Always be hoarding
If I see a sale on Glock magazines, its almost impossible to not reflexively throw one in the basket. You know, just in case. My hindbrain remembers when those things were scarce, and it doesnt intend to get caught short again.
I typically buy in bulk when someone has them on sale. I’ve gotten 10 P-Mags for $89 before. And if I’m in a gun shop, I’ll buy a P-Mag, if nothing else, at least so the guys behind the counter know that I will spend money. I don’t know how many is enough* but I don’t like spending range time reloading. For my collection of M&P9s, I have 31 magazines. For my AR-15s, I have roughly 75 P-Mags (I keep finding them in range bags and stuff). But those are the business guns. The fun guns, like the 22LRs, I have about 5 per gun.
* Yeah, I do. It’s more.
June 11th, 2018 at 6:29 pm
I didn’t hover over the link, and I hadn’t read the article yet, but just by looking at that excerpt, I knew who wrote it.
June 11th, 2018 at 7:42 pm
Don’t forget the ammo. If you have, say, exactly one bazillion magazines, and we assign a half-life to that bazillion of, say, ten years, then what is your expected, or highest case, consumption in rounds fired within, say, 1.5 to 2 half-lives of the magazines? In other words, the magazines are expected to last you x years, so how much ammo do you want to have for that same number of years?
Something like that. Make up your own formulae.
Also, most guns can be fired single-shot without a magazine, in a pinch, but none can be fired without ammo.
If you want to be a speculator;
The price of a standard capacity Glock magazine between 1994 and 2004 peaked at around 100 dollars (more or less depending on your location). Say you can buy gold or you can buy magazines. Which is more or less likely to gain, hold, or lose value if SHTF? No one knows, so make up your own formulae. If all the S totally HTF, gold isn’t worth squat, really– You can’t eat it and you can’t hunt with it or defend yourself with it. In that case what’s worth more; the ammo or the magazines? It depends on the people around you and what they have or don’t have, but the gold is just a very heavy, soft, pretty metal.
June 11th, 2018 at 8:48 pm
I bought ten Glock 20 mags back in 2012 when things were looking dicey for a renewed mag ban. I still don’t own a gun that can use them. Someday…
June 11th, 2018 at 9:51 pm
Jebus, Pete. Thought I was the only one who did that. Lots of awesome guns I can’t afford (now). But by God, I can afford the magazines, and that’s the primary target of the bans.
“Someday” indeed…..
June 12th, 2018 at 11:42 am
Nine bucks a pop for Pmags is a decent deal, but like someone up there said, they gotta eat.
I’ve mentioned a few times the deal that PSA occasionally runs, ie ten pmags and 200 rounds of fmj for 120 shipped free. Of course you can burn that much ammo in an afternoon session, but if you didn’t have them you’d be burning up your stash instead. I always hit up that deal when they send me the promo. Seven bucks for the mags and .30 rd for the pellets is hard to beat, in fact it’s cheaper than I ever paid wholesale in the FFL days.
As to gold being “just a very heavy, soft, pretty metal”, all true except the “just” part. History tells us its perceived properties as trade fodder makes it wise to stash some in recognized, fungible form. Even more so a good horde of US junk silver in dimes, quarters, and halves. Speaking of fungibility the whole world instantly knows what they are and the time will come when a dime buys a loaf of bread, a quarter a pound of burger, and a half dollar a steak.
Obviously the other precious metals ie brass and lead will be critical in the pending apocalypse, but if you swing holding ten ounces of yella metal (currently about 13K) and 1000 face in junk silver (also 13K), that’s a savings account that could come in very handy.
I’ve bought and sold millions of $ of all of it in 40 years of brokering them and seen a lot of fluctutations and world conditions, but never a time when holding them was not a prudent choice, and “The Trumpening” as Unc likes to call it is the good that is likely to bring the bad boiling to the surface and war of a fashion may not be far ahead.
YMMV, but they probably shouldn’t.
June 12th, 2018 at 3:33 pm
“Mags” are why I didn’t get into the Glock business until 2004.
One was stuck with “low capacity” at that point, or bought one “pre ban” for the price of 5 or 6 “10 round models”.
All my “range magazines” are the “LE/Export” marked that have accumulated over the years. If one wants practice with jams, a couple of them need replacement springs now, but I load them up minus 1 and put them back in the range bag.
Oh, and a couple P Mags, those are also “range mags”.
Sure, I have some “just to have” but for carry at least, I’ll stick with factory.
Plus also…
The Glock Happy Stick.
Until a few years ago, one could own, but not use, them in Ohio, due to law.
I bought a few “just to have” because, just like the MagPul 40 rounders, some Statist someplace is getting hives thinking a mere Mundane owns such things.
June 12th, 2018 at 10:17 pm
I must have damn near 100 G-3 magazines and I don’t even own a PTR-91 or a HK-91! But for 99 cents each when I bought them, why the hell not.
June 13th, 2018 at 2:29 pm
Lyle is spot on.
‘Hoarding’ anything and everything prior to SHTF or TEOTWAWKI situations is very wise.
Diamonds may be a girl’s best friend; and, gold/silver may – or may not – have value. But ‘ya can’t eat ’em or hunt food with ’em. And, greenbacks might be totally worthless.
But, .22’s have TREMENDOUS value for all purposes, especially barter. So many people own .22s that it makes sense to have extra.
June 13th, 2018 at 10:23 pm
@ExpatNJ, a co-worker/friend of mine when we discussed SHTF or TEOTWAWKI would always say, “beans and bullets, baby, beans and bullets!”
June 14th, 2018 at 7:41 pm
Read your history books boys…it’s not either/or, it’s a balanced plan for survival.
June 15th, 2018 at 5:54 am
You can’t have too many magazines or ammo đŸ™‚