Assorted cartridges (calibers as most would say) to have on hand?

Status
Not open for further replies.
When I was doing gun cleaning and repair work for a local shop, I always looked for cheap ammo and partial boxes of any caliber I could find.

The need to test fire guns was always present. I gave a bunch away to the shop when they moved and hired a full time person to take care of that part of the business. I then came to work for him part time doing other needed functions.

Then when he closed the business a got a little of it back and bought some odd and end ammo at a deep discount. So I have still have some scattering of cartridges for guns I do not have. I'm sort of hanging on to those at the moment.

Prior to all this I used to sell of trade off a gun and then sell the ammo I had dirt cheap. Then for some reason I would end up buying a gun that was the same caliber as the ammo that I sold a couple years before and I would have to replace the ammo at a much higher cost than I had sold mine for earlier.

I don't get read of ammo any more.
 
Related: SGAmmo lists "32 S&W short" as a category of ammo. I'm blaming them.

http://www.sgammo.com/catalog/pistol-ammo-sale/38-sw-short-ammo
At least that makes some type of sense. There IS a 32 S&W Long, so the other should be called 32 S&W Short. I know it isn't, but still - it kinda makes sense.

Like 38 Colt. Lots of people will call it 38 Short Colt, because there is a 38 Long Colt there MUST BE a 38 Short Colt. Again, it's not, but it kinda makes sense.

Fiocchi loads 38 S&W. For some reason, they have decided that the name of that cartridge is 38 S&W Short. This one makes no sense. There's only one 38 S&W. It's the same size it's always been.

But - 4-Municion-Fiocchi-38-SW-Corto-145-gr-FMJ.jpg
 
I would add 6.5 Creedmore and 260 Rem. Seems like 6.5 is getting more popular these days.
 
28 ga is a very popular shotgun anymore among more experienced shot gunners.

Course, they probably got enough common sense to buy their own ammo.
Or reload it.

But quite frankly?

This is the strangest hoarding I have ever heard of!!

I don't have room for all the ammo I have guns for.

Let alone trying to lay in a supply of EVERYTHING ELSE!!!

rc
 
28 ga is a very popular shotgun anymore among more experienced shot gunners.

Course, they probably got enough common sense to buy their own ammo.
Or reload it.

But quite frankly?

This is the strangest hoarding I have ever heard of!!

I don't have room for all the ammo I have guns for.

Let alone trying to lay in a supply of EVERYTHING ELSE!!!

rc

Everything listed so far fits into one of the Cabela's .50 caliber-ish size green plastic/polymer ammo cans.

I don't know that anything else will fit, it's like playing Tetris to get it all in there and have it shut...but it fits. You'd have to be living in a NYC loft to not have room for it lol
 
My powder horn full of fine Swiss powder and my ball bag with .54 cal cast lead balls, a tin of percussion caps, and my patch knife and pillow ticking is enough for me. :cool:
 
I don't know that anything else will fit, it's like playing Tetris to get it all in there and have it shut...but it fits. You'd have to be living in a NYC loft to not have room for it lol
Oh, I understand now.
You are not hoarding shootable quantities of them all.
Just representative samples of each.

I had visions of an ample shooting ammo supply of each one.

You want small samples of each, like this.
attachment.php


Not shootable ammo supplies like this, in other words?

attachment.php


rc
 
Last edited:
Yes. Enough for a gun to be functional enough to use it in a pinch and test function briefly is all. Many rifle cartridges are only 20 rounds and pistol 50 (some 20)
 
RC,

Your wire rack is what I need for my growing supply of metal ammo cans. Do you recall what brand it is and where you got it?

Warp,

It took 39 posts for me to understand why you are acquiring ammunition you have no current use for. It's hard to disagree with your comment that you never know what firearms you might acquire in the future.

At first I thought your idea was pretty silly and a waste of money. However if the price is right and it is in good condition it has some merit. Gunshows round my parts have a good selection of old boxes of ammunition. The biggest fly in the soup for me is the seller has them overpriced. But I am handloader (24 +/- calibers) so acquiring more components such as dies, brass and bullets is much more cost efficient.
 
I tend to lean the other way of having plenty of "loaner firearms" that people are welcome to use. They always fall in line with a caliber for which I have thousands of rounds available. Either method would work I suppose.
 
8mm Mauser and 8x57 are the same thing, I'm less you're talking about 8x57J with the 0.318" bullet diameter as opposed to 0.323" in 8x57JS .

I don't see 257 Roberts or 250 savage.

Matt
 
Your wire rack is what I need for my growing supply of metal ammo cans. Do you recall what brand it is and where you got it?
Not sure of the brand, but I got it at Home Depot years ago.

rc
 
Thanks again to everybody pointing out my ignorance on some of these cartridges. Whenever I see one of those posts I open a tab to Google and enter the corresponding info to read later and get straightened out

I tend to lean the other way of having plenty of "loaner firearms" that people are welcome to use. They always fall in line with a caliber for which I have thousands of rounds available. Either method would work I suppose.

That is a similar/parallel thing. And a much higher threshold to give somebody a gun vs ammo, IMO...but I do have some firearms that the right person could have if the situation warranted. Just not many because, well, I don't really have a whole lot to begin with.

If only we could still get Excellent condition Yugo SKS's for $130 shipped...
 
If I understand the OP's goal, it is to have hard to find ammo on hand for fairly comman guns. Easy. Stock up on .32 RF. Millions of them out there never used. Many owners would be happy to fire just 2-3 shots.
 
My thought echo others. .41, 357magnum, and perhaps 38 super.
Popular I understand in the south west.
I wasn't completely unprepared when the shortage hit, but I recently purchased an 8 lb bottle of my favorite pistol powder. Also purchased bullets for all my pistols, and will continue to stock up. I've also been restocking 22lr.
 
If I understand the OP's goal, it is to have hard to find ammo on hand for fairly comman guns. Easy. Stock up on .32 RF. Millions of them out there never used. Many owners would be happy to fire just 2-3 shots.
If you have a .32 RF, you can shoot it, no problem.

Contact Hammond, http://www3.telus.net/gamegetter/

He may require a fired case, but he can make up a case with an offset .22 RF chamber. You use buckshot for the projectile, and load the chamber with a nail-setting blank.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top