Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles RUMOR - Federal Primers - RUMOR

Enios: Maybe I should move to Alabama - if I recall correctly you are the second Alabaman that has been able to obtain Federal primers of late.
Thanks for the info and the price checks.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

VarmintGuy,
They are getting closer to you... I bought 200 Fed Small Rifle (the limit at Black Sheep) in Coeur d'Alene a week ago. Good luck

They can choke on them. Bruno is a scalper.

We've had Federal SP primers in all week here. I just bought a thousand, $31.99 if I remember correctly. They still had some on the shelf at noon today.

It was just a post to show that Federal dribbled out some primers that direction. Didn't say I liked the guy. I've had enough of dealings with him to form more than the scalper title.

Now, whether a person will pay X amount, only he knows.

A lot of things seem to have put pressure on supplies over the last year, not the least of which is our focusing on it causing more "panic" in our own ranks. Couple the "real" things, gov. contracts with massive fear and panic buying of both loaded ammo and components with the tendency to hoard what comes into the market, as quickly as it arrives, and we see the results.

I HOPE the factories haven't expanded or hired more employees to deal with the current reloading crush. Our shortage WILL end and excess capacity would suddenly become increased overhead to be covered with the selling prices, for no real need.

Shooting is a hobby and my hunting ammo needs are small, I do have a life outside all this so I am NOT buying at the current inflated prices. I believe the sooner we take the panic out of our buying, the sooner store shelves will be properly stocked - if not over stocked - and prices will fall, a lot!

The "law of supply and demand" works on both ends. I, for one anyway, will remember this. Local dealers seeking to rip us off during this time will see precious little of my "demand" again.

Only thing we haven't had a shortage of is authoritative, "Hey guys, this ain't no sheet, I heard from a guy who knows ...." rumors!

I almost put in an order to Bruno's yesterday. Hate to pay that price but after calling and stopping around locally and finding squat what's the choice? I'm out.

not surprising...they're owned by the same company. http://www.atk.com/customer_solutions_armamentsystems/cs_as_cammo_default.asp

As I see it, the problem with the American suppliers NOT gearing up for 2 years'-worth of super-high demand is that the foreign suppliers (like Wolf) are so much cheaper when the domestics simply let demand drive up supply. I feel a great deal of trepidation over ATK's prospects (just as one example) whenever things go back to 'normal.' The reason is because they've been quite clear with me that they see today's prices as a new norm that they don't want to do anything to lower. That kind of thinking will simply assure that folks like Wolf take their market share away, so that WHEN prices do indeed go back to more historical norms, ATK and the other domestics will have a drastically reduced piece of that market.

I sure hope the domestic manufacturers can see far enough in front of their noses, and that they'll have the adult maturity to act accordingly, to prevent that.

"Gearing up" sounds easy, but primer-making machines are essentially a custom-made thing, with several years' worth of lead time involved. Not cheap, either. Then there's the fact that primer pellets are made by hand, and is fairly hazardous. Training would take time. Finally, there are the inevitable environmental impact statements required for explosives production.

I think you'd be talking about several years of preparation and planning before the first "extra" primer came off the new line - if ever.

Perhaps, but then ATK laid off a reasonably large number of CCI employees involved in primer manufacturing last year. They later came back to some of those laid off employees to ask them back. So, it's not hard to see that ATK wasn't trying very hard to be at max capacity without adding new machinery. Don't know whether they are now or not.

That's a most reasonable assessment. It also goes to show that it's a darned difficult business to make forecasts in, huh?

Varmintguy - I have 800 (799 actually) Fed goldmedal primers (GM205M) that you can have if you want. I'd trade for a like number of Rem 7-1/2 small rifle primers or a 1K of CCI large pistol primers. Let me know if you want 'em....

Tom

Tominboise: I just traveled to the annual Hunters Rendevous in Ennis, Montana today. Its an annual event/sale at the Shedhorn Sports Store in Ennis. Its a "big deal" as they had 15 factory reps in from the various folks (Leupold, S&W, Remington, Cooper, Springfield Armory, Federal, Nikon etc etc etc). Along with numerous arms and munitions on sale.
I could not get within a triple arms length of the Federal guy! I tried several different times but it was no use. Finally my travel companions tired of my attempts to get within arms length of him so we left with my myriad of questions unanswered.
I did have a GREAT visit with the Primos factory rep and bought some more "calls" from him!
One of my cranky travel companions REFUSED to buy anything as the line for checkout was just "to stupid"!
I laughed at him and bought my ammo and stuff with only maybe a 14 to 15 minute wait online!
This Montana native has never seen a "long check-out line"!
This is an "upscale" gunshop in high dollar real estate country and it was VERY well attended!
At one time there were 105 people in the single line waiting to check out amongst three cashiers!
They had four people doing background checks on the phones and doing the 4473's for gunbuyers - again folks were online here as well waiting their turn to do the paperwork and background check.
They had Hornady 17 HMR 17 gr. V-Max ammo on sale for $9.99 a box - limit one carton (1,000 rounds)!
Anyway they had NO Federal BR primers at all nor any Remington 7 1/2 primers either.
I have one Rifle that uses Remington 7 1/2's and I only have about 400 of them to my name.
I appreciate your offer and if I come across any Remington 7 1/2's I will turn you on to them or buy them and trade you for the Federal 205M's.
Thanks for thinking of me - I appreciate it.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

OK, if you want to buy these outright, let me know....

Tom

I worked as a temp once for Federal Cartridge in Anoka MN.
They work all three shifts.

The machinery I saw was old. (This was a few years ago.)

Now they hired a weekend shift so they are working 24/7.

I was told that the only difference in the Match Primers was the packaging.

They all get tested and the most uniform ones are packaged as Match Primers.

I was impressed with the quality control and would buy them myself.

whelennut

Well let me share a little information with you. I'm a long time user of Federal 205M primers and used them exclusively in Benchrest.
This spring I went together with some guys and we got scalped to the tune of $48 per K plus hazmat and shipping for some Federals because we were all running low and wanted to make it through the BR season.

Well we got our primers and I shot a couple of matches. My groups seemed to be off a little and I thought it was me. But it continued. So I decided to do a little testing. I picked up some Wolf primers and my groups improved with them.

I took the 6 PPC back to the range last week for some load/chorograph work. I was using the same lots of bullets, brass, power and 205M primers. Now before this lot of primers I picked up this year using the same components I tested with my extreme spread always ran between 10 to 12 fps. With the new primers being the only thing new in my load as I ran them over the chronograph there was a great change. My best ES was 24 fps and the worst was 98 fps. With my old match load I've never had this problem. This was a test sample of five 5 shot groups.

I'm going to retest this week with both the Wolf and Fed 205's and see what gives. I'd suggest if you guys know your loads and ES data and are using Federals that you retest your load and see what happens. I'll reserve my judgment on Federals quality control until Wednesday.

17ACKLEYBEE: Yikes - now I have to worry about my beloved Federal primers "going south on me"!
What next?
Well the important thing is that you get to shooting back to your normal very high intensity and proficiency level.
Aaaahhhh... the Varmints may not know I am using "second rate primers" nowadays but I will.
Disconcerting your recent testing.
Please keep us advised.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Whelennut: Thanks for your insights and information.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy