What shortage?

I keep hearing of a shortage of components for reloading the .303 British specifically, and other cartridges generally. In which country is this alleged shortage? In light of my impending retirement I decided to start stocking up on reloading components for my favorite cartridges: .303 British, .308 Win/7.62 NATO, .223 Rem/5.56 NATO, 7.65 X 53 ARG., .380 ACP, 9mm Parabellum, .45 ACP., and .50 BMG in order to have a decade's worth of shooting without spending a penny. The only component I'm a little short of is primers. It's taken a little work scouring sites on the interweb but I currently have 3,500 bullets just for my Lee Enfields and M1891 Mauser. I have that much again for my AR15s and AR10s and almost as much again for my handguns. The supply of certain powders was off and on but not stopped completely and primers are once again plentiful although at grossly inflated prices. It would be interesting in hearing from reloaders around the globe regarding the availability or lack thereof of reloading components.

Get onto some of our web sites here in Australia like BRT, QRA Shop, VRA Shop to name just a few Bergers are like the Dinosaurs extinct here and not likely to improve much before the end of 2024 we cannot get primers in West Au same for projies are very limited powders hit and miss our sports are suffering badly.

I was the same with thousands of primers stocked up over years of watching our starvations again and again. Powder amounted to about eighty pounds of all types. Bullets would never be a problem with 400 lbs of bullet material and gas checks, cases by the thousand. But here primers have gone up to over ten cents each, more like fourteen to forty per primer. Loaded ammo has about doubled, prices are easy to find out on any sales site. Even if all the wars stopped today, I think the wholesalers will keep the prices up since they have a taste of real money.

I keep up with all my friends and family in Canada as well as being on a couple of Ross and Lee Enfield Facebook groups based in Canada. A recent post showed boxes of 20 Federal .303 British at Canadian Tire for sale for $89.99! OY VEY!

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Originally Posted by Sapper740

0 Federal .303 British at Canadian Tire for sale for $89.99

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Exactly. We've always had trouble with greedy wholesalers here, example would be the zinc cased "Blazer" pistol ammo. When US residents were paying $4USD for it we were paying $16CDN. Just a buck or so less than brass cased. Retailers have never been able to make more than about 10/15% on ammo. The wholesalers take it all. That was enough to make a man reload, but now primers can be as much as $400CDN a thou.

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Originally Posted by browningautorifle

.......but now primers can be as much as $400CDN a thou.

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OUCH! Primers here are down to $95 per k which is still 3X what they were a few years ago. I doubt production costs went up that much so there's a lot of price gouging here too.

Ppl over east are asking and getting $800/Aud for 1.5 Kg of Trail Boss.

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Originally Posted by CINDERS

Bergers are like the Dinosaurs extinct here and not likely to improve much before the end of 2024 we cannot get primers in West Au same for projies are very limited powders hit and miss our sports are suffering badly.

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LeHigh is still making .311" Match solids in 150gr., unfortunately they stopped making the 180gr. right after I nabbed a couple of boxes and started working up a handload. Now, there's no point in spending any time on them. Fortunately, Berger bullets are plentiful, just not in .311 - .312" here.

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Originally Posted by CINDERS

$800/Aud for 1.5 Kg of Trail Boss

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Most of our powders have only doubled in price. It's the primers that have gone retarded. Loaded ammo too, but I don't buy much of that.

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Originally Posted by Sapper740

OUCH! Primers here are down to $95 per k which is still 3X what they were a few years ago. I doubt production costs went up that much so there's a lot of price gouging here too.

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Too funny I have a few 1k boxes of primers price marked as $9.95/k.

I've been going thru this since the early 90s so I learned my lesson by 1996 - I am unlikely to run out of primers...ever.

US election years have corresponded with primer shortages since the 1992 election in my experience.

C-19 resulted in world wide shortages of everything else, so primers, powder and projectiles are just another statistic.

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Originally Posted by Lee Enfield

I am unlikely to run out of primers...ever.

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Likewise, I'm not going to feel this at all. I learned way back. I wonder how new shooters will make out.

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Originally Posted by browningautorifle

Likewise, I'm not going to feel this at all. I learned way back. I wonder how new shooters will make out.

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I'm down to 10k primers. I'm starting to get nervous.

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Originally Posted by CINDERS

Ppl over east are asking and getting $800/Aud for 1.5 Kg of Trail Boss.

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I haven't seen trail boss on a shelf or online here since before the pandemic, same for just about all the Australian made rifle powders too. They started to creep back on the shelves a few months ago though. I landed x2 8lb containers of Varget at Cabela's on Black Friday. I saw 1lb containers online last summer, with limit x5. Funny though, powder on the shelf and online stores is pretty much at pre-pandemic prices. As others have said, primers are back but not keeping pace with inflation in the least. Haven't seen large rifle primers at all, but pistols and small rifles are aplenty now, prices notwithstanding.

Large Rifle and Large Rifle Magnum Primers are still elusive here in California, at least. Small rifle/pistol, large rifle/pistol, and SM/LG Magnum pistols seem to be everywhere. Some CCI Large Rifle popped up on MIDWAYUSA and were gone within a few minutes. I use mostly Remington Large Rifle and was down to about 1500 but I scored three boxes (1000 each), a gun store had a bunch on consignment paid $75.00 per 1000 which is cheap compared to the $140.00 they seem to be going for now. I'm good for now but always on the look-out.