Emergency ammo supply

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reloaded_in_pa said:
I've always kept what I called an emergency supply of ammunition for every gun I own ...
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I can remember thinking that way long ago. Then I found myself in a situation with disposable income and ready availability of inexpensive ammunition (mostly milsurp). :D That and my copious reloading supplies leaves me in a nice place.

Back in the day, I think that I would usually feel comfortable with a ratio of semi-auto to bolt/revolver ammo of about 3~4:1 and I had a minimum of ~100rds for bolt/revolver. O'course, that was a different time and now I would probably multiply those quantities by a minimum of 5 ... and with the advent of the most recent HooHaw, double that.

A lot depends upon your shooting patterns so you would have to tailor them accordingly.

I just divided my guesstimate of the amount of factory CF ammunition that I have on-hand by how many CF firearms I possess and found that I have about 700rds per firearm ... and I have a relatively large collection (accumulation) of CF firearms. ;)
 
I'm sorry, but I have to ask the most obvious question. Being new to the game, and not being able to find ammo to become proficient with my rifle with, it really makes me wonder.
What "emergency" are y'all hoarding ammo for?
If gun laws change, and they come for your guns/ammo, are you going to use all this extra ammo to protect yourself from the people coming to get your stores?
If there is an insurrection, I would imagine the goal is to have every able bodied person have ammo and a firearm to join the "well regulated militia". With 100K rounds in your barn , you won't get far.
If there is a zombie apocalypse, how many zombies can you kill before getting your brains eaten?
I guess my thought is, that to have more pro 2nd Amendment people, we need to realize we are working for the collective. Not the individual. Btw, we live in America, and you are certainly free to do whatever you want with your time, money, and efforts. I'm not necessarily criticizing. It just doesn't seem like something that makes a whole lot of sense when you start looking at it from a newbie's perspective. No, no one is obliged to make sure everyone has ammo. No one is obliged to do anything for that matter. I keep hearing "it's not my fault you are so late to the game" when I ask this question on the YT channels that address this. Actually it is. If you are hoarding ammo, such that the 7 million new gun owners can't get any, whose fault is it? Yes, yes, free country, free market, supply and demand, etc. I get it.
 
NuShootr said:
... What "emergency" are y'all hoarding ammo for? ...
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Speaking for myself, I "hoard" ammo so that I do not find myself (my family, my extended family, my friends) with none and/or forced to pay outrageously inflated prices in order to restock. They know that I have it and will freely provide it. I have given away a couple of cases in the past year, or so. Heck, even my niece's husband's father has gotten some ammo from me when he could find none last year ... his son knew where to go. :)

NuShootr said:
... If you are hoarding ammo, such that the 7 million new gun owners can't get any, whose fault is it? ...
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Oh, never mind. That does not describe my situation at all. I haven't purchased any factory ammo (or propellant or bullets or primers) in a couple of years. I suppose that makes me more of a strategic hoarder rather than a tactical hoarder. :D
 
NuShootr said:
I'm sorry, but I have to ask the most obvious question. Being new to the game, and not being able to find ammo to become proficient with my rifle with, it really makes me wonder.
What "emergency" are y'all hoarding ammo for?
If gun laws change, and they come for your guns/ammo, are you going to use all this extra ammo to protect yourself from the people coming to get your stores?
If there is an insurrection, I would imagine the goal is to have every able bodied person have ammo and a firearm to join the "well regulated militia". With 100K rounds in your barn , you won't get far.
If there is a zombie apocalypse, how many zombies can you kill before getting your brains eaten?
I guess my thought is, that to have more pro 2nd Amendment people, we need to realize we are working for the collective. Not the individual. Btw, we live in America, and you are certainly free to do whatever you want with your time, money, and efforts. I'm not necessarily criticizing. It just doesn't seem like something that makes a whole lot of sense when you start looking at it from a newbie's perspective. No, no one is obliged to make sure everyone has ammo. No one is obliged to do anything for that matter. I keep hearing "it's not my fault you are so late to the game" when I ask this question on the YT channels that address this. Actually it is. If you are hoarding ammo, such that the 7 million new gun owners can't get any, whose fault is it? Yes, yes, free country, free market, supply and demand, etc. I get it.
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My family of 4 enjoys going to the range on weekends. It's really easy for each of us to use 200 rounds, so 800 rounds per weekend. We shoot less now since the wuhan flu and antifa riots but none the less, we enjoy pistol shooting and use a good bit. If I would have stockpiled more 9mm at 16 cents per round, I wouldn't be paying 50 to 70 cents now.

