HOW COULD THIS BE?

So haw could it be that all of sudden EVERYONE is FLUSH with powders and primers all at the same time? LPP still a little hard to get but they seem to be creeping out,  Are we being played?

Hmmm, have not looked lately.

We not being played if we aren't buying...

bruce martindale wrote:We not being played if we aren't buying...

EXACTLY!

The stores are catching up to the bullseye shooters

Always keep a decent inventory of those items!    Just like I.............Don't!


Ron Habegger

I doubt it; apparently, retailers are catching up to bullseye shooters.

Cabela's had bricks and bricks of all primers both rifle and pistol and shotshell. From all manufactures too. Just yesterday.

So what kind of prices 

It has been improving bit by bit. Have been seeing more and also occasionally seeing better prices. I bought a case of large primer at 80 per thousand recently cause I was just too low. I have also see 70 per thousand for small pistol which I did not need yet so I passed. But it is coming along.

Winchester LPP's are sometimes going for about $70/thousand (by the case) delivered, from vendors on GunBroker. As Garth says, the prices are slowly drifting down as supply seems to be arriving and demand is slowly being met.

$50 by year end? Fingers crossed

When I see Remington 148gr HBWC's available again for sale, I'll know everything is really back to normal!

RoyDean wrote: As Garth says, the prices are slowly drifting down as supply seems to be arriving and demand is slowly being met.

 
Probably just in time for everyone to spaz out over the 2024 election and get the market all jacked up again lol.

zanemoseley wrote:

RoyDean wrote: As Garth says, the prices are slowly drifting down as supply seems to be arriving and demand is slowly being met.

 
Probably just in time for everyone to spaz out over the 2024 election and get the market all jacked up again lol.

Exactly

22lr is everywhere for 6c per round. That's a brass case, lead projectile, priming compound, powder, packaging, distribution, and delivery. There is no economic or "inflation" reason for primers to cost more than 4c apiece delivered. It's all supply & demand. Supply is obviously catching up to demand, as we're all seeing primers in stock online and on store shelves again. Prices will come down - until the next shock.

The question is how long do you wait for prices to come down?

I think I'll top off my supplies, whatever the price is, a few weeks before the primaries start.

pgg wrote:

zanemoseley wrote:

RoyDean wrote: As Garth says, the prices are slowly drifting down as supply seems to be arriving and demand is slowly being met.

 
Probably just in time for everyone to spaz out over the 2024 election and get the market all jacked up again lol.

Exactly

22lr is everywhere for 6c per round. That's a brass case, lead projectile, priming compound, powder, packaging, distribution, and delivery. There is no economic or "inflation" reason for primers to cost more than 4c apiece delivered. It's all supply & demand. Supply is obviously catching up to demand, as we're all seeing primers in stock online and on store shelves again. Prices will come down - until the next shock.

The question is how long do you wait for prices to come down?

I think I'll top off my supplies, whatever the price is, a few weeks before the primaries start.

From a manufacturing perspective a centerfire primer is much more difficult to make than priming a rimfire case. Making and combining the cup, anvil, and priming compound is much more complicated than swirling priming compound in a 22 rimfire case. 

Not to say it is impossible, but manufacturing in general in the last few years has been a mess. Skilled and experienced labor is retiring and can not be replaced over night.

chiz1180 wrote:

pgg wrote:

zanemoseley wrote:

RoyDean wrote: As Garth says, the prices are slowly drifting down as supply seems to be arriving and demand is slowly being met.

 
Probably just in time for everyone to spaz out over the 2024 election and get the market all jacked up again lol.

Exactly

22lr is everywhere for 6c per round. That's a brass case, lead projectile, priming compound, powder, packaging, distribution, and delivery. There is no economic or "inflation" reason for primers to cost more than 4c apiece delivered. It's all supply & demand. Supply is obviously catching up to demand, as we're all seeing primers in stock online and on store shelves again. Prices will come down - until the next shock.

The question is how long do you wait for prices to come down?

I think I'll top off my supplies, whatever the price is, a few weeks before the primaries start.

From a manufacturing perspective a centerfire primer is much more difficult to make than priming a rimfire case. Making and combining the cup, anvil, and priming compound is much more complicated than swirling priming compound in a 22 rimfire case. 

Not to say it is impossible, but manufacturing in general in the last few years has been a mess. Skilled and experienced labor is retiring and can not be replaced over night.

