Feeling The Pinch

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  • Last Post 22 July 2022
Aaron posted this 19 June 2022

I can't speak for the rest of us but I am really feeling the pinch now on reloading components. In the last decade, prices have almost tripled for powder, primers, and brass if you can locate it without a 1-year wait. This transcends standard and incremental price increases that we have all experienced over our lifetimes. Prices tripling in a decade is, as Eyegore states, abbynormal.

2013: $35 at your LGS

2022: $115 w/Hazmat $ shipping

That is a whopping 230% increase in cost of primers alone. Powder and brass are similar. New tooling is equally elusive as are standard bullet molds (not custom).

What the heck is going on? On a fixed income, my shooting has all but stopped.

With rifle in hand, I confidently go forth into the darkness.

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hporter posted this 22 July 2022

Thank you.  I will send you a PM.

I will have to study up on how to disassemble a primer safely.

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RicinYakima posted this 22 July 2022

No, they take only the center primer, not the whole cup. I don't load shotgun shells, so have nothing to measure them by. You are welcome to them for postage. Ric

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hporter posted this 22 July 2022

Ric,

If those take the 209 primers, I would love to have them.  I have a couple thousand 209 primers and have sold my reloaders.

Harold

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RicinYakima posted this 22 July 2022

I have a large lot of 1918 Western 30/06 cases that were made to shoot grenades; they take the primer from the center of the shotgun shell. They are available for postage!

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Ken Campbell Iowa posted this 21 July 2022

...about 1956 i re-capped shotshell primers ... made a little split tool to center the anvil and pressed in new primer caps ... from ( i think ) Alcan ... worked fine, about half the cost of new ones ...  

cokes were a nickel ...

ken

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JimmyDee posted this 21 July 2022

Bought 1000 Federal 209A shotgun primers yesterday.  NZD200.00.  That's approx. USD125.00.  

US$100 per 1,000 primers face-to-face is what they were getting at last weekend's meeting.  I'm tempted to break out the improvised munitions field manual and read-up on re-manufacturing primers.

Alliant rifle powders.  NZD134.00lb.  Approx. USD83.00.

That seems very high.  Sorry for folks in NZ but I'm glad I don't need any.  For now...

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John Carlson posted this 20 July 2022

What is "Expansion Ammo" ?

 

Ammo production company in Texas (naturally)

 

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwiKwqKUvYb5AhX7nWoFHUygCNMQFnoECAYQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fexpammo%2F&usg=AOvVaw2BygsxuGZ1MGJcuLSg_THO

John Carlson. CBA Director of Military Competition.

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lotech posted this 20 July 2022

What is "Expansion Ammo" ?

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John Carlson posted this 20 July 2022

All those numbers from 50+/- years ago are interesting but irrelevant.  The point is the disparity in the prices and availability over the last couple of years.  Pretty much every class of merchandise has experienced unprecedented volatility.  In the ammo/components world we live in primers have been the glaring outlier.  Brass, bullets, powder, reloading tools, all have seen modest price increases and improving availability.  Loaded ammunition saw shortages similar to the last episode of panic buying and hoarding.  The highly sought after 9mm and 223 ammo disappeared for a time but is now available albeit with a price increase around 50% at least in my neighborhood.  Primers are still quite scarce and those I do see come with price increases approaching 300%.  Hopefully as Expansion Ammo gets its operation up to speed the introduction of new competition to the industry will have a positive effect.

 

John Carlson. CBA Director of Military Competition.

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Boschloper posted this 19 July 2022

I was making $1.75 an hour when I bought my first can of Red Dot. I think it was $4.69.  That would have been 1973.

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Aaron posted this 19 July 2022

If memory serves me, I made $1.49/hr at Gino's flipping burgers in High School.

With rifle in hand, I confidently go forth into the darkness.

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delmarskid posted this 19 July 2022

I got .50 for mowing a lawn. My brother and I split 15.00 for baling hay for a week.

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John Alexander posted this 19 July 2022

Do you remember what you got paid per hour in the 1960s? 

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Eddie Southgate posted this 19 July 2022

As a spry youth in the 1960's a dollar bought about $0.90 of stuff. Today it buys $0.29 worth of things. In addition the cost of everything has escalated by 4X. The days of supporting a family on an entry level job are far behind us. Still we have it better than many other places, but the tea leaves seem to say that lean times are coming. Zombies are not the issue. People who want your stuff are. As Ed says: "have good neighbors and make sure you are watching each others backs".

