stocking up on ammo

[mcm308 0]

I dont really call it hoarding or stocking up. For the past several years, I have liked to keep a "Inventory" of a level that I am comfortable with. The way I see it, If the lights go out tomorrow, you are not just going to be able to drive down tot he store and buy some. Taking a look at the current environment is a perfect example.

 

If I happen to be at the right place at the right time, and Ammo is "Reasonable", I usually buy it, and will use for bartering, or to just maintain my comfort level of inventory. And if it is a Good enough deal, I go to the Range and have some fun...

 

That hit the nail on the head. "If the lights go out tomorrow"...

 

Sandy taught me some valuable lessons in life and I thank her for that! Example.. I have a 55 gal drum in my shed just for fuel storage when the need arises again... and it will.

 

Molon Labe

 

 

[instantgratification 0]

magna cart or bust!

 

seriously a good bugout bag and 200 rnds of each caliber in which I own would suit me quite well.....

[mcm308 0]

My garage and how I drank my coffee in the mornings.. thankfully I only went 7 days without power.. could've been much longer. I had a generator running in the yard and people with generators were nighttime targets if they were not running. People would scope an area out and listen to hear who had them and then come back when it was quiet at night... even the police stopped me when I was out for a dog walk one night told me to watch out.. snoops are out...

 

That reminds me... I need a holster for the 20 ..

 

Molon Labe

[mipafox 438]

My garage and how I drank my coffee in the mornings.. thankfully I only went 7 days without power.. could've been much longer. I had a generator running in the yard and people with generators were nighttime targets if they were not running. People would scope an area out and listen to hear who had them and then come back when it was quiet at night... even the police stopped me when I was out for a dog walk one night told me to watch out.. snoops are out...

 

That reminds me... I need a holster for the 20 ..

 

Molon Labe

 

Chain it to something solid.

 

Deploy a $20-$50 "driveway alarm" motion detector ( http://www.homesecuritystore.com/ ) with the included piece of double-sided tape, setup requires about 5 minutes including reading the directions.

 

Or, if you don't have $20-$50, buy door/window contact alarms at the dollar store for $1 each. Place them on it and on the top of the ground supports so the contacts will break if it's moved.

 

Upon alarm let the dogs out or engage personally.

 

With all the crap we have to deal with because of technological advancements, we should at least take advantage of the cheap-ass security equipment available nowadays for hasty and/or non-critical security functions.

[MikeL417 33]

Buy a detroit diesel and a trailer... with a .50 cal mount.... BEFORE the ban

[mattio41 0]

That hit the nail on the head. "If the lights go out tomorrow"...

 

Sandy taught me some valuable lessons in life and I thank her for that! Example.. I have a 55 gal drum in my shed just for fuel storage when the need arises again... and it will.

 

Molon Labe

 

If you watch enough of the news, as a society, we really are only 3 meals away from social breakdown. although, I have a bug out bag packed and ready to go. That is more of a get out of dodge for a very short period of time. Bug-In, is more the plan now a days. When Sandy hit, we were out of power for 14 days. But everyday, the situation around us got a little better each day, so there was always a bright side. I do manage a stock of 20 gallons of Emergency Gas, as long as my wife doesn't use it, and not tell me she took some... Grrrrrr !!!!!

 

But if you look back a couple of years, after 911 when the power grid collapsed, and the entire Northeast, Lower Canada and parts of the midwest went dark. How long do you think it would have been, if the lights did not come back on the next day, before things started getting crazy. And there was no time to plan for that. One minute they are there, one minute they are gone. So, as i do my planning for Emergency preparedness, when I asked, My favorite Expression, "If the Lights Go out Tomorrow, what are you going to do... " At least with Sandy, we all had time to stock up and make preparations. And do we even want to speak about what a good direct hit of a nice Solar Flare would do for our Electrical Grid??? I know, worst case scenarios, but it has happened before, it will happen again. We have just been lucky.

 

And remember my friends, when things are dark and troubled.

 

The light at the end of the Tunnel, may not always be the light of Salvation, but more so the light of an Oncoming train !!!!

 

Hoarding or Stocking whatever you want to call it, is not necessarily a bad thing...

[mcm308 0]

I had 3/8" chain and 2 locks..lol plus my gate to get in the yard padlocked.. it was pretty secure but .. you never know. People that have addictions and can't get what they need do some crazy shit to try....