It's after a person lives through a shortage and a 7Xs price increase that he says "I'll never be caught off guard again!" and starts stockpiling before the next shortage. I wish I would've had 30,000 rounds of target 9mm bought at 16 cents each. No zombies or communists needed to make people want to stock up, just shortages and price increases.
 
My purchase of ammo three years ago when cases of the stuff were creating fire code violations at Cabela's is hardly the reason why people like NuShootr are having problems now. Some folks have been playing this game for a long time. For me, it was Slick Willie's inauguration when I was in high school that put me on the path of building ammo supplies. As a new Army Officer in the late 90's, many of my cohorts bought fancy new vehicles. I bought an old beater Jeep truck and an almost decade old S10 Blazer. My extra money went to "other" assets.
 
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Also, a person that buys thousands of rounds when prices are low and supply is high is doing everyone involved a huge favor. Manufactures need the sales and when a panic does hit, the person who has already "hoarded" doesn't have to cut into the newbies supply.
 
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I have no idea and really am not concerned. Just piles of ammo cans against a wall full of everything I shoot and some with stuff I don't shoot. Then comes reloading components which again are stacked high. Gets to a point where I stopped paying attention. Nothing going on right now I am worried about. Que Sera Sera is how I figure it and just how much is enough?

Ron
 
Hartkopf said:
Also, a person that buys thousands of rounds when prices are low and supply is high is doing everyone involved a huge favor. Manufactures need the sales and when a panic does hit, the person who has already "horded" doesn't have to cut into the newbies supply.
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Indeed.

That same person is also in a position to help out friends when the situation arises.
 
Thank you all for the insightful replies. I appreciate it. I guess to me, stocking up on ammo at a low cost, to avoid paying a lot of money for the same ammo, doesn't constitute an "emergency". Wise spending for sure. No argument there at all. That being said, buying all the ammo up at a low cost will eventually cause the price to go up. That's simple market economics. Artificially creating a supply and demand crisis is no one's fault but the consumer. Has this "panic buying" caused anything else?
 
I personally never really bought into having a large stash of emergency ammo. I have about 100 rounds four my semi auto rifle, a couple boxes from my hunting rifle and the girlfriends hunting rifle, and the box of SD ammo for my pistol.

I personally don’t buy into the narrative of world ending needing to get into a fire fight and therefore needing a lot of ammo.

When ammo gets scarce I shoot less and work on other hobbies. I’m not so attached to shooting that a low or non-existent supply of ammo motivates me to want to increase my supply when possible. Something about sitting on a bunch of material items that I will never use just rubs me the wrong way.

I find it actually rather humorous how much money people put into buying ammo and how a little money many of them put into emergency water supplies, meds and first aid, rations, electricity generation, skills education etc... all of which will unarguably be more useful to you in an emergency than a ton of ammo.
 
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NuShootr said:
Thank you all for the insightful replies. I appreciate it. I guess to me, stocking up on ammo at a low cost, to avoid paying a lot of money for the same ammo, doesn't constitute an "emergency". Wise spending for sure. No argument there at all. That being said, buying all the ammo up at a low cost will eventually cause the price to go up. That's simple market economics. Artificially creating a supply and demand crisis is no one's fault but the consumer. Has this "panic buying" caused anything else?
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But that never happened. Ammo was dirt cheap no matter how much the hoarders bought. It took the wuflu and riots to cause the panic and prices to rise.
 
NuShootr said:
I'm sorry, but I have to ask the most obvious question. Being new to the game, and not being able to find ammo to become proficient with my rifle with, it really makes me wonder.
What "emergency" are y'all hoarding ammo for?
Click to expand...

While you can't anticipate every emergency, you can prepare for things likely to happen. I don't consider myself a "prepper" but my wife and I have always tried to keep enough food and supplies on hand to see us through an emergency. When there was a run on toilet paper, we just laughed. We were okay.

I have a generator for when the power goes out. Have only used it a couple of times, but was glad I had it when needed.

I have lived through many ammo panics. I have been stockpiling ammo and reloading components for many years (buy cheap, pile deep). Why? Because when things like this current panic happen, I can still shoot and help friends out if needed. I likely have enough to keep shooting for the years I have left and then my son can shoot the rest. To me, ammo is like money in the bank. It isn't losing any value.

As far as the government goes, I have seen things happen I never would have believed could happen. Do I know that ammo won't be taxed out of reach or gun companies bankrupted by a flood of lawsuits? No I do not know that. If it happens I intend to be ready for it.

I have not bought during this panic so my "stash" in no way impacts your ability or inability to find ammo.

