A week ago rifle primers appeared on a store’s website I go to, Brownell’s. I’d heard you could use small rifle primers in place of small pistol. So I tried it. The gun blew up and my dog died! No just kidding. They worked great. The industry just won’t come out and give any guidance on the idea, so you’re reduced to chat boards on gun forums. The best I could pick up is that the primer ‘cup’ was slightly thicker on rifle primers to withstand the greater pressures. It wasn’t really clear if rifle primers had more “explosive” agent in them or not. There was a lot of talk about “backing off your load“. That seems rather silly to me as I don’t see how a primer is going to change X amount of powder and the force it delivers.

The only concern I had as I was loading them last night was what it might do to the flash hole (the hole into the case where the primer sits). But from checking spent factory cases and comparing them to the 20 test cases I’d fired with rifle primers, there was absolutely no difference in size or condition of the flash hole. So it looks like I’m good to go and didn’t waste my money buying a 1,000. The obvious question is why would you do it? Well when I haven’t seen a primer in 18 months, and you have no idea when you might see them again, you do things. Luckily this one worked out. In fact I don’t know when I’ve shot a smoother 9mm load. 3.5 grains of 244 Ball under a 124 gr FMJ for 940 fps.

Until these primers showed up at Brownell’s and Midway, I was seriously thinking of taking a gamble and ordering those Argentinian primers (Servicios) from Zinc Point outside of Houston, and paying $200 dollars for $100 dollars worth of primers. And not knowing if you would even get them! I was embarrassed for buying the amount I did. But considering you don’t know what the future holds, maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea. I’ve been in an ammo line outside a store before the doors open. Its not fun. Its not fun having to spend all that time making your own, but its a hell of a lot better than not having any at all. We have no idea what the situation is going to be 5 years from now. The several thousand primers I bought in 2012 after the last shortage, is what got me through this shortage. They sat on a shelf just fine for 9 years.

And the funniest thing about all this! Canada is swimming in primers! They’ll never SELL all the primers they have! What happened to all that free trade? Why aren’t they selling them to us? You know – NAFTA

[On a side note, the 9mm 115 gr FMJ, the ‘loaf of bread’ of ammo seems to have stabilized at $31.6 cents a round on Ammo Seek. Which is exactly double what best price was this time 2 years ago.]