Poll: Preparedness ammunition stockpile philosophy ...

[P7M13]

Gunz-r-bad. Must be why mine all disappeared in an ERPO.
Besides, who needs ammo when you have a bowler?
Dot Gov will protect you.

 

[tourproto]

This is an interesting thread. To me, behavior is driven by personal experience. My family grew up during the Great Depression. They saved and saved and they never stopped. They couldn't help it because of what they went through.

For me, I never worried about ammo for the longest time because I didn't shoot much and I always had 4-5 boxes around per caliber. But I joined a gun club during the Obama years and couldn't find ammo or had to pay stupid prices for it. So I made a decision that when prices fell, I wouldn't be caught flat-footed again.

Between COVID and city violence, millions of people bought guns for the first time and wanted ammo (whether they shot it or not), and now we are in a historic shortage (from my perspective). As long as shelves are empty people will continue to have a hoarding mentality because there is the perception that there isn't any ammo.

Its gonna take a while for ammo suppliers to catch up and for people to realize they don't quite need 500 rolls of toilet paper in the garage before things get anywhere near back to normal.

But this current shortage will leave a bit of a hoarding mentality for all gun owners (especially the new ones) for some time to come. It certainly reaffirmed to me that I made the right choice 4 years ago to stock up. and I will continue to do so at the right price.

Side note: I was visiting family in Montana in late July and there is no lack of ammo (any caliber) out there, but the prices are 3x-4x what they should be. But there is no panic buying because most Montanans probably have stockpiles at home and aren't concerned, unlike Oregonians.

 

[The Heretic]

As long as shelves are empty people will continue to have a hoarding mentality because there is the perception that there isn't any ammo.

It is panic buying and scalping that is bad

 

[American123]

For the purposes of practice, you are driving up your own and everyone else's prices and causing shortages?


It doesn't make sense to stockpile for the future - if ammo is banned, the shooting of it will be, too. And it doesn't make sense to stockpile against an emergency. Even 500 rounds would kill a lifetime of deer.

The economics of ammo prices and arguing over "who" is driving up ammo prices is silly. This is like the argument that if we all just stopped buying airplane tickets they would drop the prices to the point flying would be ridiculously cheap. Well, the ebbs always come with the flows, eventually there is always going to be "somebody" who is willing to buy at the price offered and before long all the hold outs hoping for cheaper tickets realize they need to buy too because it isn't getting cheaper and before long you are right back to where you started.

Same thing with the ammo.

Except for 1 thing.

The 5+ million Americans who rushed out and bought guns for the first time in their lives (who previously felt they didn't need guns) and then subsequently bought a bunch of ammo to go with their guns - THEY are the ones who drove the spike in prices the most because THEY were the anomaly in the standard volume of purchases. The system was already stable with the regular purchase volume every year, it was the anomaly that was this nee volume that threw a wrench in the system that had been regular for years.

Even if they only bought 100 rounds each, that was still 500 million+ more rounds of ammo that regularly was not purchased by them, but I am sure many of them bought far more. I know a guy who bought about 1500 between rifle and pistol ammo, so potentially 5+ million times 1500 rounds, that's potentially 75,000,000,000 (75 billion) rounds that would have normally not been bought by people.

Then the cascade happened with reloading as well because mostly all the experienced shooters decided "I'm not paying $1 a round for target ammo" and jumped into reloading.

On one hand I am not blaming the new buyers, unless they voted for Biden, in that case they should live their ideals and only own a double barrel shotgun that they can fire both blasts into the air from their balcony if an intruder comes to scare them away. (Advice from the then vice-president Biden)

 

[American123]

If I'm understanding everyone correctly, no one has bought mass stocks of ammo right before/after an election or that sort of thing that has caused a run on the market driving prices up.

Thank you.

You only buy in mass stocks when prices are "good" which is typically in the middle of presidential terms, unless the president/congress/senate is pushing gun control, then that price slump doesn't exist, so basically you can thank the left for that.

 

[The Heretic]

The economics of ammo prices and arguing over "who" is driving up ammo prices is silly. This is like the argument that if we all just stopped buying airplane tickets they would drop the prices to the point flying would be ridiculously cheap. Well, the ebbs always come with the flows, eventually there is always going to be "somebody" who is willing to buy at the price offered and before long all the hold outs hoping for cheaper tickets realize they need to buy too because it isn't getting cheaper and before long you are right back to where you started.

Except for one thing; I haven't flown anywhere in over a decade.

My point is, that while your analogy may apply in general, it doesn't necessarily apply to individuals.

The ammo market can go up and down all it wants to - I have plenty of ammo mainly because it doesn't take a lot of foresight after seeing the ups and downs over the last 5 decades to realize that it pays to buy when the prices are down and the supply is plentiful.

