Hoarding is getting to me!

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I got caught low supplied during the panic of 2008-2009. Once things lightened up, I took to advice my pop gave me years ago, whenever you are out and about, pick up a box of ammo. Well, that advice worked well. At this point, I have no "real" need for ammo at this time. Also, I picked up the firearms post 08-09 that I wanted at reasonable prices. So, I have no need for any new firearms. I would suggest that those now suffering start stocking up after this panic subsides. IMHO, it will subside and things will come back to a some sort of new norm. Not sure you will be able to get 9mm WWB at $23.00 at wally world. Will probably be a few bucks more, but that is capitalism.
 
Sorry to hear about the Mrs. I know it's frustrating. I just bought a Mark III 22 pistol. Guess what, I have very little ammo! I got caught flat footed not thinking about 22 ammo going scarce. It's the only thing I can't hand load....:banghead:
 
You can still find .22 online, but it may be match grade expensive stuff. That being said, even match grade (or match "practice" grade) .22's are cheaper than most... Should buy several bricks to help reduce the shipping costs.
 
When I retired - US Army - here in 1997 I had conversations on line with guys who had been shooting and collecting for decades. One guy said he had, easily, over a million rounds of ammunition at his house somewhere in SoCal. I remember thinking this was nuts.

Then I started shooting more, buying guns I couldn't while moving around the world. Friend of mine suggested buying 1,000 rounds for each gun I bought. I found it was really easy to blow through that in a month's time with only semi-autos and revolvers and bolt guns if I went two or three times a month. More if I took my son or daughter. Bought a progressive reloading press to feed the subguns/machine guns, reloading components by the thousands. I've reloaded over 100,000 rounds since then and bought tens of thousands more. It adds up. I can shoot for a day with friends at steel to 1200 yards and easily go through 300 rounds, more if we do a little pistol shooting.

Can't say how much I have on hand, but I don't consider myself a "hoarder."

Someone buys a couple cases of ammo I don't think of it as hoarding.

Someone buys 20,000 primers because they're "on sale" and available and he reloads for his pistol club or high school Palma team that's a summer's training. Not "hoarding."

I call it all Laissez-faire free market enterprise. You know, what communists call "capitalism."

I call it an opportunity for manufacturers to start up another shift and get those presses cranking out more finished rounds to grease the skids of Obama's - ahem, the American - economy.
 
I'm truly sorry for the situation you found yourself in, in the future I'm sure you will be more prepared.
 
Purchase ammo from internet stores. Natchez was advertising 22 LR in their catalog. Get on 10+ ammo sites and add 22 LR ammo to your wishlist with instant email notification. Keep the credit card handy and buy it as soon as the email lands on your phone.
 
Can't say how much I have on hand, but I don't consider myself a "hoarder."

Someone buys a couple cases of ammo I don't think of it as hoarding.

Correct, not hoarding.

There is a difference between being well prepared and hoarding.
Being well prepared is everything mentioned here. All good suggestions.

Hoarding is having more than enough (by your average usage) to get thru this mini-crisis or a few years but as soon as the crisis hits you go clean out all the stock from the local retailers. Instead of smiling because you are well prepared by planning you compound the problem and buy up everything in sight just because you can, not because you need to. There is a big difference yet everyone who has a substantial inventory thinks this is directed at them. It isn't. You planned. You'll have plenty to wait it out. You did good. You beat the system.
 
45 auto wrote:


Last week two of my dealers and yesterday a third said that from their perspective as retailers the artificial bubble has burst. They are restocking for the third or fourth time and the stuff is not flying off the shelves like it had been. They are already seeing guns that went out six weeks ago coming back. Some of the panic crowd that hit every gun show, retailer and online store they could have their credit card bills hitting. Here, the price of an SKS on the shelf has dropped 140 bucks from its peak. AR-15's have dropped about the same. These panic buyers are already seeing the shelves fill up, the prices adjusting and are freaking out over losing out on their investment made in a time of panic. Some are already trying to cash back out before their is another price drop back toward pre panic levels and they have to pay another months interest on their cards.

I was selling two to four SKS rifles a week up till two weeks ago. What the market is paying today compared to three weeks ago in private sales locally has gone down to a point where I will hold my remaining Combloc rifles to the next panic. Yes, there will be more of these incidents. So once the market normalizes somewhat, you regular consumers that got caught this time need to take heed and buy at a rate that will give you enough stock to get through each price bubble without feeling left out from participating in your chosen activity.

