About 11 years ago some drunk interrupted my evening by trying to gain entry into my house. At the time, the response was to gunface him and, unsurprisingly, he suddenly realized he needed to be elsewhere.
Absolute exact same situation just happened again. Second time I’ve gunfaced someone.
This used to be such a nice town……
Guns are a big part of my life… they make me money, they keep me safe, they encourage a particular set of values and lifestyle….but sometimes it gets difficult to remember that there are other aspects of preparedness that may actually be more paramount.
Between the Wuhan Flu, the repercussions of that flu on the economy, the ‘reset’ that we are seeing as jobs that were formerly secure suddenly become insecure, and of course the economic uncertainty of the upcoming administration, it is not unreasonable to think that perhaps stocking greenbacks may be a bit more prudent than stocking green tip.
There is, literally, no such thing as a secure job. Even if you work for yourself, own the building, and have no competition, you’re job is not secure. Literally anything can happen…..crazy legislation, an earthquake, a divorce, a heart attack, a fire, a war…..there is no shortage of things, black swan and otherwise, that can yank your employment rug out from under you. Certainly, some jobs are more secure than others…but the notion that “oh, I’ll always have a job..there’s always a need for [occupation] so I’ll always be employed” doesn’t take into account those curve balls. There’s always going to be a need for paramedics…so your job is secure. Right up until you get in an accident and lose a leg or your sight. The point is, while you can have a certain amount of security at your job you never, ever, ever have 100% security. So…be ready.
I spent a huge(!) amount of money on materiel in 2020 and, for the most part, I’m done. Oh, if a nice AR crosses my path for a bargain price, or a case of .223 turns up at pre-flu prices I’ll take it. But now it’s time to start resources into improving resiliency. And nothing improves your resiliency in the pre-apocalypse like cash.
My record of forecasting the future has been less-than-great. But…I foresee economic turmoil ahead. I see higher unemployment as flu-related impacts to business cause layoffs. I see jobs going away and not coming back (at least, not in the way they used to be). I see higher taxes on the folks who still have jobs. And I don’t see that changing in the near-term. Oh sure, there’ll be an bit of an economic bounce when we declare victory in The War On Chinese Flu but it’ll be a short-lived bounce.
If someone asked me what to do to increase resilience for 2021 I’d say “Wargame a scenario where you lose your job and can’t find another one at all or at the same wage and prepare for that”. That means clear debts as quick as you can, and start holding cash. Sure, you’ll lose some to inflation but I don’t see a Wewimar-esque hyperinflation coming yet. If you want to hedge your bets, split it among cash and metals. Here’s what I wold not do: I would not buy big ticket items just because I can, I would not buy anything on credit, I would not plan any expensive vacations, and I would not plan on having kids (because do you really want to take the hit of three months without a paycheck and have the added medical expenses and the additional stresses all at a time when things are so uncertain?)
When you come home, shoulders slumped and your mind racing, wondering how youre going to meet the mortgage now that your boss has said that your job is over in two weeks, will that new 4k television you bought last week seem like a good idea or would you rather have had that money in our account right then?
So, for me, it’s time to quietly make sure the decks are clear and start gathering up all the resources I can. I’m fortunate in that my house is paid off, and I used some of the windfall from gun sales to pay all the taxes for the next year. In a worst case scenario all I have to pay for is utilities and food. Right now money that would otherwise go to things like mortgage payments is freed up to go elsewhere. I suspect 2021 will be similar to 2020 in many ways, but I think it’ll also have some new torments to go with it. I want to be as resilient as I can be against that future. That means checking off the gun stuff from my list and moving on to beefing up the financial resilience. Might want to examine your own situation and see how youd fare if you got that pink slip tomorrow.
Yes, all these mags ain’t cheap when you add them up..but….I’m killing it today on the AirBNB IPO, so…thats nice.
So although I have what actually could be construed as ‘enough’ magazines for my forseeable use, I want to be in a position to take advantage of any future ban by having extras for sale/trade*. Problem is, I’m not the only one with that idea. As a result, when my primary vendor gets stuff in stock, it moves fast. And then, I discovered something……..
It appears that, on weekdays, my vendor updates their website at several points throughout the day. As those updates hit the website, people pounce and inventory drops to zero in minutes. But…not at 3:30am. It appears that they do inventory updates in the wee hours of the morning. As a result, I’ve taken to sleeping with my phone laying on the bed next to me, with the browser opened to the product page I want, and I wake up a couple times in the middle of the night, refresh the page, and…surprise….the items I want are in stock. And then I scoop it all up for little ol’ me. What is it I’m looking for? Well, I’ve covered myself with about 500 Glock Pmags but I want more AR Pmags and AR10 Pmags.
