I was looking at the ammo shelf in a local store yesterday and it was, naturally, picked over pretty hard. Of the ammo that was left it was a box of this, three boxes of that, two boxes of the other….nothing left in any quantity. As for what was missing….that pretty much tells the story.
Hit any preparedness forum and you’ll see the endless posts about “What calibers should survivalists standardize on” and you get the usual list. But, simple observation of the shelves shows that this nation runs on 9mm and .223. QED.
Of course the flip side to that is having a backup caliber so you can still get ammo when ammo is tight.
During the great ammo drought, .40S&W was still on the shelves.
I was able to buy a case of 762 a few weeks ago, when there was zero 223…
The best plan is to have all you need already, but it’s also helpful to have alternatives.
n
(and I’ve been using the bb guns and airsoft to get some practice in without burning up precious ammo)
If a person is forward-thinking enough to say “Hmm…popular ammo calibers may become unobtainium in the future. I should buy a gun in a undersold caliber so I’ll be able to find ammo during those times” then that person should also be forward thinking enough to simply stock up on the popular caliber ammo at the start, and obviate the entire need for the oddball gun.
Or just buy one or more of every gun and youll be covered. Its not an obsession if you label it Preparedness. Trust me, i know.
And it’s not hoarding until you’re saving used tin foil, and urine in jars….
n
In case the stores stop selling urine?
Zero,
Hit that nail on the head!! Anyone saying you should have an odd caliber, because you can still find a box or two on the shelve is missing the whole point of preparedness.
Not to mention that your local gun shops may decide to stop carrying that oddball caliber because no one is buying it. Then you’re screwed.
When all those police trade in .40s hit the market, they were cheap, and .40 was available (if a bit more $ than 9mm). Couple the lower cost of the pistols with no shortage of ammo, and it was looking pretty attractive as a secondary system.
One of the problems I have is that my answer to how much ammo do I need for preps is always going to be “more”… but circumstances don’t allow that “more” to come all at the same time. That leads to buying over time, which is subject to the vicissitudes of politics and the market, which means that when I can buy ammo THIS month, what I want to buy might not be available, so THIS month I might buy an alternate caliber that is available. Over time, I can build up stocks of both calibers so that my total for rifles is nearer to where I want it to be, even if my stock for EACH rifle is lower than I would like (and given the “more” mentioned above, it’s ALWAYS going to be lower than I’d like….)
So yeah, having one big pile in one caliber, bought ahead of need, is great, and really awesome if you’ve already done that. But at any given point in time we might find that what we can currently purchase isn’t what we’d have purchased in the past, when the funds weren’t there. Being able to purchase SOMETHING useful whenever funds are available, despite ebb and flow in supply is A Good Thing ™.
I think of it a bit like groceries- If the manager’s special is steak, I buy steak. But if the best price I can get this week is on hamburger, I buy hamburger. Either way, I’ve got food I can eat piling up in the freezer 🙂
nick
I’m with CZ on this one… with the money you spend on getting another weapon in your “backup” caliber, and of course you will need more than one, and all the logistical tail that goes with it, you would be better served just stocking up on more of your primary ammo.
Nick, I agree. When this started I ended up purchasing a Glock 27 with extra mags for that same reason. I had 9mm and multiple platforms but needed an alternative/backup.
As this thing progresses each and every one of us needs to think through the “what ifs”……2020 has clearly taught us that nothing is impossible anymore.
I guess it must be an American thing. The other day I was at the gunshop where I buy my ammo and the stock was fine. There was plenty of reasonably priced .223/5.56 and .308/7.62X51 Mind you, seeing what’s going on south of the border, I still bought a case of .223 and a case of 7.62X51 ammo.
Plenty of boutique rifle ammo. A friend of mine just got a Marlin 1895M in 450 Marlin. Good ballistics and ammo isn’t as hard to find as 45-70. Still damned spendy.
Pistol calibers I’m still seeing on the shelf are 357Sig, 38 Super, 327 Federal Magnum. Not much, but it’s there. They’re all calibers I’m interested in. I have 357Sig pistols already. I have 2 Glocks and 3 M&Ps that are now 3 caliber guns.
The 38 Super can be a pretty hot round. It used to be pretty popular. I don’t know if it’s possible to do a drop-in conversion with a 45 ACP 1911. Or any other 45.
I really like the idea of 327 Fed in a 6 shot SP101. Close to 357 Mag ballistics in a much more controllable package. The SP101 is kind of hard to find lately.
