Ammo shopping etiquette in this day in age

Mars5l said:

To put it out there, im a Xennial. It's been mentioned in other threads but im also a new gun owner that picked that worse time to join the hobby. Im well stocked compared to a lot of my friends I shoot with but no where near the level as soon members on here.

I do just about every paycheck I plan to buy some boxes of whatever caliber I have even if I haven't really shot any of my own stock pile. Just a few boxes here and there.

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Good for you in learning to love shooting. It's of course just your bad luck to pick up the sport at a time when there is a panic going on. If you want to be ahead of most? When the stuff comes back, as it always does, don't forget what you see now. The VAST majority of people who are now scrambling and angry have lived through multiple panic shortages already. When they are over and the stuff is stacked in the isle at the store and online places have sales all the time they go to sleep. Until the next shortage and they are again in a spot. So when this one is over, no reason to break the bank, just keep buying some every time you have the chance. Stored well it will outlive you no matter how young you are. Next shortage you can enjoy the sport because you learned from the first shortage you saw.

Mars5l said:

To put it out there, im a Xennial. It's been mentioned in other threads but im also a new gun owner that picked that worse time to join the hobby. Im well stocked compared to a lot of my friends I shoot with but no where near the level as soon members on here.

I do just about every paycheck I plan to buy some boxes of whatever caliber I have even if I haven't really shot any of my own stock pile. Just a few boxes here and there.

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I’m about your age as well, welcome to the hobby!

Don’t worry about comparing yourself to others here, a lot of these guys have been shooting longer than we’ve been alive and have had a lot of time to accumulate their collections and ammo stores. Just keep plugging away and you’ll get there too.

As others have said though, this will pass.... and it will happen again. Sometimes the panic buys are short lived (a month or two) others they’re much longer. The best advice I can give is don’t assume the good times will last forever and make hay when the sun is shining. When it’s readily available, buy it cheap and stack it deep. Buy some ammo cans and desiccant packs and it will last years, decades even. If you find you don’t like shooting as much in the future you can always get your money back and then some if you buy right.

Best of luck!

Old Dog said:

all the previously anti-gun liberals who suddenly had the group epiphany that maybe, just maybe, with everything going, that they needed to own a firearm?

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I did try to qualify my comment by stating I don't often feel sympathy for stupid people. It'll take more than "ohhhh all this stuff going on. I gotta get a gun now" for me to feel like any of the formally anti-gun folks are now totally on our side. There are tons of people (some on this forum) who weren't brought up around guns. Somewhere along the way, intrigue got the better of them and now they're hooked. Some in early adulthood, some not until after they retired. If they've just recently gotten on board, then yeah...I feel bad for them and will do what I can to help keep them engaged, whether it's saving them some ammo, giving them ammo, or letting them shoot some of mine if they wanna head this way.

Mars5l said:

To put it out there, im a Xennial. ...

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Google is my friend, "There's a term for people born in the early '80s who don't feel like a millennial or a Gen Xer. Here's everything we know about it. Xennials are a "micro-generation" born between 1977 and 1985." OK, then.

I still don't know what a "Millennial" or "GenXer" is, but I just do not care enough (at all, actually) to look them up.

GBExpat said:

Google is my friend, "There's a term for people born in the early '80s who don't feel like a millennial or a Gen Xer. Here's everything we know about it. Xennials are a "micro-generation" born between 1977 and 1985." OK, then.

I still don't know what a "Millennial" or "GenXer" is, but I just do not care enough (at all, actually) to look them up.

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Then allow me to help

I shoot every week, and I'm neither panicking nor scrambling. And I do leave some on the shelves.
I helped out a person here and there during the 2012-17 weirdness and I've done so already during this SNAFU cycle.
I don't expect a cosmic reward, a pat on the back or a parade.
I do remember the gunners and club members and ROs and instructors over the years who helped me learn a new discipline or get better at an old one or up my own gunning or RO or instructor education or helped me find ammo during other bad cycles. Some people I met because of guns have become my dearest friends.
So I try to be an OK guy about it all and to show patience and even kindness to newbs or less experienced gunners. Heck, I just got into .22lr long-range precision games, and the guys there have been extremely generous with their time and encouragement, and I'm closer to 60 than 50.
Frankly, if there's a reward for being a "screw you, I got mine" sort of gunner, I'd just as soon not have it.

I cannot remember the last time I bought any ammunition or reloading components at a local store. In my parts, they just do not have squat and I'm not going to run around town looking for it.

I mostly buy components on line and I keep well inventoried so that I can weather any shortages.

I do not worry if I happen to clean out a vendor's inventory of a component that I need. If they do not have the quantity that I'd like to buy, I either go somewhere else or buy what I can. I'm not usually "hand-to-mouth" so I can wait a while to re-fill my inventories.

Waveski said:

And I thought I was cynical.

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I am only 28, just think how far ahead I am of life's curve.

I dislike this labeling of generations, in my youth I met plenty of "senior citizens" who were nothing but over aged brats,now, at age 70 I still keep meeting them.
The etiquette is set by the vendor, if they restrict the amount per purchaser because of limited supplies, reserving them for regulars, I have no problem with that.

I buy what I need, not what I want.

If I need 2 50 packs to go plinking and the shelf has 4 packs I pick up what I need (2)

Lucky me I am stocked up from when ammo wasn't so tough to find.

