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[Rocky Raab]

Federal is the only company that has upped production. And they are doing it only with added personnel. (It takes six months to train a new worker to produce acceptable primers!) The other companies are convinced that the huge upsurge in demand has passed and adding more capacity now would just mean having it go idle and firing people soon.

ALL companies say that the upsurge has passed and that demand is slacking off. Winchester had demand go to 12X normal, and it is now down to "only" 5X normal. They expect that the new normal will be a bit higher due to the many new reloaders, but that their capacity will be plenty.

Winchester also says they have not increased prices since Jan 2008 - so any higher prices are due to middlemen and retail charging what the market will bear. As long as we consumers continue to suck it up and pay, there won't be a drop in prices.

[skeet]

Originally Posted by Rocky Raab

As long as we consumers continue to suck it up and pay, there won't be a drop in prices.

Well said Rocky. And as you say..the middleman is also making hay while the sun shines..in many instances. Personally I feel that many retailers just took advantage of the shortage..and then there were some who just had to hoard stuff. Again.. I also feel that Winchester is probably right..the great need that has been perceived probably isn't really there.

I usually keep 50 thousand or so metallic primers around to sell. Most I charged for them during the crunch was 35 dollars per M for regular primers..and 40 dollars for BR primers. And that was only covering my normal profit margin on them. I saw primers at a gun show selling for 75 bucks a thousand...and their cost was no more than mine. And the guy selling them actually tried to buy mine before the show opened to the public. And he wanted ME to discount my price to him. Sheesh