In this latest "panic buy," did you over pay? If 'yes,' why?

Yes. I overpaid twice for .308 hunting ammunition. Neither brand is preferred by my rifle.

Now, one of the big box stores in town has a brand of ammunition that my rifle likes. Less expensive and bonded. But I have to wait until I get paid to get it.

edited: I did it because having ammunition for elk season is really important, and I didn’t want to risk being 2 weeks away from the hunt and unable to find elk ammunition. I have no idea what availability will be this fall. Nevertheless I regret spending $140 on 4 boxes of ammunition.

I paid $70 per 1000 for SPP and SRP so that I would have enough to get me through the next few years. That only raised my price per round my 3.5 cents which seemed like a much better deal than paying 60 - 80 cents per round for factory 9mm and .223 if you could find it.

I bought 3 boxes of .270 for over $100, why? I needed a dedicated hog gun as I tired of the mess the 7 mag was making and i already had a scoped 270, but no 270 ammo, so I bought some.

Also much less practical, I paid $1,200 for a S&W 29-2. Very nice condition but no box papers, nothing, just the gun. Why?

I was making a lot of extra money because of COVID, I wanted a pinned model 29 worse than I wanted $1200 That’s about it.

I haven't purchased any ammo except a few small boxes of .22 while renewing my fishing license. As for firearms I paid a good/fair rate for a minty older Beretta 92fs Inox (all stainless controls w/ 8 mags) and a pretty decent S&W 28-2. I have seen cheaper but never in person or close to home so I made a stretch for them. Neither of those are likely to sell for less than I paid at any point in my life so I'm comfortable with the purchase.

I got into NRL22 just as the pandemic hit so I chose to buy a fair amount of higher end 22LR at prices that were probably over pre-pandemic prices. Thankfully the LFGS is a great sponsor of the local NRL22 group and has done his best to keep a small stash of the preferred brands squirrel away for the active NRL22 shooter and has done his best not to raise his prices any more than his suppliers were passing along.

Just last Thursday I was tempted, I really was, and I don’t know why. I was wandering through Sportsman’s Warehouse when I spotted a whole stack of 100-round boxes of Winchester .22LR “Power-Point” ammo - $11.99 a box. There wasn’t a sign saying, “limit - 2 boxes per customer” or anything. For that matter, there wasn’t even a lot of customers in the store at the time.
I don’t know what came over me. I mean, sure Winchester “Power-Point” .22LR has been my go-to .22LR hunting ammo for a long time. It functions well in most of my .22LR guns, it’s relatively accurate, and I think it “kills better” than a lot of other .22LR ammo. But those are all reasons why I’ve stayed stocked up on it - crisis or no crisis. So I don’t “need” it - not for $11.99 per 100 round box I don’t. Yet I was still tempted. I even picked a box of it up and fondled it for a minute or two, reading everything it said on it.
I guess it was just that I was a little bit overcome with happiness to see things becoming half-way “normal” again. It seemed like it’s been forever since I saw a stack of .22LR ammo on a store shelf, let alone a stack of one of my favorite .22LR ammos.

Orion8472 said:

So, when guns/ammo are hard to find, who has spent more than they should have for something? Why did you?

Click to expand...

I spent thousands on guns and ammunition over the past year and probably "overpaid" for most of it but to me everything I bought was worth it. I had not spent a dime on anything firearms-related in more than 20 years and then the riots started. I live in an upscale part of California and there was looting just a couple of miles from my house -- all of the merchants in my little town boarded up their shops and our police force was re-deployed to the riot-torn areas. That was one heckuva wake up call for me. I had been seriously into guns many years ago (when I was in the military and later when living in Montana) but drifted away from the hobby for various reasons. I suddenly realized I was under-prepared to deal with the growing civil unrest that was at my doorstep and that reawakened my inner Special Forces Weapons Sergeant -- I broke into my arms locker that had been in storage for many years, took an inventory of the remnants of my past life, and started rearming. While I quickly realized that most of the stuff I wanted was out of stock locally, I discovered a couple of trade channels that were still open and exploited them even though that meant I was going to have to pay somewhat of a premium. But it wasn't like I had anything better to do with my money, and it was actually fun getting reacquainted with Sig, Beretta, Smith, Glock, and a few new players (to me). I bought autoloading pistols, revolvers, shotguns, and long guns. All kinds of stuff. Ammunition was particularly a priority and I developed a rapport with the staff at the local Sportsmans Warehouse who would give me a heads-up when the weekly truck was due. I have slowed my purchases substantially and am now in "bargain hunting" mode on the local firearms classified board -- there are some decent deals starting to appear. On the plus side, I've hardly noticed any deficit on the balance sheet from all the purchases, mainly because the stock market has continued to go straight up so I"ve basically been converting the paper gains in stocks into firearms and ammunition. That's a pretty decent trade, seems to me.

So, after seeing this little Kel-Tec 22LR semiauto featured in The American Rifleman last year, I just HAD TO have one. Only $199.00 suggested retail but totally unavailable except at "auction" prices. For 6 months I bid and failed at various sellers and finally won this one for $354.00 out the door. Great Pistol, I would buy again in the low $300's.

0

DeepSouth said:

I bought 3 boxes of .270 for over $100, why? I needed a dedicated hog gun as I tired of the mess the 7 mag was making and i already had a scoped 270, but no 270 ammo, so I bought some.

Also much less practical, I paid $1,200 for a S&W 29-2. Very nice condition but no box papers, nothing, just the gun. Why?

I was making a lot of extra money because of COVID, I wanted a pinned model 29 worse than I wanted $1200 That’s about it.

