Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Hornady Primers?

You never know what little nuggets of information you’ll uncover on the WWW whilst poking around. This piece from Terry Wieland, on the .350 Legend of all things, contains the claim that Hornady makes, or made, its own primers for internal use only.

https://www.grayssportingjournal.com/a-dismal-failure/

Wieland is a good writer, and likes a lot of stuff, old and new, that I do. He occasionally makes a factual misstep, but he is, after all, Canadian😛

He's not wrong. They tooled up as a result of previous shortages.

If I'm not mistaken, I believe the employee killed in an explosion last year was working in the primer facility.

Powder will be the next bottleneck, serious problems on the horizon there but that's another story.

A couple years ago it was common to see comments that suggested that component prices be raised so the supply would meet the demand (mainly from folks with more money than most, I think). It appears they got their wish, but maybe don’t like it as much as they thought, at least I’ve yet to hear any rejoicing about the new normal.

I’m pretty well-fixed so remain an observer of the market for the most part. Guns seem to be a buyers’ market, used ones anyway.

Might explain why I had some primers piercing on some Hornady 350L ammo a few years ago. I called Hornady and they said the lot pressures were fine, no issues. I was suspecting my AR bolt/FP tolerances, but those seemed to spec out okay. I did disassemble some and re-prime them with my primers and didn't have any piercing on those. Hmmm...

Hornady should sell their primers.

I would like to hear why they would not.

Or why they HAVE not.

Best
Heavy

Well reason #1 is that Hornady makes more money off of selling loaded ammunition than components. #2 they were having a difficult time sourcing primers to use in their ammunition. #3. They dumped a few million bucks into building that place. #4. Steve Hornady is a money grubbing azzhole.

Hornady is in the money making business, not the reloading components business. Along with others in the industry.

Love #4 Swifty.

They don't sell brass as a component? What about bullets as components? They don't sell presses either?

They do, as a way to make money. Not to serve our needs per se. That's what he's getting at.

I would think they would make a lot of money selling primers, at least at current prices. Moreover, that could increase the loyalty and following of their customers, I think.

If at some point they think expanding that capability will benefit the bottom line, they’ll do it. I haven’t seen anything about what type of primers they can make, only that it was done to keep ammunition production going. That’s a worthy goal on its own and since primers are now commonly available now, they may not bother making more unless the supply dries up again.