Ammo Can Shortage - The Root Of The Problem.

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Phydeaux642

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I stopped by my local Army surplus today to pick up a couple of ammo cans for the ammo that I do have on hand, and I was met with not much of a selection for me to choose from. What was there was really rusted and dented up pretty good.

This got me to thinking. Maybe people are rushing out and buying ammo cans. After buying the ammo cans they have to go buy ammo to store in the ammo cans. Then after they buy the ammo they have to go out and buy guns that use the ammo that they buy to store in the ammo cans. The rush on ammo cans must be the root of the problem.

(I apologize for taking up your time. I'm a little crazy due to lack of range time.:evil:)
 
What would you do if you got to Wal*Mart at the same time the ammo truck did?

Would you not load up?

Then why blame other folks for doing the same?
 
Multiple causes

-Many people not keeping a supply of ammo, only a box or two. (Kind of like needing to use an ATM machine cause you don't just get cash when the bank is open)
-People who have ammo and are uncertain about availability of ammo in the future
-Uncertainty over future ammo taxes and the result high demand will have on pricing, plus components (lead, copper, brass).
-People who are new to guns or are just now old enough to purchase entering the market. (less of a factor, but it has to happen sometime)
 
Hmmm...you should count yourself lucky. The "surplus store shortage" (say that three times fast!) has hit us pretty hard. I wish I had a place to go buy rusty used crap.

You'd think those cans would be everywhere with a couple o' wars on. I suppose it wouldn't make much sense to ship back the empties, though.
 
I used to have a side hobby of wheeling and dealing with ammo cans, I still have a bunch of big ones but I stopped selling the .50 and .30 cal cans when got down to around 50 of each. I have some big ones if that helps. But shipping will get ya. Try your local flea markets and antique shops there are usually some there.

I think some of the cans dried up because the scrap dealers were buying them by the ton to sell for scrap metal over the summer, and then there was the election.....enough said.
 
There's still some at my surplus store.

Every time I'm around the area while it's open, I've been meaning to stop in and grab another .308 can, maybe a .50. Last time, I even spotted a can, .50 size but labeled for .30-06. How old would that be?

Anyway, the store doesn't just get a weekly shipment of them--they get more when they're running out. So it could be the supply is just short with the war, or delayed, or simply shifted; I saw a booth made of them at the last gun show!

Me, I love the things, and not just for ammo. My machine tools, that I don't want rusting, closet storage, my pipe tobacco jars, you name it.

Been meaning to get a big one (like grenade-crate sized) once I own a little property, put in a couple cheap guns, ammo, reloading dies for them, some long-life canned food, and bury it.
 
"If we couldn't laugh we would all go insane."
Jimmy Buffet
Click to expand...

"If you hadn't written that one stupid song, I'd have spent more time laughing in bars and less time annoyed, glaring at the jerk with the acoustic guitar playing it in the corner."
-Me
 
Would you not load up?

Then why blame other folks for doing the same?
Click to expand...

Uh, no I wouldn't. But that doesn't mean I disagree with your right to do that. Unfortunately, it sometimes sends a bad signal as to what gun owners are all about. Let me give you an example - within the last couple of months, I have recruited two of my casual friends to own and enjoy guns. To give them an opportunity to learn a little about the gun culture, I shared with them the names of the gun forums that I enjoy and occasionally participate.

The results were mixed:

The first recruited person is now an enthusiastic gun owner. He has plans to get his HCP and is also enthusiastically stocking up on ammo. Rather than being a "mall ninja", I would classify him (if I can coin the phrase) more like a "mall survivalist" - meaning that he talks the talk, but would have about as much chance of survival in a hell-world as a Beverly Hills miniature poodle.

The other individual has gone the opposite way. I asked him how his gun knowledge was progressing and here is his answer: "You know, I have read through the forums you recommended and, don't take it personally, but I have decided. If I have to choose sides between your group of 'castle and moat builders' that say looking out for number 1 is the ultimate goal and the purpose for owning guns and buying huge ammounts of ammunition versus the other side that, while somewhat socialist, at least are joined together in a common purpose? I hate to say it, but I honestly believe my family would be much safer with Obama's group than with your castle kings."

I know there are many flaws in his logic, but you gotta admit that sometimes we don't exactly evoke feelings of group purpose when we brag about buying up all the ammunition that Wally World had today or saying things like 'I got mine - you shoulda been smarter and got there first'.

If your family had two remote islands on which to escape a hell-world situation and one of the islands was a naive but well organized socialist society and the other was made up of individuals with a creed of "me first, always", which would you choose?
 
My local Mills Fleet Farm had hundreds of .50 cal. cans about a month ago. They now have none. They also are out of .223 and 7.62 Russian ammo.
Rmfcasey
 
If your family had two remote islands on which to escape a hell-world situation and one of the islands was a naive but well organized socialist society and the other was made up of individuals with a creed of "me first, always", which would you choose?
Click to expand...

It would be a very interesting experiment.

I'd guess that the "me firsts" would learn to cooperate and share skills in order to survive, and most of the "socialists" would eventually get better at looking out for No. 1 for the same reason.

After a few internal bloodbaths, the two islands might evolve into quite similar oligarchies. In a survival situation, natural leaders always seem to rise to the surface.

As far as the ammo cans, I was at a local gun show last weekend and a guy had a trailer jam-packed with all sizes of surplus cans, most in fair to good shape. He was selling them at half the price of the mail-order catalogs and Army-Navy stores.

Tinpig
 
I only saw two people with ammo cans at this weekends gun show, but it WAS a fairly small one.
 
If your family had two remote islands on which to escape a hell-world situation and one of the islands was a naive but well organized socialist society and the other was made up of individuals with a creed of "me first, always", which would you choose?
Click to expand...

I'm taking over BOTH islands....






.... and tommorow, the WORLD! Bwahahahahahahahahahaha!
 
Some day you can all entertain your grandkids about the terrible affects here at home of our country being at war....a shortage of military surplus gear.
 
Would you want a group of individuals who struggle for the survival of your group as a whole on a normal level, or would you rather be with the group of individuals who are all equally capable of managing and refining their own survival... very well... and has time for everything else, too, so as to live up to the expectations one places on himself when the alternative is quite clear, and quite unsatisfactory?


Me, personally, i'd rather have an island with people who, were I not there, would be just as fine as they are now that I am there.

Or, in other words, if one of these people survived and nobody else did, yes indeed, the last person on earth, he could continue to survive in this instance.



take this scenario.. A giant bear enters the camp.. Do you want your compatriots saying 'what do we do?" and the obvious path from there is analysis, planning, coordination, and execution of the plan to kill the giant bear...

or would it be a better circumstance if a giant bear entered your camp, and you knew exactly what needed to be done..

DINNER RIGHT THERE! Don't even have to drag it. And everyone else in the camp is thinking the same thing.
 
Ammo cans....I have lots of them now, found a guy selling them cheap. But most of mine are just full of air at the moment. I really need to get after the reloading, got everything I need except a decent bench and work area.
 
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