Powder and primers today

Tomme boy

Tomme boy

Well-Known Member
Was on my way to go to Brownells this morning as they had a couple of powders i am short on. I started to reload shotgun again and i was out of almost everything. As i was headed west on I80 i figured i would stop in Iowa City at Scheels. I couldnt believe it. They had 209a federal primers. They had at least 6-7 federal gold metal match LRM. Regular large rifle and mag. There were 2 1000 round boxes of CCI br4 Sr.

They had Longshot and hs6 in 1b cans that I needed. So stopping made it I did not have to drive another 100 miles to Brownells. They had a bunch of VV and a bunch of the accurate powders.

So I drove to the other side of the town where there was a Fin & Feather store. They had almost everything from hodgdon except varget. Almost everything Winchester and some accurate. And they had Cheditte 209 cx2000 primers. I grabbed the last 1K box. The powders were normal price at both places. The federal 209 primers were $6.99/100 and the chedittes were $59.99/1K. So not as bad as other places i seen in the last few months.

Now I don't have to swage primer holes in all my cheditte hulls to make a Win 209 fit them.

I also picked up 100 rounds of 2 3/4 slugs for a few relatives that need ammo for deer season next month. Hope they work, they are Sterling 1oz rifled slugs. The only other slugs I seen were some win tac fracturing slugs. $17.99/5! These were $7.99/10.
 
358156 hp

358156 hp

At large, whereabouts unknown.
Our local Scheels has been a hero throughout this latest disaster. They have seriously walked the fine line between availability and pricing. My belief is that if they has merchandise priced over normal retail, it was because their cost was above normal wholesale. They seemed to be able to get some items when nobody else could. They did not go the "Cheaper Than Dirt" route of charging more, simply because you either want it or you don't.
 
fiver

fiver

Well-Known Member
Tomme you know a cheddite is only .001 larger than a win primer.[and only in one spot]
the Win's are more like .002 larger compared to a federal 209-A, and .001 more compared to the old CCI's.

I got no problem using Federal primers in my AA hulls, and will switch back and forth between Cheddite and Winchester primers in my Remington hulls with impunity.

just something to measure for yourself..
 
Tomme boy

Tomme boy

Well-Known Member
The win I have I can push in the euro hulls by a finger. I have not measured either to see what they are. Even though I have a ton of the old AA hulls and Remington nitrous I don't like to use them for slugs and buckshot.

The other day I was cutting apart a bunch of old slug reloads to harvest the components, about half of the old AA hulls were actually the HS design. But they were not marked on the head HS. So I went through a couple of the boxes I have hulls stored in and about 25% were the HS with no stamping. This was the red, silver, and gray AA hulls. The red ones were easy to find, they were nice and shiny compared to the other ones in the box. I never knew they made them like this.
 
R

richhodg66

Well-Known Member
Good to hear.

We were in Des Moines a few months ago and went through the Scheel's there, I kind of wish we had one closer.

No primers around here, I'm not really in need of them, but it will be reassuring when they are conveniently available again.
 
R

Rex

Active Member
Haven't bought SPPs in over a year and have pretty much quit shooting anything except a little .22 rifle. Last week I was in our local gun shop in North Platte, NE. and the fellow behind the counter pulled out a box of SRPs, he knows that I've even used them in my .38 specials. He wasn't trying to sell them, just showed me the price sticker on the box. $139.95! Don't know where he got them, think he was keeping them just to show folks what was going on.
 
L Ross

L Ross

Well-Known Member
Tomme boy said:
The win I have I can push in the euro hulls by a finger. I have not measured either to see what they are. Even though I have a ton of the old AA hulls and Remington nitrous I don't like to use them for slugs and buckshot.

The other day I was cutting apart a bunch of old slug reloads to harvest the components, about half of the old AA hulls were actually the HS design. But they were not marked on the head HS. So I went through a couple of the boxes I have hulls stored in and about 25% were the HS with no stamping. This was the red, silver, and gray AA hulls. The red ones were easy to find, they were nice and shiny compared to the other ones in the box. I never knew they made them like this.
Click to expand...
I use Federal Top Gun super cheapy hulls for my steel shot loads. Straight wall cases, fiber base wad. Trap ranges give them to me for free. I load them once then toss them. Use Federal 209's. I really like the pink breast cancer fund raiser hulls, especially when I get checked by a Federal Warden and they ask to see my non toxic ammo.
 
