What have we learned over the past 10 years?

I learned that it’s better to shoot the guns you love based on your enjoyment of them than it is to shoot guns based on reputations, opinions and attributes. Love my single shot!

I have been stocking up slowly but surely on .22, .223/5.56 and 9mm. It seems foreseeable that ammo prices could start climbing. Also, I see that as some have said I should have maybe spent more on ammo and acquired a few less firearms in the past few years .

We've learned nothing is new. This round of .22 lr shortage is the third one I've lived through. The primer and powder shortage is the second one.

I've learned to buy it when it's available and stack it deep.

I learned that prices stay the same or even drop for black powder stuff when everyone suddenly feels the need to pay the highest price they possibly can for AR-15.

I got back into shooting a few years ago, during one of the droughts. I've been stocking up while everything can be found in abundance and prices are low. The firearms industry is not unlike the commodity markets, with prices rising and falling. It's smart to buy what you can while prices are this low.

There always seem to be bigger fish to fry. I'd really like to buy in bulk but can't justify the cost or amount of storage space....

The 2013-2014 drought must not have been as bad as I thought. I've been going through my old ammunition stores, trying to find and shoot the old stuff (I recently found rounds loaded in 2009). I managed to shoot quite a bit then, but I also managed to load and stock pile a lot of ammunition. I think part of the reason was that I was prepared, at least a little for the dry times. I still pick up a box of ammunition or some components even though I really don't want to spend the money.

Thanks for the reminder though.

Robert said:

Seriously, answer the question as posed by the OP...why is this so hard.

Click to expand...

I don’t know maybe 12 or so “?”.

I guess in short I don’t do anything I didn’t do before Clinton’s AWB, I just have more means to acquire now.

I guess could dream about how I would go back in time and form 1 a kazillion FA lowers...

With .22LR ammo at 4¢ a round, buy as much as you can afford and store properly. The day will come when it triples or quadruples in cost and it's a good commodity to have. It may take decades but it should easily out pace inflation. Look at it like a 401k plan.

Great question from the OP. I didn't purchase any .22 ammo when it got scarce in the panic buying. It was an easy decision to make, I WAS NOT GOING TO PAY three to ten times what it was worth! (I am still having a quiet chuckle at the people that willingly paid ridiculous amounts and hoarded a lifetime inventory! now I see some lamenting that they paid 60 dollars for ammo that can now be had for 2 -3 dollars! Same for many of the overpriced firearms that were purchased in that same period ..
. During the shortage, I just quite shooting .22's and continued to shoot my heavy duty calibers. I was able to carry on at my normal levels of shooting and continued to purchase conservative amounts of powder and primers. My LGS who has supplied me for years would actually call me and ask if I needed powder or primers as I only took what I needed. He told me later that he knew what I shot and would rather see it used than hoarded. So my shooting during the period of acute shortage was unaffected. I shoot well over 1500 rounds a month.
Now to the OP's question. What to do? Well I definitely don't recommend buying much more than you need,instead buy a little extra as a backup and keep your inventory at a level that "you" determine is adequate. I have increased my inventories moderately and have actually increased the amount of time spent at the range. On each range trip, I am usually able to pick up lots of once fired brass. It gets loaded up and put in to my collection, the stock gets rotated and remains fresh. I keep a years worth of primers and powder on hand and replace only as used.
I fully believe that if we have another period like 2012 I can survive it quite well. I shoot because I love to target shoot. A normal range trip usually eats up around 3 to 400 rounds of various calibers. If things get really tight I could easily cut back and still maintain my shooting skills and accuracy.
Lets hope for two things: First, there is no catastrophic event that causes another major shortage and Two, if we do find ourselves in a period of shortage, lets hope the hoarders still have most of their panic purchased inventory on hand! I am sure many do as there was post after post from individuals boasting they had 10 plus years on hand. Many, by their own admission spent cash that was needed for other household expenses etc.
I am sure this posting will he hit by negative flack but I am OK with that,
On a final note, I have 4 very nice .22's but since the 2012 fiasco, they haven't seen much more than a couple hundred rounds each down the barrel! I use them now when I am introducing a new shooter to our wonderful hobby. After letting the new shooter try everything from the 22 up to the big Magnum, most of these new shooters wind up buying a 9 mm or larger as their first firearm, not the 22 they would have bought 10 years ago.
Happy Trails to all and many happy hours at the range or hunting as is your favorite.

Forgot to add that I have been through many panics going all the way back to the GC act of 1968! I am sure there will be more and yet if I go back to pre 1968, I have as many or more firearm freedoms as then. CC permits are very much easier to obtain I dont have to sign for ammunition. and we are gradually seeing recognised carry in so many states..

sirgilligan said:

With prices and supplies being the most reasonable I have seen in years what are you doing?

Click to expand...

Redefining 'deep', as in "stack it. . ." Also, I use alot less .22 than I used to.

I never ran low on anything--I always had a good stock of all my calibers--if 12000 22's is low I guess I was low.
Have a great new year.

I learned I should have started loading my own ammo much much sooner.

