Odds are, you're too late.......

Criticizing the human nature of hoarding (fear and greed) is more irrational than the hoarding behavior itself - people are guided thru life by their fear and their greed - that will never change. They will hoard and they will be afraid - you cannot not stop it. You should only accept it and try to be smart enough to use it as an advantage. Criticizing people for acting like people is like yelling at the desert because it doesn’t have any water on it - very dumb - use the understanding of what drives the human animal as a tool - stop being critical as it changes nothing and will accomplish nothing.

We did a little inventory last night and it wasn't as bad as I feared. I did put in for 10K of shotgun primers. Had to pay up, full price of course but all the wads, powder, and lead aren't must good with out primers.

Got 4 pounds of IMR Green and 4 pounds of IMR Blue. I normally use Green Dot and Blue Dot but looking around at loading data first these see close enough in a pinch if things get tight and I can easily use that up in shotguns if I never need it in anything else.

I figure I'm set for the duration now.

I just got into reloading and haven't actually loaded a round yet( I'll take the newbie pass).

I have just under 1500 rounds of factory ammo, 1# of HP-38, 1000 SPP, and 1000 RMR 9MM FMJ.

I ordered another 1000 RMR FMJ (I appreciate the communication from RMR the past day or so), picked up 1000 SPP at Cabela's this morning (planned to take both boxes but gave 1 to another customer), and ordered 2# of No. 7 from PV. This has to hold me for the time being as I was laid off last week. When the panic buying is over and I'm working again, I'll start accumulating as I can.

I'm behind the curve given the current circumstances.

Looks like RMR has plenty of .224 bullets left. Placed an order.

Espy42 said:

I just got into reloading and haven't actually loaded a round yet( I'll take the newbie pass).

I have just under 1500 rounds of factory ammo, 1# of HP-38, 1000 SPP, and 1000 RMR 9MM FMJ.

I ordered another 1000 RMR FMJ (I appreciate the communication from RMR the past day or so), picked up 1000 SPP at Cabela's this morning (planned to take both boxes but gave 1 to another customer), and ordered 2# of No. 7 from PV. This has to hold me for the time being as I was laid off last week. When the panic buying is over and I'm working again, I'll start accumulating as I can.

I'm behind the curve given the current circumstances.

Click to expand...

I wish you the best of luck.

Espy42 said:

I just got into reloading and haven't actually loaded a round yet( I'll take the newbie pass).

I have just under 1500 rounds of factory ammo, 1# of HP-38, 1000 SPP, and 1000 RMR 9MM FMJ.

I ordered another 1000 RMR FMJ (I appreciate the communication from RMR the past day or so), picked up 1000 SPP at Cabela's this morning (planned to take both boxes but gave 1 to another customer), and ordered 2# of No. 7 from PV. This has to hold me for the time being as I was laid off last week. When the panic buying is over and I'm working again, I'll start accumulating as I can.

I'm behind the curve given the current circumstances.

Click to expand...

You are NOT completely out of luck yet. Do your shopping.

After 40 - 50 years or reloading I'm still learning my lesson and even learning it over again some times.

I think the one best piece of advice I could give you that would help EVERYONE of any age group or experience level, is plan ahead.

1. Plan ahead by having a little bargain money you can splurge on the spot when you find a bargain. 50% off normal cost, at a yard sale, shop going out of business, auction, buddy needs a couple bucks. Those are the places you'll run across the "I wish I had an extra hundo for that."

2. Plan ahead, by knowing what you need. See above, it ain't cheap if you don't need it.

3. Plan ahead, by knowing what you need. Didn't he just say that? Before you buy the first component, know how many of them you want to reload. It may be determined by how many empty cases you have. How many factory bullets do you have that you will want to reload. May be you got a bargain on primers already? Primers are no good with out bullets and powder, ie, you don't need 'em if you don't buy powder and primers, bullets for them.

Example.You get 7000 grains of powder in a pound. 5 grains of Red Dot under a 230 cast bullet is pretty common load for 45acp. 7000/5 = "So I want to do this, how much powder should I buy? ONE poud of Red Dot will load 1400 pieces of 45 acp. You need 1400 primers, 1400 bullets and a pound of Red Dot.

