Here’s a nice early Christmas present for precision shooters. Quantities of CCI small and large rifle primers (including BR2 and BR4) have arrived at many of the more popular vendors. Wolf primers are in decent supply and we’re starting to see Remington primers on the shelves. Federal primers are still very hard to find. Shown below are some available rifle primer inventories as of December 16, 2009.
NOTE: Product availability and pricing subject to immediate change. If you need primers, act quickly — this stuff may all be gone in a couple days.
Powder Valley
CCI BR4 SMALL RIFLE BENCHREST primers — IN STOCK at $37.00 per 1000 primers
CCI 400 SMALL RIFLE primers — IN STOCK at $24.00 per 1000 primers
CCI 450 SMALL RIFLE primers — IN STOCK at $24.00 per 1000 primers
CCI BR2 LRG RIFLE BENCHREST primers — IN STOCK at $37.00 per 1000 primers
WOLF SMALL RIFLE MAGNUM primers — IN STOCK at $25.50 per 1000 primers
WOLF LARGE RIFLE PRIMERS — IN STOCK at $25.50 per 1000 primers
Grafs.com
CCI BR2 LRG RIFLE BENCHREST primers — IN STOCK at $202.00 per 5000 primers
Bruno Shooters Supply
CCI BR4 SMALL RIFLE BENCHREST primers — IN STOCK at $59.95 per 1000 primers
CCI 400 SMALL RIFLE primers — IN STOCK at $44.95 per 1000 primers
CCI 5.56 SMALL RIFLE primers — IN STOCK at $44.95 per 10000 primers
REM 9.5 LARGE RIFLE primers — IN STOCK at $44.96 per 1000 primers.
WOLF SMALL RIFLE MAGNUM primers — IN STOCK at $26.95 per 1000 primers
WOLF LARGE RIFLE PRIMERS are IN STOCK at $26.95 per 1000 primers
Sinclair International has some nice deals for the holidays. And, through Monday 11/30/2009 at 11:59 pm, if your online order totals $200.00 or more, you can save an additional 10% using Promo Code SAVE10. Here are some of the good holiday deals.
Wolf Small Magnum Primers: $31.24 per 1000 primers
Wolf Large Rifle Primers: $32.25 per 1000 primers
The Small Rifle Magnum primers work very well with BR, 6.5 Grendel, 6-6×47, and 6.5×47 cases. The Large Rifle Primers are a good choice for 6XC, .243 Win, 6.5 Creedmoor, .308 Win, .284 Win and 30-06. We list this product here, not so much because the price is the best, but because readers are constantly asking us “where can I get Wolf primers?”. If you need them, Sinclair Int’l has them in stock right now. (NOTE: Wolf regular Small Rifle Primers, which shoot great in PPCs, are still out of stock.)
RCBS ChargeMaster Combo, Scale and Dispenser: $299.99 (Reg. $328.40)
This is the device that created an electronic revolution in reloading. The latest generation of Chargemasters is more reliable than ever. If you make sure the unit is level in all planes, and you have good, uniform current, the Chargemasters will deliver very consistent charges. With H4350, a fairly long extruded powder, our tests showed that 48 out of 50 throws were within the claimed ± one-tenth of a grain (0.1 grain) spread. Sinclair’s $299.99 price is very good, and with the 10% off SAVE10 Promo Code you’ll pay $269.99, which is cheaper that both Midsouth ($279.99), and Natchez ($279.95)
Sinclair/Wilson Ultimate Micrometer Trimmer w/ Shark Fin, $134.95 (Reg. $145.00)
By most standards, this is the best manual case trimmer on the market. The micrometer on this trimmer effortlessly adjusts cutting lengths, so it’s easy to change from one cartridge type to another. Changing trim length on a Forster or Lyman trimmer is much more time-consuming, requiring you to fiddle around with set screws, and possibly replace pilots and collets. With a Wilson trimmer, you DO have to purchase case-holders for your cartridges, but that’s often cheaper than buying the pilots and/or collets required by other manual trimmers. Remember that a Wilson case holder will often work for a whole family of cartridges. For example a single .308 case-holder will work for a .243 Win, Rem 260, 7mm-08, or .308 Win.