FWIW I also dont take the last piece of pizza

Um, I always will ... saves the women from feeling guilty.

Old Dog said:

Um, I always will ... saves the women from feeling guilty.

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Very wise ... and sen-si-tive, too.

I wasn't out looking for ammo but I spotted some 12ga 3in mag buckshot on the shelf. I took it all. Every bit. To the last box. As a matter of fact the only box. One box of 5 shells. The first I've seen in my town in several weeks. I think it got pushed back behind a stack of #8 shot and overlooked .

I started shooting as an adult shortly before the Obama shortages. Learned my lesson quickly. In the intervening years I took up reloading and casting, plus I bought a stock of supplies and ammo. Sad to see we are back to the days of $50 or more a brick of 22. Not that it is all that surprising given the events of the last 25 years, but it is tiresome.

Ah well. Being a caster and well stocked means that when my hunting buddy decided to get into reloading I could easily hand over a bunch of cast (even cast some bullets just for him as I don't have a 40), and when he could not find a poiund of H4895 I could just walk down to the basement and grab a pound for him.

Though I have a fair quantity of ammunition, I still check the store shelves regularly. When I hit it lucky, I take some and leave some. I don't care for the "I got mine, tough noogies to you" attitude. We were ALL oblivious to how messed up life was until life delivered us a wake-up call. (Mine was Ted Kennedy saying I was too irresponsible to own a gun, though I was certified to load nukes on fighter aircraft.) The current events are just their wake-up. We should be a bit more welcoming to the new gun owners instead of them dismissing us as selfish, callous jerks. We need more people on the side of RKBA.

I almost never buy ammunition, I virtually always buy components. And when I do that, I do it online. So I have no idea if I take the last box or not-- I order what I want, when I want it, and stud muffin the UPS man carries it for me.

GEM said:

Just as aside, when you move across country, you discover how much ammo you have. It just keeps coming out of the depths of your closets. I think it bred in there.

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It's interesting "rediscovering" ammo that you bought in high school, especially when your son will be starting high school next month.

I was 12 or so when I started hoarding ammo and 16 when Slick Willie got elected, which kicked everything into overdrive. I guess I am almost a "Xennial", being a 1976 kid...

I am well stocked with components, mostly shoot hand loaded ammo, and buy what I don't load in bulk online. I was taught courtesy as a youngster, to treat others as I would like to be treated. When buying anything, that generally translates into "Don't take the last last one unless it truly is the last one." If you see three on the shelf, take two. I suppose there might be exceptions (e.g., "I really need six, so I'll take all three), but generally speaking, I don't want to be "that guy" whose self-interest disadvantages a neighbor.

Other than boxes of defense ammo, I never buy ammunition at brick and mortar stores anymore. "Back in the day" though I do remember one specific time that I bought everything on the shelf that I could with no regard to other's needs. I was 20ish and poor and in college. Bass Pro had a drop pallet of Remington Game Loads in 20 ga on sale for $2.00 a box, limit of 10. A buddy and I went through the line and out to my truck 4 times with a flat each before that pallet was gone. And I have no regrets, that was dirt cheap and I was trying to pay my own way through school and it's not like ammo was scarce back in the early 2000's. Anyone in need of 20 ga loads that day could go down the street to Dick's and buy the same thing for about double the price.

It took a while to amass my stockpile,,,
But after the Obama shortage I learned my lesson.

I bought every box of my preferred 3 brands as often as my wallet allowed,,,
If I cleared the shelf in doing so I make no apologies.

I now have enough .22 ammo that I can have about 250 range sessions before I would run out,,,
Since I go shooting about 20 times a season I have a 12 year stock.

Honestly, at my age,,,
This might be a lifetime supply for me.

Now when I want to go shooting I just take 200 rounds off my shelf,,,
And immediately after start looking to replace what I took from my "bench stock".

So if I shoot 200 rounds that's all I will purchase when I find some again.

The only exception to that is for bulk plinking ammo,,,
I try and buy at least one 550 pack every month at Wal Mart,,,
I frequently re-sell it to friends who don't have the luxury of stocking up like I do.

Aarond

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Howland937 said:

I don't have a lot of sympathy toward stupidity and generally feel like people are a product of their own decisions. I do wonder though...for the "I've got mine, screw everyone else" crowd, how'd you get so prepared? How'd you know you needed to? Someone tell you? Did you get caught uprepared previously? There are a lot of people new to this life that maybe never had any guidance or any way to know these things happen. Hell, some people on here only found out recently that Walmart quit selling handgun ammo nearly a year ago. I have a hard time blaming people that don't know any better. Most all of us were one of those people at some point.

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Common sense, personal responsibility, "good rais'n", self reliance.

S&W620 said:

Crapping on an entire generation doesn’t seem very “High Road”, but to each their own I suppose.

It’s especially odd to hold young millennials and zoomer’s feet to the fire when many of them aren’t even old enough to have been involved in shooting and gun ownership (assuming they weren’t brought up in it) during the last panic or two.

Again, you do you, but when we’re looking for ways to increase participation in shooting in general, but particularly with younger folks, perhaps a more understanding approach would be helpful.

Now, older folks who’ve owned guns, been through shortages/panics and failed to prepare? Blast away, they’ve earned it.

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If facts make someone's feet hurt, it is their problem. Something they should have learned by the time they are old enough to own a gun.