Yes.

I think a lot of people are taking advantage of the shortages and jacking up the prices.  It's a free market though and I guess there are some buyers.

The most expensive price I saw today was $500 Canadian ( about $365 USD ) for a thousand large rifle match primers.

Chris.

I wouldn't call it hoarding if a guy has been through shortages in the past and has purchased as many primers as he can afford to ensure he never runs out.
I have over 50,000 primers stored in hermetically sealed containers, and I still buy as many primers as I can find and afford. I refuse to be caught short, and I have a friend who often buys estates or reloading supplies from guys who have quit loading. He has a standing request to call me whenever he finds anymore primers, and I buy whatever he has.
I may end up leaving my heirs with a good supply of leftover reloading supplies, but I wont be caught without, and forced to not go shooting.

rifleman wrote on Dec 24^th, 2022 at 11:44am:


I'd be curious to know if there were any available to purchase "during the war". I've been told that (up here in Canada) gasoline was rationed, car tires were almost impossible to find, lots of other things rationed as well.

Email just in from Natchez 2 day primer  special free shipping including hazmat fees 2x1000 bricks. 149 dollars per brick. Couple months ago bought two bricks from them 100 per brick & paid shipping & hazmat another 30 -40 dollars. Call it 250/2000 then 300/2000 now.

Some special 

Boats

We have hope of relief. The new primer manufacturer in Texas is getting closer to operation. Their website even mentions reloading. And Fiocchi is building a plant in Arkansas.

The reloading primer trade is a side business for the manufacturers, and I do mean they treat it as a side business. The market is filled with overrun product from the major lines. And today, these lines are pumping out .223 and 9mm. 

Add to this that in a time  of shortages, there are the scalpers and hoarders. I remember the S&W Model 29's sitting on gun show tables for years after the first Dirty Harry Movie. The dealers bought them at inflated prices and then S&W filled demand at lower prices. They finally sold them at a loss.  ("Sympathy" is in the dictionary between "shit" and "syphilis".)

It's supply and demand, and the supply will be getting better.

Ray_Newman wrote on Dec 24^th, 2022 at 2:18pm:


The main reason was toothpaste tubes at the time & even several years after the Korean War were made out of pure lead.  I still have several lbs of lead blocks from melting the tubes down I had collected as a youngster in the early to mid 1950's.  I'd planned to recast the lead into fishing weights but never got around to it.  Can you imagine nowadays the repercussions of selling toothpaste in lead tubes.

But back to the primer shortage.  I've halfway considered making my own from fired primers.  The ingredients are available online.  It's called Prime-All Priming Compound: (You need to Login or Register to view media files and links)

Wayne