Me, too, I picked Federal GMM215M LRM primers, a super-slow powder and a heavy for caliber coated bullet thinking,...

"Heck, nobody uses those that I know.  They should be readily available at all times."

Pfft!  Boy!, was I wrong about that.  They evaporated from the market.  

We went through a period last year where none were available, anywhere, at any price.  Even the brass went missing for a while.

I've since managed to find an 8 pounder of powder, a box of bullets and a brick of F215M primers.  

My brain has (thankfully) blocked out the prices I paid, as I am happy just to have them.

The problem with any start up is over estimating the project, and there are areas that are not under control due to shortages in other sectors.
I hope Expansion is up and running soon.

A shooting buddy had his new home delayed by lack of cabinet hardware, and some other parts.

@green_bullet

    Your 9mm math is correct but the 223 comes out to .40 per round. And 9mm can be had for .30 per round right now at a bunch of places.

For me, it is not cost competitive to reload 9mm for 25 cents per round if I can purchase it for 30.  Even though additive, so too is my effort and the inherently higher statistical risk of mass produced home pistol ammo, vs name-brand commercial.   They have better automated QC systems than my home-progressive does, and the many hours can better be invested in rifle ammunition, wher performnce differences matter.  If I can shoot twice as much for half the price reloading - I do.  Right now, I can't, and will exit reloading pistol ammuntion entirely, before I pay 10 cents for primers for pistol ammo.

To that end, the manufactures do the same math, and it's an indicator of just how over-priced primers are right now; or they wouldn't be as low as 30 cents per round right now.  No way is the primer alone, even with margin, worth 1/3 the cost of the whole round.  It will fall, I suspect 5 cent primers to be a realistic floor for SPP in fact, though we'll see.

A Little Push Back -

Of course, you cannot buy premium hand gun ammo with premium bullets for $0.30 per round.  

Premium ammo still makes sense to load yourself.  I am referring to ammo loaded with Gold Dots and other premium bullets, maybe even XTP's.

Then there's reloading with the RMR NUKE hollow points at about $0.20 per round which turns out to be pretty darned good ammo you could not get for $0.30 per round.

That RMR nuke is a game changer. The hell with paying damn near $2/rd for Gold Dots or whatever.I’ve burned through 1000 of them and I’m impressed.

Gotcha. - and you're right.

Local Ace Hardware was getting small rifle primers and large rifle primers in every month or two for $60-$70 per 1,000. They would only last 1-3 days and be out of stock  

The last arrival of small rifle primers (CCI 450’s) they had raised the price to $99 for 1,000. To my surprise about 6 of the 10 they got in are still sitting on the shelf and it’s been 3 weeks since they got them in. It appears the price has finally peaked over demand.

I’d buy them.  That’s the same price they are online without the extra shipping and hazmat.  Amazing how different parts of the country are getting supplies and others arent

I was just wondering about this yesterday. I haven’t even looked at reloading prices or bought in over 2 years.

A local place in southern VA recently got a pallet of Winchester and Rem SPPs and sold them for 7 cents per. I'm still sitting on 3k+ SPP (should be good for 2yrs at current consumption rates) and will wait for 5-6 cents delivered and/or with tax before getting another 10-15k SPP.

I do think the days of 3 cent SPP are gone, at least until inflation comes back down with a change in the administration. Fuel costs alone make it hard to get raw materials and finished products from point A to point B and meet the margins companies are surely trying to keep.

where in Texas?

FWIW I got an email from Expansion Industries today stating that they expect to start production the coming month, and have SPP and SRP out for retail sale by end of Q1 2023.

Red River Army depot

Wah hoo!

If they’re quality primers and competitively priced I’m in for 50,000 of em.

That is a BIG DEAL if it holds true and will be "Step one" as that will add new supply to the chain, for sure.

"Step two" will be when AAC's plant comes online. It's not running yet- but "soon". The target was Q4 but I don't know if that still holds. They had the disadvantage of having to build buildings and bunkers and "stuff". Them making their own for their ammo will definitely impact supply.

The funny thing is, with prices as they are now, I don't even bother reloading plinking 223 anymore. I still pick up brass and process it, but it's break-even time on cost and the accuracy gains aren't there for 55g to justify it for me. Never thought I'd say that.... Same would probably hold true for 9mm if I wasn't casting.

We could be seeing daylight in six months or so!

This is the important part. More stable supply that we can lean on the next time a King Douche anti-gunner is in office and causes panic buying.

Same with me. Only exception, I did grab 3 bricks of spp about 6 months ago.  I didn't need them, but better safe than sorry.

I've said it before and I'll say it again normalcy will return it's just a matter of time.

I received an email this AM that Midway has CCI SPPs back in stock at 8 cents/primer.

They were out of stock by the time I got there, but the cheapest I've seen in quite a while was 10.5 cents for the overseas stuff and 13-14 cents for CCIs.

Good to see them coming down finally.

