Stupid Question: Primer/Powder Shortage

N

Nathan

New member
I’m really confused by the great powder/primer shortage of 2020...

How did we get here? Was it just folks wanting to reload tapped in the house? Did the riots drive reloading?

We had a glut of stuff at the end of 2019...what happened?

Where are all the primers and powder? Did a bunch of folks build pole barns and fill with components?

The ammo industry is a mess. This has happened twice in like 5 years. Heck, even the crap wrap recovered.
 
This has been going on a lot longer than five years. There were severe primer shortages back in 2000. I bought a bunch of CCI primers in Florida while attending a shoot and they were marked “Not for resale”. They were being sold at the shoot to competitors only when none could be found anywhere else.
 
simple answer is that demand has outstripped supply

demand is up because more people are buying guns and ammo because they don't feel safe and/or are worried about increased government regulations

supply is down because covid 19 impacted factories and supply chains

double whammy
 
I don't know if reloading has increased but bullet casting has. If you look at various websites, some bullet molds are out of stock and Lee says that they are not taking special orders as they are trying to keep up with current orders. Oh, yeah, a lot of bullets are out of stock too so maybe reloading is up.
 
Here in NY, hunting license sales were an all time high this year. With nothing else to do, getting outside and shooting and hunting are perfect activities for social distancing. It isn’t just guns and reloading stuff, there is a severe shortage of bicycles, kayaks, skis, fishing equipment, and anything else that can be done outside.
 
I second NSB's post above. everything for outdoor sports/ recreation is selling at significantly higher voliume than previous years. I have been waiting for a specific air rifle to get back in stock for 6 months, and have waited a similar amount of time for a new recurve bow to become available.

Primers and other reloading equipment is just a part of the huge increase in sporting goods demand.
 
What's to be confused about? Search this or any other reloading forum for "shortage" and you'll find the same old answers to the same old question about the same old shortage problem. Not the first shortage, won't be the last.
 
But you agree normal component orders were possible in 2019??
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Easy, yes, but I don't know if it was normal for Winchester to be paying a 25% rebate on primers. I just wish I had maxed it out.
 
Fear. Why not add toilet paper and paper towels not to mention Lysol wipes and common rubbing alcohol. When people think something will be gone or in short supply tomorrow they buy all they can today.

How many threads are needed on the same nonsense?

Why is the sky blue? I'll give this much, yes, right a stupid question asked and answered.

Ron
 
I think this shortage has a few unique situations that made it happen.

First, a pandemic that caused 6 million new gun owners to purchase a firearm. That is 6 million people who never owned a gun before, that also needed ammo. Combine that with a large part of the current gun owners realizing that they didn't have enough ammo to fight off looters.

Ammo sales went through the roof..... production didn't change for the better. Most industries had to stop or limit production for social distancing in my state. I am hearing that similar restrictions were put in place in many states.

Top that off with a gun grabber in the presidential election......

Demand up - production possibly down - factories that produce loaded ammo using the primers they have for loaded ammo and not selling them for hand loaders = no primers on the market.
 
A couple of articles in Forbes magazine explain it pretty well.

1) A significant portion of American ammunition demand is met by imports and COVID-19 has seen foreign production sources drop and cease to be available, a situation exacerbated by various tariffs.

2) During the last administration, shortages caused arms and ammunition makers to increase their production capacity, but then during the current administration everyone felt their gun rights were safe and a lot of that capacity became excess overhead, so this time around the makers are not going to let themselves get burned by investing capital to meet a purely contemporary demand that will go away again at some point.​

So, you have a situation where demand has outstripped production and production refuses to spend the capital needed to catch up. Ergo, inadequate supply.
 
Millions of new shooters, millions of new gun sales,....
Click to expand...

I pray this is true. I would be willing to struggle with primers to have millions more like minded people speaking out in support of gun ownership....

Still fired up about primers...
 
IIRC, 2019 was not a problem as I would pick up items that I used/consumed whether I needed them or not, never cleaning the shelf of the inventory. At the start of 2020 and thru May 2020, no issues. I have the remainder of a full brick of primers I paid $28 for, yep $28 right off the shelf. Now at the stores, you don't see primers on the shelf, they are behind the cashiers with limits. Same store I got the primers mentioned above now has a limit of ONE of each on powders/primers/bullets(if they have any), so choose wisely.
 
There also has to be an increase in reloaders. I wanted to buy 2 RCBS shell holders, one #6 and one #16 so that I have 2 each and I don't have to remove one from the Rock Chucker in order to prime with the RCBS Auto prime system.

Local Cabela's has the #6, but no #16. Three local small gun stores, same thing. Checked Midway USA, Amazon.com, Weidner's and I quit looking when it was apparent that #16 was out of stock everywhere.

#16 is used for 9mm. whch probably matches the increase in gun sales.
 
I saw a video put out by Federal/CCI the president of the company has a camera following him through the factory showing that the people are working their tails off. Machines are running nonstop. He said that it is expected for supply to catch up. If demand decreases expected time to catch up back orders is July. 2021. If demand stays at what it is then It could take over a year.
 
What ever caused it, I hope it ends soon. I've got about 3 months worth of small pistol primers, and I'm done shooting most of my center fire pistols. I guess my M1911 will get a workout until I'm out of large pistol primers.

I have plenty of bullets and powder for my pistol reloading, but I dropped the ball on primers. :(
 
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