Reflections on Red Dawn

[Mannlicher]

I have a moderate amount of ammo, and guns, but the problem, as shown in Red Dawn, is "what do you have with you at the exact moment SHTF".
The lads were out hunting, if I recall. I can't think of a time I was hunting with an AK47 and 2K rounds.

The answer, if you lived that long, might well be what they did, ie, kill the bad guys, and take their stuff.

 

[IRONFIST]

I saw Red Dawn in a movie theater when it first came out, and it stirred up patriotism that I didn't know I had. Love that movie and now I have it at home. I definetly became more interested in being prepared if "trouble" ever came my way. As to the ammo situation right now, it kinda sucks, I have let myself get too low. I have maybe 100 rounds of .308 for my FAL, 50 rounds for my ParaOrd P-14 and maybe 30 or 40 .357 for my SP-101. After taking the wife to see "Dawn of the Dead" recently, when the movie was over she turned to me and said "Go get more ammo!", so I guess she won't mind if I go exercise the debit card and re-stock us.

 

[Lord Bodak]

Right now I have about 990 rounds for of .22LR (for the rifle and the pistol) and 100 rounds of .40S&W for the gun I haven't purchased yet

 

[sch40]

Red Dawn. This thread reminded me that I still need to see that movie. About 7 years ago, when I was graduating from high school, a friend of mine said that "every american should be required to see that movie." It has been on my [very dusty] "movies to see" list ever since. Maybe tonight the gf and I will sit down to a nice romantic movie

 

[Greg Bell]

I saw that movie in a theater in Columbus, Georgia. Made me want to nuke the Soviet Union, PRONTO!! Also made me want an AK (rare at the time)--and a Hind! That and "Amerika" got me so pissed at people who didn't take the Sovs seriously. In retrospect, I probably should not have tried to dig that bomb shelter in my back yard--but hey, I was ten!!

 

[gyp_c2]

...as long as you have your wits , you can get what ever you need...

...The rest just makes it easier...

 

[Lagadelphia]

I have a moderate amount of ammo, and guns, but the problem, as shown in Red Dawn, is "what do you have with you at the exact moment SHTF".
The lads were out hunting, if I recall. I can't think of a time I was hunting with an AK47 and 2K rounds.

The answer, if you lived that long, might well be what they did, ie, kill the bad guys, and take their stuff.
.

They were still in school when it went down. They stopped at one of the kids dad's outfitter place/gas station/mini mart on the way out of town and stocked up with gear before heading to the mountains.

edited for typo's and further clarification

 

[Moparmike]

I loved that movie...

Even though I have less than 1000rds of non-.22 ammo, I dont worry about my ammo situation as much as I worry about my food and provisions situation.


I keep wanting to build some sort of concrete-block enclosure around my mom's propane tank though.

 

[Red_SC]

I don't want enough ammo to fight a war. I would like to survive the initial encounter, though, so I can take their weapons and ammo.

 

[Sludge]

heh.. yea great movie back in the day.

As to the ammo situation here...

3000 .45ACP and another 10,000 brass and reloading supplies
1000 9mm and about 2000 brass & reloading supplies
500 .40S&W and about 2000 brass & reloading supplies
500 .38spl and about 300 brass & reloading supplies
500 7.62x39
800 .223 and about 500 brass & reloading supplies
100 .300WinMag (match grade) and reloading supplies for about 500 more
500 12ga Shot, 100 Buck, 100 Slugs
2000 .22 & .22mag (just incase squirls attack )
200 22-250 and reloading supplies for about 200 more. Thats for the waves of ground hogs that will surely attack. The Bastards are already dug in out in my pastures! For now though, the battle is limited to occasional skirmishes. I thought I had made a dent in their numbers, but they got resupplied with fresh troopers evidently...

Then the normal supplies of 20 to 100 of the following:
30-30, 30-06, 25-06, .32ACP, 30 Carbine, 16ga, 20ga, .44mag...

 

[HankB]

I loved Red Dawn. What made me really want to see it was a rant by a couple of film critics on TV - Lyons and Gabler? - that went on and on . . . then they broke for a commercial, and afterwards AGAIN started condemning the movie.

They heaped so much vitriol on it, I figured the movie was a "MUST SEE."

Especially when the critics' viewpoint was made clear when they heaped praise on some re-released B&W subtitled Bergmanesque yawner of a film, and as a top pick chose a love story between two students at a boarding school. (uhhh . . . the school was not co-ed.)

As far as my ammo supply goes . . . I see no need to post an inventory on a public forum. I'll just say I have more than I probably need, but less than I really want.

 

[angrywalkindude]

Waited around 10 years to see the end.