 

Molon Labe

 

 

[mcm308 0]

Mattio, are you in Sayreville? They had areas down for 14 days..

 

Molon Labe

 

 

[wooly bugger 1]

Irene was definitely the wake up call for me. Days with no lights, no power, no cell phone reception, and lots of neighbors having fled the neighborhood.

 

Anyone who wanted could have come though a window and taken his time doing whatever he wanted. Amazing that people still think we should just outsource all of our security to the police.

[Njgunowner 2]

300 .40 cal

600 .556/223

 

I had 800 9mm, but I sold them to a couple of people here at work. (pre-stupid prices, I'm not an opportunist)

[mattio41 0]

Mattio, are you in Sayreville? They had areas down for 14 days..

 

Molon Labe

 

I am down in Eatontown. we had pockets of power pop up around us, but our area stayed Dark. Our development does not get a lot of police patrols, so we established our own neighborhood patrol. And considering AT&T was down what seamed like forever, those walkie talkies I had bought for emergency use, actually were used. Between my two, and somebody else had a pair. We managed to sync up to one channel, and we took turns patrolling. We had just one incident of a group of teens, roaming around, that did not belong in our neighborhood.

[sicrado 0]

I agree, during Irene (wasn't too bad on the islands in CMC) & esp Sandy many places went without the rule of law. That was eye opening, and I really changed my opinion on "disaster" situations. You are on your own. And there is NO debate on that.

 

Since Irene, I've always kept a very comfortable level of things on hand, and I assume the lights could go off today. It seems to me that that when mainstream media starts forecasting impending doom (weather systems/gun bans/whatever) it is too late to go out and fuel up on your milk eggs & bread.

 

Not any different with ammo. I haven't been "hoarding" & honestly haven't bought anything since before black friday, but have had at minimum a thousand rounds for each type of firearm I have. (I wish I had a couple more bricks of .22 tho... who doesn't) Since things have went the way they did, my buddy has been teaching me how to reload all the different types of ammo (pistol/rifle/shotgun)... but unfortunately I don't have the space (read: garage or basement) to have my own press & equipment.

 

Being on a barrier island, I really lucked out with these past storms, and def wont get caught with my pants down like I did with Irene.

[JrzyGuy30 0]

My generator is built inside a well ventilated 100lb box held down by concrete blocks and a padlock to open it- which is under my deck, which you need access to by opening a padlocked gate - plus the generator is chained to the decks supporting post. And then I have my wife's hypersensitive watch dog, and when the powers out at night, you can hear EVERYTHING outside(so he barks at every rustle outside). Back deck w/generator is right outside the window I sleep at night... And shotty is right by the bed

[Vlad G 345]

Be careful with CO getting in your bedroom if it is that close to your bedroom.

[Night Prowler 0]

I was out 15 days from this last hurricane. I had a 1/2" chain that I had locked and welded the chain together and had that chained to a 4000 lb boulder.

I had my truck bed filled with gas cans and the bed is covered and locked. For two weeks around me gas was tough to get and was like gold. I had enough for my house and two houses with elderly people.

Where I live security is not a normal concern. Normally the dog is enough. We started having a lot of generator thefts and gas thefts. This was one of the first times I had my AR and 45 out at night.

[wooly bugger 1]

OK, this is way off topic, but how do you store your gas?

Even with preservative, I'm afraid to have it lying around too long, so before big storms, I've been buying 5-10 gallons and then just pouring it into my car after the storm passes.

[mattio41 0]

OK, this is way off topic, but how do you store your gas?

Even with preservative, I'm afraid to have it lying around too long, so before big storms, I've been buying 5-10 gallons and then just pouring it into my car after the storm passes.

 

Gas will hold no problem for 3 months without even putting additives in it. I have 4 - 5 gallon containers. I label each one with blue painters tape and a marker, the day that I fill them up. and then in about 6 -7 weeks, I will start rotating them through the car. So, I will take 1 or 2, put in the car, and bring the cans with me to the station and fill up again, mark new date. 6-8 weeks, repeat with second set.

 

Once you get the rotation going, no big deal. you always have fresh gas on hand.

[Vlad G 345]

With additives gas will be fine for a year or longer. I know this from personal experience.

[mattio41 0]

With additives gas will be fine for a year or longer. I know this from personal experience.