As for "new buyers" - you mean panic buyers right? Why all of a sudden did so many people go out and buy guns? Mostly because of the unrest in the cities and because of other supply issues related to the pandemic. Oh wait - we've had this current unrest for years before the pandemic, and we have had numerous times when there were supply issues due to various causes (weather, wars, etc.) - so were these panic buyers paying attention? Nope.

So yeah, I blame anybody who didn't pay attention to current events for decades. They just ignored the obvious, then when they finally wake up a little, they blame those of us who "hoard" because we saw it coming and bought ammo before the panic buying started.

 

[Jay Walk]

Newbie has lots of ammo now
Newbie can shoot monthly for life without purchasing more
Newbie will happily replace what he shoots
because
Newbie goes without things like an $800 diesel truck payment, $2000 annual vacations or using retirement funds to make a house payment.

Look at what people pay monthly to eat out.

Shooting is still fun, cheap entertainment.

 

[tourproto]

Newbie will happily replace what he shoots
because
Newbie goes without things like an $800 diesel truck payment, $2000 annual vacations or using retirement funds to make a house payment.

Not sure where you are at, but newbie in Portland can't "replace what he shoots" because there isn't any ammo to buy in stores (Cabelas, Sportsmans, BiMart, Walmart).

 

[RX-79G]

You only buy in mass stocks when prices are "good" which is typically in the middle of presidential terms, unless the president/congress/senate is pushing gun control, then that price slump doesn't exist, so basically you can thank the left for that.

My first at least 20 years of ammo buying, from the late 80s on, had no fluctuations. So what I am complaining about may seem like the norm to you, but four presidents and the Crime Bill didn't affect ammo prices and availability. In 2006 I bought 1000 rounds of shiny military .308 surplus for $120. 50 rounds of 9mm could be had that entire time for $5 box, with a choice of brands. 1000 round value box of .22 was $14. Stuff was never out of stock.

I was in a number of shooting clubs at the time, and while many of us reloaded, no one ever talked about stockpiling ammunition. So all this may seem normal, but there wasn't any prepping going on, and no one ever talked about zombies. So I don't know if everything changed because the president was black or what, but this new normal is not.

 

[nwslopoke]

Side note: I was visiting family in Montana in late July and there is no lack of ammo (any caliber) out there, but the prices are 3x-4x what they should be. But there is no panic buying because most Montanans probably have stockpiles at home and aren't concerned, unlike Oregonians.

I was in Utah December 2020 and 5.56 was $25 or about 3-4x what BiMart was selling it at. Which on the way to Utah I bought 300 rounds for $158 when we stopped for gas near the BiMart in Baker City. I still haven't had to touch those 2 boxes but that was the last ammo I bought at regular prices.

Side note. I didn't know Oregon had 2 times zones.

 

[The Heretic]

Not sure where you are at, but newbie in Portland can't "replace what he shoots" because there isn't any ammo to buy in stores (Cabelas, Sportsmans, BiMart, Walmart).

There is this thing called the internet. Ammo ordered on the internet will be delivered most places in the USA, even Portland (although I seem to recall hearing on retailer refusing to ship something gun related to Portland due to Antifa?).

Plus, occasionally, one of us old timers sells some ammo for reasonable prices here on NWFA.

 

[The Heretic]

My first at least 20 years of ammo buying, from the late 80s on, had no fluctuations. So what I am complaining about may seem like the norm to you, but four presidents and the Crime Bill didn't affect ammo prices and availability. In 2006 I bought 1000 rounds of shiny military .308 surplus for $120. 50 rounds of 9mm could be had that entire time for $5 box, with a choice of brands. 1000 round value box of .22 was $14. Stuff was never out of stock.

I was in a number of shooting clubs at the time, and while many of us reloaded, no one ever talked about stockpiling ammunition. So all this may seem normal, but there wasn't any prepping going on, and no one ever talked about zombies. So I don't know if everything changed because the president was black or what, but this new normal is not.

Then I guess you were sleeping during the great shortage of .22 rimfire ammo?

2008–2016 United States ammunition shortage - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[RX-79G]

Then I guess you were sleeping during the great shortage of .22 rimfire ammo?

2008–2016 United States ammunition shortage - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

No, I was referring to it. There had never been anything like that in the US before, and it was strictly in the US. Didn't happen in Canada, despite the ammo coming from the same companies.

What sort of screwed up thinking causes you to mass buy .22 ammo out of fear of an assault weapon ban? Like buying up all the bottled water because of a soda tax.

