A LOT of reaction to the Ammo post, both on and offline.
I wanted to add a little to the monetary implications. Most, understandably, assert I need 10 times what I have in the primary ammo department for true SHTF major Zombie outbreak situations. Ok, I'll game along with that hypothetical, economically.
For sake of argument, we'll say I need to go from 50 to 500 on my primary handgun, and from 300 to 3000 in the primary rifle. Assume I have lot and LOTS of .22LR.
.45 or .357 costs around $15 for a box of 50. Easy math. And doable. $150 isn't so bad.
.308 is a whole different story. If you are very lucky you can find it now for about 50 cents a bullet. About a $15 a box, but the box is a box of 20. Again easy math, but the final dollar amount is a little intimidating. $1500. I can't even DREAM of spending that kind of money right now. It will have to be a LONG accumulation over time. And i am already doing that as much as I can. It's very slow right now.
An alternative is bargain basement. But I don't want to go TOO baragain basement and have inconsistent, possibley corrosive, or ammo my Garand won't cycle well. I've seen Russian imported 7.62x51 with zinc plated steel cases as low as 40 cents round. So we're still talking $1300+. If I could afford $1300 I could afford $1500.
And next year, all this ammo will be even more expensive. I'll just have to continue going to the range, buying 5 boxes, and shooting 4 of them for practice. Or stop into Potomac Trading to drool on the offerings in the case, but only leaving with 20 rounds. Do that every other week and you got 500 rounds in a year. Slow slow slow. But not too painful.
Good thing I quit smoking.
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Ooo, reloading! If I can get someone like Scott Duff and a bunch more experts to agree that: "Yeah if you reload this way, with this kind of brass, this weight of bullet, these kind of primers and this much powder, you'll be fine reloading for the M-1 or M1A." then I could drive the cost down to maybe 30 cents a round. Or about $1000 for 3000 rounds. That's getting better. I need to check out the NRA reloading classes.
[a previous commenter noted the possibility of relaoding for the semi-autos as long as you didn't cut corners with over-used or low quality materials. good. i'm looking for more reinforcement on this.]
Here's another nifty reloading guide someone posted
Not sure about your area, but where I am I can get Federal Power-Shok in .308 for $11/box at Wal-Mart, and there's currently a mail-in rebate through Federal for $10 off a purchase of two boxes. So that gets you down to about $0.35/round (including sales tax and the stamp). If you don't mind annoying family members or neighbors, you can have take advantage of this multiple times, and get at least 4-6 boxes at that rate.
ReplyDeleteKeep an eye out for ammunition deals; stores and manufacturers often run sales or rebates, and sometimes you can hit them both at once. I picked up a bunch of 9mm for significantly cheaper than Wal-Mart prices because I was able to combine a coupon with a sale. When the opportunity arises, jump on it!
Alternatively, make the SKS or AK47 your main battle rifle, and get ammunition online for less than $0.20/round via sources like AIM Surplus.
There are many reasons I won't choose an 7.62x39mm rifle, but in this case, a BIG reason is I can't buy AK ammo (or ANY for that matter) from AIM Surplus. Or from Cheaper than Dirt, or any other catalog.
ReplyDeleteI live in a county where it is illegal to ship ammo to my door.
Oh and this county like to keep the riff raff out, so they won't let a Wal Mart open up anywhere but in the hinterlands of the county. I have to seek one out, but I have a Bass Pro near my work that has sales.
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