Recently bought 10,000 Cheddite 209 primers for $38.00/1,000 plus shipping and hazmat.

Not too awful a price.

I've looked for .357 158gr XTP's for the last 6 months and have come up dry, 125gr XTP's and 140 gr flex tip show up often.

Stopped into Sportsmans Warehouse the other day and it was sad.

The reloading aisle looked like Target after a peaceful protest. There were about three oddball caliber dies left on the shelves and that was about it. Zero powder. None. Not even one pound of the most obscure powder you could imagine. Primers? Same story.

Thankfully, while I don't have all I want, I have all that I need.

Sportsman's warehouse by us keeps the little bit of powder they do get up at the manager's desk. It started with primers, because too many asswipes were palming a brick here and there.

I was able to score some IMR 4451 there last week. Still don't have nearly enough but I can work with what I have for sure.

I think it's creeping along slowly. Painful times still ahead, but it's not quite so bleak as it was in December.

Some powders available today at Midway. I got 4064, 4895, and TAC.

Bruce

quote:

Originally posted by RNshooter:
Some powders available today at Midway. I got 4064, 4895, and TAC.

Bruce

Damn, I've been hunting for 4064 for months. This is the second time I've missed it by hours. I did manage to score some primers at the LGS the other day for $10/100. I just bought a couple of hundred....too expensive to stock up, but at least they had some and I can replace some of what I've shot. I also found a box of Hornady 150gr .30 cal 150gr FMJBT bullets today for $29.

I've had better luck with smaller local shops than with the big box places or online. Midway cancelled all my "notify me" requests for primers a couple of weeks back....said the product has been discontinued.

If you start looking at your piles of junk, all kinds of stuff appears. I was sitting down in my reloading room, just resting. But there on the floor in front of me was a stack of clear plastic tubs. Storage bins. And low and behold, I recognized primer boxes. The sleeve size with 1000 in each. Yep, that's where my SPP primers went. Thousands of them. If I had one lick of sense, I'd inventory them. But I don't. And I found a plastic trash bag full of milsurp .30-06 cases. Sized and trimmed, then primed! And a bag with a few hundred 147gr bullets, too. Under a table I found a full 8# of bulleye, along with another half used. And bullets of all shapes and sizes. .32 cal, lead, and jacketed. I'm suddenly swimming in great wealth. My wife long ago stopped asking what I was going to do with all that crap. When I see a good deal, I bought it.

I'm just afraid we won't be seeing many in the near future. I was stupid and only bought one case of LRP. Its more than I'll ever shoot.

Cheap-o ammo is bad enough, There is no excuse for cheap components. But who's to tell that Winny or Remy will be junk in the near future? People come here all the time and ask if 3 year old ammo is still good. I'm going to guess 15 year old ammo is better thand current production. And I'm pretty sure my reloads are better than anything made currently.

In the thread about a misfire or two... I've never had one on any of my reloads. 10's of thousands. Of course my reloads are all into brass that has been tested, too. All of it does have primer flash holes!

quote:

Originally posted by rburg:
I'm going to guess 15 year old ammo is better thand current production. And I'm pretty sure my reloads are better than anything made currently.

I've seen your stating this more than a few times. I wonder how much is conjecture and how much is hands-on experience.

I competed for years in skeet, trap, and especially sporting clays. The factory shells I shot in my last high-volume years in Master Class were above and beyond anything I shot in my early years. Never a "soft" round or a misfire. Lead pellets were better formed, using more antimony, and their performance at distance was great. Winchester, Remington, Clever, Rio, Fiocchi -- it didn't matter, all were great.

Handgun ammo quality can be all over the place, and probably will continue. Yes, WWB is under powered. Other types have more oomph. The most accurate 9mm 115 FMJ ammo I've shot is from a stash of Sellier & Bellot which I bought a couple of years ago. Going to more expensive bullets, Hornady's FTX and XTP ammo has really great accuracy. And if I ever had to use this ammo for defense, I'm confident that it would perform well.

I find current factory rifle ammo head and shoulders above older offerings. And outside of the accuracy required for benchrest competition, it has the potential of equaling hand loads in actual competition. I find factory loads with Hornady's Amax bullets are step up from Sierra Matchking in 308 Win and 6.5 Creedmoor. Loads with Hornady ELD and Berger VLD/Hybrid bullets are even more impressive.

In 223 Remington, it's still hard to beat the accuracy of a good 69 SMK load. But with quality barrels, current factory loads with Hornady 75 HPBT, Hornady 73 ELD, and Berger 73 HPBT exceed the performance of 69 SMK. The relatively new Hornady Black line of ammo is among the best ammo I shoot -- across multiple calibers and platforms.

In my experience in rifle competition, the vast majority of ammo cycling/jamming problems are from handloads.

quote:

Originally posted by fritz:
In my experience in rifle competition, the vast majority of ammo cycling/jamming problems are from handloads.

That's because an awful lot of reloaders never get knowledgeable, only experienced.

Would love to see some small pistol primers and a RN 70- something grain mould for my .32 acp’s.

quote:

Originally posted by divil:
Would love to see some small pistol primers and a RN 70- something grain mould for my .32 acp’s.

