Opinions on primers from Argentina, Russia?

[GyroF-16]

Thanks, that’s a very useful data point.
I’d be interested if you’d post back after using the first few hundred.

Murom also made Tula and wolf primers. I know some liked them and preferred the SR primers to American “standards” like federal and Winchester. I believe (but could be wrong) the SR primers are closer to CCI 41.

Because of my personal experience with murom made primers (a few thousand LPM primers back around 2014, they ran perfectly fine in my stock and apex kitted M&P 45’s and didn’t seem harder to set off), I went with those over the Argentine when I ordered 5k SP primers a few weeks ago.


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[GyroF-16]

Thanks- your expense numbers are similar to mine.
The $472 did not include shipping. I just checked, and it would be $497 shipped. So just under 10 cents a primer.
Better than what I recently paid to get some Small Rife primers, but still triple what I’ve ever paid before. But also 3-4 cents cheaper than the available Federal Match that mentioned was available at Target Sports.
The real question is whether saving $180 is worth the risk of reliability with a light spring. Or whether primer prices will fall significantly in the next 6-9 months.

I have used a lot of Tula in rifle and pistol, I would be comfortable going that way. Not optimal, but a (temporary) spring swap would be simple if they are reluctant (not like you would be stuck)?

Is the $472 shipped? If so that is probably not bad, the most I paid was $114 net for some from Midway, they only sell one box, shipping is like $40. I have about 6k right now (some buddies draw out of that a little) or I would be tempted by $472/5k if that is shipped.

As far as ammo, I think the cost savings is more significant now. When you loaded for $0.13 ammo was probably $180. Now ammo is about $340 and I am pretty sure I am loading for $212. Here is my cost breakdown:

Attachment 87383

This figures 4.5g of powder at $185 for eight pounds.

ETA:

Some of this depends on availability, and unless I am over looking them I do not see any out there right now. I have my www browser setup so that when I launch it every morning it launches nine windows with searches for primers and powder ("Start, home, and new tabs" in Settings on Edge) and the cupboard looks pretty bare right now.

[sickeness]

I don't think primers will ever go back down, seeing as how most mainstream retailers have them at $80-100 per thousand. Can anyone recall a time where retail prices on reloading components has ever fallen?

[mmc45414]

I don't think primers will ever go back down, seeing as how most mainstream retailers have them at $80-100 per thousand.

I think the net price will come down, when you can buy more than 1-2k from those retailers. Here are two examples, same Federal 209s at Midway (limit 1) and Natchezss (limit 5, but only four left by the time I got logged in and got them bought). The Midway example flirts with 40% of the cost of the product for shipping. My experience is that Midway is Qty1, Brownells Qty2, Natchezss Qty5, Powder Valley varies.

Can anyone recall a time where retail prices on reloading components has ever fallen?

The last time I bought before the frenzy we put together a small group buy of local friends that totaled 15k and our cost per was $31.80 (Powder Valley), and I think they had been trending down and the primers were only $28. I remember going to gun shows to buy them 1k at a time (younger, broker...) for like $35. But yeah, I am not setting my expectations that they are going to come down a bunch anytime soon, but I want to get 5k-10k instead of 1k for my $35-$40 in shipping.

All of this sucks severely, but I try and look at the cost delta. Few people, including me, shoot 1k/Mo, in the summer months I sometimes flirt with it because we do a hundred skeet targets on almost every Wednesday night. If it costs me and extra $15 a week (probably closer to $5-$10 on an annual basis) to continue to enjoy what I have enjoyed all of my life I am going to enjoy what I enjoy. It will continue to piss me off every time I click the buy button, but I will forget about it when I am pulling the trigger with my buds.

Right now I have enough to go probably a year at least, all with primers we jumped on for the privilege of over paying for. I don't like it, but I just paid the ransom so I could just get back to enjoying the shooting, but at this point I have enough SPP/SRP/209 that I am not buying 1k at a damn time till some are burned up. And I expect/hope my volume goes up, not down, as I expect/hope to have more time flexibility and expect/hope to stay healthy (am 63yo, who knows). I don't figure it is hoarding as long as you are consuming...

[SecondsCount]

I don't have experience with the Argentine primers but all of the Russian primers I have shot worked well.

It makes me wonder how they are getting the Murom primers over here. My understanding was that Tula primers dried up due to the sanctions.

[Borderland]

I used a thousand of those Murom SP primers and they work as well as CCI (my preference) and Win. Actually I loaded some up about 2 months ago that I found in the back of a drawer. If I recall the price was a lot cheaper than US primers when I bought those.

[Borderland]

I don't have experience with the Argentine primers but all of the Russian primers I have shot worked well.

It makes me wonder how they are getting the Murom primers over here. My understanding was that Tula primers dried up due to the sanctions.

Good question.

[mtnbkr]

I don't think primers will ever go back down, seeing as how most mainstream retailers have them at $80-100 per thousand. Can anyone recall a time where retail prices on reloading components has ever fallen?

Primers went up to about $50/1k (from the high teens, low 20s) during the Obama panic and eventually dropped to the low $30s with some deals in the upper to mid $20s to be found while Trump was president. Then Covid and Biden happened putting us where we are now. If not for Covid/Biden/Inflation, we might be seeing primers in the low $20s by now.

Chris

[richiecotite]

Primers went up to about $50/1k (from the high teens, low 20s) during the Obama panic and eventually dropped to the low $30s with some deals in the upper to mid $20s to be found while Trump was president. Then Covid and Biden happened putting us where we are now. If not for Covid/Biden/Inflation, we might be seeing primers in the low $20s by now.

Chris

I don’t know about that. Before the pandemic, in Jan and Feb 2020, I bought 5k spp from the Dulles gun show and 5k srp from a seller on VAGunTrader. The 5k spp from the gun show cost me $160 (1 of 2 reloading specific booths at the show) and the 5k srp (this guy had the lowest prices on 5k within a 1 hour drive at the time) was $150.

I think prices had more or less leveled off and $30 per k would be about average, if not for the pandemic.


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[mmc45414]

It makes me wonder how they are getting the Murom primers over here. My understanding was that Tula primers dried up due to the sanctions.

Wonder if the sanctions were based on when things embarked or landed. Knowing more than I want to about ocean freight shipping they might have been in the pipeline for a while, the ban didn't kick in until September. We have something that left the docks on Feb28 that we are still waiting on, if something from Russia takes as long or longer and a whole lotta primers would fit in a container.