Dave C

 

Dave C ,

You might want to adjust your figures . In the '60 s I bought gas for .29 or less per gallon, yesterday it was $3.99 down from the $4.09 that it was on Sunday at the same station. In the '60 s and '70 s a pack of Camels cost .27 , now they are more like $8.00 . In the '60 s I gave less than $5.00 for the only box of .357 Magnum loads I ever bought , now it's more like $50.00 . All of those things are government controlled and heavily taxed.  Some people want all three items to go away period .

Grumpy Old Man With A Gun......Do Not Touch .

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RicinYakima posted this 06 July 2022

Flintlock, a mould, wheel weights and a fire. You can make your own black powder. 

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John Carlson posted this 06 July 2022

Even if Jason Vanderbrink of Vista is being honest about the inability of his industry to ramp up production in response to the demand it doesn't explain the prices.  While availability of powder tanked for quite a while what I did see was not priced exorbitantly higher than I expected.  As availability has improved I have bought the powder I've "needed" at a lot closer to $30 a pound than the $50 mentioned a while back.  When I started to load for a new-to-me cartridge I was able to acquire the brass and dies for normal prices.  While there are signs of recovering availability and some price moderation, primers remain the outlier.

On a brighter note a company called Expansion Ammo seems to think the market warrants investment in converting an old army ammo plant to primer production.  Even if they only produce shotgun primers it has to help some.

In the mean time I'll keep watching for a good deal on a flintlock.

John Carlson. CBA Director of Military Competition.

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Clod Hopper posted this 05 July 2022

Supply and demand set prices.  We have had an enormous increase in demand of primers and ammunition in the last few years.  According to my sources, primer manufacturing requires an enormous up front investment and takes years to get on line.  Primer manufacturers have to ask themselves will the market still be there in that period of time?  As we have seen with Lake City, the Government may try to ban or limit ammo to the private sector.  

And I admit that I have hoarded more components than I really need for the foreseeable future because we may be trading ammo for food and other necessary items in a few months.  I have an 85 year old buddy who flatly states he will be arming the younger generation when the time comes.

Dale M. Lock

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Rich/WIS posted this 04 July 2022

Did a bit of calculating and using current prices and assuming primers at $100/K and powder in the $50/lb range and J bullets at $30/C can hunt with my 30/40 for about $15-16/box of 20. Roughly half of what factory ammo costs now.  My cast 30/40 loads would run 25 cent each with the same numbers.  Shooting my 45 ACP or 38 Spcl would cost about 13 cents each.  Certainly a lot more than the "good old days" but still not a lot of money for a helluva lot of fun.  Pricier yes, but hardly the end of the world, and would not be surprised to see prices drop some before they finally stabilize. OTOH I don't burn up a lot of ammo on my once or twice a week range trips and my heart goes out to those whose ammo consumption, rifle or pistol, is a lot greater then mine.

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Wineman posted this 03 July 2022

As a spry youth in the 1960's a dollar bought about $0.90 of stuff. Today it buys $0.29 worth of things. In addition the cost of everything has escalated by 4X. The days of supporting a family on an entry level job are far behind us. Still we have it better than many other places, but the tea leaves seem to say that lean times are coming. Zombies are not the issue. People who want your stuff are. As Ed says: "have good neighbors and make sure you are watching each others backs".

Dave C

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rhbrink posted this 30 June 2022

Another alternative to a flintlock is one of the very high pressure air rifles.  I have a friend that has a friend who has one of the Airforce brand in 357.  He has killed a few deer with it.  All you need with them is lead and air compressor.  You can get a hand pump but the are slow to charge the cylinder.

[The political conspiracy theory part of this post has been removed.  John] 

Check out https://rockymountainairgunchallenge.com/rmac2022 look through that and see what the first place winner received for the first place finish $20,000 bucks! Another class was $20,000 to but not sure just what that class was. Second was $10,000 in both! Maybe it's time to start a CBA Air rifle Class, I have a 30 cal pellet mold but have not had much success with it yet but have not spent much time with it yet either. I've been spending most of my time trying to get my cast bullet rifle up to speed and worrying about primers and powder!

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