Safe shooting!
 
Hartkopf said:
But that never happened. Ammo was dirt cheap no matter how much the hoarders bought. It took the wuflu and riots to cause the panic and prices to rise.
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I know I haven't been at this very long, but is this the first time in the last 50 years there was an ammo shortage with the prices skyrocketing? I don't think so. I could be wrong.
 
hanno said:
While you can't anticipate every emergency, you can prepare for things likely to happen. I don't consider myself a "prepper" but my wife and I have always tried to keep enough food and supplies on hand to see us through an emergency. When there was a run on toilet paper, we just laughed. We were okay.

I have a generator for when the power goes out. Have only used it a couple of times, but was glad I had it when needed.
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Food and supplies as well as electricity are needed, and a natural disaster, like a hurricane, are indeed "emergencies". Yes, that tiolet paper panic was hilarious!
 
NuShootr said:
I know I haven't been at this very long, but is this the first time in the last 50 years there was an ammo shortage with the prices skyrocketing? I don't think so. I could be wrong.
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Right and every time hoarders bought when supplies were high, they could never make the prices spike. They were doing the manufactures a favor by buying when everyone else wasn't worried. When 7 million new people flooded the market, supplies dried up and prices went up.
 
NuShootr said:
Thank you all for the insightful replies. I appreciate it. I guess to me, stocking up on ammo at a low cost, to avoid paying a lot of money for the same ammo, doesn't constitute an "emergency". Wise spending for sure. No argument there at all. That being said, buying all the ammo up at a low cost will eventually cause the price to go up. That's simple market economics. Artificially creating a supply and demand crisis is no one's fault but the consumer. Has this "panic buying" caused anything else?
Click to expand...
Not necessarily, if ammo isn't moving off the shelves in a timely manner, stores offer sales and manufacturers offer rebates. Stores don't want goods sitting on shelves long, and manufacturers don't want to idle machinery. So fewer buyers are buying and the supply is still on the shelves.
It's not a consistent market because we are not all consistent shooters.
 
daniel craig said:
I personally never really bought into having a large stash of emergency ammo. I have about 100 rounds four my semi auto rifle, a couple boxes from my hunting rifle and the girlfriends hunting rifle, and the box of SD ammo for my pistol.

I personally don’t buy into the narrative of world ending needing to get into a fire fight and therefore needing a lot of ammo.

When ammo gets scarce I shoot less and work on other hobbies. I’m not so attached to shooting that a low or non-existent supply of ammo motivates me to want to increase my supply when possible. Something about sitting on a bunch of material items that I will never use just rubs me the wrong way.

I find it actually rather humorous how much money people put into buying ammo and how a little money many of them put into emergency water supplies, meds and first aid, rations, electricity generation, skills education etc... all of which will unarguably be more useful to you in an emergency than a ton of ammo.
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I agree, those items are very important in an emergency. If I may ask, how do you defend those items in a SHTF event? Ask nicely of the people trying to take them to stop and leave ?
This Covid outbreak proves that so many are ill prepared for such an event . We are lucky this time. Things could have been so much worse.
 
reloaded_in_pa said:
I agree, those items are very important in an emergency. If I may ask, how do you defend those items in a SHTF event? Ask nicely of the people trying to take them to stop and leave ?
This Covid outbreak proves that so many are ill prepared for such an event . We are lucky this time. Things could have been so much worse.
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By making good friends with my neighbors and the community rit large...Listen I understand that these things I need protection but I don’t believe that it will play out the way a lot of people seem think it will, with a post apocalyptic sort of fire fight type thing. I also think that there comes a point when the more stuff you have the more likely you are to become a target for other people. Different philosophies I guess.
Plus if it ever did get to that point there’s gonna be a lot of that stuff I was former owners are no longer around...However since this is probably off topic and I started it I’m going to end it right here.
 
Hartkopf said:
But that never happened. Ammo was dirt cheap no matter how much the hoarders bought. It took the wuflu and riots to cause the panic and prices to rise.
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That is not quite true. What we see today was what we witnessed following Sandy Hook and Obama's Administration going ballistic. Before that during the mid 90s we watched what the Clinton Administration managed to do with his so called Assault Weapons Ban. What we see today, to quote Yogi Berra is Deja Vue all over again. All of this has happened before including escalating prices and people buying stuff as fast as it hits the store shelves. The shortage in reloading components is also true of past history. Sandy Hook (December 2012) led to about 2 years of what we are seeing today. Today is pretty much the perfect storm. People will continue to worry more because of the political climate but all of it is nothing new.

Ron
 
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