I've stocked up over the past few years, little by little, but by far the best thing I've done is start reloading. When 45 auto couldn't be had for love or money it would have been nice to just go out to the garage and roll my own. I didn't start until about 3 years ago. I have plenty of components on hand, and honestly need to shoot more, just to rotate the stock. But I enjoy reloading nearly as much as shooting, so my leisure time gets split...so what I really enjoy now is bringing new shooters out and introducing them to the sport

I have for years purchased rimfire ammo and components to reload whatever I own, slowly over time as a hedge against inflation and short supplies. I also have been through this stuff a time or three already. Now I always maintain at least a minimum of five years worth of current consumption to keep in reserve so this last "speed bump" did not affect me much at all. I did watch the shelves at the couple LGS I frequent as well as the nearby WM stores as the factory ammo disappeared. What I saw was that 40 S&W ammo stayed on the shelves far longer than any other handgun ammo. I already had combo dies and reloaded for 10MM anyway and had about 3K fired 40 CAL brass I had collected so I went ahead and purchased a couple 40 cal pistols just to have another option if need be. Also I noted that those "military calibers" that another poster mentioned went away quickly here too.
I keep components on hand and prep my brass well ahead of use but only load as needed so my supplies stay fluid if I change my habits over time. I also have a few 32 cal revolvers and went from shooting .22 ammo to .32 and lots of 38 SPL because of the light loads required instead of the powder hungry loads as required for many autoloaders to function. Don't get me wrong about having no .22 ammo as I have two 50 CAL ammo cans full of loose ammo that weigh so much I will not attempt to pick them up. Did not know how long that mess was going to last so I did conserve it mostly though. By the time things got stable I was down to three years of primers so now I have bumped up my stock of them as well. I also felt bad for those just starting out in that mess and helped them getting at least some ammo to shoot and teaching a bunch to reload.

I learned my lesson in the 90's. During the most recent unpleasantness I slowed my rate of shooting but never felt in a bind. Now I'm restocking powder, primers and .22 ammo at gradual pace. I have plenty of lead on hand in ingots.

If those who paid $60.00+ for 22 ammo had just held their horses, the scalpers would have folded in short order, prices, and availability would have returned to normal levels.

I learned my local barometer for all things ''gun related political'' is 110% correct. The barometer is....the local Walmart ammo counter. During any of the stated events, I went to the barometer and looked, and the forecast was near 100% accurate. Including elections.

The other thing I learned is that those ammo manufacturers who were the very source for my barometer didn't believe the barometer, even though one was available in the towns of their ammo plants. That is, the 2016 POTUS elections. They over produced in belief of the TV hosts, (L) News , that She was the CHoSen One, and produced so much ammo in expectations of a huuuge sale between elections and swearing in, but it all flopped.

Leading to some of the greatest prices on surplus stocks of warehoused ammo I think I've ever seen

1). I learned to reload. This corresponded with shooting a couple of times a year (hunting), to trying to shoot on a regular basis.
2). You don’t save money reloading.
3). Don’t take the availability of 22LR for granted.
4). A good walnut stock is a thing of beauty.
5). Practice makes a difference.

"What have you learned?

Simply refuse to panic.

"What would you have done differently?"

Nothing.

"What are you doing right now?"

Shooting a couple times each week.

[/QUOTE]

The last ammunition crisis was a manufactured panic aided and abetted by gun rights organizations, online ammunition sellers, political trash etc. People should refuse to play the panic game whenever folks with skin in the game scream "the sky is falling". i know a scalper who was selling .22 ammo at $50-60 per brick. Now he's stuck with hundreds of thousands of rounds he can't sell.

Learned my lesson in the 1990s, still have some primers from the "government will outlaw reloading" crisis.

i'm lucky to have a vast supply of ammunition mostly acquired decades ago. About 15 years ago i bought all the remaining reloading supplies from a local chain driven out of business by Chairman Mao Mart. Ain't stocking up for anything.

I learned that even I, one that resists manipulation could be manipulated into buying guns and accessories I really didn’t need. Lesson learned. Won’t happen again.

I learned that there is a fine line between stocking up and hoarding. No, I am not a hoarder, but I found I had acquaintances that spent weekends prowling for .22 lr when they already had 10’s of thousands of rounds socked away. 30,000 - 50,000 rounds. Weird...and they rarely shot their .22s.


What would I do differently? Other than not buy a couple of guns I didn’t need, not much. One thing I learned to do when things were scarce or perhaps artificially so, was ask myself “Why do you need this? What will this do that what you have won’t?” That usually dictated and would dictate my next actions.

Texas10mm said:

This round of .22 lr shortage is the third one I've lived through.

Click to expand...

Are you suggesting we are currently in a .22lr shortage?

Last 10 years? I started my CC journey in 09 so that’s what my gun interests has been.

I learned a lot about handguns and how to carry them, prior to 09 handguns were just carried on the homestead and it was more casual usage.

What I’ve learned, don’t buy into the doom stories, don’t pay $26.00 for WWB .380acp and while I feel better with a thousand rounds stashed reality is I can get by in a third of that.