We are often asked “Can I get more velocity by switching primer types?” The answer is “maybe”. The important thing to know is that changing primer types can alter your load’s performance in many ways — velocity average, velocity variance (ES/SD), accuracy, and pressure. Because there are so many variables involved you can’t really predict whether one primer type is going to be better or worse than another. This will depend on your cartridge, your powder, your barrel, and even the mechanics of your firing pin system.
Interestingly, however, a shooter on another forum recently did a test with his .308 Win semi-auto. Using Hodgdon Varget powder and Sierra 155gr Palma MatchKing (item 2156) bullets, he found that Wolf Large Rifle primers gave slightly higher velocities than did CCI-BR2s. Interestingly, the amount of extra speed (provided by the Wolfs) increased as charge weight went up, though the middle value had the largest speed variance. The shooter observed: “The Wolf primers seemed to be obviously hotter and they had about the same or possibly better ES average.” See table:
Varget .308 load
45.5 grains
46.0 grains
46.5 grains
CCI BR2 Primers
2751 fps
2761 fps
2783 fps
Wolf LR Primers
2757 fps
2780 fps
2798 fps
Speed Delta
6 fps
19 fps
15 fps
You can’t extrapolate too much from the table above. This describes just one gun, one powder, and one bullet. Your Mileage May Vary (YMMV) as they say. However, this illustration does show that by substituting one component you may see significant changes. Provided it can be repeated in multiple chrono runs, an increase of 19 fps (with the 46.0 grain powder load) is meaningful. An extra 20 fps or so may yield a more optimal accuracy node or “sweet spot” that produces better groups. (Though faster is certainly NOT always better for accuracy — you have to test to find out.)
WARNING: When switching primers, you should exercise caution. More speed may be attractive, but you have to consider that the “speedier” primer choice may also produce more pressure. Therefore, you must carefully monitor pressure signs whenever changing ANY component in a load.
Plenty of CCI-BR2 and Wolf Large Rifle Primers in Stock
If you’re looking for either the CCI BR-2 or Wolf Large Rifle Primers, Wideners.com currently has both in stock. The CCI BR2 primers (item CCIBR2) cost $42.50 per 1000. The Wolf LR Primers (item QQQLR KVB-7) cost $29.50 per 1000 OR $142.00 per 5000.
If you’re looking for hard to find reloading components, Darrell Holland reports that Holland Shooters Supplies has just received large shipments of powder, bullets, brass, and yes, primers.
Primer inventories now include: Remington, Winchester, and Wolf (small and large rifle; small and large pistol; plus Win shotgun primers). Popular powders in stock include: Hodgdon Varget (plenty), H335, H4895, H4350, H4831sc, H-1000, Retumbo; and Alliant Reloder 22
Holland’s has received substantial supplies of Lapua cartridge brass including: 223 Rem, 6mmBR, 6.5×47, 6.5-284, 308 Win, and 338 Lapua. In addition Hollands has Winchester brass for 223 Rem, 22-250, 243 Win, 6mm Rem, 308 Win, and 30-06. Nosler brass is available in 280 Rem, 280 Ackly, and 7mm STW
Darrell says he’s also got good supplies of Berger, Nosler, and Sierra Bullets: “lots of 308 caliber 168s, 175s, and 210s, plus 50-80gr 224s.” Holland’s also has 70-107gr 6mms in stock, plus 6.5mm and 7mm bullets.
For these reloading components at Holland’s, there is no limit on quantity — first come, first served. A $25.00 Hazmat will cover up to 50 lbs of powder and primers. To order, call Holland’s, (541) 439-5155, 9am to 3:00 pm Pacific Time.
While you’re visiting Holland’s website, check out the new $30 Tactical Shooter’s Pouch on the products page. This unique, ballistic nylon bag holds ammo in elastic loops, plus it’s big enough to carry range cards, a mildot master, spare parts, or even a PDA with a ballistics program.
