Ammo shopping etiquette in this day in age

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Mars5l

Mars5l

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I know I've seen mention of it and I practice it myself, but who here when you're out ammo shopping and you see a small stack of ammo you need. Do you take it all and say "better luck next time" or leave 1 or 2 on the shelf for the next person? I for the most part leave some behind and sometimes I've been lucky to get the last box myself
 
Mars5l said:
I know I've seen mention of it and I practice it myself, but who here when you're out ammo shopping and you see a small stack of ammo you need. Do you take it all and say "better luck next time" or leave 1 or 2 on the shelf for the next person? I for the most part leave some behind and sometimes I've been lucky to get the last box myself
Click to expand...


It all depends on my needs at that time but yes I’d like to say I do try to leave some for the next guy!
 
I get what I want, when I want it. I do not panic buy or horde though.

I have bought more than 25,000 rounds of a specific lot of .22 LR ammunition but it wasn’t because anyone else wanted or needed it.

I have walked by shelves will ammunition others were seeking. Even called a few folks to tell them or purchase for them. Also loaned out components so fellow shooter could still compete when supply’s ran thin, because of “panic” buyers, filling up their credit card with ammunition that will still not be fired well after they have paid enough interest on the principal to have bought three times the amount of ammunition, that’s already back on the shelves before they get it paid off.
 
Apparently a lot people believe in " better luck next time" because selves are bare , did see couple boxes .30 cal . I would probably buy only what I needed.
 
Depends. These days, I Rarely need to go t the store to buy ammo just to hit the range. I will only buy range ammo when cheap and plentiful. Most of my ammo is bought online.

biggest exceptions are 7MM, 12 gauge and .22

I buy my clay target rounds mostly during dove season when cases are stacked high on pallets in the store. I buy 7MM if I see it on sale at a good price, and then just a couple boxes (I don’t shoot it much). And .22’s...when bricks are cheap I’ll buy a few.
 
I buy a ton online and as much as the LGS / range will let me, they portion it out based on their supply. I always end up with more ammo in a month than I started with. Been doing that ever since the great shortage.
 
When I was at Sportsman's Guide they had a 'blue light special' on 125 rds. of Remington '0' Buck in a .30 cal can for $2.99. When I got to the front of the line, there were 9 left, and one guy behind me. I bought 5 and left him 4. We both went away happy, and I still have most of mine, minus 1 can I gave to my Dad, and 1/2 a can my son has shot over the years.
 
Been buying mail order since shortly after they deemed us mere mortals good enough to buy this way :D
Used mail order by calling, then later fax machine. When on line got going good started using that. Having seen many "shortages" I long ago learned to just not get caught. When Wally first came to town here I did often buy .22 ammo from them if I was there anyway. Used to be fun to watch the confused look on the clerks face when the register would start to ask questions. If they froze up I would say "yes it's for a hand gun and yes I am over 21." :cool:
 
Mars5l said:
I know I've seen mention of it and I practice it myself, but who here when you're out ammo shopping and you see a small stack of ammo you need. Do you take it all and say "better luck next time" or leave 1 or 2 on the shelf for the next person? I for the most part leave some behind and sometimes I've been lucky to get the last box myself
Click to expand...

Wife and I were often getting a real laugh out of the panic shopping. Would see people at the store empty the shelves of all kinds of stuff. One woman filling a cart with bags of flour, every bag on the shelf. Another with an entire cart of jars of peanut butter.
Ammo is no different. When a panic starts people will empty the shelves. What is sad to see is people who have lived through multiple panic shortages, when shelves fill up they again forget all about it. Until the next one and they are yet again scramblingo_O
 
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If you're buying the last one of something, and you don't really need it. You might be an a bleep if …
 
I buy what I'm going to use plus one usually.
Lately I've been so stocked on everything that I just buy random handgun ammo or components.
I definitely don't clear the shelves. That just feeds the frenzy and we get stupid prices as a result.
In hindsight. I should have gotten more cases of that Aguila 556 ammo. It was great. Now I'm stuck reloading blasting ammo again. I won't run out of components though.
 