Same here, but 209 Magnum primers.  I only use them for muzzleloader shooting, so I typically kept a couple hundred on hand, and occasionally grabbed a sleeve or two when I was in a brick and mortar store.  

I just cracked open my last sleeve of 100.  That’s plenty to last me for 1.5ish seasons of load development/practice/hunting.  But I’m going to buy 1000 when they come back and be set for a good long time.

I used to be able to load 9mm for $.10-.11 if I casted the bullets myself :( I still have a small stock of stuff, less than 2000 rounds. I haven't watched the market at all, surprised to see it's this bad.

Being the eternal pessimist, I'll believe it when I see it. They're months behind schedule.

Add a couple of calendar quarters to any claimed "hit the market" date. They also be just as expensive or more expensive than current brands.

A big digital boot in the ass to a select number of YT content creators who keep hyping Expansion primers. They're simply creating drama in order to get views.

I didn't quite follow the timeline, but under promising and over delivering would have been a good strategy here.

No clue about delay reasons, but the longer it takes to get to market, the more likely it is the profit is going to be less.

In most things, seeing is believing.

Just received a notice on CCI #450 SR-M 5000 for $399.99 including shipping hazmat everything so yeah that is a good sign of lower prices

Let's hope the idiots don't start WWIII and in a few days there are no primers, powder, ammo, everything

I still have my Pandemic decorations up and now they want me to decorate for the apocalypse ??? Hard to keep up

I agree with all of this.  But with a little shopping I can buy clean, accurate consistent 9mm 124 gr loads at $0.30 a round delivered to my door that are on par with my True Blue 9mm loads, which are my favorite clean and accurate 9mm.

So I'm on my 3rd case of 9mm Belom 124 gr since Spring.

I use my diminishing stash of SPP for stuff that's either not available or exorbitantly expensive as factory ammo.

My current needs are for training ammo, so as always, YMMV.

I was looking thru some primers mid month at the Centralia WA show, since the only one with a price showed $70 for the brick, but I could not find exactly what I wanted.  Lots of 1960’s and 1970’s era primers dug out of basements to meet demand...and it turned out the actual prices were $125/k, not $70/k, so I laughed and walked off, kind of irritated that the vendor was too lazy to mark out the old “too low” price of $70.  Wasted my time in even looking at them...

All these guys were sitting on a lot of primers, ammo, and components, as though the internet and retail sales did not even exist.  They did not appear most understand that the days of ridiculously priced guns are over, and that ammo and component availability is rapidly improving as well.  When you are asking .50 a round for your ammo, that is the same as stuff that is brand new but costs .35, expect to keep it.  Their stuff was not selling from what I could see.  (I did pick up some .44 mag casings though at a reasonable price.)  

I am a primer buyer again around $40 I suppose.  Until then, I have plenty.  Plan to load about 10k of .223 soon, so that will put a dent in the SR primer stash, but won’t finish it off.  Just picked up FMJ 55 gr pulls from American Reloading for 5.6 cents a bullet, which should work just fine for blasting ammo.  The primers I will be using I got at an estate deal for maybe $10 a brick a brick 10 yrs ago, the brass was free, the powder was probably $10 a lb as well from the same estate deal.  Pretty sure I will be loading under 10 cents a round until I run out of all of that.  I purchased over 100k of primers in that one deal, and the only type I have purchased since then was SP.  

Be ready when the prices drop, and there is a sudden glut before they slow down production.  That will be the time to buy factory ammo cheap, and following that will be the time to purchase primers cheap.  

Most folks will see availability improve, and stop worrying about it, without stocking up...  then they will panic at the next shortage.  Don’t be one of those people, instead be ready with $$$ when the cheap opportunities arise, and jump on them!

So the last time I purchased primers, they were $32.99 at sportmans, and that was up from my usual $22 place who ran out (he liquidated estate sale ammo/guns/reloading supplies)

I paid $81/1000 for CCI-450’s yesterday, and got 2k of them to finish off the last of my $22/lbs TAC from same estate guy.

After this, I will likely close up on reloading except specialty rifle ammo until things get below $50 again. It may or may not happen, but time with my toddlers and getting good sleep is worth more than reloading rounds that barely break even with off online bulk ammo.

Off topic post removed, this is not a car forum. dryflash3

I stopped by my local Academy Sports last night.

There seems to be plenty of ammo sitting on the shelf.

When I got back, and checked out facebook, an old IDPA match buddy had posted that he saw .30/30 ammo there.  One of his friends replied that they actually had primers on the shelf a few days ago.

I think that is a good sign.

According to an AAR from a SC HTF member some vendor clown at last weekend's gun show in Myrtle Beach was asking $140/K for SPP.

Did the primers sell at that price?  

Around here, gun shows are "dead", in part for that reason.  

Between the government disallowing use of the public facilities traditionally used for gun shows and then the ridiculous pricing by vendors who do show up, there's no real reason to go.

Last Friday I visited Acadamy Sports in Anderson, SC.  They had at the gun counter some high-quality SR primers for $10/100 with no limits.  They had maybe 10 packs displayed.  I didn't buy any as I don't need any at that price.  But it was good to see some out there.