Drawback is that I’m not exactly getting a solid nights worth of sleep, but on the bright side I’m getting a monstrous stockpile of magazines.
*= “But..but..what if they make the magazines illegal or regulated? Then you won’t be able to sell them?” Of course I’ll be able to sell them, I just won’t be able to sell them legally.
The holiday season approaches. Whats on my list for Christmahanukwanzakah? Not much, actually. Oh, sure, a Barrett will always be on the list but other than that….I think I’m set.
Usually I give out 10/22 mags as gifts since I got into them so cheaply but, unfortunately, the Current Situation has me thinking that I’m better off holding onto them since in about two years they’ll be worth at least $50 each (give or take the $200 tax stamp).
Tell you what, doing holiday shopping for anyone who is into guns must be quite a challenge right now since virtually anything gun related is outta stock at most stores. On the other hand, give someone a 20-rd box of Winchester white box .223 and it’d be almost like handing out crisp $50 bills.
What are you asking Santa/Hanukah Harry/Voodoo Man for this year?
I’ll just go with a repost:
As I expected, ammo was priced in the stratosphere. There was Federal XM193 at the bargain price of…$1.25 per round. Yeah, $25 per 20 round box. 9mm was at least fifty cents per. AR mags, notably Pmags, were around $18 which was mildly surprising. I suspect the guys at Magpul have been hedging their bets for the last few months and have a lot of product sitting around ready to meet demand. Guns themselves were no bargains. Cheapest Glocks were $550 for used and I didnt see any new. AR’s of various flavors were all in the $800+ range. The closest thing to a bargain I could find were complete PSA AR lowers with telestocks for $250.
All in all, about what I expected (except for Pmags remaining pretty flat). Did I buy anything? Nope, not a thing. Saw some ammo cans I wanted but that was about it. Still, it was nice to see familiar faces and being among ‘my own kind’. And nobody was wearing a mask.
Hit all the gun stores on the way back and they were pretty well picked over. So, really, no surprises. I have a sense of vindication for my purchasing habits of the last several years.
Hamilton gun show today! Man I miss gun shows. I’ll be there this afternoon taking stock of how little stock I expect to find. My guess? No centerfire ammo of any kind for less than $0.50/@, no Glocks for less than $550, and every AR and AK is at least $800.
We shall see.
Someone asked me in email about what I do, if anything, to package guns for the Deep Sleep. It’s probably a disappointment to most folks who are expecting some sort of long list of ritual greasing, packaging, preserving, etc., but….I really don’t do very much.
Any gun I’m packing away is a gun that probably has a history of ruggedness, durability, and survivability. I’d package up a nice blued Colt Python a lot differently than I’d package up a Glock. Because the guns I’m putting away are usually mil-spec in terms of material and finish, they are already enjoying a head start on being resistant to the threats posed from long term storage.
Really, for most guns all I do is clean them thoroughly, lubricate them normally, pack them into a quality hard case with dessicant, and thats really about it.
I’ve handled guns that have sat around for fifty years in closets, under beds, in attics, hidden in barns, etc, etc. These were guns that were not given any special treatment nor stored in any purpose-built gun vault. Problems encountered have been:
Virtually all of these issues are resolved by using an airtight purpose-built gun case. The $9 Flambeau or Plano gun case is not good enough. Spend $200 and get a Pelican or Hardigg case. A lot of cases, at half the price, claim to be ‘as good as’ or ‘just like’…they are not. When you have to pull your genuine Belgian FAL or pre-ban HK93 out of the rafters, that is not the time to find out that your bargain case that saved you $50 had a crappy O-ring gasket and one side of your rifle has a nice orange sheen to it. The one good and cheap(er) alternative is when it comes to handguns – a genuine US GI ammo can, with good seals, is a perfect container for pistol rug, with dessicant, holding your preferred handgun.
The next question is probably “What else do you store with the guns? Ammo? Tools?”
Storing ammo with the gun is a bit iffy, IMHO. Why? Because the well-oiled gun is in an airtight case. Leave some ammo in there and I suppose there’s a possibility of oil contamination rendering the ammo unreliable. Big if, sure…but if things have gotten serious enough you’re pulling Ol’ Painless outta storage then things are serious enough that the last thing you want is ammo of questionable reliability, no? As an aside, I pack ammo in perfect/good condition military ammo cans. Metal ones. Not the plastic ones that when dropped on a hard surface shatter like my dreams and hopes.
Remember guys, guns have only two natural enemies: rust and politicians.