On Monday, we reported that Powder Valley, Inc. would be receiving a very large shipment of Wolf Primers today, July 15th. In addition, Wideners.com has already received a big shipment of Wolf Primers on 7/14. You can now place orders online with Wideners, but they caution that there will be shipping delays of up to one week. Wideners has Small Rifle Magnum primers in stock for $29.00/1000 and the Large Rifle (Regular) and Large Rifle Magnum in stock for $29.50/1000. NOTE: for the BR and PPC cases we recommend the Small Rifle Magnum primers. Regular Wolf Small Rifle primers have soft cups.
Powder Valley Inc. (PVI) reports that it is scheduled to receive twenty thousand (20,000), 1000-count boxes of Wolf primers this Wednesday, July 15th. PVI staffers don’t know the exact distribution of primer types, but the large shipment should include small rifle, small rifle magnum (recommended for 6BR and 6-6.5×47), large rifle, and large rifle magnum, as well as pistol primers.
You may want to call Powder Valley, 1- 800-227-4299, and place your orders right away. We can’t predict how long Wolf primer supplies will last. Just last week Powder Valley received a shipment of CCI primers and they were gone in two days.
IMPORTANT NOTICE: Bruno Shooters Supply has just received a substantial shipment of one-thousand-count boxes of Federal 205M Small Rifle Match primers. These are available for immediate delivery. Price is $49.95 per 1000 primers. There is a limit of 10,000 primers (10 boxes) per customer. The price does NOT include shipping and hazmat fee. To order these primers, call Amy Bruno at 1-800-455-0350, or (623) 587-7641, or log on to www.Brunoshooters.com.
DATELINE: June 18, 10:40 am Pacific Time
Here is an important product update. Sinclair International received a shipment of Sellier & Bellot rifle primers on June 15. These are good non-corrosive boxer primers made by a respected Czech munitions-maker. As of June 18, 10:30 am Pacific time, Sinclair has the following quantities of Sellier & Bellot rifle primers in stock:
S&B Sm Rifle Primers (item 25-8000): $33.60 per 1,000-ct box — 165 boxes in stock.
6/22/09 UPDATE: Sm Rifle SOLD OUT
S&B Lg Rifle Primers (item 25-8100): $36.40 per 1,000-ct box — 455 boxes in stock.
6/22/09 UPDATE: 150 boxes Lg Rifle remaining
Sinclair tells us: “The primers are leaving fast so if you need large or small rifle primers or know someone who does we have some at the moment. Visit our website at Sinclairintl.com to check availability or call 1-800-717-8211. We have more large rifle primers than small rifle primers. Please limit yourself to 5,000 primers since many of your fellow shooters are without any primers at the present time.”
We all know that certain popular powders are very hard to find right now, and the situation for rifle primers is even worse. With increased demand from various sources, available supplies of Varget and other powders have dried up, creating incentives for some folks to resell powder and primers at windfall prices.
Recently, one 8-lb jug of Hodgdon Varget sold for $680.00 on Gunbroker.com. You read that right — SIX hundred eighty dollars. Add $35 for shipping and hazmat fees and you’re talking $715.00 for a jug of Varget, or $89.38 per pound, nearly four times the going price before the “panic buying” started.
Eighty-nine bucks for a pound of powder is crazy. We caution our readers not to get caught up in such nonsense. First, if you can’t find a particular powder, such as Varget, there are good alternatives available at reasonable prices. Norma 203B is an outstanding powder, very similar to Reloder 15, that works well in place of Varget. Grafs.com has plenty of 1-lb cans of Norma 203B in stock, Item Number: NP203B1, priced at $24.99 per pound. (That price includes shipping but not Haz Mat fees.)
We also expect the supply situation to stabilize in the next few months. Hodgdon recently received 22,000 pounds of Varget powder. Those supplies (along with other Hodgdon powders) should make their way to vendors soon, and that should relieve some of the shortages which encourage price-gouging.
As for the primer situation, things should remain tight for a while. All the primer makers are running at full capacity, but it could be some months before we see normal primer inventories at most large retailers.