Good luck to us all!
9mm and 5.56/.223 are still the place to be because most of us already have a good amount of ammo and are not desperate to buy at any price immediately. Looking forward should Slow Joe and the Ho get their way with guns and ammo… there is still literally TONS and TONS of 9mm and 5.56 in sock drawers, glove compartments, and closets all across the nation. It will be available at flea markets, yard sales, estate sales, and for barter in a commie world, or a Mad Max world. Good luck finding .327 Federal, .357Sig and all those fun capable rounds. I also think it will be easier to either reload 9mm and 5.56 yourself or have Joe down the street reload your brass for you… again because the basic components are more common especially the brass. I don’t reload but I save every scrap of lead I can find and all the brass too from the rare trip to a range or more likely when I let others use my property to shoot.
You guys nailed it! I picked up a case of 7.62 x 39 at the old prices, and 2 cases of 7.62 x 54R at old prices also. Spent some time at the range shooting those rounds, saving my 9mm and 5.56 for later. Shot my 32 acp, my 9×18, my 6.5 creedmoor. Y’all know the drill. Up North Mike, be thankful and stock up, I’m sure we have the same manufacturers, just that 4-5 million new gun owners a month down here are gobblin’ up everything that is produced!
Good points on this planning issue. Yet I don’t know any POTG who don’t have at multiple 9mms & 5.56s. And even “limited budget” guys like me might have a 30-30, .303Brit, .357, etc. just because cool factor.
In my neck of the woods today, 6 Boxes of 357 Sig were the entirety of the pistol ammo selection at a sportsman’s warehouse, and someone was inquiring if they had a 357 Sig pistol on the wall to go with it 😳
I’ve debated this one a bit.
Option A is to get additional guns in calibers that you’re seeing available this far into the ammo drought.
Option B is to spend the money you were going to drop on the additional guns (plus mags, holsters, cases etc.) on more ammo for your primary calibers.
We’ll probably do some of both. Add more ammo to the stock (still need to get a real inventory done) then set quantities for minimum, preferred etc.
Add a couple more options for practice or social guns plus a limited about of ammo for those as well.
Around here we’re seeing 32acp, 44 mag., limited 40 & 10mm.
We’re shifting to ordering what we want online. It may be more expensive up front but I’m not wasting time & fuel checking shops multiple times a week.
Steelheart
Got three e-mails today. One from AIM about caused my to soil my underwear. A case on Federal 9mm FMJ. A case of a thousand rounds was $549.99. PPU was the same price. After that just deleted the rest. Cheaper than Dirt and Classic essentially were touting the fact they “had ammo”. I guess in some ways that in itself is a victory. I guess it will last till after the new year. Depending how long the CPUSA terrorist groups decide to throw the fits of petulant children. I remember the riotous summers of 1965 to 1969. This was not allowed. Curfews against being on the street and looting earned you a bullet under the shoot to kill orders issued by the Mayors and Governors. Now with one political party controlling these terrorists groups we have another part of the equation to deal with. In my youth the KKK was replaced by the SDS and the Weather Underground. Now it’s Antifa and BLM. The Democrats have always had their militant wing that act as enforcers and ground troops. Less than a month to go. What will we be on the other side of this election. Your guess is as good as mine. But I just don’t know.
https://www.ammunitiondepot.com/ has 762 in case quantities and the price is only $350/1000 which, while high, is less than $1/rd that 556 is going for.
n
Sat, 1030am
Is that 7.62x39mm or 7.62x51mm NATO.
If there are no ammo to be had in my prepping calibers, but there are ammo to be had in some relative oddball caliber, then i will get a gun in that caliber and buy the available ammo and go to the range. I will certainly not go plinking away my eotwawki calibers for fun when i cant replenish them.
There was a time not that many moons ago when the 30-30 Winchester round was considered a standard caliber for survivalist and preppers. Reason being lots of the small Lake side stores sold this caliber along with all the versions of the .22 rounds. Short, long and long rifle. Small country stores were the same. Just small burgs in remote areas or between the large towns. I have a Winchester 94 and nearly a thousand rounds of ammo. Both factory and reloads. Fella over here in Michigan who does survival videos name of Buckshot claims he is adequately armed with a Winchester 94 and a Browning Buck Mark 22 semi auto pistol. I have one of each. Truth is with more than ten million versions of the Model 94 and the current crop of knock offs since USRA went tango uniform a few years back there is surely a need for this caliber. And last time I looked there ain’t no flies on the 30-30.