A little update on my trips to the stores today:
I first went to Cabela's to do a little reloading shopping. The bullet shelf was pretty empty. I noticed that the majority of the bullets missing were 9mm, 40 cal, .223, and other common bullets used by rapid fire, lead spitters (of course). My next trip was to the primer and powder area (which is what I needed). The primer shelf was absolutely empty and the powder area was about half empty.....or half full, depending how you look at it.
I'm sure that if I was more adept in powder types for various calibers I might have concluded the same as the bullet shortages....all powders used on autos, but I cannot say so. Nonetheless, the two powders I needed the most were not in stock (IMR 4198 and 3031). I did manage to pick up a bottle of H-335, much to my suprize as I use this powder in my .223 and 30-30 loads for my T/C's.
I asked the sales rep behind the counter what he has heard as being the problem with the lack of stock. He said, and I quote, "People are scared they won't be able to get the stuff in the future so they're buying it up fast." He said he thought it was crazy because it's all based on rumors that aren't true; the war is using it all up, the government is cutting it back, and other crazy stories. He said people are typically buying anything from 1000 primers to 5000 primers at a time.
Because I couldn't find the primers and powder I needed, I took a second trip over to Gander Mountain to see what their stock looked like. When I got there it was just the same. They had only shotgun primers and 500 Remington brand large rifle mag primers left. The shelves were otherwise left empty. As for powder, they were about half stocked as well and again, no 4198 and 3031. To add to it, their gun stock was about half full and almost NO used rifles out on the floor. It was almost spooky to see empty cabinets and shelves where there are typically lots and lots of new revolvers and auto pistols. Just to see what the Gander Mt. people have heard and are saying about the shortage, I walked over to the sales clerk and asked what he thought the problem was. Again, I quote, and my memory doesn't fail me on this because his answer was quite simple as it was only one word: "FEAR". He went on to explain the same thing and that is that people are scared they won't be able to get anything in the future, especially the guns themselves.
I told him that I was looking for primers and he asked, "what kind of primers you want?" I thought this was some kind of riddle because the shelves were bare as can be. I told him what I needed and he said, "wait here and let me see what I can get" and then asked what brand I typically use. I told him CCI or Winchester but I suppose in this situation that beggars cannot be choosers. He went in the back and came back out with a brick of large rifle primers by Federal. He said that there were a few more bricks back there too along with some other sizes as well. He asked how many I wanted. Well, I wanted ALL of em but then I'd be doing the same as everyone else if I did that, not to mention the fact that I couldn't afford them. I finally decided to take 500 of each, small and large rifle, as I figure that by the time I use those and my remaining primers up, this whole thing will be over and things should be back to normal again. Plus, I figured that this guy was nice enough to offer them to me so I'd better be nice enough to everyone else and leave some for some other poor reloader in despetate search of a few primers.
My issue, however, is that I've never used Federal primers. I hope they're OK. I've heard things about various primers not working well in hand priming tools. I use a Lee hand primer. I suppose for now I'll put 10 at a time in the pan just to be safe and not have 50 or 100 of em explode in my face. (YIKES)
Have any of you used Federal primers? Do any of you know of any problems using them hand priming tools?
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