Major commodities exchanges announced that they would commence trading of cartridge primers and primer futures contracts, starting on April 2, 2009. This marks the first time that an ammunition component will be exchange-traded, alongside oil, gas, precious metals, and agricultural products. Federal, CCI, Remington, and Wolf primers will be listed on the NYMEX (N.Y. Mercantile Exchange), CME Group (Chicago Mercantile Exchange), and the USFE (U.S. Futures Exchange).
“Primers may be the pork-bellies of the future.” — V. DeMarco, Commodity Trader
The price of primers has skyrocketed in recent months, with Federal 205M primers rising from the mid-20 dollar mark to $60.00 per box (see chart). Price hikes have been driven by increased demand as Americans salt away large caches of primers in fear of future shortages. The demand for primers (half of American households have guns), combined with the volatility of bulk primer prices, convinced commodity exchange managers that it was time to start trading primers and primer futures. Vince DeMarco, a trader on the Chicago Mercantile Exhange, explained: “Primers may be the pork-bellies of the future. Demand is at an all-time high. With the ability to buy and sell primer futures, now investors can make money on price movements.” Leslie Woods, an analyst for Forbes magazine, noted that “We are seeing significant hoarding. People are buying primers by the hundreds of thousands, yet many purchasers have no intention of ever using all those primers. Many of the buyers are not even active shooters. They are clearly acquiring large stocks of primers for speculative purposes. Now, with primers being traded as commodities, these investors can maintain their stake in the primer market without actually holding physical inventory.”
Marcus Singleton, a V.P. with the N.Y. Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) explained: “We should have done this (trade primers as commodities) years ago. More Americans buy primers than will ever buy gold or silver bullion. Primers are consummable, which means that there will always be a lag between supply and demand, which is what moves markets. And a moving market, whichever way it goes, makes money for the exchanges.” Singleton also noted: “Let’s face it, people don’t really want to have half a million primers stashed under their bed. That’s a potential fire hazard. And due to Haz Mat charges, large quantities of primers are very expensive to ship. For the small investor, concerned about rising primer prices, it’s much better to purchase primer futures contracts. That way he gets price protection in the long run and he doesn’t actually have to store anything.”
“Sold Out” is the message these days at retail stores, gunshows, and online merchants. Our readers have reported that big outlet stores such as WalMart are completely sold out of loaded ammo in popular calibers. At a Sportsman’s Warehouse store, the shelves were bare (see photo below). Likewise at a gunshow we attended last week in California, vendors sold out their supplies of rifle primers… down to the last box. Many online e-merchants (including Grafs.com, MidwayUSA, and Wideners) are completely sold out of small and large CCI, Federal, Remington, and Wolf rifle primers.
What’s going on? Is this a wave of panic buying or are there other factors at play? First, it’s pretty clear that shooters nationwide are laying in large supplies of ammo, bullets, and primers. This is motivated by fears (justified or not) that Congress is contemplating new taxes on ammo and reloading components. Also, there has been increased demand for ammunition for the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, and that has siphoned off some of the supply of primers from CCI and Federal. However, the primary cause of the shortages is “panic buying” and hoarding by gun owners. Amy Bruno tells us that none of her suppliers have notified her of any production issues. CCI, Federal, and Remington are cranking out as many primers as ever, but supplies are selling out as soon as they hit the shelves.
The Good News Nammo Lapua reports that a large shipment of Lapua cartridge brass should be arriving in the USA and clear customs within the next 10 days. This will include 220 Russian, .243 Win, 6.5 Grendel, 6.5×47, 6.5×55, 7.63×39, .308 Win, 30-06, 7.62x54R, and 338 LM brass. This shipment will also include loaded ammo, plus Scenar bullets and Lapua rimfire ammo. Also, a second container is due around the end of March. Hopefully that will include 6mmBR brass also. Check with major vendors such as Sinclair Int’l, Grafs.com, and MidwayUSA. Midway is listing 3/14/09 as the “Date expected in-stock” for Lapua .308 brass.
