Tag Archives: rumours

Powder and primers

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An acquaintance of mine had brunch with a regional commercial ammo manufacturer the other day. He was told that he should expect primers and powder to become unobtainium by the end of the year due to manufacturers commitments to war production.

:::yawn:::

My own sources, notably the guys at Black Hills Shooting Supplies, sent out a notice with their most recent catalog saying the major manufacturers are all raising component prices here in the next couple of months and that availability may be uncertain.

:::doubleyawn:::

Look, it isn’t like primers (and caps, if youre a black powder guy) have been easy or cheap to find in the last couple years. Just expect more of the same. Fortunately, I am part of that crowd that learned a lesson after The Great Primer Scare in the Clinton era and as a result I have about 50k of the things on hand at any given time.

These “I have a friend….” warnings are always to be taken with an enormous grain of salt. But, do we really need a reason to stock up on powder and primers? I got lucky and just bought out an estate that left me with about 12k primers and dang near 40# of assorted powder (including black), and you can be pretty sure I’m just gonna set that back with my personal stash ‘just in case’.

PSA goes into the ammo biz?

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So this came across one of the social media platforms and someone sent it to me:

Be nice if it was true, but who can say? A good question might be “Why would some Euro ammo maker team up with PSA when they could just bring their manufactory over and make ammo without PSA’s help?” Well, a good answer might be that PSA is taking some of the financial risk in exchange for something like exclusive distributor rights and, of course, they already have a network of dealers and wholesalers. Or this might all be BS. But the notion that you can make 5.45 and 7.62×39 as cheaply in this country  seems terribly unlikely. Unions,  higher material costs, greater regulatory processes, etc, will all conspire to make US-made steel-case AK ammo as expensive as Hornady/Rem/Win 7.62AK. But…mondo props for taking a chance.

The free market, like nature, abhors a vacuum. The only question is if it’ll work.

I have cases of 7.62×39 in the Deep Sleep but it was never a primary or even secondary choice. Until someone circumvents Empty Shelves Joe’s import ban, I’ll just stick to my .223 stuff. This is a good example, though, of things to consider when picking a caliber. With virtually no domestic 7.62×39 production in any meaningful quantity, you’re pretty much relegated to imports. And relying on unreliable imports is a recipe for fail.