Tomme boy

Tomme boy

Well-Known Member
All the new federal are made by cheditte. The top gun ones anyway. They have the low base wad in plastic. No more paper base wads in federal. Even the steel shot went to plastic bases.
 
L Ross

L Ross

Well-Known Member
Tomme boy said:
All the new federal are made by cheditte. The top gun ones anyway. They have the low base wad in plastic. No more paper base wads in federal. Even the steel shot went to plastic bases.
Click to expand...
Well poop. Good thing I have a garbage bag full. Damn I had change, just hate it!
 
358156 hp

358156 hp

At large, whereabouts unknown.
Rex said:
Haven't bought SPPs in over a year and have pretty much quit shooting anything except a little .22 rifle. Last week I was in our local gun shop in North Platte, NE. and the fellow behind the counter pulled out a box of SRPs, he knows that I've even used them in my .38 specials. He wasn't trying to sell them, just showed me the price sticker on the box. $139.95! Don't know where he got them, think he was keeping them just to show folks what was going on.
Click to expand...
The going price for primers seems to hover around $100.00/K. If he bought them for that, and marked them up 40%, that puts the price right at his stickered price. We're still in a "do you want them, or don't you" part of the current market.
 
fiver

fiver

Well-Known Member
chuckle...

another guy told me yesterday he seen the same primers, at the same price, at another Scheels, so they are at least consistent in their pricing.

yep the paper base wad hulls are about all gone.
which is par for the course, since I just bought 5 cases of wads to use in them.
I can get the exact same load in the new plastic base hulls but I get a slight dish in the crimp.
just about enough I'm not cool with it,,, but also not quite enough I'm gonna make any changes to the load.
I could put in another 1/16 oz of bird shot, a couple of puff wheats/ a cheerio etc., and have perfect crimps again, but maaan this federal hull swaparoo every 9 months is getting old.
 
Tomme boy

Tomme boy

Well-Known Member
Their buckshot hulls have about 8 different versions also. From paper base to 3 different compression to 3 different separate plastic base wads. There are 3 shades of maroon that I start to sort at.

Good thing the primers they take are American. They don't have any oversized holes. Even the top guns. So they must be sending federal the hulls not primed
 
fiver

fiver

Well-Known Member
well for a while there they were having their game and field,, target and game,,,, whatever loads made by Rio down in Texas.
those high base maroon hulls were simply Rio blue hulls with purple coloring in the mix and they used an 8 point crimp instead of 6 they also took the Rio primer.
I got a bunch of them loaded up right now and just throw them away when I shoot them.

the new 'top gun' hull is basically that same hull only with a low brass washed steel head and the top gun ribbed body.

anyway Rio built that new building and equipment then took their ball and went home just in time for everything to drop out again.
you'd think them and Federal would have completely cut ties when Remington come into the mix, but as far as I know Federal is still using their shot.
 
Tomme boy

Tomme boy

Well-Known Member
I don't have any of the high base. The main ones I have are like a med high base. And a bunch of low base 3" Most all of the 2 3/4 and all of the 3" are one piece hulls. Half of the primer sticks out of the base. They are almost the same as. The old active hulls for capacity.

They steel shot ones in both sizes have the same white base wad now.
 
Ian

Ian

Notorious member
When I work through my three full lawn and leaf bags full of STS and Nitro Gold hulls and all the Claybuster wads that fit them, I'll be about 240 years old and won't care anymore. Never much liked shotshell loading anyway, too damned fiddly with components and brands.
 
fiver

fiver

Well-Known Member
most of it isn't that difficult, but for some reason Federal decided to mickey mouse everything around the last 4-5 years.
kinda the old let's make things just good nuff to work once and make as much money as possible while we do it thing.

anyhow.
as I understand it Federal has another new hull coming out, it just hasn't hit the market in big enough numbers to start making an impression yet.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.