Bruno Shooters Supply has significant quantities of CCI and Federal primers in stock (mention 6mmBR.com when you call). However, all Rem, Winchester, and Wolf rifle primers are sold out. Here’s what Bruno’s has as of today, March 6th:
CCI BR2 Large Rifle Benchrest (quantity 50 1K boxes): $49.95/box
Fed 205M Small Rifle Match (quantity 383 1K boxes): $43.95/box
Fed 210 Large Rifle standard (quantity 122 1K boxes): $32.95/box
Amy Bruno also reports she has 55 8-lb jugs of the hard-to-find VV N133. She doesn’t know when the next shipment of Vihtavuori powders will arrive.
Powder Valley has the CCI BR2 Large Rifle Benchrest primers in stock at $37.00 per thousand. Unfortunately, Powder Valley is sold out of almost all other rifle primers.
Wolf Russian-made primers have proven very popular with High Power and long-range shooters. Many top shooters have found that the Russian primers deliver extremely low Extreme Spread (ES) and Standard Deviation (SD), when used with the popular Hodgdon and Alliant powders, such as H4831sc for the .284 Win and Reloder 15 for the 6BR. Note that, for the 6BR and 6-6.5×47, you want to use the Wolf Small Rifle Magnum primers, rather than Wolf’s standard small rifle primers. The Small Rifle Magnum primers have harder cups and work better.
Since demand for all reloading components is very high right now, Wolf primers can be hard to find. Nearly everyone is sold out, but check with Wideners.com. Here is the status of Wolf Primer inventories at popular vendors:
Bruno Shooters Supply: Wolf Small Rifle Magnum primers (250 1K boxes in stock) as of 2/7/2009. Ask Amy or Lester — You won’t find these on the website yet.
Wideners.com: Wolf Small Rifle (313 1K boxes in stock), Wolf Small Rifle Magnum (88 1K boxes in stock), Wolf Large Rifle (Out of Stock), Wolf Large Rifle Magnum (544 1K boxes in stock.) UPDATE: Small Rifle Magnums out of stock as of 2/6/2009
Grafs.com: Small Rifle Magnum, in stock, but very limited supply, item WONCSRMB, $23.59 per 1K box. Large Rifle and Large Rifle Magnum out of stock.
PowderValleyInc.com: Most Wolf primers out of stock. Wolf Small Rifle (Standard) and Wolf Large Rifle (Standard) expected 2/28/2009.
MidwayUSA.com: Everything out of stock. No backorders. New supplies expected 3/25/2009 (small rifle) and 7/22/2009 (Large Rifle).
To comment on a post, click Post Title or the "Comment" Link.
The Bulletin title serves as the "Home" button. If you've been reading a particular post and want to see all posts again, click the Bulletin Title or Bulletin Button at top of page.
Here’s a nice early Christmas present for precision shooters. Quantities of CCI small and large rifle primers (including BR2 and BR4) have arrived at many of the more popular vendors. Wolf primers are in decent supply and we’re starting to see Remington primers on the shelves. Federal primers are still very hard to find. Shown below are some available rifle primer inventories as of December 16, 2009.
For these reloading components at Holland’s, there is no limit on quantity — first come, first served. A $25.00 Hazmat will cover up to 50 lbs of powder and primers. To order, call Holland’s, (541) 439-5155, 9am to 3:00 pm Pacific Time.
On Monday, we reported that 
DATELINE: June 18, 10:40 am Pacific Time
The price of primers has skyrocketed in recent months, with Federal 205M primers rising from the mid-20 dollar mark to $60.00 per box (see chart). Price hikes have been driven by increased demand as Americans salt away large caches of primers in fear of future shortages. The demand for primers (half of American households have guns), combined with the volatility of bulk primer prices, convinced commodity exchange managers that it was time to start trading primers and primer futures. Vince DeMarco, a trader on the Chicago Mercantile Exhange, explained: “Primers may be the pork-bellies of the future. Demand is at an all-time high. With the ability to buy and sell primer futures, now investors can make money on price movements.” Leslie Woods, an analyst for Forbes magazine, noted that “We are seeing significant hoarding. People are buying primers by the hundreds of thousands, yet many purchasers have no intention of ever using all those primers. Many of the buyers are not even active shooters. They are clearly acquiring large stocks of primers for speculative purposes. Now, with primers being traded as commodities, these investors can maintain their stake in the primer market without actually holding physical inventory.”