 

[Camelfilter]

My first at least 20 years of ammo buying, from the late 80s on, had no fluctuations. So what I am complaining about may seem like the norm to you, but four presidents and the Crime Bill didn't affect ammo prices and availability. In 2006 I bought 1000 rounds of shiny military .308 surplus for $120. 50 rounds of 9mm could be had that entire time for $5 box, with a choice of brands. 1000 round value box of .22 was $14. Stuff was never out of stock.

I was in a number of shooting clubs at the time, and while many of us reloaded, no one ever talked about stockpiling ammunition. So all this may seem normal, but there wasn't any prepping going on, and no one ever talked about zombies. So I don't know if everything changed because the president was black or what, but this new normal is not.

Simplified web conglomeration in no particular order, likely lacking as well:

Wars: WW2, Korea, Vietnam, Russian Afghanistan.

1970's "Consumer Product Safety Commission" scare shortage.

The primers with expiration dates scare in the early 90's. (Clinton shortage 1).

Clinton AWB (Clinton shortage 2).

Y2K bug.

911.

Hurricane Katrina.

There's a wiki page regarding the more recent (pre-plandemic) ammunition shortages. Take a read:

2008–2016 United States ammunition shortage - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[The Heretic]

No, I was referring to it. There had never been anything like that in the US before, and it was strictly in the US. Didn't happen in Canada, despite the ammo coming from the same companies.

What sort of screwed up thinking causes you to mass buy .22 ammo out of fear of an assault weapon ban? Like buying up all the bottled water because of a soda tax.

It was mostly because of the shortage - period, and the fact that it caught people by surprise. Again, panic buying just like the last 18 months. People were used to just popping into Bimart and buying a brick, so they didn't stock up on .22 RF much, plus a lot of people, like me, shoot a LOT more .22 RF than they shoot centerfire anything. It caught me by surprise, and I only had a couple thousand rounds at best (now I have 35K) - I bought some towards the end of the shortage for 6-7 cents, a mix of bulk and "semi-premium". Right now I am waiting for availability of specialized premium for small game hunting - like subsonic HP Eley and Federal Hunter Match - I have 500 of each and I like it, but can't easily find it in stock, so I will wait and just shoot my bulk ammo.

I have not ben shooting much - been busy this year with property tasks - and when those were mostly done the weather had turned hot and dry and I've been afraid to shoot on my property due to fire danger.

 

[3MTA3]

My first at least 20 years of ammo buying, from the late 80s on, had no fluctuations. So what I am complaining about may seem like the norm to you, but four presidents and the Crime Bill didn't affect ammo prices and availability. In 2006 I bought 1000 rounds of shiny military .308 surplus for $120. 50 rounds of 9mm could be had that entire time for $5 box, with a choice of brands. 1000 round value box of .22 was $14. Stuff was never out of stock.

I was in a number of shooting clubs at the time, and while many of us reloaded, no one ever talked about stockpiling ammunition. So all this may seem normal, but there wasn't any prepping going on, and no one ever talked about zombies. So I don't know if everything changed because the president was black or what, but this new normal is not.

The increased attention to preparedness IMO has nothing to do with the color of Obama's skin. It's due to the polarization of ideologies that is pitting half of America against the other half. That makes a lot of us uncomfortable to the point where we seek security by keeping at least a few months of food, water on hand as well as the means to defend ourselves.

Go ahead and try to blame "them racist redneck fellers" if that makes you feel better, but many of us who are concerned are students of history and see the same patterns that preceded the Weimar Government, the Soviet Revolution, and the CCP taking over in China. Obama was a divider and contributed heavily to this polarization by his actions and not his skin color.

 

[osprey]

Misplaced blame methinks. No mention of all the new gun owners buying ammo and how can you control human nature? You just have to ride through it like the rest of us and learn from it Rx.

 

[RX-79G]

Simplified web conglomeration in no particular order, likely lacking as well:

Wars: WW2, Korea, Vietnam, Russian Afghanistan.

1970's "Consumer Product Safety Commission" scare shortage.

The primers with expiration dates scare in the early 90's. (Clinton shortage 1).

Clinton AWB (Clinton shortage 2).

Y2K bug.

911.

Hurricane Katrina.

There's a wiki page regarding the more recent (pre-plandemic) ammunition shortages. Take a read:

2008–2016 United States ammunition shortage - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

I was shooting and reloading through all of those, and the only thing I remember dealing with was hard to find magazines.

 

[RX-79G]

Obama was a divider and contributed heavily to this polarization by his actions and not his skin color.

Obama passed pretty much zero gun control. Clinton, Bush and Reagan put in more. I don't know what caused this sea-change in behavior, but it didn't seem to be policy.

 

[The Heretic]

Obama was a divider and contributed heavily to this polarization by his actions and not his skin color.

As was Trump, but that is off-topic somewhat