Large Pistol Primers

[Rimfire McNutjob]

For those of you running low, Natchez has some Federal LP primers in stock. Federal GM150M. It seems like primer availability is getting tight ... except perhaps for small pistol.

[marlinman93]

For those of you running low, Natchez has some Federal LP primers in stock. Federal GM150M. It seems like primer availability is getting tight ... except perhaps for small pistol.

I thought it was actually beginning to improve and get more available? For the last few years it's been a real drought from what I've heard and read.

[Rimfire McNutjob]

For those of you running low, Natchez has some Federal LP primers in stock. Federal GM150M. It seems like primer availability is getting tight ... except perhaps for small pistol.

I thought it was actually beginning to improve and get more available? For the last few years it's been a real drought from what I've heard and read.

Oh wow ... so you're saying this is actually better than it has been in a while, holy cow. I've been out of touch on the gun stuff for the last 7 or 8 years, just sort of lurking here. My recent activity was spurred by my acquisition of a revolver in .45 Colt. I went looking for Red Dot and I realized that practically all Alliant powder was out of stock just about everywhere ... no Red Dot for me. So I thought I'd look and see how primer availability is because there was that huge drought back in 2009 when you could get powder but not primers. Lo and behold, I found some small pistol stuff but everything else seems hard to come by. I've not updated my Anvil (primer search) program in many years and most of the sites have changed formats so I doubt it would run properly today without some work.

I'm still full up on primers from back then in 2009. I just am missing some powders (fast ones) like Red Dot that seem to be popular in .45 Colt. Also wanted to try Trail Boss but that seems unlikely as well. This primer post was just a PSA for those on this board on the lookout. I suppose most people just use AmmoSeek these days.

[marlinman93]

I've never gotten very low on primers, but a couple years back I got down to around 3000 LR primers, which got me worried as I shoot more of those than anything else. I looked around and the only primers I found were priced extremely high at about $60 per thousand. Now that would be a bargain price, as most are $80-$110 per 1000!
I ended up calling a friend who hits a lot of estate sales, and he told me he had a bunch of LR primers, and offered them to me at $35 per 1000. I told him to bring all he had, and when we met up he brought 12,000 primers! I said I'd buy them all and he told me to just make it $350, and he'd toss in the extra 2000 primers.
I'm helping my son inlaw get started reloading, and we hit our local gun show a couple months ago to buy primers. Usually guys have them cheaper, but we only found two guys who had any at all, and they were 100 packs for $8 each. So we got him a few packs to get started, but hope prices get better. I told him once I'm gone he'll have plenty of reloading supplies in the way of powder, primers, molds, and lead/tin. But for now I'm not letting any of my stash go!

[Rimfire McNutjob]

Wow ... 12K LR. Now I feel like I'm on the edge of running low.

When I had that program running back in 2009, I loaded up and shuffled a bunch off to friends. I think I was paying about $160 per block of 5000. The good 'ole days.

I've got a fairly even spread across LP, SP, LR, and SR ... 23K in all. A lot of Federal, even though they take up more space with their larger packaging. I remember when they flipped to those larger boxes when that UPS driver was killed by a large block of their primers detonating.

I lack some of the specialty stuff like the BR2, BR4, #41, etc.

[horsesoldier03]

Years ago I had a good local source for primers. Unfortunately, the last time I spoke with them, they stated that primers are so hard to get that they were just going to drop them from their inventory. I do have another source a bit further away that runs about $10-20 more than Natchez. I have been sitting on primers for a while but getting down pretty low these days. I may have to get used to "the new norm".

Thanks for the heads up.

[Ysabel Kid]

I bought some CCI LPP from Natchez a few months ago. Paid 3x what I did in the "old days" - but they had them. Beggars can't be choosers...

[Rimfire McNutjob]

... I do have another source a bit further away that runs about $10-20 more than Natchez. ...

Natchez appears to have OK pricing but I think they make up any of that lost margin on shipping charges. My last order with them was $65 in shipping/hazmat ... which was crazy on a $290 order.