LiveLife
Member
During my 30 years of reloading, I have seen several component shortage cycles; and we are in yet another component shortage.
So let's face reality and admit that component shortages are simple fact of life and if you reload, you must be prepared to survive future component shortages.
For this thread, let's not discuss what causes shortages and consider that primer manufacturers continue to produce at 100% production capacity and focus on supply/demand cycles.
Recent component shortages peaked in 2009 and 2013. And looks like current component shortage peak was in late 2020 through 2021 with signs of recovery showing in late 2021 (New "Where are reloading components available ..." thread now requires retailer/vendor links without discussion) - https://www.thehighroad.org/index.p...not-a-discussion-thread-link-required.883031/
In previous component shortages, particularly SP primers became first items to go out of stock followed by popular powders and these became "out of stock" or quickly sold out as they came back in stock at higher prices for about a year or two before shortage gradually improved over several months to year(s). So you would need to "prepare/stock up" roughly about 3-5 years worth of components to "ride out" non-availability or higher price phases of the shortage cycles.
So these are "preparation" steps to use to "survive" component shortages:
Be prepared.
So let's face reality and admit that component shortages are simple fact of life and if you reload, you must be prepared to survive future component shortages.
For this thread, let's not discuss what causes shortages and consider that primer manufacturers continue to produce at 100% production capacity and focus on supply/demand cycles.
Recent component shortages peaked in 2009 and 2013. And looks like current component shortage peak was in late 2020 through 2021 with signs of recovery showing in late 2021 (New "Where are reloading components available ..." thread now requires retailer/vendor links without discussion) - https://www.thehighroad.org/index.p...not-a-discussion-thread-link-required.883031/
In previous component shortages, particularly SP primers became first items to go out of stock followed by popular powders and these became "out of stock" or quickly sold out as they came back in stock at higher prices for about a year or two before shortage gradually improved over several months to year(s). So you would need to "prepare/stock up" roughly about 3-5 years worth of components to "ride out" non-availability or higher price phases of the shortage cycles.
So these are "preparation" steps to use to "survive" component shortages:
- To determine how much you need to stock up, figure out your monthly shooting average and multiply by 12 to get annual usage. Then multiply 3 to 5 times to determine your "stock up" amount.
- Based on your annual shooting amount, calculate how much money is required and divide by 12 to establish your monthly "reloading budget".
- Put money aside and consider adding money from working overtime, selling unneeded items and tax refunds to your "reloading fund" to use when components become available at lower prices, especially on sale or to get higher volume discounts.
- Consider adding 22LR shooting options like CMMG 22LR conversion bolt for ARs and Advantage Arms 22LR slide kit for Glocks along with 22LR pistols/rifles to shoot cheaper 22LR to conserve reloading components during shortages and for cheaper shooting drills/training.
- Once you reached your "stock up" quantities, you can consider buying additional items (especially when you see great sales/low prices) like SP primers to use as barter items or to help out other reloaders caught short during future shortages. (You have no idea what people were willing to trade for my SP primers this past year ... Unbelievable)
Be prepared.