209 type Primers

Cintax

Cintax

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Hello. I am new to the idea of reloading shotgun hulls to make shooting more cost effective.

I was doing research on buying reloading components and so far it looks like Hummason is pretty much the best prices going except for primers where Lawry seems to have them beat on Federals at least.

I have some numbers as high as $53 per 1000 (Federals 20A) and down to $29.95 per 1000 (Lawry's - Federal 209A).

I am looking for suggestions on what primers should cost and where to get them at the best price in Ontario (pref Barrie but GTA is okay). I am looking to reload Gun Clubs and Federals. All my gun club recipes seem to call for Rem. 209P which I have not found anywhere so far.

Any tips? Where are people buying their shotgun primers?
 
If you are trying to keep costs down, the best bet is to make the drive down to Ancaster/Caledonia to pick up what you need in quantity from either Hummason or Lawry (or both).

To make it worthwhile, I wouldn't look at anything less than a sleeve (5000) of primers or a case (5000) of wads. Buy your powder in as big a container as you can get ( 8 or 10 lb)
and as much shot as you can carry. A little math suggests you should be able to get 388 - 1 oz. loads out of an 11 kg. bag of shot, so why not get enough to do a similar amount of reloads to match your primer/wad purchase ? i.e. 13 bags of shot ... (143 kg / 315 lbs. ) For powder, 2 - 8 lb. kegs will load about 5600 ( 20.0 gr.) target loads.

Generally speaking, Cheddite primers, Claybuster wads and Alliant "Promo" powder are the least expensive components for 12 ga. target loads.
I've found Claybuster & Promo to work very well for me, but prefer Winchester primers.

Buying shot by the bag, powder by the pound and primers & wads in quantities of 1000 or less will not save you much at all. At the end of the day, even if you have a considerable
quantity of once-fired hulls, reloading 12 ga. target loads is nearly the same cost as buying factory promo loads like Remington Gun Clubs. Certainly there are savings to be
had for 28 ga. & 410 however. On the other hand, reloading is a very satisfying pastime, one which I've enjoyed for the past 45 years.
 
I'm right there with you Beretta Boy. My plan is to buy in quantity from Hummason's and Lawry (if needed). So far it seems you are quite correct on buying from those two vendors as they have the best prices all around. My spreadsheet tells me I shot exactly 2900 rounds last year (all guns - 2333 in the 20 gauge alone) and this year I anticipate around 3500. My plan is to buy a sleeve of primers and a case of wads once I determine what I like. I shoot a 20 and a 16 gauge so I have been looking at 20/28 and Unique. I ordered a 1 lb. of each to see what I like more. I realise that the 20/28 doesn't load for 16 gauge so it's more likely that I will be going with Unique in 8 lbs. kegs. I also bought 500 CB1078-20 and 500 CB1075-20 wads to try out. In the 20 gauge I will be loading 3/4 or 7/8 oz. loads which yields 457 to 533 loads per 25 lbs. bag. Realistically it might be a bit less per 25 lbs. bag less but that's straight math from 400 oz. per bag.

I'm finding that Gun Clubs and Federal are going for between $62 to $70 per 250 locally depending on where I go and who has stock. I've recently picked up some at Le Baron for $63.71 on sale, I don't know what the cost are normally there.

It would be nice to be able to load Promo due to price but from what I can tell its not safe to load in sub gauges.

Oh and I have heaps of 20 gauge hulls in both Gun Club and Federal. I have saved every single one I could. I also have all the 16 gauge hulls.
 
Last edited:
beretta boy said:
Generally speaking, Cheddite primers, Claybuster wads and Alliant "Promo" powder are the least expensive components for 12 ga. target loads.
I've found Claybuster & Promo to work very well for me, but prefer Winchester primers.
Click to expand...

I use Promo for several different handgun calibres as well. Tough to beat the price and duplicates Red Dot ballistics but unfortunately like most Alliant powders it is just about impossible to get right now.
 
Cintax said:
...In the 20 gauge I will be loading 3/4 or 7/8 oz. loads which yields 457 to 533 loads per 25 lbs. bag. Realistically it might be a bit less per 25 lbs. bag less but that's straight math from 400 oz. per bag....
Click to expand...

Small adjust required ... Hummason changed to 11 Kg. bags of shot years ago ... so 24.25 lbs or 388 ounces. 3/4 oz. loads = 517 7/8 oz. loads = 517 .

Unique was quite popular for the 20 gauge, and I used to use a fair bit of it for 44 Mag handgun target loads, but I found Winchester Super Field (WSF) more to my liking
for the 20 ga, as I had for years used it's forerunner - 473AA . There are a number of loads published for both 16 and 20 target loads using WSF. You might work out which
is the most economical to buy in bulk.
 
Are those 11 kg bags marked as such? The bags I have are marked 25 lbs with no metric markings on the bag.

I know a guy who loads WSF and likes it. I am going to try the powder I bought and go from there. Just based on the website data it looks like WSF will need 1 to 1.5 gr more per shell and it is more expensive than the Unique.
 
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