Survival and Emergency Preparedness

I loaded up over 200 shotgun shells last week and ran out of shot. A guy on the local gun forum was selling home made shot for $2/lb. On the way up to my house last Friday I stopped and took a look. Talked him down to $1.50/lb and bought 150 pounds. Locally, if you can even find it, it's running $1.95/with tax. Though none of the stores has any in stock. Online, with shipping probably twice that. Most of it was #7 shot, though there was 25 lbs of #4. I can use that for turkey loads.

I know reloading supplies have been in short supply for the last couple of years. Our regular shooters are starting to feel the pinch. Most were prepared to go a year or two without needing. Yet, going into year three and everything opening back up, they are being picky about what events they are going to since the supplies are still scarce.

Bmyers wrote: ↑Tue Apr 26, 2022 6:46 am I know reloading supplies have been in short supply for the last couple of years. Our regular shooters are starting to feel the pinch. Most were prepared to go a year or two without needing. Yet, going into year three and everything opening back up, they are being picky about what events they are going to since the supplies are still scarce.

Seems to me reading years, maybe decades ago that if you reloaded you were set because gun bans and such wouldn't affect getting supplies. I would guess that with the shortage of ammo over the last years more people have gotten into reloading just as more i.e, millions more have got into shooting.

I'll be out of wads soon, pistol and rifle primers may last a couple thousand more rounds. Though I have a lot more rifle primers than pistol. I haven't been reloading for rifles in a long time. I'm down to a pound and a half of shotgun powder, maybe 3 lbs of pistol/rifle powder. Powder is really expensive now, not to mention bullets. I just spent $200 on shot.

So the dilemma is whether to load the stuff I have now for plinking/practicing or save it for specialized use (hunting, SD etc). Do I make it and stockpile it or do I save the components in case supplies never come back? Or do I replenish the supplies/components as they become available, albeit at inflated prices?

I bought 6 275 gallon totes recently. They can be used for a number of things including rain barrels. I bought them to use the cages to stack firewood in and to make deer blinds out of them. Been hauling them to my woods house. Just picked up and additional 3 today to take up to the house

They typically come in two or three different kinds, food grade, non food grade and hazardous chemicals. The food grade run anywhere from $50-100 each, they typically have stuff like cooking oil, orange juice concentrate, soft drink syrup etc. non food grade (but not hazardous) run $30-50, they typically have stuff like water based paint, neutral chemicals. Three I bought had Poly Glycol in them. PG is used in laxatives, paintballs and lots of other stuff. It is generally water soluble. Ones that contain hazardous chemicals run $20-30.

I have 3 of the non hazardous but not food grade to use as deer blinds. I have 6 chemical ones which I plan to use the cages to stack firewood in. I'll have to see if they can be rinsed out enough to use for other things. I paid $20 ea for all 6. Already have a neighbor up there who wants to buy 3 of them. I'll probably add a transportation cost to them and sell him some. I can always get more.

My truck can carry three at a time


The cages are galvanized steel and can be stacked, lifted like pallets. These things weigh about 125 lbs empty.

Mac66 wrote: ↑Wed Apr 27, 2022 10:37 am

Bmyers wrote: ↑Tue Apr 26, 2022 6:46 am I know reloading supplies have been in short supply for the last couple of years. Our regular shooters are starting to feel the pinch. Most were prepared to go a year or two without needing. Yet, going into year three and everything opening back up, they are being picky about what events they are going to since the supplies are still scarce.

Seems to me reading years, maybe decades ago that if you reloaded you were set because gun bans and such wouldn't affect getting supplies. I would guess that with the shortage of ammo over the last years more people have gotten into reloading just as more i.e, millions more have got into shooting.

I'll be out of wads soon, pistol and rifle primers may last a couple thousand more rounds. Though I have a lot more rifle primers than pistol. I haven't been reloading for rifles in a long time. I'm down to a pound and a half of shotgun powder, maybe 3 lbs of pistol/rifle powder. Powder is really expensive now, not to mention bullets. I just spent $200 on shot.

So the dilemma is whether to load the stuff I have now for plinking/practicing or save it for specialized use (hunting, SD etc). Do I make it and stockpile it or do I save the components in case supplies never come back? Or do I replenish the supplies/components as they become available, albeit at inflated prices?

The big issue that myself and others in our area are having is primers. Yet, just like the care manufactures, when you are missing one key part, the whole process comes to an end. Talking to my friends that work at Winchester, they are still churning out ammo as fast as they can, demand is still out pacing production although they are starting to make progress (less orders in the que).

I agree. Primers are scarcist commodity right now.

Expensive dental work. Trying to offset some of the cost with credit union and credit card promotions

Dental work, that sounds like fun......not. One of those necessary evils that we must all go through.

bdcochran wrote: ↑Thu Apr 28, 2022 10:32 pm Expensive dental work. Trying to offset some of the cost with credit union and credit card promotions

Yes... I put a expensive item on one of my cards, and then opened a new one with 0% interest for 12 months with transfer.
nothing like using their money !

I opened a business account and credit card account at Wells Fargo. $1800 in bonus money. Followed through on a $250 credit union sign up bonus. I am not borrowing any money and so I am not concerned with hurting my credit by opening up credit cards and closing them. I also have no balance on a credit card. Earlier this week, I had a whopping dental bill. I put $300 sign up credit union bonus on a separate CU credit card and transferred in all the money to the new credit card to pay the dentist. I will also get a 1% back from the credit card.

In passing. One of my regular banks received an $80,000,000 money laundering fine from the feds last week. Another where I have banked for 40 years terminated a manager (not replaced) for New Year's and replaced my customer representative by email yesterday (I think that bank is failing). You really should think about pulling some cash of the bank and going with some credit union accounts.