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Post by USCGME2 on Apr 6, 2013 22:58:24 GMT -7
Ive been thinking lately about the value of having a couple of "off" caliber firearms. Up until the current ammo shortage, I have always subscribed to only using popular guns in popular calibers like .22lr, 40 s/w, 45 etc. I wonder if it gets real tight and all the common caliber ammo and spare parts are gone would it be beneficial to have something less common like a 22/250, 300 Savage, 264 Win mag, .280 rem, 8mm mauser, 6.5 grendels or a 16 ga shottie. If I had an AR platform that fired .243 Id be hip deep in ammo. What say you folks??? Own any odd ball calibers? Is there advantage to getting an off the wall caliber? If you had to choose one what would it be?
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Post by Nicodemus on Apr 7, 2013 5:19:20 GMT -7
" I wonder if it gets real tight and all the common caliber ammo and spare parts are gone." This should have already been one of your top priorities in prepping. If not, I'd sure hurry up and get prepared!  |
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Post by marc on Apr 7, 2013 7:14:43 GMT -7
Ive been thinking lately about the value of having a couple of "off" caliber firearms. Up until the current ammo shortage, I have always subscribed to only using popular guns in popular calibers like .22lr, 40 s/w, 45 etc. I wonder if it gets real tight and all the common caliber ammo and spare parts are gone would it be beneficial to have something less common like a 22/250, 300 Savage, 264 Win mag, .280 rem, 8mm mauser, 6.5 grendels or a 16 ga shottie. If I had an AR platform that fired .243 Id be hip deep in ammo. What say you folks??? Own any odd ball calibers? Is there advantage to getting an off the wall caliber? If you had to choose one what would it be? I always went the same direction: stick with the common stuff for availability. Boy, did that turn out differently....... Good lesson. If I were to still own guns, I would just stay with weapons that meet my needs and get lots of ammo and of course spare guns. An ammo shortage like the one we are slowly pulling out of, would be meaningless if you already have a bunch of ammo. For the cost of adding (or changing to) odd caliber guns and ammo, I would prefer to beef up what I have. Walmart had 20 boxes of (100) Federal 55gr fmj .223 on the shelf this morning. OK, it's not 5.56 but it's still 55gr moving at 3240 fps - for $350. per 1000. Marc |
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Post by Cwi555 on Apr 7, 2013 8:25:27 GMT -7
Back before that horrible GCM event, we owned a multitude of odd calibers. It averaged 200 rounds a piece depending on the scarcity of the round. Some rounds like the 5.56x39 were almost as cheap as 22lr was when it hit the market. The same applies to the 7.62x54R, and other rounds of that nature when they first came out. A person could load up ~12,000 rounds for $1,000 in 7.62x39 back in the late eighties/early nineties if you shopped around.
There were rounds such as the 6.5 carcano, .303 brit, etc that were still in good supply up until the 90's.
The best deal I recall was from century arms circa 1993 where a case of 1000 rounds of .308 was 99 dollars. Mildly corrosive, berdan primed, brass cased. Shot great, and as long as you used a chrome lined barrel, no problems. For 10 cents a round some folks loaded up.
Then again, if a person loaded up on .22lr at the same time @ ~8.00 a 'brick', it didn't take much money to put a lot aside.
Of course that was all before the gypsy circus monkey mafia hit the streets, they sank a lot of boats trying to ship it down river as well.
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Post by Redneckidokie on Apr 7, 2013 12:16:20 GMT -7
Yes yes and yes. I have always feared or suspected a time would come that ammo will go away. If the end ever does come and I am walking through the rubble of cities, and I find 'A' bullet, I'll have 'A' gun to shoot it in. The most common left over ammo here is the 7mm family. Almost alway 7mag or ultra mag at WM. 22/250 often available. 30/06 is very plentifull right now. I've been loading up on it. 270 300 sav. 280 I buy 25, 30, 32, and 35 Remington when I see it cause hardly any one has a gun to shoot any of it. LOL Surplus 8mm is fairly easy to get. None of it is cheap any more, but at least it is out there.  |
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Post by somuchtodo on Apr 7, 2013 17:44:18 GMT -7
It's an impossible question to answer with any degree of certainty. I don't think having the weapons would hurt but I've taken the approach of picking out my favorites based on the question: If I had to walk out of here and carry one rifle and one pistol and ammo. what would that be? I picked out those guns based on that question and loaded up on ammo. (considering I could only carry so much). Question 2 was: If I were able to stay at home and had to fortify and defend myself what weapon would I want. I loaded up on ammo. for that weapon. prepared for a long siege. Question 3 was: If I were out of ammo at home, the stores are closed and there are bodies in the street, what is the most likely ammo on the dead? I purchased weapons and small amounts of ammo for those weapons.
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Post by Nicodemus on Apr 10, 2013 6:34:00 GMT -7
My point exactly, you should already have it. I'm also a fan of the top four common calibers. 12 ga., 5.56X45, 9mm. and the .22. |
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