My long nightmare is over.

Primers! I’ve managed to find a supply of the rarest commodity on Earth: Small rifle primers. 2000 of them.

Honestly, this isn’t meant as a gloat. I hope this is a sign that supply is catching up again. I cannot tell you what a relief this is to finally get primers. I had planned to go to western South Dakota in June for a prarie dog trip, but that was on hold because of lack of reloading components. And primers were by far the hardest to get.

I managed to cobble together enough powder and bullets, but primers have been a no-go and small rifle primers were the worst of the worst as far as what little supply did become available.

Since I’ve been rather vocal in pointing out that this shortage of ammo and components is largely due to hoarders, many of whom actually shoot very little, I should point out that 2000 primers is about a year’s supply for me. Between load development for new guns, other shooting activities, and PD hunting trips, this isn’t a stockpile that’s going to be sitting around for years and years.

I fired up the reloading line last night with a full evening of case cleaning and polishing. I’ve been so depressed about this shortage I haven’t touched anything to do with reloading for the last 3 months.

Grouse

Dumb question…. What caliber do large rifle primers start at on up etc…I assume the .223 uses small?

It’s not really caliber that drives the primer size, Kooty. It’s more about the overall size and capacity of the case itself.

Both a .223 Rem and a .22-250 Rem use the same caliber bullet. A .223 Rem uses a small rifle primer and the .22-250 uses a large rifle primer.

As a rough rule of thumb for the most popular cartridges today is that once you move into the cartridges that were derived from .308 or .30-06 cases, you are into large rifle primer territory. So the .243, .270, etc are all LR.

The bottom line is that you need to look it up for each cartridge because some are less than intuitive. For example, the .22-250 is based on the .250-3000 Savage, which uses a LR primer. Makes sense that the .250 Savage would use a LR, but not very intuitive if you don’t know the lineage. Same with the .220 Swift. At least to my mind, it would seem logical that this would use a small rifle primer, but no. Its parent case is the bizzaire 6MM Navy cartridge, so it, too, uses a large rifle primer.

Grouse

I should have known it wasn’t simple. When I bought the 22-250 supplies I knew I needed large per my buddie’s shopping list.

At any rate, I do hope this is prelude to things going back to normal.

I have to attest to this, seemingly, the situation is improving. Please, avoid shopping online as much as possible and attempt to support your local stores at this time. Prices online are absolutely outrageous, at least so at the places that I occasionally frequent.
I just started reloading 10mm about 6 months ago, and it was a blessing to start at that time because supplies dried up rather quickly in the last 2 months.
I don’t sit on a lot of ammo either, but I do not like being <500 rounds for any caliber.
Hopefully this is the start of some sort of neutral and civilized ownership and sales of guns, ammo, components, etc…for now.

I hope you’re right. I was at Fleet Farm the other day, and they did away with their normal rimfire endcap, I assume because it was constantly empty. I never thought I’d see a day when .22LR was tough to come by!

I went into Dunham’s two weeks ago out in SD. I was surprised by the supply of ammo they had. I got lucky and they had just found a box of 525 .22lr in the back. Got it for $19.99. That gives me a few thousands rounds to plink with this spring/summer. Funny how fast I go through them with 4 clips for my S&W 22A. Love shooting that gun.

So far, Scheels has been the best price for .17HMR that I’ve found.

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Funny how fast I go through them with 4 clips for my S&W 22A.

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No kidding. I can roll through a box of .22 pretty quickly when we get shooting. I have a few of them at home, but they don’t last long!

I haven’t been in the Hudson Fleet Farm since last Sunday but supplies there actually got worse! I was depressed because I refuse to play into any hoarding profiteerers pockets! I don’t “need” to shoot! I have plenty of ammo to hunt with so I’m set. I’ve been using this rifle/pistol shortage as an excuse to ramp up my shotgun supplies. Plenty of that on the shelves!

One of the most maddening things about this whole run on the ammo supplies is that it produces these bizarre inconsistencies. One store will have nothing, the next has a hodge-podge, the next has a different hodge-podge, etc.

Basically, it’s been luck of the draw combined with having some great IDO members and other guys tip me off when stuff suddenly appeared.

My father was actually the one who scored the primer supply. He and ma have a winter home in AZ and he’s been making the rounds of all the local gun shops since he got down there. So he sees on the website of one shop that they suddenly have bullets in stock, but primers still show nothing.

On the chance that the website just might not be getting updated he goes in and what do you know! Primers. And a good selection of brands.

He certainly could have bought more, but I don’t want to play into the hoarding that’s been going on. I do belive that the panic is over for now and that things will return to normal. It’s just that I was in the position of having to put money down for guides, etc and with no ammo I was in a real bind.

Grouse

I have noticed a the prices have went up on most guns and all ammo. Not gouging at the retail level, but it’s up 10-15%. Don’t see that changing anytime soon.