building my reloading bench

im in the process of starting to reload. Ive been researching it for over a year and I have a decent understanding of the concepts. I finally bought a reloading manual and been researching specific loads i want to try. Now im starting to actually build a bench and making this finally happen but i can't find any components. I can't find any brass, can't find primers, the bullets i want are out of stock and most of all i can't seem to find powder anywhere. Its a little discouraging. It seems like i can probably piece together all the components if i A: overpay for everything and B: settle for second choice components. Should I bite the bullet and just overpay for stuff or do you guys think stuff will start coming back in stock soon enough?

It's a rough time to just be getting started and not have anything but it's getting better daily in my area atleast. I don't know a good answer to your question, I guess it depends how much extra you are over paying.

What are you looking for specifically component wise and for what caliber(s) and uses? This place is full of many knowledgable guys and we can probably piece something together to meet your needs with stuff that's pretty regularly available and will kill that critter or target effectively. Another thing to consider is some prices are just never going to be what they were 18 months ago. I paid $58otd for a brick of Federal Match 22 ammo today, a year ago I would have laughed in your face for that money but today it's not too bad. Not great, but better than a lot.

This is another reason I have an IMR4350 based load for every rifle I own because I never let myself get below 10lbs in stock so I can shoot a long time before I'm really in a bind.

Good luck!

I plan to reload 380 acp, 40s&w, .223 and 7mm08. I don't really care about the handguns as I have a ton of factory ammo on hand. 223 I want to start but I have plenty of brass and I found primers at bimart. I haven't checked bullets but I'm sure I can find something. Powder I'm not so sure about. 7mm08 on the other hand, I want to go for extreme accuracy. Only brass I can find is lake city 308 brass. I hear it can be good with some work. It seems reasonably priced so I'll probably go that route. I want to buy a heavy match barrel but for now I will be using the factory sporter barrel, I'm not sure how heavy of bullets I can go. I know I want to try at least a few different powders. Varget and 4350 are at the top of my list of powders to try.

If you're shopping at BiMart, you're in my neighborhood. Try starting here for some of your components http://www.northwestfirearms.com/reloading-classifieds/ and keep hitting BiMart, they get new stuff in every day.

Another good place to shop is the larger gun shows in your area. Do all your pricing on the i'net BEFORE you go to the shows, so you have a good idea of the reasonableness of their offerings. You also need to figure in your hazmat mailing costs on powder and primers before you get too worked up about the prices you see. The internet sellers will tell you what your Hazmat charges are going to be. Hazmat charges can be steep, and allowing your gun show dealers to foot those bills is sometimes a real good idea. If you have buddies that are reloaders, you may be able to work with them to do a "group buy," and thereby share the shipping costs.

I've been hitting up bimart and all I've been able to get is small rifle primers. They told me their shipments of reloading supplies come in on Wednesday and I checked and they didn't get anything at all. That kind of discouraged me. I guess I should just buy a lot of once fired brass and work on processing it and hope I can find the other components while I work on the brass