Someone please speak to this and tell me I am dead fucking wrong. I recently spoke to the owner of a very reputable LGS...He sells tremendous amounts of Hodgdon powder, bullets, brass, etc.
He said...
Federal, CCI, and Winchester, are the only companies still able to produce primers (mostly vista Outdoors). They are keeping most in house for their own manufacturing. The rest of what they can afford to out source is going straight to Hornady who does not manufacture their own primers in order to keep Hornady alive.
All the other 12-13 smaller ammo manufactures such as Fort Scott Munitions, Black Hills, PMC, Lake City etc. are about to be inadvertently suffocated in the next few months due to primer shortages.
Can anyone speak to this? Hoping I am a victim of pure speculation and paranoia
I have no evidence, but what you were told makes perfect sense from a business point of view. Those who produce primers and ammunition must feed their own ammo production because ammo is more profitable that components (it has move value added and a larger market).
And you know what, nobody can blame the ammo companies for making these decisions to feed themselves with primers before selling them at retail. Anything else would be immensely irresponsible for an ongoing business concern. Anyone who doesn't understand that needs a serious education into running a business.
There are some errors in your information though.
PMC is a Korean ammo manufacturer and it is very possible that they make their own primers so it's unlikely they'll be affected. Same goes for other non-US ammo makers who also produce their own primers: Fiocchi, Lapua, Norma/RWS/Geco/Rottweil (all part of the RUAG group), Sellier & Bellot, and possibly others I'm not familiar with. All of them have their own primer manufacturing so they should be fine.
Winchester Ammunition is owned by the Olin Corporation, not by Vista Outdoors. Winchester's primer production is independent of Federal and CCI.
Lake City is a government ammo plant operated by Olin Corporation, I seriously doubt they'll run out of primers.