I have been buying all things gun, ammo, reloading related for 30 years. My minimum stock is to have enough ammo and components to shoot for at least 3 to 5 years if a significant shortage were to occur. I have an emergency lot backing that up of inventory that is not to be shot unless we reach a time in our society it is necessary for survival. That said, been able to continue shooting for past two months as if nothing has happened. Still get my monthly stocking order from my LGS of reloading components regular as clockwork. He knows what I need a year ahead and has my needs planned in his rolling stock.

Your screen name is 45 auto... I personally shoot a minimum of 150 rounds of .45 acp every week and some weeks double that. Casting my own bullets out of wheel weights and at today's price for scrap lead, powder and primers it costs me 6.50 per 100 rounds to roll my own. At the local indoor range .45 acp range ammo is 20.00 per 50 round box. to shoot 100 rounds of their ammo versus mine is a 33.50 price difference. Plus I am loading with components bought at half current prices as part of my 30 year old restocking program. By the time I get to shooting the primers and powder I am buying now, it will be a bargain by those days standards.

Stored properly ammo and reloading supplies will last more than a lifetime. I "found" a box with five pounds of Bullseye powder a week or so ago. That will make about 2,000 rounds of .38 plinkers per pound. Price on the bottles was 7.95 per pound. Cracked a can, loaded a few and shot perfectly. Due to its age I moved this powder to front of rotation. At that price when it got stored, it is 0.004 cents per round for 38 special rounds. The math shows 20 cents a box for my powder. Costs me 0.006 to cast 140 grain SWC currently. Primers I am using were purchased when they were 14.00 per 1,000 comes to 0.014 per primer. So busting my .38 target loads this week are costing me less than 3 cents a round for 38 or 1.20 per box. I choose to put back and keep control of my inventory rather than the whims of the general public and the retailers dictate my activity.

Last night I put two 100 round boxes of 45 acp and two 100 round boxes of .38 special and a 250 rounds of 22 lr into my ammo box for this weeks allotment as weather is nice and have some extra time to shoot. So 400 rounds of center fire handgun ammo and 250 rimfire with price of .59 box marked has my weekly ammo cost at less than 20 bucks for a total of 650 rounds. Instead of riding around like a chicken missing his head looking for a bullet, I will be relaxing at the range slinging lead and making smoke.

Am I a hoarder? NO! I am a shooter and put the effort in so that not only can I shoot all I want this week, I can next month, next year or 5 years from now even if no gun shop in America gets a box of bullets or a can or powder for the next three years or more. I buy in bulk, on a regular schedule, in advance so that I can afford to enjoy shooting instead of posting on BBS's trying to find a 50 count box of 22 lr.

Same reason after Katrina and everyone in the south was lining up for fuel and paying triple when a station happened to get a few gallons to sell. I pulled up to my own pump filled up my truck and had enough fuel to get through the shortage without freaking out. Common sense and the facts tell us that our supply lines in America are overtaxed and not prepared for any type of shortage or run. Average city has three days food supply in the stores. What do the same folks looking for a bullet do if the trucks stop restocking the grocery store? Starve? If the toilet paper factory burns are folks going to have to wipe their butt with the Sears catalog? Wait, its online now so it would be hard to wipe with a computer monitor. Go to the U.S. FEMA website and take the course entitled "A citizens guide to emergency preparedness". Y'all will be shocked at how ragged the edge our society is riding every day. When loaf of bread costs 50 bucks if you can find it is it going to be unfair that I put a 50 pound bag of flour in a can and can put it in my bread making machine and eat a sandwich while others are starving? When the electric grid goes down during a regular winter ice storm is it fair to my neighbors that my whole house generator which runs off a buried 1,000 gallon tank of propane kicks on within seven seconds and while other sit in the cold and dark we make microwave popcorn and watch movies? No you don't have to be rich to live like this. All it takes is prioritizing your life. My wife and I have not been out to eat in 3.5 years. While most couples are blowing 75 bucks to go to Red Lobster or Longhorns on Friday night, we fix a nice dinner at home and use the money saved to put something we may need in a box, can or bottle. While some are paying 100 plus a month for cable TV we watch free high def off an antenna on the chimney. While most are leasing a car or trading every 4 to 5 years I service our heavy duty trucks faithfully and the money saved by getting 500,000 miles per truck before buying new puts a 1,000 gallon tank of diesel and another of premium fuel underground. When the time for the new truck comes we have saved the cash and don't have to give some finance company thousands of dollars to drive out truck. making payments to yourself on the front end is cheaper than making them to someone else with interest on the back end. Is that hoarding? No, it is being responsible to see that my family is cared for in the event of any foreseeable shortage. We can eat, drive and shoot our guns. So when ammo returns to the store folks can learn the lesson and buy an extra box or two when they go to put back for the next bubble or they can only buy what they plan to shoot and be in the same situation again next time. I do feel for some of you and have actually given away, traded and sold quite a bit of ammo lately to help others. But every dime will be put aside to restock for next shortage. People can choose to live at the whim of the supply chain and its hiccups or they can put just a tad of effort into being a few months to a year ahead of the game. Everyone gets to make their own choice.
Excellent post! I agree 1000%. Planning ahead always beats the whining you hear from those who expect someone else to provide for their every need (like some of the recent voters).
 