I buy in quantity when the prices are good. That generally precludes me from buying ammo when the supply is low because prices are usually bad in that situation but there have been some unusual circumstances where I needed a box of an odd caliber (not one I keep a good stock of) during a panic.

For those situations, my rule is that I will not take any more than I need and even if I can't get all I need, I won't clean the shelf. I will not take the last box of a given caliber off the shelf. That's what freaks people out--seeing that there is absolutely no more X on the shelf. Even if they weren't concerned before, now they will be. Sort of like the stupid TP thing we just went through. It wasn't that there was really a shortage, it's just that a few knuckleheads went and cleaned off the shelves, and now even the reasonable people start wondering just when they're going to be able to restock on TP when they run out. So they go to the next store and if there's some there, they maybe buy a little more than they need because of the induced uncertainty--if there's none there, then they go to the next store and buy all they can because now it seems very urgent.

It doesn't take much to freak people out. I don't want to be part of the problem.
 
If I am there to buy 3 boxes and there are 3 left I buy em all, if more then I buy what I went in after.

I dont get to concerned about buying the last one...somebody is going to..may aswell be me if I want/need it.
 
if I go in looking for 200 rounds [four boxes] of … and find it, I consider myself lucky, even if its the last four boxes on the shelf.
 
I buy cheap. I don't reload anymore so inexpensive is my driver. Just bought 200 30-30 rounds and the site indicated I bought the last in stock. Well...if it was on sale, wouldn't I be expected to do that? I mean, the vendor's point was to make that happen. I n my book, hoarding is one issue and smart shopping is another.
 
I generally don't wait til it's raining to shop for umbrellas. If I go out to shoot I will generally buy some to replace what I use, if it's in stock. Most of the stores here have a limit so it's irrelevant (not like I could clean 'em out) but I'm not going to make the shortages worse by hoarding it. Especially since I keep a reasonable stock level at home.
 
I will always leave some for someone else unless there are only a couple of boxes, but even then I ask myself if I need all 2 or 3 of them.

I do believe, in regards to the general public, that I am in a minority.
 
I guess it really depends on my needs. I won't buy anything I won't use just because it's there. I could have bought up to 4 boxes of Federal 9mm for $11.99 a box the other day. They had 7 boxes. I don't own 9mm so I didn't buy any. If something is dirt cheap and I know I'll use it, I'll buy as much as I can. Ammo, bug spray at the end of summer, wool socks at the end of winter...
 
Mars5l said:
I know I've seen mention of it and I practice it myself, but who here when you're out ammo shopping and you see a small stack of ammo you need. Do you take it all and say "better luck next time" or leave 1 or 2 on the shelf for the next person? I for the most part leave some behind and sometimes I've been lucky to get the last box myself
Click to expand...
The places around here all have a limit on how many you can buy..
 
I can't reasonably afford the cost per round of single boxes, so I tend to buy by the case online. I don't have a moral judgement of this as a buying practice either way.
 
If I'm looking for ammo online and want 10 boxes of whatever and there are 11 in stock, I'm not buying the last one just because.
 
If I see ammo on the shelves when I'm out shopping, I'll buy a couple boxes just because. I'll even buy ammo in calibers I don't own guns in ... because then I feel good giving my friends a couple boxes as impromptu gifts. But even if it were a caliber I was getting short on (like that'll ever happen), I don't think I'd take it all.

Ordering on the internet is another story. I'll buy cases for a rainy day, because the suppliers I buy from I know re-stock very quickly, no guilt there.
 
I ALWAYS, no matter what the situation is, take no more than half of what’s there because I’ve often been on the receiving end of not being able to find ammo. Plus, I never shoot out of stock so I always have ammo on hand and thus don’t desperately need any, ever. If more people operated this way ammo would be consistently much easier to find.

I also don’t like a ton of clutter and at a certain point boxes and boxes of ammo just become clutter, if I’m not going to use it within a few weeks there’s not much point in me buying more than what I always keep on hand.
 
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