Received an email over the weekend from the shop I used to frequent in AZ. They got a big shipment of primers in, including Remington #7-1/2 and several kinds of a Federal. Advertised (and online) price is $140-$150 per 1k. A couple have supposedly sold out too

Went to my local Academy this weekend Federal #100 (small pistol primers) were available in 100 count sleeves.  $8 per 100 (so $80/k).

They had 12 left and the guy encouraged me to purchase them all if I'd like, so I obliged.  No hazmat that way!

Definitely better than some of the prices I've been seeing online.  Would still love to see them come down in price though!

As a new reloader, I have sucked it up and paid the price of admission. Lord knows I've made enough off the rubes on loaded ammo throughout the many panics I've been thru. Guess it was my turn. But just like every other panic, the primers will be back at a semi normal (adjusted for current inflation) price. Been going to my local Sportsman's Warehouse and buying my allotted 2 boxes a day as they get them in. Yesterday was GM205MAR's for $7.17 a box. Without hazmat and shipping, that definitely helps. Anyways, I have 6-8 thousand small rifle and a few thousand large rifle along with a few thousand SPP's and LRP's. At this point, I'll wait it out and do some dollar cost averaging. Same with powder. Got enough to keep me going, but it's becoming pretty regularly available as well. It's always cyclical....

LGS (which is the largest gun retailer here and also an Ace Hardware) says no primers for the rest of the year.

At a different gun show, twice in the last 3 months there has been a guy selling various reloading supplies, who had primers at $80/K.  He seems to sell some, but not a lot of them, so that appears to be the kind of current going rate in my neck of the woods.  And these were somewhat more recent production, not pulled out of the closet from 1970.  

Of course the same guy has bulk bullets that he clearly buys online from AR, and then doubles the price.  (I have yet to purchase anything from him.)

I am still wondering though - where are the imported primers?  Seems like a few brands have started to show up like Ginex or whatever they are, but we have not seen Sellior & Bellot, etc.  I really miss the days of $20 a brick S&B primers at Cabelas.  Of course I now wish I had bought them even at the regular prices of $25-30 a brick instead of only buying if on sale...

The arrival of a shipload (or just a few containers) of imported primers would sure help the situation out.  Seeing Ginex sell at top dollar from AR tells me there is a market.  Hopefully with the dollar being strong we can see imports of ammo and components increase in qty and decrease in price.  

The next 20 years will likely have some impressive estate sale hauls from guys who stock up when they can.  (Not mine mind you, I have a son who will be happy to take every primer, casing, loaded round, ingot of lead, and gun when I am gone, and I probably have quite a few years left to shoot some of it up!)

I’ve seen more primers available online this week than I have in a long time. Prices are a little better than they were, but still not where they should be. Thing are coming in stock and staying in stock for days at a time instead of minutes…

When you see pallets of 9 mm and 223 sit and then go on sale is when primers will become more available. We are getting closer!!!

A LGS received many cases of primers recently...prices still suck at $80/ 1000 though

And now you know how your LGS rates

I've been searching for Varget and Reloader 15 for 3 years. Never had a chance to buy it online never saw in the store until last week. I bought one one pounder of each.

Good to hear- hopefully this means when things stabilize that prices run around $40-50 a brick, so we can grab them at $40/k when on sale.  I would love for it to be cheaper, but with inflation, materials costs, and employee wages rising I imagine the truly cheap days of primers are over.  $40/k is where I start stocking up in earnest again for the varieties I need (likely small pistol).

$40-50 per thousand to my door is when I'll bite for 10-15K SPP. Probably got another 5-10K of SRP as well.

I'd really love to see $40 bricks, but I honestly don't see them getting back down much lower than $50-60k given how crazy labor and inflation is in todays market.  Once they start ticking down I'll probably start loading up on primers, I'd love to get some LPP at a decent price as I have a 1911 I barely shoot as I don't have much SPP brass and only one brick of LPP so I've just held off going ham on my 550 and it's been sitting in the safe.

This is why I no longer throw SPP 45 ACP brass into the trash.  I put it into its own storage jug pending a day of need.  Having options is a good thing.

Yah I didn't have a 45 until last Dec when I bought myself a Birthday/Xmas present.  I had been picking up 45 brass for a decade and accumulated a 5 gallon bucket full...unfortunately there was only a couple hundred SPP in there.  I picked up quite a bit of brass last weekend and there was about 100 pieces of 45 brass in my grocery bag o brass...only one SP piece

Ammo shelfs overflowing at local retailers, prices still high and no one is buying. Even powder is sticking around but insanely expensive. Primers are still scarce if in stock 10 cents EA.

Hopefully prices will crash back to somewhat normal and the A-hole neckbeards stacking bricks of primers at $100 ea choke on them.

Astonishing that tards are still trying to sell for example 325 packs of Federal Automatch for $85+ at gunshows while every Wal Mart in area has had it readily in stock for $22 for almost a yr.