I love how people who were caught short in previous shortages are busting your chops about current people being caught short now.

And how everybody who has been buying a box or so every now and then think you are attacking them.

With friends like this, who needs Feinstien?
 
More from the OP

• Several of THR Guys offered to get some .22 LR for the wife and I want to say a big THR “Thank you”, Most used a PM to contact me and I really appreciated these offers. As they offered it privately I won’t acknowledge the names on the Post but THANKS GUYS. Those were really wonderful gestures of sharing.
We declined all the offers but did try the 380 today, she can shoot about 25 rounds before it hurts her hands but she was happy to be able to have a fallback.
• Posts 32 and 50 got what I was trying to say. However I stick by my original comments, if you aren’t going to shoot it, then its hoarding!
• Yes there is a difference in being prepared and hoarding, for those that are prepared, Well Done! That was said with no sarcasm, it was a genuine compliment.
I thought I had covered all my requirements, but yes I did overlook the lowly .22 Shame on me! I have talked to the LGS and he is going to try to save me a couple boxes a week but is not sure when he will get them. As a side note, he isn’t a happy camper either. He has maintained very reasonable prices and said that he was mad that several locals had basically cleaned out his entire stock of primers before he had advised his employees to not let anyone hog up the entire supply. Too late, one of the other employees let it all go. What really made him mad was that the “Entrepreneur “decided he could sell them at a nice profit at a gun show! Now the LGS is rationing every item of ammo and primers, when he can get some more.
As noted in my original post I am VERY well stocked on everything else and I will share what happened when I went to talk to the LGS. I picked up an additional 2 cans of Unique. As I was talking to the store owner a guy came up to the counter and asked if there was any more Unique as there was none on the shelf. I had taken the last two cans. I reviewed what I had on hand and what I really needed and decided to let the other guy have one can, as he was totally out. It felt good to be able to help another re-loader. I could not buy it just to let it sit on the shelf for a year or more. while he had none!
I think most of the readers know what I was trying to say in the original post, it seems to have struck a raw nerve with a few. Guess if the shoe fits………
 
Walmart actually had .22 in stock this afternoon. So ammo is out there, you just have to be there at the right time. They also got a dpms ar in last friday. Only one, it sold before it got into the display case.
When 8mm mauser started to dry up, I stocked up for my two turks. Then when a guy was selling 300 rounds locally cheap I bought, Not really hoarding, but accumulating, then 340 rounds were 80 bucks turns into twice the price, I buy when I can find it cheap. Same with the 2000+ rounds of .22's + magnums I found at a yard sale. Guy had a ammo can in the garage. I asked if the can was for sale, He opens it and its full mostly of .22's (over 2000), plus a hundred cci magnums, a box of 32-20 and 30 carbine. he goes how about 20 bucks! How could I refuse? jim
 
how much 22 would it take to call someone a hoarder, some seen this coming and bought
 
There are some commodities other than steel and lead that are worth stocking up on.