It was possibly the first time Red Dawn ever came on regular TV and I was watching it. I got about two-thirds through it and my parents made me go to bed. I was so young I could not even remember the name of the movie, but I never forgot what it was about. Sometime after I graduated High School went over to a friend’s house and there it was. I knew exactly what movie this was, and I had to have it. Since then I have probably watched it a hundred times..

 

[Echtermetzger]

Great response, DigMe

I was crying at that one. Orangutan supply.....heh heh heh

The problem with Red Dawn was that so many bad thing had to happen. NATO breaks up, Latin American goes entirely commie, etc., etc. Like the US would have allowed so many bad things to happen.

Still, I was 13 when I saw it and ate it up like bubble gum. I'd take out the .22 I had and pretend to pop off Russkies walking down my street in the burbs. I'd daydream in school about it.

Oh well. I just want to know how that many Communist paratroopers could have flown into Montana or Wyoming or whereever unnoticed without refueling.

Hokey, yet entertaining movie

 

[entropy]

Tankers are merely converted airliners. The Russians used, and still do, the Illushyin Il-76, which is a copy of the KC-135 USAF tanker. Also, IIRC, the paratroopers came in on regularly scheduled transoceanic airline flights.

 

[Jeff White]

entropy,
The IL76 is more comparible to our C141 Starlifter then to the KC135 which is based on the Boeing 707 airliner.

Jeff

 

[entropy]

You are correct, sir! I was thinking of the plane the 'Moss' AWACS is built on.

 

[Double Naught Spy]

Ah, "Red Dawn," the bastion of unrealistic national paranoid fears for so many people and the namesake of the "Red Dawn Scenario." Gimme a break! Y'all should consider something a little more realistic. For me, it is "Mars Attacks" and from that movie I learned that unconventional alternative weapons need to be available and specifically Slim Whitman albums. I keep several on hand with my SHTF bugout bag and related gear.

 

[Hutch]

I'm amazed at the folks that can (and would!) rattle off their ammo inventory. I couldn't say within +-50% how much I have on hand. There have been many times I've gone looking for some I just knew I had and found stuff I'd forgotten I had, or stuff that I have no memory at all of having purchased. Guess it could be early onset Alzheimer's. Pretty soon, I'll be able to hide my own Easter eggs. I think the total is a five digit number, beginning w/ a 2 or a 3.

 

[killermarmot]

I have some major catching up to do I had only 60 of 7.62 54 / 200 12 ga / and 1000 of 22lr (works on commies i promise) came back with 5 rounds of 7.62 and 50 rounds of 12ga ....I need more calibers and more ammo.

 

[foghornl]

"Red Dawn" wouldn't happen exactly like that now. I suspect, though, that something similar COULD happen.

Methinks, however, the 'invaders' would be speaking some variant of Arabic Languages.

 

[Buckskinner]

Arabic?!

Try Chinese! With the shock troops speaking Korean!

I'm not much of a Nationalist, but doesn't it make you wonder when you go to a "Chinatown" near you, and NOBODY speaks English? Can't go to a Russian Town, can you? There are more folks from eastern bloc countries hanging at my local Starbucks, but my guess is they would join this thread before the folks of the asian persuasion do. Although famous in the "unbiased" media for "assimilation", I again point to Chinatown. Does that smack of assimilation? No.

And Red Dawn scenario will happen with 300,000,000 Chinese and Korean soldiers, a fraction of which might be recently debarked from a container ship in Oakland or L.A.

Awesome movie. Just bought it.

As I told my very liberal sister in law last night: "When you join the vast right wing conspiracy, they give you a copy!"

 

[Joe Demko]

Those insidious, inscrutable Chinese. They came over here in the 1800's, deliberately allowed themselves to be treated like expendable draft animals, deliberately allowed themselves to be forced to live in racial ghettoes, deliberately caused themselves to be a restricted group for immigration, and all so that now (100 years later) they could use Chinatowns as a launching point for an invasion of the US. It's all so clear now...

 

[Kurt]

Today almost got by me without a chance to help the needy . . . almost.

The Chinese, like the North Koreans, like the Russians, like the French, Germans, most of the Middle East and countless smaller factions, despise U.S., and thus will be more than happy to take part in our un-doing . . . if ever given half the chance.

 

[Moparmike]

"When you join the vast right wing conspiracy, they give you a copy!"

Those capitalist bastards! They made me buy my copy!

 

[Buckskinner]

Golgo:

I only meant offense to those who intend harm to me and my loved ones. As a student of history, and one who grew up in the gold country, I am very aware and appreciative of the efforts of those immigrants from around the world whose hard work we cannot comprehend but benefit from daily.