Do your own list like that for the ammunition you want to be reloading. No need to have 10000 primers and 2 pounds of powder and 200 bullets. You run an inventory like that and think you have a lot of stuff and you spent a lot of money so you should have a lot of "stuff" but it hits the fan and you are here today. You have a lot of stuff in that scenario but you only have 200 piece of ammunition.

Don’t give up on hunting components. I scored a full box of Remington large pistol primers today for 23.99. That, along with what I already have, should be plenty for the new 1911.
I’ve been buying stuff on sale for years now, I learned from the last time.
What surprised me this time is how fast this went down, and how the shelves were stripped bare. There’s lots of folks being laid off or fired. It’s hard to believe they would be buying large amounts of ammo instead of food. So, who’s buying it?

Anyway, I have a feeling that it’s going to be closer to two years before the supply returns. Some factories will have to shut down, others will lose staff to the virus. But we’re Americans and we’ll get through this!

Been building a little inventory of loaded ammo last few years as prices for some common calibers were equal (brass black packs after sale price and rebates) or less than (steel case lots on clearance sales) my component reloading costs on a bunch of common cartridges. Just got a new round of bullets, primers, and powder last month for the hunting rifles and revolvers. Wish I knew where people were getting low cost primers! Since Cabelas discontinued the S&B's for $17 on sale, I've been stuck paying 35 to 40 per thousand the past couple years. At this point it's not important. Hopefully this latest run is short lived!

Reloader, bullet caster, hunter and shooter for 40 years now. To me being prepared for unseen events be they man made or natural has always been a way of life, I grew up poor in the rural south when every day was a struggle just to survive to the next day, week or season, if you didn't make, grow, raise or kill it or couldn't barter with neighbors for what you needed you did without. That pretty much set the stage in my life that when I got into a position to provide for myself and my family I would never find myself in that position again.

I am by no means a hoarder, I don't buy excessive amount of things that just take up space that are never used or shared with friends or family members when needed that will eventually just go bad because at some point either things are going to get better or the end is inevitable and it's not going to do you any good anyways, it's a personal decision as to how each one plans to weather out the storm you may face. All those things I mentioned at first are part of my preps just like any of the basic needs for myself and my family. I've never had to worry about what I shoot or how much I shoot during any of the multiple ammo / component shortages we have had, I usually spend more time prepping brass, reloading, casting and coating or working on new test loads than I go shooting during those times.

I have put back several factory span cans of steel case ammo for all my Russian calibers as well as reloads and factory SD ammo that I don't touch. If I do shoot those reloads or factory ammo I replace it but I dont shoot that ammo when it's not available or the price is jacked up.

It's this kind of crisis, plus election year jitters that get people on edge. Americans think they can buy things to cope with uncertainty and guns and ammo make people feel secure. It's ironic that guns and ammo can't actually provide security from a pandemic. The rule of law still remains.

If anything, a temporary lack of ammo generates interest in guns, shooting, and reloading - which is a good thing.

Lets be honest, gun and ammo manufacturers haven't been doing that well these last three years or so. The deals had been really good. But, with a spike in demand - bye bye deals - at least probably through November if the political climate is status quo. I will just wait until then.

I haven't bought anything in this crisis time and I really don't feel the need. Panic causes people to do things they normally wouldn't. People go crazy over things they might not be able to get. For those that remember 1994-2004, 2008-2015 - our present situation is nothing.

I'm sure the "what if" brigade feels differently - haha.

I found myself down to 2k small pistol primers. Luckily I used up the other 10k filling ammo boxes over the last few months. i don't like being low on primers but i have plenty of pistol ammo.

I've been around/through a couple shortages before and usually keep my inventory levels up... but, we are all human. I managed to fail to keep up stock of my .45ACP projectiles and LPPs. Good thing is I do have a few 50 cal cans of reloads on hand, so am not completely without something to shoot of that caliber. Plus I found some bullets on the back of the shelf that I hadn't tried yet, so now I am.

FWIW- in the last week or so I was able to find and order more .45ACP bullets and LPPs, at regular pricing, plus an 8lb jug of Unique. And added to the .38 Special/.45 Colt bullet stash with another 1000pc each as well.


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I have been out of reloading for quite a while and finally decided to get back into it. Ordered my press and accessories and of course, right when I was ready to order components this happens. Oh well. As far as loaded ammo goes, I am comfortable with what I have in the main calibers, but still, it would be nice to be able to start loading my own again for my extra calibers.