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Ammo shortage effects and making your own ammo and your own primers

10K views 37 replies 25 participants last post by  survivalebooks 
#1 ·
Not that most of us have not seen it coming since presidential election. But there is a major ammo shortage.

If you go to the gun shows you can see it from the four people deep around the big ammo vender buying up everything that is not nailed down.

Or you do a run to the gun store to get box of rounds for your .38, 9mm, .45 and you find that they are sold out then try the another gun store to find the same thing.

What made me start this thread was a buddy from Nevada gave me a call looking for ammo for his 9mm and .38 since he can not find any ammo to re qualify safety card. Nevada requires that all security people that carry need to take the safety course every six months and put a box of ammo through each of the guns they plan to carry during that time.

Where the problems start to become even more visible is when it come to police and prison guards have to but two boxes of ammo through each weapon there every six months to qualify with their weapons.

At the current ammo shortage and the laws that they are trying to pass for ammo their major issues forming where security people and even the police will not have enough ammo to stay qualified or armed.

I called the gun stores around Reno and they are all out of .38, .45 and 9mm and all of them said give us a call back in a week and if you are Lucky we might have some.

For those people that do not already have reloading set up time to get started, but you have to remember that the production of primers is being limited right now. So now you have to also learn how to make your own primers unless you are Lucky to find them.

For the older percussion caps they used a shock-sensitive explosive material such as fulminate of mercury. If you ever used it it is very nasty stuff and going off on it's own.

For to days percussion caps they use non-corrosive compounds such as lead styphnate.

When it comes to modern primers you have corrosive primers and non corrosive with ingredients such as lead azide or potassium perchlorate.

Corrosive primers are used more in military ammo and have a longer shelf life, work reliably under severe conditions.

Non Corrosive primers are less reliable if stored for many years.

Would love to hear anyone that has any good sources of info on making primers since it is topic that people would find useful at the moment.
 
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#2 ·
I've never known of anyone who has personally made their own primers. You might consider investing in reloading supplies however since the reloading supplies are easing up a lot(at least where I live in Illinois)

Have you considered ordering off the internet? Many places like aimsurplus have decent stuff in stock right now with fair prices...
 
#3 ·
Do not try and make your own primers. Particularly if you are considering such primary explosives like Lead Azide and Potassium Perchlorate.

Wait unit the shortage of components lifts and buy your self standard commercial non corrosive primers. Store them at temps below 140F and they are fine.
 
#4 ·
Funny story. I got this "feeling" today that Walmart has .40 S&W rounds. I drove over and guess what... they got a shipment yesterday. They gave me a limit of 6 50-round boxes but I talked the dude into letting me come back after an hour or two and buy some more. While I was there, a country looking dude and a police officer and his wife (officer also!) came up to but some also. When I got back an hour later- they were sold out.

The price: $13 bucks a box, Federal FMJ :D:

Funnier: I now have 450 rounds of .40 S&W and haven't bought my Glock 22 yet! (Going on Saturday)
 
#5 ·
Some stores have all kinds of ammo. Certain types are backordered but the manufacturers are working overtime and the backorders are for the most part 2 to 5 weeks. My three calibers are in stock all over the place now, .22,20 GA. and 30-06 . Last week I was hard pressed to find 500 round bricks of .22 but now 4 different stores have piles of it but its going fast again. I picked up 350 rounds of 9mm yesterday and the guy has over a 1000 left. Kingfish
 
#6 ·
Thanks for the advice about the primers. But I no need to make them myself or for the retreat. We have enough ammo to start WWIII and have extra for the next war.

Started the thread more for other people. Plus alot of people would find knowing how to make there own primers interesting since I really have not seen a book that even covers it myself.

Take care,
Wes
 
#7 ·
It would be good to be able to make your own primers. From my limited research, it is next to impossible to do it safely. There is also a limit to the number that you can have at home. Making gunpowder would be a good skill to have also. Living somewhere where you could find the raw materials would be a must.

Side note on powder....Titegroup will be impossible to find for the forseeable future. If you reload, you may want to find an alternate powder.
 
#8 ·
Ammo supply in stores here is still about the same, both price and availability, but the prices and availability at shows is getting better. 9mm nice reloads, $180 per 1000, .38 $150 per 1000, .22 still scarce, I was able to trade a few of my cases of .22 for other ammo I wanted at a VERY reasonable exchange rate, as in one case= 2000 9mm or .38. BTW the 9&38 guy had a pallet full and was sold out by 1 PM... YMMV.
 
#11 ·
NC has all the .40 and .22 you could ever need.

I actually considered buying a .40 pistol, just to match the ammo. .45 and 9mm are bought before they hit the shelves.

Also they have sky rocketed in price. Its insane. 31.00 for a box of turd .45 rounds. Unreal.
 
#17 ·
One thing you might consider adding to your Glock 22 kit is a 9mm conversion barrel and a few G17 mags. I gotone from Lone Wolf and it has been flawless, didn't have to change a thing except swap barrel & mags and it has conventional rifling so you can shoot lead bullets as well.

