The real reason for having thousands of rounds on hand is for training. Running through 500 rounds in a day's class isn't unusual. It's way better to buy it while it's cheap and available, now, than to dawdle and get caught short in an expensive ammo drought.
This. . . .and other reasons.
I know it is no longer
de rigueur to talk of TEOTWAWKI scenarioes or MAJOR interruptions. But there still lies the (however remote) possibility of a truly long-term disaster striking.
Ammunition is not necessarily just for mowing down your errant neighbors or the spikey-haired mutant zombies cresting the hill behind your retreat.
There are many situations that may make it wise to purchase ammo and weapons while the prices are still low. Consider a major shift in politics. We know that liberals desperately want to enact a much more definitive "assault weapons" ban. Consider what happened the last time (1994) this happened. Before, I could buy Colt (top quality) AR's for $560 for an HBAR. The day after Clinton signed the bill? Yeah, you couldn't even touch one for $3,000.
When Obama got elected, especially the second time. . . guns, magazines and ammo skyrocketed in price. Certain calibers of ammunition were impossible to find. Sure, you could order them. . .and you'd have to wait a year to get that order in. In fact, everything was so difficult to find that many dealers (and suppliers) went out of business for lack of product to sell. Sure, many fly-by-night companies popped up and everyone with a CAM started turning out AR lowers, for example. You paid dearly for even them.
It's usually at this point someone politely coughs and mumble "I reload" under their breath. Yeah, so do I. A quick review of the articles posted here on TSP Forum will remind you that primers, powder, virgin brass and bullets. . .especially by easily recognized manufacturers were all as easy to find as hen's teeth.
That was the year that my wife and I stopped our competitive shooting in IPSC, 3-gun and IDPA matches all together. We shot at least two matches a month and needed a MINIMUM of 100 rounds for most of the matches. Math tells us we needed at least 400 rounds a month when ammo was almosts impossible to find. Plus, the political environment experienced at the time had us concerned that a lame-duck liberal president might choose to advance an anti-gun agenda. If I couldn't buy it and I couldn't reload it. . .every round fired downrange was a round I wouldn't have.
I get it, I really do. It has become gauche to talk about guns and survival. Anymore, if you mention Bug-Out Bags, Retreats or Firearms, all the Cool Survival Kids look at you like a Frenchman who just heard you pronounce the silent "t" in
escargot.
And may all that is Holy protect you if you mention camouflage or say something against the "gray man" (mis?)conception. . .but, I'm just pointing out a situation and opportunity on which the window is closing. . .I'm neither standing there pushing you out, nor am I deriding anyone who doesn't.
We are simply approaching a confluence of potential situations, each of which may lead to higher prices and unavailability of certain products. Now, I'll hush up, put on my most excellent set of BDU's, get my Pit Yorkie and go patrol the compound on my quad-runner.
The Professor