Sure, I'll agree a guy priming a cup with putty is harder than spin-priming a rimfire case, but I'm still not buying the notion that an assembled 22lr round is less complicated, requires less machinery, needs less labor, and requires less time and expense to manufacture than a primer.

22lr certainly requires more raw materials - which at the very least ought to put to rest the ridiculous gun-forum narrative the last couple years that primer prices are never coming down because of inflation.

chiz1180 wrote:From a manufacturing perspective a centerfire primer is much more difficult to make than priming a rimfire case. Making and combining the cup, anvil, and priming compound is much more complicated than swirling priming compound in a 22 rimfire case. 

Not to say it is impossible, but manufacturing in general in the last few years has been a mess. Skilled and experienced labor is retiring and can not be replaced over night.

It’s actually less difficult.  The cups are a straightforward cupping operation.  Done on a strip, the die is made to make a bunch at every stroke.  The anvils are the same although it’s more of a basic draw process.  The priming pellet is made by wiping priming compound over a plate to fill a matrix of holes.  The cups and anvils are shaken into a plate each and can only go in one way.  The cups and priming compound are placed together and then a plate full of punches are placed over it.  The punches seat the priming pellet then a similar setup seats the sealing paper.  Then they go to drying. After drying the anvils are seated similarly then they go for final sizing by running through a punch and die like a cast bullet sizer (tho automated.) it’s tooling heavy, but the process is faster.

A Rimfire round has to use a slightly wetter compound and each individual case has to be spun to get the compound into the rim of the case. The machinery is more complex.

Wobbley wrote:

chiz1180 wrote:From a manufacturing perspective a centerfire primer is much more difficult to make than priming a rimfire case. Making and combining the cup, anvil, and priming compound is much more complicated than swirling priming compound in a 22 rimfire case. 

Not to say it is impossible, but manufacturing in general in the last few years has been a mess. Skilled and experienced labor is retiring and can not be replaced over night.

It’s actually less difficult.  The cups are a straightforward cupping operation.  Done on a strip, the die is made to make a bunch at every stroke.  The anvils are the same although it’s more of a basic draw process.  The priming pellet is made by wiping priming compound over a plate to fill a matrix of holes.  The cups and anvils are shaken into a plate each and can only go in one way.  The cups and priming compound are placed together and then a plate full of punches are placed over it.  The punches seat the priming pellet then a similar setup seats the sealing paper.  Then they go to drying. After drying the anvils are seated similarly then they go for final sizing by running through a punch and die like a cast bullet sizer (tho automated.) it’s tooling heavy, but the process is faster.

A Rimfire round has to use a slightly wetter compound and each individual case has to be spun to get the compound into the rim of the case. The machinery is more complex.

Mechanically maybe slightly simpler, but making (or acquiring) 3 discrete parts is still more involved than 2 parts. Even if one of the two parts is more complicated and you are neglecting labor. Even "automated" processes need labor to load the machine, take stuff off machine, move stuff from point A to B in the plant, ect.  That also neglects any labor for QC of individual components, or maintenance staff. It is (and has been for quite some time now) very difficult to get reliable and skilled labor.

Black_Talon wrote:When I see Remington 148gr HBWC's available again for sale, I'll know everything is really back to normal! :)

Maybe never?  I have a 1/2 case left. In searching for more factory found Magtech Sport, 148gr wadcutter. It is 25.00 a. Box. Bought some. Looks nice.Have yet to Ransom Rest it, but might be worth a look.
If you reload, the Star bullets are excellent when/if they have again.

Said Star but I meant Zero.
Thinking Star as I still have a few K left.

A comparison of 22 SV to primer  in the 80's and now (accord-ing to my memory ?!?) is something like:
Primers $70 for 5k 
and
22 SV around $150 for 5k
now
Primers $400 and .22 $450

The .22 was CCI from Grice Hdw and primers were on Commercial Row @ Perry.

Ron Habegger

The question is how long do you wait for prices to come down?

I think I'll top off my supplies, whatever the price is, a few weeks before the primaries start.

Dollar cost averaging would be a good approch over thenext few weeks/months to return one's supply to normal.
 
Ron Habegger

Hope things are getting better...

Easy to be fulfilled, unless you need primers for a .300 Win Mag or any other cartridge using Magnum Large Rifle primers, not to mention slow burning powders by the keg ‍�

They are not playing us if we don't buy. Still, I'm hoping that things have improved.