I've been looking all over for .32 stuff since I bought my Beretta 81 a few months back. It's just about impossible to find components for it around here. A buddy snagged me some brass at a gun show, and I scored some dies at the LGS...last set they had. I tried some 105gr cast bullets that I found at midway, but they were too long and bulged the case. A buddy who loads .32S&W traded me those for a box of 60gr XTPs, which work great, but there's only 100 and when they're gone, they're gone.

I found a 100gr .32 Lee mold on Midway the other day at regular price ($29, iirc), so I ordered it. I realize it's probably going to drop bullets that are too long, but I read where guys have milled off the top of the mold to reduce the size of the bullets it's dropping. I'm going to give it a try...I'm out of other options.

In other news, I walked into the LGS today, and he actually had powder. Most was stuff that I don't use, but he had 4064. I hate to admit what I paid for it, but I needed it and was just happy to find some.

I was at SnS yesterday and was told they are casting a ton and a half of bullets daily.

quote:

Originally posted by 92fstech:

quote:

Originally posted by divil:
Would love to see some small pistol primers and a RN 70- something grain mould for my .32 acp’s.

I've been looking all over for .32 stuff since I bought my Beretta 81 a few months back. It's just about impossible to find components for it around here. A buddy snagged me some brass at a gun show, and I scored some dies at the LGS...last set they had. I tried some 105gr cast bullets that I found at midway, but they were too long and bulged the case. A buddy who loads .32S&W traded me those for a box of 60gr XTPs, which work great, but there's only 100 and when they're gone, they're gone.

I found a 100gr .32 Lee mold on Midway the other day at regular price ($29, iirc), so I ordered it. I realize it's probably going to drop bullets that are too long, but I read where guys have milled off the top of the mold to reduce the size of the bullets it's dropping. I'm going to give it a try...I'm out of other options.

In other news, I walked into the LGS today, and he actually had powder. Most was stuff that I don't use, but he had 4064. I hate to admit what I paid for it, but I needed it and was just happy to find some.

I have the dies and about 200 resized and primed cases. Once I use these replacement becomes the headache especially the primer aspect.

Regarding your bullets, bullet length and shape notwithstanding, if the .313 or .312 inch bullets don’t chamber, you may need to go as narrow as .310 for reliable chambering in European 7.65/.32 pistols. The European bored 7.65/.32 were always a bit more narrow than domestic.32’s.

quote:

Regarding your bullets, bullet length and shape notwithstanding, if the .313 or .312 inch bullets don’t chamber, you may need to go as narrow as .310 for reliable chambering in European 7.65/.32 pistols. The European bored 7.65/.32 were always a bit more narrow than domestic.32’s.

Good info, thanks! The mold came Saturday and I did surgery on it yesterday to mill off the lower groove...it's a lot harder than I thought to mill down an aluminum block with a belt sander! Sprue plate screw sheared off, too, even though I heated it up first to try and loosen the factory thread-locker. I had to drill and tap it for a new screw. It turned out ok, though, so far as I can tell...if I get time today I'm going to try and cast some bullets and see how it goes. I'm hoping it drops somewhere in the 70gr range. I got a .311 sizing die, too, but if that doesn't work I guess I'll be on the hunt for a .310.

Quick update to the above...I cast some bullets with my hacked up mold. They drop right at 80gr, and powdercoated and sized to .311, they work perfectly in my Beretta 81. I loaded up 36 of them and they functioned 100%, and were pretty accurate, too. I'm pretty happy.

The stupid shortages have been a pain, but it's forced me to expand my horizons a bit and learn some new stuff.

Our local Scheels got a lot of ammo in the last week. Lots of it still available. Seen more 9mm on the shelves than I have in a long time. Lot of shotgun shells came in too. During this ammo drought if you had a 224 Valkyrie or a 300 Magnum or WSM you were safe going to our local Scheels for your shooting needs.

For the last week they have had shelves full of regular and magnum CCI small rifle primers. Powder is still pretty thin and small pistol and large rifle primers are non existent.

Glad to hear your mold modification and .311 sized pills worked!

Just bought Mrs. Flash some CCI Maxi Mag .22 Magnum ammo for $16.75/box which isn't bad these days.

quote:

Originally posted by Gustofer:
Stopped into Sportsmans Warehouse the other day and it was sad.

The reloading aisle looked like Target after a peaceful protest. There were about three oddball caliber dies left on the shelves and that was about it. Zero powder. None. Not even one pound of the most obscure powder you could imagine. Primers? Same story.

Thankfully, while I don't have all I want, I have all that I need.

I stopped by our local Sportsmans earlier this month. Prior to the Harris administration, there was an aisle stocked full on both sides with every brand of projectile you could want including Berger, and a decent selection of various powders, primers and brass.

They have repurposed that aisle now for archery shit.

The only ammo in the store was on a projector size rolling cart guarded by the staff behind the counter.

Just awful.

Scored 200 small pistol primers today! Got to the LGS as they opened and got lucky.