence. In the documents it gives primers a explosive weight (approx) which I seem to remember being about 1.2grams (could be slightly less/more). Therefore about 5,000 primers and you've already breached the law!

 

Handy. Cheers.

[eldon]

Cheers Tiff that sorts that one then.

 

Better go buy a few more

[Andrew]

I went to the same distributor near my house, Sportsman's Warehouse, last Friday morning. I was told that their shipment of brass, bullets, powder and primers had arrived the night before and that it would be put out later that morning. I had to come to the city the next day so I just stopped in then. Nothing had changed! When I asked why they hadn't put out the components the salesman promised I was informed that they had. All of it sold out in one afternoon. I have never seen it like this in 30 years of reloading.~Andrew

[devilishdave]

I guess if every one is scared the shops will run out and is stocking up in bulck then the shops will run out. We had the same thing over here when the refinary shut for the week end so every one panicked and went to fill their tanks up and cleaned the garages out of fuel.

 

To be fair I dont think the USA can blame Obama for their Economy yet bush shold carry the can for that bad boy!!

 

Dave

[Andrew]

I guess if every one is scared the shops will run out and is stocking up in bulck then the shops will run out. We had the same thing over here when the refinary shut for the week end so every one panicked and went to fill their tanks up and cleaned the garages out of fuel.

 

To be fair I dont think the USA can blame Obama for their Economy yet bush shold carry the can for that bad boy!!

 

Dave

 

Dave: Not to talk politics but you're wrong. The policies that led to the banking failure was started by a fellow named Coumo who ran the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) during the Clinton Administration. HUD mandated that 50% of housing loan cash would be given to minorities, regardless of their economic status. If they didn't they would be sanctioned. Bush tried to put tighter restrictions on the Loan institutions in 2001 and was slapped back. The trillions of dollars in debt that are being wracked up are Obama's and Congress' alone. The Democratic controlled Congress wrote it, he signed it. It is an abomination and a step towards Socialism.

 

Back on topic, yes. There is a lot of panic buying going on and I've never seen it this bad. Still plenty of WSM and WSSM brass available though. Wish I could box it up and send it all your (collective) way!~Andrew

[Chris-NZ]

I had no problems gettin H4895 or a box of primers.

 

1 phone call and I had it the next day.

 

308Panther

 

 

Where'd ya manage to get them from?

I see that Midway and Midsouth are both right out of primers other than weird ones.

 

Chris-NZ

[Mack]

My local Gunshop can't get Federal or CCI Primers for love nor money. He tell's me he's had Federal on order for months now. He's resorted to stocking Remington primers just to keep guys shooting. I sent an e-mail to GMK asking the reason for this. So far they haven't replied but I will cut and paste their answer when they do.

[shootingbags]

My local Gunshop can't get Federal or CCI Primers for love nor money. He tell's me he's had Federal on order for months now. He's resorted to stocking Remington primers just to keep guys shooting. I sent an e-mail to GMK asking the reason for this. So far they haven't replied but I will cut and paste their answer when they do.

I wouldn't hold your breath Mack

[baldie]

As useless as GMK are Mack, the simple answer is that they just haven,t had them from the states. The supply of federal dried up several years ago, as they were all going to the lake city arsenal in the states for the Iraq war munitions.

So everyone switched to the next best thing...CCI. These have dried up just recently because of good old Obama. The American markets have panic bought and cleared all stocks stateside. We wont get anymore here, until they have restocked.

All there is available is remington, which are not bad primers, and certainly better than nothing.

[foxwhistler]

I have heard that CCI BR4`s have been taken off the market in thr US due to ignition problem`s They are now going through engineering and will be back when the problem is sorted.

[brown dog]

As useless as GMK are Mack, the simple answer is that they just haven,t had them from the states. The supply of federal dried up several years ago, as they were all going to the lake city arsenal in the states for the Iraq war munitions.

So everyone switched to the next best thing...CCI. These have dried up just recently because of good old Obama. The American markets have panic bought and cleared all stocks stateside. We wont get anymore here, until they have restocked.

All there is available is remington, which are not bad primers, and certainly better than nothing.

 

?

 

Dave,

 

I'm confused!

 

Just a couple of days ago you posted this:

 

We have had a delivery of these primers today, on back order. Any dealer with a back order system with GMK should have had some, or are due to some, so check your dealers guys....they are dribbling through again.

 

 

So, are they 'on' or 'off' ?!