Is it time to fortify your ammo cache

Squirreling things away has to be tempered somewhere between future need and paranoia. Still not sure what that point is.

Just like precious metals - Buy Low / Sell High is my strategy . Even during the recent panic there were some deals around. Midway had Remington 7 1/2 BR primers for $24 / 1000, everyone else was asking $30 - $36. Needless to say I stocked up . If you are able it wouldn't hurt to stock up on items you will use. Prices are probably as low as you will see them now. Heck, I remember when a brick of 22 was $5, the lowest I've seen recently was around $12.

edwardware said:

I hear that, but consider Sam Gabbert (the owner of SGAmmo). He's still clearing stock from the last banic (just had a sale on the last few cases of a special Barnaul load he had made), much of it below cost. I hope they make it, they're nice folks.

I wouldn't want to wager my retirement on timing a market as volatile as Arms. Too many people who do this for a living get caught out on the short end.

What I am happy to wager is that I'll still be shooting, one way or another, 6 or 8 cases of primers from now.

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Ain't that the truth.

I brought several stripped AR lowers before the 2016 elections with the intent to flip them for a insane amount after HRH won. I'll be danged when Trump won it shattered my get rich plan. Then I started reading @GunnyUSMC posts and became one of his cult members.

I did realize earlier this week that I had better stock up on some primers. And of course primers need powder. And powder needs bullets.

Crazy ain't it?

I can see a case or two of 22 rimfire coming in. I'm finding CCI standard velocity for under 5¢/round delivered.

Hard to pass on that.

I stocked up on CCI Standard Velocity from Brownells when it hit the 5 cent per round mark and they had a promo for free shipping. Next time I'll pay a little extra for shipping. The box I received was smashed with loose rounds rolling around and I lost one round somewhere.

It is not just with Brownells. I had a ammo order from PSA arrived with the box smashed. I think UPS has a hard on for gun owners.

BSA1 said:

It is not just with Brownells. I had a ammo order from PSA arrived with the box smashed. I think UPS has a hard on for gun owners.

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No, not really.....my first job 40 years ago was with Radio Shack. Products were delivered by UPS many times. We always just pronounced UPS as "OOOOOOPS" for reasons I'm sure you can guess.

This is a good time to buy ammunition regardless of whether or not one wants to stock up for a panic buying situation. 9mm and 5.56 both are available at the lowest prices I think I have seen them in the last decade and the other calibers have pretty good prices as well.

There's no such thing as too much ammo.
There's only too much ammo to carry.

Rembrandt said:

Squirreling things away has to be tempered somewhere between future need and paranoia. Still not sure what that point is.

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Ammo is a consumable, not an investment. I would not squirrel away more than I could ever use, just as a speculation against a future panic. At some point, storage becomes a problem. And even a future panic is likely to be temporary. Ammo is not something that can be effectively banned by legislation.

Each week, buy twice as much ammo as you shot that week......and once a month but another gun, used or new.

Isn't it always time to be stockpiling ammo?

These days I'm more inclined to stockpile components.

About 20 years ago, a close acquaintance of mine once bought, I think, around 40 bricks of .22LR ammo from a shop that was going out of business. Great price. However, he only shoots 2-3 boxes a year at squirrels and maybe another box plinking. So if he shoots 4 boxes a year, he bought enough for 100 years. Now at age 82, he asked me to sell it for him, which I did. Wish he had asked during the shortage. He paid $10 per brick; I sold it for $30. So, there is your investment strategy; now your kids don't have to worry about college expenses

AlexanderA said:

Ammo is a consumable, not an investment.

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I am absolutely certain that 'consumable' and 'investment' are not mutually exclusive terms and certainly not in this case.

Yep buy all you can afford

I'd like to have 5K rounds per caliber but I have to eat and pay other bills over buying ammo stocks. CA goes to their new system July 1 so if I had more $ to spend in that direction I'd buy more. For me it is the tracking of what I'd buy in terms of ammo. Other merchants and the C-card companies can already build a pretty detailed profile of buying habits and items I've bought. Those aren't highly debated items though

One of my buddy's stated he has about 10K in each caliber.

Panic early, avoid the crowd

I still got .380acp so I’m good

And the BATF ban it like they tried to do to M855 a few years ago.

I'm a big advocate of being prepared. I didn't have to quit shooting or pay inflated prices for ammo or components during the last shortage or the ones before it. I don't plan on doing it during the next one either. We do groceries the same way. We don't rush out to the store if bad weather is forecast. Now is the time to be buying. You don't have to buy a lifetime supply all at once. Just buy more than you consume every so often. Keep up with what you have. Watch for sales. Rotate your stock to consume the oldest first.

I've been buying a lot of ammo lately---problem is, I've been shooting a lot of ammo lately too.

I just need to shoot a little less and it will start accumulating again.

Shoot one box, buy two on the way home.

P5 Guy said:

Shoot one box, buy two on the way home.

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Because, I've already tried the ' buy 3 boxes, but only shoot one' approach.

That didn't go so well.

Considering the shortages and gouging of mere yesteryear, and all of the outrageous sales we've had in the past couple years, it would be foolish not to stock up on at least a thousand or two (or five) rounds of useful calibers (and/or components) and maybe a few dozen magazines depending on your perceived needs.

It's not paranoia if it's the cheapest you've seen in years.

You probably shouldn't wager your retirement on it, but now there's no excuse for being caught flat-footed should we return to the dark days of $50+ bricks and standard cap mags.