 

This is true also, I just don't like running it through the car, and my generator seams to smoke a lot more then normal. But basically a personal preference.

 

I do keep some on hand if needed though.

[Vlad G 345]

I just mix it into my car's gas tank when I'm short just a couple of gallons in the tank, and I add one gallon or two, run my tank down, refill, repeat until the old can is gone.

[302w 83]

Chain it to something solid.

 

Funny thing about this.

 

My dad bought an expensive generator during Sandy. I don't remember the price of it, but its a 4kw Honda if I remember correctly and wasn't cheap. The generator got chained to my truck which wasn't being driven because gas was such a hard to find commodity. The generator stayed chained to my truck for about a week after I got power because it was a two person job moving the heavy SOB around.

 

I forgot it was chained to my truck. Luckily the thing only flipped once and I only dragged it for 10 or 15 feet.

[mcm308 0]

 

Gas will hold no problem for 3 months without even putting additives in it. I have 4 - 5 gallon containers. I label each one with blue painters tape and a marker, the day that I fill them up. and then in about 6 -7 weeks, I will start rotating them through the car. So, I will take 1 or 2, put in the car, and bring the cans with me to the station and fill up again, mark new date. 6-8 weeks, repeat with second set.

 

Once you get the rotation going, no big deal. you always have fresh gas on hand.

 

This is what I do. 20 gal. Of gas really don't last long. That's why I got 2 empty 55 gal. Barrels from work and then got hand pumps for them. One for me and one for my neighbor. We made 2 trips to exit 4 on the turnpike with a bed full of cans. I had 70 gal. In my garage at one point. Some generators like to drink.. do the math.. 20 gal @ say 3 gal a day for generator and then throw in some vehicle driving..

 

Molon Labe

 

 

[Clintoon Eastwood 2]

I got 100 rounds of cci mini mags, a tube of crazy glue, 3 rolls of duct tape and a whistle.....

 

What more do I need? Ohh yeah and a bottle of red hot...because I put that sh!t on everything

[Night Prowler 0]

With the gas I luck out. I'm self

Employed so it ends up in the mower and quad at home and the rest goes into work for my equipment.

[mcm308 0]

Sandy was a real eye opener to say the least. Yea.. you can prepare for a storm and all but until you see bad.. and Sandy was bad.. you think a little different.

 

I had a couple police patrols in my area but you all know how it goes down... when you need them, they aren't around. When shit like that happens, they have bigger issues like directing traffic at intersections instead of worrying about the looters. And then they have the BALLS to try and take away my firepower and leave me with a 6 round revolver to defend the bad guys who have... you know what... all the stuff they just took away from me...

 

Yeaaaa....OK

 

Molon Labe

 

 

[mattio41 0]

 

This is what I do. 20 gal. Of gas really don't last long. That's why I got 2 empty 55 gal. Barrels from work and then got hand pumps for them. One for me and one for my neighbor. We made 2 trips to exit 4 on the turnpike with a bed full of cans. I had 70 gal. In my garage at one point. Some generators like to drink.. do the math.. 20 gal @ say 3 gal a day for generator and then throw in some vehicle driving..

 

Molon Labe

 

Unfortunately, I am in a 1 car garage townhouse, so space is limited. With warning, I have an additional 4 cans that are just empty and waiting. During Sandy, they were full and we were rocking 40 gallons and had no issues. And when it was all over, plunged into the cars, and saved what I wanted

[mcm308 0]

Yea..I hear ya. You do the best you can do with what you have to deal with.

 

Molon Labe

 

 

[Stonecoldchavez 92]

I have several hundred rounds of two different calibers in my bugout bag. They rest I keep in .50cal ammo cans.

 

My dilema now is whether to use my SHTF .223 rounds I have stored up for practice shooting. I want to become more proficient with my .223 but don't want to be caught short handed. I will buy .223 .40cal, .22 whenever I get a chance or see it for a decent price.

[almiz111 26]

To all who added the great humor to this post. I LOVE YOU!

 

I have a zoo down the street and I think they have lllllllllllllamas. Hooray.

[Black Ops 1]

I wonder whether a rifle & pistol club could bulk buy ammo direct from manufacturers for its members at cost? Appropriate licenses and permits & secure storage would be required. This would be a good member benefit given the current situation.