What would you get?

[rust collector]

I have no experience with M1 carbine, but suspect that good defense ammo is rare and expensive. I like the SKS, but AR is easily configured for your purpose, has better sight options, and 3x capacity.

 

[GunnyUSMC]

What are you talking about, I take any excuse I can get. I've bought guns because I had a $20 grip for it!

Grips and ammo are two different things. Once you shoot the ammo, it’s gone. Now a nice set of grips with last a lot longer.
But then I never need a reason to buy a gun, other the I want it and I have the money to buy it.

 

[GunnyUSMC]

Since ammo has been hard to come by recently I considered already having a supply of ammo for SD a positive.

I saw a bunch of people buying new guns at Academy a couple of weeks ago while the ammo shelves were empty, which put this thought into my head.

Ammo might be hard to find at a good price right now, but I am willing to bet that in a short time it will be in stock everywhere and the price will be down to normal.

 

[GunnyUSMC]

I have three M1 Carbines and a SKS. I have around a thousand rounds M1 Carbine ammo and around two thousand rounds of 7.62x39. But I don’t shoot these guns as much as I shoot my AR’s. And I have a whole lot of ammo for my AR’s.
If I didn’t have any guns, but needed one that would fill the roll as a home defense and target shooting, I would go with an AR for a few simple reasons. Ammo. It’s not that expensive and not hard to find. Saw it on line this morning for right at $400 a thousand rounds.
Parts and easy to work on. I can find replacement parts locally and replace the parts myself.
I had to repair an SKS last year. I had to hunt down the parts on the internet and order them. A week later I was able to fix the gun.
The AR is more accurate then the M1 Carbine and SKS . Mags for the carbine can be a PIA and 30 round mags for the SKS can be too.

I’m not big on the AK style rifles. I used an M16A2 to fight guys that had AK47’s. At the end of the day I still had ammo for my rifle and an AK47 that someone no longer had use for.
But if I were to go with a rifle in 7.62x39, I would go with an AR platform that takes AK magazines.


But there’s really no right or wrong answer. We all have our likes and dislikes. The great thing is that we live in a country where we can pretty much have what we want.

 

[BlueHeelerFl]

Thanks for the input everyone. Although I assumed the AR would be the best choice its always good to see others opinions.

I was pleasantly surprised at the selection available at that shop. Hopefully some of those ARs will still be there when I get access to some more funds.

Of the 3 ARs I think I would choose the M&P

 

[CraigC]

Took a pic of my M&P15 yesterday after its latest facelift. I put it on a diet last month with a new lightweight handguard over the 2lb quad rail. New stock/grip and a new Streamlight HLX. I also installed a muzzle brake which certainly does the job but is loud enough to warrant doubling up on ear protection. Kept the Aimpoint PRO and YHM flip sights. Exactly 7.5lbs before adding the light.

Grips and ammo are two different things. Once you shoot the ammo, it’s gone. Now a nice set of grips with last a lot longer.
But then I never need a reason to buy a gun, other the I want it and I have the money to buy it.

Well, it was mostly tongue-in-cheek and not meant to be taken seriously. We all have those little conversations with ourselves when deciding whether or not to buy a particular gun. Little things like ammo or grips sometimes just push us over the edge. It's a lot of the reason that one AR or 10/22 becomes two, which becomes three and before you know it, you have a dozen of them and still have leftover parts with which to get started building another.

 

[loose noose]

I'm a "johnny come lately" as I already have 2 M-1 .30Caliber carbines, several AR-15s from the cheapest models to the more elaborate, a Russian AK-47, Ruger Mini 30, but for some reason I didn't have an SKS, so with a $400 bid on gun broker, danged if I didn't win it. I took it to the range yesterday with some cheap Red Army 7.62X39 ammo and it fired all 80 rounds without a hitch. (note it is a standard version). Further it appears to be a parts gun, but has a very attractive stock, and recently blued receiver, however it doesn't have any matching serial numbers, which I was aware of when making the bid. So naturally I chose the SKS.

 

[GunnyUSMC]

Took a pic of my M&P15 yesterday after its latest facelift. I put it on a diet last month with a new lightweight handguard over the 2lb quad rail. New stock/grip and a new Streamlight HLX. I also installed a muzzle brake which certainly does the job but is loud enough to warrant doubling up on ear protection. Kept the Aimpoint PRO and YHM flip sights. Exactly 7.5lbs before adding the light.

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Well, it was mostly tongue-in-cheek and not meant to be taken seriously. We all have those little conversations with ourselves when deciding whether or not to buy a particular gun. Little things like ammo or grips sometimes just push us over the edge. It's a lot of the reason that one AR or 10/22 becomes two, which becomes three and before you know it, you have a dozen of them and still have leftover parts with which to get started building another.

You should see my leftover parts and extra parts in my shop. If I decide that I needed to put them all together, I could build five or six more rifles without having to order anymore parts.
We all buy guns for different reasons, and some look for reasons to justify some of the guns they buy. Hell, I have bought a few guns just because the price was so good. Like the time I spotted A Colt 1917 for under $500 in a pawn shop. It was a no brained, and the gun came home with me.
Now I do have a set of dies and a box of ammo for 257 Roberts that I have had for 10 years or so. I’ve come close a few times to buying a rifle for them, but it hasn’t happened yet.

 

[MrShooter]

Ammo might be hard to find at a good price right now, but I am willing to bet that in a short time it will be in stock everywhere and the price will be down to normal.

I sure hope you're right Gunny! PSA had 1,000 rounds of 9 for 170 with free shipping less than a month ago, now the same 1,000 is 309 plus shipping! I'm definitely glad I keep a good stock of every caliber I shoot, I just have to try and ease up on my shooting. Kinda hard to do with more time on my hands, I'm definitely shooting a lot more 22 LRs.

 

[GunnyUSMC]

I sure hope you're right Gunny! PSA had 1,000 rounds of 9 for 170 with free shipping less than a month ago, now the same 1,000 is 309 plus shipping! I'm definitely glad I keep a good stock of every caliber I shoot, I just have to try and ease up on my shooting. Kinda hard to do with more time on my hands, I'm definitely shooting a lot more 22 LRs.

It all comes down to supply and demand. The 5.56 and 9mm have never been more popular then they are today.
The local gun shops have have 40 and 45 handguns in stock, but are very low on 9mms. There are plenty of long guns, shotguns and rifles on the racks, but very few AR’s. I bet if you look around in your area, you will see the same thing. This is a reason that 9mm and 5.56 ammo has gone up. The demand is very high and with so many people being forced to stay home, the supply train has slowed down.
Just last week I saw a video that Buds Guns put out. They showed that they had tons of ammo arriving daly, but they were so backed up with shipping out orders that they didn’t have enough people to process that ammo that was coming in.
But as things start to get back to normal, ammo will start to sit on the shelf and the prices will start to come down. It’s happened before and will happen again.
I bet that years down the road the biggest things that people will remember about the great pandemic of 2020 is that they got a lot of time off from work and the shortage of ammo at their local gun store.
People sometime forget what makes America great. It’s the people and capitalism. America has always come out stronger from hardships.
I give it two months and ammo prices will be getting close to normal again.