Die set production...why a shortage?

S

Swampman1

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A comment about the "shortage". I understand the scare a few months ago, caused people to make a massive run on ammo, thus the manufacturers can't keep up with demand. I understand the same scare causes alot of people to go into reloading, thus causing another shortage in components. But can somebody please help me understand why Hornady die sets would have a backorder date, postponed for a second time(I've had these die sets ordered since April). This is the third "expected due date" I've faced since original order. Not trying to pick on Hornady, but they're part of my situation. OK here's my delema. Hornady is a pretty sizable company. They have a factory that builds there dies sets. They aren't building for example, 1 resizing die at a time...I would think they process perhaps dozens of this particular die in one step? So in a day's time, how many could they put out? I guess what I'm getting at is, I can understand ammo manufacturers being in full production, and not keeping up with demand. Alot of people reordering(hoarding). But when a person buys a die set...that's for life...he won't be reordering. How can there be THAT much demand on die sets to where a company would be in a triple backorder situation? It just doesn't make sense to me.
 
You did a masterful job of answering your own question: "I understand the scare a few months ago, caused people to make a massive run on ammo, thus the manufacturers can't keep up with demand." This is pretty much true of everything firearm related.

Aside from your own answer, I suspect Hornady will be the best source for your specify question. You might try an email to their Customer Service if you ordered directly from Hornady,
 
Manufacturers set up production schedules way ahead of time. Retooling for another product costs time and money, so many times, a manufacturer will run an entire year's worth of product at one time - based on past history, Since past history most likely includes PRE panic sales data, sometimes certain products may be short on supply.
Since many makers also practice JIT delivery of components/materials well in advance as well, they may not be able to readjust their scheduling without a lot of hassle
 
You did a masterful job of answering your own question: "I understand the scare a few months ago, caused people to make a massive run on ammo, thus the manufacturers can't keep up with demand." This is pretty much true of everything firearm related.
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And you did a masterful job at missing my point all together. Thanks for trying tho.
 
Pretty much every competent reloading press is rather difficult to find sitting on the shelf (I got lucky and grabbed a Dillon RL550B from Graf's a couple weeks ago). Components are still "catch as catch can."

There's a whole ton of people clamoring for reloading gear and components. Dies in popular calibers are hard to come by for that reason. And as you point out, they aren't the kind of thing you repurchase every so often- one die set will keep you for life (usually). So there isn't much point in adding capacity; it's just going to sit idle once things get caught up.
 
Manufacturers set up production schedules way ahead of time. Retooling for another product costs time and money, so many times, a manufacturer will run an entire year's worth of product at one time - based on past history, Since past history most likely includes PRE panic sales data, sometimes certain products may be short on supply
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And you nailed it! Now I have a better understanding of how manufacturing schedules work. Makes more sense now, thanks.
 
I have been trying to get a 4 die set of Lee 40 S&W dies for several months with no luck. Most of the big retailers gave me a date that the die sets will be back in stock and when the date arrived, they still didn't have it. I called up Lee precision dies main number and talked to a person in production and they said they are sending out trucks every day to all their venders with die sets. I told the person about my lack of success in finding ANY vender with the die set and asked for a name of ANY vender that had been sent a Lee Deluxe 40 S&W die set and she stopped returning my emails. I wish I knew where they were going. I do know ebay and gunbroker has them for sale by many private scalpers, but that's not in my budget.
 
No such thing as scalpers - if someone is willing to pay their price, then their price is fair. You might try getting on a back-order list on several online places and cancel the rest once you get one in.
 
Hi Big D! I understand what you are saying, you have a point, but when people buy up Ammo, dies, event tickets and many other things with the sole intent of reselling them later at high prices, they are called scalpers. Go to any big sporting event or large concert that is sold out and you will see people trying to sell you tickets. These people are called scalpers. They do exist. I have seen them many times. Check it out in any dictionary.
 
as far as primers, we have a local gun shop that has CCI 400 primers and he is rationing sales to 3 packs of 100 for 5.99 each. That comes to 60.00 per 1000. I call that scalping. Other gun shops are selling them for 40.00 per 1000 and there is one shop still selling them for 32.00 per 1000 when they have them.
 
as far as primers, we have a local gun shop that has CCI 400 primers and he is rationing sales to 3 packs of 100 for 5.99 each. That comes to 60.00 per 1000. I call that scalping. Other gun shops are selling them for 40.00 per 1000 and there is one shop still selling them for 32.00 per 1000 when they have them.
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Sorry, you are free to choose to spend your money or not. The last 6 months everyone called it gouging, now it's scalping - Here'sa video about that issue worth watching.
 
Wonder how much of the reloading gear is being bought by people who will never use it.
Like the folks who bought ammo for guns they don't have.
Panic buying makes weird and strange things happen in the market place.
If it weren't aggravating, it would be entertaining.
 
Wonder how much of the reloading gear is being bought by people who will never use it.
Like the folks who bought ammo for guns they don't have.
Panic buying makes weird and strange things happen in the market place.
If it weren't aggravating, it would be entertaining.
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Or the folks who bought guns they had no intention of using. Instead, they were expecting some kind of a ban so they could cash in (forgetting that any future legislation may not allow transfers as previous incarnations did).

Those folks are beginning to catch it in the shorts. The AR/other Evil Black Rifle market has come back to something approximating normalcy. Ammo is beginning to. Reloading equipment and components aren't there yet but will eventually get there.

Some folks are going to end up sitting on huge caches of .22LR they bought at $50/brick planning to sell them for double that. Or on components they'll never use.
 
Ever think of buying Lee dies?
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Actually I am thinking about going with Lee dies. Although I'm not sure their availability is any better than Hornady right now. 9mm in anything has been difficult.
 
I began looking for a set of 9mm Luger dies several months ago, and everybody was out, and backordered. After weeks of frustration I picked a couple of dealers and started checking their websites several times a day.

One day I checked Cabela's, who had been out for forever, and they listed them "in stock". And at a reasonable price. I ordered them immediately, and got an order confirmation.

Two hours later I checked their website again, and they were "out of stock".
You just have to be persistent.

Walter
 
The lee dies are out of stock at midway as well. I ordered a 4 die set on back order and the date has been pushed back three times as well.
 
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