For a while 9mm was a lot easier to find than .40 but now here in VA its the other way around. Nice having an option to shoot either ammo and the point-of-aim/point-of-impact are very close out to 20 yards.
 
#18 ·
I wouldn't sweat the primer situation too much. I'm in the firearms industry at the retail level and can pass on a little info. The main wholesalers such as Black Hills Shooters Supply have said that primers are becoming available again shortly according to their suppliers. I have a friend who has worked for ATK (Alliant) for 25 years. ATK is Hercules Powder as well as a number of other ammunition related companies. They even own one of the Lake City plants. He explained it from the company side.

One of the reasons for the ammo shortage to start with was military contracts taking a large percentage of manufacturing capacity. Then throw in the big run on ammo because of Obama and you end up with shortages. Not only are the military contracts coming to an end, but the rush on ammo has slowed down. The factories had been using the primers to manufacture ammo, rather than sell them seperately. This caused a big shortage to reloaders.

We're already starting to see more ammo on the shelves and the prices are starting to some down. It won't be long until primers start showing up too. They're the cheapest part of reloading so it's pretty easy to stockpile them without spending a fortune.

As for making primers yourself. They are complicated little things. They need to make the right amount of blast, with the right pressure impulse profile. Sometimes just changing primer brands can make your current load unsafe. You need to work up new loads when you change primers.

If you're making the primers, you would need to be able to make them with absolute consistency or risk some of them causing unsafe pressure levels while others insufficiently ignite the charge, causing velocity fluctuations.

Personally, I'd shy away from it and just stockpile them.
 
#22 ·
Been a muzzleloader junkie for decades. Not those inline atrocities, but the real thing. A good flintlock would make a nice backup for a long term crisis. The powder (the REAL stuff, not that fake crap) stores forever, and rocks that make sparks are found all over. Good way to take game without burning up ammo that might be best used for defense.
 
#25 ·
A old prospector buddy told me about a neat trick he used out woods back inthe 70's.

He said he used caps from capguns to reload his primers and he pound the old ones out with a nail setter. He said it worked for him while he was snowed in one winter.

Have not seen very many caps anymore so not sure how hard they are to get but a cool idea.

Take care,
Wes
 
#27 ·
Here ya go:http://www.campingsurvival.com/uldoitprimco.html
Now for those of you that have thought about muzzle loaders Here's the ticket:
http://www.beartoothbullets.com/open_sight/archive_open_sight.htm/9
Note to the faithful...I have both the book and the tap a cap...Yep, goes BANG!
I've used the Tap o Cap before and never had good results. First off, the capgun caps absorb moisture and don't store well. Secondly, you have to put a pile of them in the cap to get it to fire, which it does very inconsistently. If you were making your own priming compound, I can see where it might work better. Muzzleloaders aren't as picky about cap pressure as centerfire cartridges are. But then again, a flintlock solves that problem all together.
 
#28 · (Edited)
Mike

What you said about dampness is spot on...I live in a swamp, so I keep everything in an ammo boxes with desiccant... No wet caps. I followed the destructions with the "Tap-O-Cap" and got an ignition rate of about 80%. (hey we are talking "make do" here and 80% is better than 0%). I did find a hefty variance between brands of caps. One of the tricks I learned was to use one cap covered with the "powder from a couple more, then covered with the thin side paper. This bumped the success rate up to about 90%.
If percussion caps are not available, the can of cap gun caps I rat holed will be nice. They are just a fall back Item...No real replacement for the real deal by any stretch! SO with that said...Stock up on percussion caps and primers. I know I did.
Oh Yea, don't forget extra flints for your flint lock...You do have at least a dozen one of these don't ya??? Fun to shoot, but real testy. Tell ya what, Flinters will make a Man outa you!
 
#32 ·
Today in the LA Times there is a front page story about the ammo shortage. Interesting that a pro gun control left wing rag would run such a thing. Their take on it is that 2 BILLION more bullets were manufactured in 2008 than in 2007 yet stores can't keep 'em on the shelves. They attribute it to fears of control, taxation and prohibition by the Democrats who now control both houses of Congress and the executive branch.
 
#37 ·
safe?



They are safe if you know how to handle hangfires.

A hangfire is when the striker hits the primer and the shell does not immediately fire.

To be safe, you should keep the gun pointed downrange and wait until you count 30 seconds before you eject the shell.

If the shells have been stored in that mythical "cool dry place", you shouldn't have many hangfires, not even after 20 years.

This assumes you are talking about factory ammo made with plastic cases.

If you are talking about reloads of paper cases the odds go down that the ammo is still good.

Inspect the shotshells visually. If there are brown spots in the brass around the primer, that's worrisome.

Look for tiny splits in the shotshell case walls.

Gently wipe off any fingerprints you get on the shotshells as you inspect them.

If you know the ammo has been stored well and they look like new, they should be almost as good as fresh ammo.
 
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