Click to expand...

I just want to clarify, I did not “panic buy” I bought out of need and desire, their was no panicking involved.

I’d also say the things I wanted and passed on because it was overpriced is probably double digits.

I just bought a Carcano.
Some would say that I over paid, whatever the cost... .

$75 for 1000 primers and a couple pounds of powder. Just to top off. Dollar cost average.

I shoot center fire rifles quite a bit and the pandemic panic caught me off guard so I ran very low on large rifle primers. One of the gun clubs I belong to has a quarterly swap meet and a guy was there selling primers. I paid $150 for 1,000 primers that cost less than $50 previously. No primers, no shoot. Not a difficult decision, costly but didn't require much thought.

I purchased a new Maverick 88 Field/Security combo online for 100$ more then MSRP. The selling price was actually only 26 dollars (299.00 instead of 276.00) above MSRP but after taxes, shipping and handling, and the FFL fee I ended up paying 400$.
I decided to pay the extra cash because I needed a firearm for HD and the money I used was from Uncle Sam via the Wuflu. Furthermore, I wasn't sure how long the pandemic/civil unrest/general buffoonery would last and would rather pay 100$ more for a reliable firearm and never need to use it then be a cheapskate and not have a reliable firearm when I did need it.

I haven't bought anything this time around.
Of course I haven't been shooting much either, mostly .22lrs.

I've been wanting a S&W 340pd for years, but every time I found one, it either sold before I got to the dealer, or I wasn't in a spot financially to buy. It was my Holy Grail gun, and they are REALLY hard to find here.

While I was at work one day, my wife saw my email notification on my laptop about a 340pd just coming in from a local dealer. She called him and bought it immediately, and gave it to me as a surprise 25th anniversary gift. She paid full retail, and I don't care, because it was worth it. I will never sell or trade that gun.

sort of, but not really. I was highly motivated to pick up a rifle that shoots .223, get equipment to load 9mm and .223 - already do several others, and most of that stuff I overpaid based on pre pandemic prices, but - I wanted the stuff, so I got it. I'd been looking at the stuff for years, but - pandemic craziness pushed me to just make the purchases. I could have had a better price, certainly they will come down more, but - if you want something - you pay the going price or go without. I wanted this stuff to add to our tools for personal and home security - and some target shooting, but the purchase was a bit anxiety driven for sure.

I also purchased 2 .22LR pistols and two .22LR rifles, but - I paid normal consumer prices for those, they were not overly inflated, and for the same kind of reason, just wanted them for a long time, and decided to just get them. Going into the pandemic, things were a bit tough financially, but - I got a better job, and well - if you have a few bucks and some savings, all those wants can quickly become things you actually have and can hold in your hands.

Just paid 10 cents a round for a few K of .22LR rounds, and that is high for basic LRN standard velocoty. The actual expense of it will last for several range trips up to the property through this summer and fall, get a lot of fun targets shooting in, and decent practice. I already have ammo to do that, but at 10 cents a round, I'm fine with that - to keep a little extra stored. I don't necessarilly trust prices are going to come down more before they go back up again, so - a few months ago - I said at 10 cents a round I'll get some more. So, not really a panic buy on that one.

I did spend a big chunk of the taxpayers money on new weapons and ammo, much of it of the tactical variety- thanks Joe!

Except for the .380 it wasnt at panic prices, I actually found a few good deals on guns. But I definitely spent more in total than I would have if it weren't for the Biden Bux.....

e rex said:

No, I cleaned the guns and put them away until this BS is over.

Click to expand...

You sir........have way too much self control. I couldnt do it! I bought 2 pistols and a lot of ammo for more money than should be allowed, but I did get all that incentive money from the government, and I still have a full time job that was secure even during the pandemic.

I went overboard starting spring last year, easily into the 5 figure range, so yea I'm sure I did for at least 50% of it. I have 4 handguns in layaway right now

The way I see it, my panic buying was the summer of 2017. More thinking that I spent more than the budget allowed at that point but glad I topped off my supplies then. Seriously, you can never ever have too many primers and boxes of rimfire ammo.

Back in March I over paid for a new M&P 2 Sport. I finally found an AR that I wanted and I wasn't so sure if the Senate would fight any gun bills, so I figured it was finally time to get one

I was fully stocked for all the guns I owned...until I bought some new guns in calibers I didn't have. I got out of guns for about 7 years until last year. With all the craziness, I thought I better buy my first AR-15. I already had an AR-10, but no 223. So, I have been slowly buying ammo at prices less than $0.60 a round for good 223 ammo. I reload and I figure 223 ammo may never go below $0.40, so I bought dies and bullets at normal prices, but paid $130 for a thousand small rifle primers, which included all tax and shipping. Doing the math, this still will be cheaper than $0.40 a round and way more accurate.
Then, I bought a Carcano surplus, which I don't think was overpriced, but I did overpay for 60 rounds of Steinel ammo for it. But, then I bought 10 boxes of PPU at $13.99 a box, which is the l was really lucky to find. And I bought reloading supplies for it, all at normal prices, but had to wait for like 6 months before I could get everything.
Then, I figured CMP M1 Grands were going to disappear, so I bought a Special Rack grade, which is definitely not overpaying and a great deal. I didn't want to overpay for dies, so I bid on and got some old CH dies for less than $30 and I am reloading with all my old stock of components I had for 308. Very accurate rifle for not much investment.
And then, I bought a nice surplus Beretta 380 at great price. But, overpaid for 4 boxes of ammo, about $0.56 a round.
So, I don't feel like I really overpaid overall. If it is worth it to you, then you can feel you didn't overpay.