Security based items are first and they include weapons and ammo, followed closely by sustenance and sanitation. Once a stocker-upper feels they have enough tactical gear and equipment to defend their family and property, the foodstuffs and items like bleach, toilet paper, etc. are next. One should have enough supplies to last a month or more until rule of law returns.

I believe most collectors have an unbalanced collection. Weapons are but one worthy aspect to consider.
 
how much 22 would it take to call someone a hoarder, some seen this coming and bought.

You are not a hoarder if you saw this coming and bought all you could while planning for it. Even if you have 50k rounds of .22LR on hand, you still aren't a hoarder.

Now, from the post above:

Walmart actually had .22 in stock this afternoon. So ammo is out there, you just have to be there at the right time.

In my eyes, you'd be a hoarder if you had the same amount of ammo as was just talked about and you went to Walmart, saw they had a shipment in and you bought it all up on the spot. You bought it because you could, not because you needed it. You didn't care if someone wanted a brick for whatever reason. Let's say he got his first .22 last week for his 21st birthday. He goes to Walmart and the shelf that was well stocked an hour before is now empty because one customer purchased all of it.

That's what I saw in '08/'09. That's what threads like these are referring to. You don't hoard if you are well prepared, even if you have 100k of ammo on hand. You hoard if you buy every box you see even though you won't need it for years, in times of shortages. Leaving some for the other guy doesn't fit in their psyche.
 
Proud hoarder here :D Ok more of a .22 accumulator. Its my favorite round so I have accumulated a few boxes here and there over the years. Funny thing is I have only bought bulk (500 rounds) centerfire ammo twice in my life.

Exbrit you have pm
 
Hoarding

49 I learned a long time ago that a person has to be ready for what is to come. I do hand load for R, P, SG. With that said I also buy factory ammo when I find a good deal. Maybe U need to learn to be a little better prepared. No offence ment.
 
larryh1108 said:
You bought it because you could, not because you needed it.

That pretty much describes about 99.9% of all my purchases. Only things I really need are a couple of bottles of water and about 1000 calories of food a day. Lots of homeless people down here live outside year round, so clothing and shelter aren't really "needs" in this area.

Maybe if you could post how much ammo someone "needs", we would know when to stop buying it and leave the rest for you.

From http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/hoard

hoard
[hawrd, hohrd]
noun
1.
a supply or accumulation that is hidden or carefully guarded for preservation, future use, etc.: a vast hoard of silver.
verb (used with object)
2.
to accumulate for preservation, future use, etc., in a hidden or carefully guarded place: to hoard food during a shortage.
verb (used without object)
3.
to accumulate money, food, or the like, in a hidden or carefully guarded place for preservation, future use, etc.

Sorry, the above doesn't sound like a bad thing to me. I don't understand why you're so upset over people accumulating ammo for future use.
 
I saw this coming years ago. I purchased 12K rounds of .22LR when it was $11.99 per 550 rounds. I hope that this will last me an additional 10 years. I don't consider myself a hoarder at all. I looked at it as an investment because I knew the prices were going to go up.
I think everyone should have at least a 2 year supply of ammo on hand for shortages like this.

Just my .02
 
Talk about calling the kettle black!!!

O.P. states “• Posts 32 and 50 got what I was trying to say. However I stick by my original comments, if you aren’t going to shoot it, then its hoarding.”
But then he says “I am VERY well stocked on everything else and I will share what happened when I went to talk to the LGS. I picked up an additional 2 cans of Unique.”

SO how about letting the rest of us in on when you are going to shoot your “VERY well stocked” supply of ammunition and gun powder?
 
I love how people who were caught short in previous shortages are busting your chops about current people being caught short now.

And how everybody who has been buying a box or so every now and then think you are attacking them.

With friends like this, who needs Feinstien?

Pardon me, but I don't believe the majority of such postings are that at all. In fact, several of us have stated we'd gladly help a brother out in our postings...myself included.

There is a difference between hoarding and simply being prepared, and that's what most of us have been saying.

:)
 
I love how people who were caught short in previous shortages are busting your chops about current people being caught short now.

And how everybody who has been buying a box or so every now and then think you are attacking them.

With friends like this, who needs Feinstien?


Great 9th post.
I read all the others too, even though it took a really long time to do it. No posts since 2006, and then a whopping 3 in 2013. And all 3 were argumentative about ammo prices or hoarding ammo. Hmmmmm.
 
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