The Great PRIMER Depression of 2020

Went to a gun show today. Best price on 9mm ball for 500 rds for $400. he sold out in minutes. everyone else was $80-100 for 50 rounds of ball!! Plus selling like crazy. No primers, no powder except some guy had 20 old stock 1 lb bottles of V 135, 150 and 160. 223 ball was $23 box of 20 was best price I saw.

Ross1147 said:

... it will go back to normal by the summer of next year. Kind of like the 22LR shortage a few years ago.

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LOL - what's in your Koolaid?
The 22LR shortage lasted 5 years from what I remember here in Oregon. Sure, you could find it for 10-15¢ per round, but considering I was loading 223 for ~ 13¢, shooting 22LR seemed stupid.
When it got down to 4¢ per, I filled a double milk crate with it. Not going to get stuck with the "only 200 rounds left!" blues again.
Same for primers and powder.

I'm optimistic!lol Lasted 5 years? Maybe? I bought a couple bricks in 2008 before it all started to go to crap and that held me over till I was out of pocket from 10-14. Guess I didn't notice.lol. When I got back to the states in early 14 I could find them again, so guess I just assumed it only lasted a little.
The problem is people buying things they won't need for a couple years just because they buy into the hype of "I gotta buy it all now or I won't have it when I run out." Or people buying things because they see a profit in resale. Kind of like toilet paper a few months ago (once again I was out of the states and I'm glad I missed that shortage!). But I get back and my wife had the whole closet full?? I started calling her a hoarder and she was part of the problem...that didn't go over too well..
Like I said I've got a local shop that has at least 4-5 bricks of every size of primer on their shelf. There's a strong part of me that wants to go buy a brick of each just to make sure I don't run into a situation where I need some in the future but I always talk myself out of it because I have enough for my use at home. Let someone else who really needs it have it I guess. That may bite me in the butt in a year or 2...guess we'll see?

I tried to learn from the last shortage and stock up. I was still in school at the time so it was hard. I think I managed to get enough for a few years. I wish us all good luck in finding more primers...we will need it.

I'm sitting pretty good on my stock. Was moving some stuff the other day and decided to clean out a large junk drawer in my reloading room. I was surprised to find a 1000 CCI rifle primers and a 800 large pistol primers in the bottom of the drawer. No idea how many years those have been there.

Hoarding isn't going to end. Demand will exceed supply for years and every time something hits the shelves, people will grab it. You might as well load up, if not the next guy will...

Like many here learned my lesson last mass-stupidity and when stuff became available again I stocked up to the point I felt sever buyers remorse thinking I spent way to much $$$
Now I wish especially with 22lr I bought 10x as much loaded 9mm bought 5x as much, I'm in no way hurting for stuff cus I aint, just wish I had more as a typical range day for me and my sons is several thousand rounds total.
And IMHO things are gonna stay this way a much longer than last time so I am limiting my shooting. And it really hurts. Shooting my bolt and lever rifles more now as it takes a long time to burn up 100 308 and 6.5x55 and 35 REM then 223 and 9mm.

I'm looking to buy a couple small caliber rifles in 243 or 6,5 as brass and components they are available and its relatively cheap to reload and shoot them.
I've got over 1k 7mm bullets for my 7mm stw so I might buy a 7mm/08 or two as I have with POUNDS of IMR 4064 and IMR 4166 great powders for 243, 6.5, 308 or 7mm/08. I have one 308 already.

I still have over 20k primers from Y2K.....

Hmm. Quite by accident I have been purchasing factory ammo for several years now. I wait for a sale or some form of rebate and I buy the max quantity I can to take full advantage of the rebate or sale. Normally that means a case or two. Last Christmas I placed an order for two cases of Browning BXC in 270 Win. I had buyers remorse and canceled the order shortly thereafter. Much to my surprise a couple weeks later in early January 2020 UPS delivers two cases of the stuff to my front door. Just drops them off and leaves without giving me a chance to sign for it or refuse the package. So now I have 400 rounds of Browning BXC in 270 Win plus all the other 270 Win I purchased from Winchester and Federal it amounts to two full hard plastic ammo boxes of ammunition. Then there's the 243 Win, 308 Win, 22-250 Rem, 300 Win Mag and 7 mm Rem Mag. I got lots of ammo sitting in ammo crates in my closet. I can't go the range to use it because of the gosh darn covid-19 pandemic. The range was closed for most of the year and only recently opened for limited operation. So it's packed all the time and shooting time is limited to one hour. Yeah it sucks I know but I can't do anything about it. I was not planning to become a hoarder it just turned out that way by chance. I do admit to hoarding toilet paper though! On that point I am guilty as charged. I am sorry but I cannot do without the Costco Kirkland Signature Series bathroom tissue!!!!!!

I also stocked up on rice, oats, flour (bread and all purpose), beans (of all sorts), corn meal, sugar, salt, coffee, etc. This pandemic has cost me a friggin fortune. The price for all these commodities went through the roof earlier this year and on top of that I had to buy food grade 5 gallon pails and liners to store the stuff air tight so that it won't spoil. What a frigging mess! Even if you don't get laid off from work the chaos of this pandemic can still put a sizeable hole in your savings account!

blackbrush1 said:

I still have over 20k primers from Y2K.....

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Man what an event that was! I was in middle school at the time but I remember the hysteria.

J. Hitler confiscated private firearms. How many have you had confiscated under any parties presidency.
Truth should rule not opinions.

bigred1 said:

J. Hitler confiscated private firearms. How many have you had confiscated under any parties presidency.
Truth should rule not opinions.

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Have we ever had a presumptive President, and Vice President, who have publicly stated that they do not believe the private possession of firearms is an individual right?
We do now.

Ross1147 said:

I asked them on Saturday what they're charging for a brick of Fed 210s and they said 60. I bought a brick of 210Ms from them 3 months ago and it was only 40 so they're going up but not crazy.

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Gun Broker is selling 1000 primers for $250.

Been through the shortages several times. Mass hysteria. Herd mentality.
The two year backorder comes from dealers and distributors mass ordering from everybody in the hopes of getting anything. In addition ammo manufacturers ramping up production to their full capacity to make hay while the sun shines.
If and when things start to catch up, dealers will suddenly start cancelling all those orders to keep from getting stuck with large shipments and suddenly you will see the 2 year order backlog disappear.
BUY WHEN THERE IS PLENTY. Ammo, 22lr, primers, powder, lower receivers, parts kits. What will get hit on the next wave of regulations? No matter how good things are, a Democrat is going to get elected sooner or later. There will be another mass shooting or high level murder. Always going to be another excuse for trying to pass more regulation, creating another shortage or ban. They are not going away.

By next summer when vaccinations become more widespread and supply chain restrictions ease and companies start expanding production, I think we will see things get better. From what I understand the primer shortage is tied to the ammo shortage. Whoever bought the ammo component of remington has to get it up and running, that will help some. I'm not sure if you're seeing the same shortage overseas. I haven't seen S&B primers in a while, maybe they'll ramp up production and imports from other companies too. If $40 a brick is a good price its easier for them to ship them in. Same goes for Lovex powder through shooters world.

At the end of the day, if you're paying $100 for a brick of primers you're telling the free market this should go on. Me, if my stock dwindles I'll probably just stay home and shoot less. If anything, I had been shooting more this year, not a whole lot else going on.

Not the first panic, won't be the last.