RE: Firearms and Ammo as a Hedge Against Inflation by CarteachO

CarteachO wrote a great post awhile back and recently updated it. Given our current environment with looming inflation and the gun grabbers temporarily held at bay the advice is especially timely. My thoughts in no particular order are.

- Obviously you still need food, medical stuff, an emergency fund and such but if there is some extra money left over a few spare guns are a fine place to park some cash.

- Basic guns can offer a lot of value and were not inflated in price by firearmagedon. They also make great loaner guns in case an under equipped but reasonably competent loyal friend or neighbor needs help. The basic guns (quality .38, Moss 500/ Rem 870 12 gauge, .22 rifle or 30-30/30'06) can be found pretty regularly at very good prices. At the right prices Mosin Nagants and SKS's are also valid options. I think if you can afford it the idea of having a few extra's sure beats deciding which of your core guns to arm somebody with.

-In my various gun selling dealings lately it's become apparent to me that guns hold their value over time pretty well assuming they stay in the same condition. Used but not abused guns are probably best as they already have the inevitable couple nicks and scratches with depreciation to match.

-Private party purchases are best. They are typically where you will get the best deals and there is a bonus lack of paper trail.

-Like any financial vehicle you make or lose a significant amount of the potential profit at time of purchase. Being patient and reasonably flexible helps. Also you need to be able to get cash fast as many great gun deals are somebody who needs cash right now.

-Divisibility is important so instead of having 1 gun work $2,500 I would suggest several guns that add up to the same value.  

- You can never have too much ammo stored away in ammo cans. To make things easier get hedge guns in calibers you shoot and stock already. Have some mags and ammo to sell/ trade with the gun. During an emergency or another firearmagedon just the gun isn't too useful while a gun with 4+ magazines and a couple boxes of ammo would sell itself.

Over the next few years assuming no significant change in gun laws or any SHTF, personal or otherwise, we will probably squirrel away several hedge/ loaner guns. A set of basic guns with an extra revolver is more or less my personal goal. As described above each would have a complete if simple setup with some ammo, mags if applicable and a needed accessories. If we got there as time went by more friends might show up to be test fired, cleaned, lubed and put away.

Free and Low Cost Survivalist Actions

After my recent post "I can't afford to prepare" I got to thinking of ways to prepare yourself that cost little to nothing. First we will talk about free ways.

1.Physical fitness. Start a running program. Put on your ruck and do some marching. Do body weight exercises like pushups, situps, pullups, planks, dips and plunges. Lift heavy things because well, it makes you stronger and more awesome. If you cannot wrangle free access to weights (or theoretically other good heavy things) to lift I recommend that you check out Beast Skills and Convict Conditioning  (brief description, you tube channel, I have heard you can find a PDF of the book online if so inclined) for some ideas on serious body weight training.

2. Dry fire practice. Do it. Drawing your pistol, ready up drills for the rifle, mag changes and trigger squeeze drills. Somewhere awhile back John Mosby talked about this if I recall.

3. Planning. Put thought and research into things that worry you.

4. Organize your stuff. Build thought out systems to suit your needs using things you already have.

5. Cross training, If you are a skilled mechanic the other members of your group or family should be also. Same if you are an MMA guy or a competitive shooter or an ER nurse.

Revenue neutral ways to prepare. These ways are not free but are ways to get more out of things most folks already do.

1. Shooting. If I had to guess about a quarter of the US based readers of this blog shoot monthly. Probably half (50%, not half of the remainder) shoot at least quarterly. Be intentional about this shooting. Don't get me wrong dumping mag after mag into empty beer cases and such is fun. Plinking is one of my favorite things to do. However if money is tight (and probably anyway) you need to really get something out of shooting. Shoot to zero a weapon, improve or test a skill, not to destroy cheap pumpkins you got the day after Halloween. Again I have to refer you to John Mosby's excellent site for specifics, half because he talks it better than me and half because I don't feel like working hard enough on a post at this time to do the topic justice.

2. Food Storage via normal food purchasing. This takes a few bucks to get going but is definitely worth it. By purchasing THINGS YOU NORMALLY EAT in quantity when they are on good sales you can then wait until they are on sale again. Thus you can eat stuff at sale prices (almost) all the time. Also by not needing to purchase baked beans (or whatever) every week it frees up dollars to buy extra peanut butter when it is on sale. By dropping the average price of much of the food you eat it lowers the cost though that money will likely be sitting in the pantry, not the checking account. You can eat better and increase food storage without spending more. Talk about a win.

Working coupons helps a lot also. So many folks talk this better than I do. Also learning which sales are when helps a lot. This is best when you can work 2-3 big stores. Buy meat once a month at the big sale at store A, canned goods when store B does BOGO, or whatever you can work.

I noticed that the sidebar with my links, ads and such was gone from the main page. Since I didn't change anything I am going to wait a couple days in the hope that the problem is a glitch that will correct itself.

Anyway I hope you all enjoy the post.